Page 55 of Seduced By the Mermen
“I’m driving,” Eros says and is met at the pilot’s door by both Nico and Holter.
Castor laughs. “Fight it out. I’m sitting in the back with Annabelle and Aunt Blair.” He opens the door, which slides open like a van. Castor holds out his hand and helps me in before he pulls Annabelle in for a kiss and draws her into the third row with him.
“What are they doing out there?” Annabelle asks from behind me.
“I can’t see.” I unbuckle and slide out. “What are you guys doing?”
“Reef, trident, hand,” Holter says. “Hand covers reef! You lose.” He laughs. “Get in the back.”
“Hand makes fist,” Nico growls.
“Nico, you’re making us late.” I don’t intend for it to come out in my mom voice, but it does. So I lean into it. “You can drive on the way home if you behave.”
“Whale of a chance that happens. I’ll pilot home,” Eros says and pulls Nico around the dock.
“What was going on?” Annabelle asks again.
“Reef, trident, hand? Which sounds a lot like rock, paper, scissors,” I say.
Eros jumps into the back row with Annabelle. “Yes, Marlee said she was tired of us arguing about things and taught us the human way of solving problems.”
Nico steps into the back. “Are you buckled?” he asks me and then reaches over the seat and checks Annabelle.
“She’s good.” Castor bats Nico’s hand away. “We’re all good. Are you buckled?” Castor asks Nico.
Nico closes the back door and climbs into the front seat next to Holter.
“I know how to get there,” Holter says gruffly to Nico.
“Reef, trident, hand?” Annabelle laughs.
Holter chuckles from the pilot’s seat.
“How did it become trident, reef, hand?” I ask. There’s a big slurping sound, which I’m getting used to, theomadapressurizing. Holter pulls away from the dock, and theomadasloshes left and right, heading to the airlock.
“Paper is weak and cannot defeat reef,” Nico says. “Hand was the next option, logically.”
I’m never going to get over getting into anomadalike it’s a minivan. It’s a submarine that shoots us through an airlock and out into the ocean. There’s a glimmer of light above us, but the buildings glow. Domes. The domes glow.
There’s a lot of things to look at as we head away from Glyden. On the right side of theomadaare the larger domes of companies. And I can’t help but wonder if one of them is where Zion works. He runs a company that has something to do with steel and the Stele dome, but I’m not sure what. On the left side of the sub are shorter buildings.
“That’s the Stele dome,” Annabelle says.
But then, I already knew that. My heart is racing. Is it because of the incident in the elevator or the one in the guest room? But I know which one it is. I clasp the side of my neck, remembering Alexei’s lips there. There and so many other places.
“Aunt Blair?”
“Oh, I heard you.”
“I know, you just look a little red... Right. Well, the restaurant district is next, right before the old and new Maelstrom... Whoa, the old dome is completely gone.”
“Yes, the building crews don’t mess around. The new one is well on its way.” Holter replies.
“They should be done before the end of the year,” Castor says behind me.
“Really?” I crane my neck around to Castor.
“Clark Mason designed the atrium to the dome. I hear it’s quite a brilliant design. Revolutionary in architecture for the city,” Castor says.
