“Well, what makes you think I can take it?” Shelly asked.
“You believe in Shelly, don’t you, boys?” Ursula said.
At that, two sea eels—moray eels, if Shelly had to guess—swam past the crystal ball. Each had one glowing yellow eye—just like she’d seen in the ocean: the eyes that diverged and swam in different directions.
Shelly had a bad feeling. “But why do you want the trident so much?”
“That doesn’t concern you. All you have to worry about is retrieving it from the exhibit. And then your world goes back to normal. No more gills. No more webbed things. Now, no more questions, my dearie. This is your only chance. Do it, or you’ll turn into a fish . . . forever!”
Shelly panicked. “No, I’ll do it! Just promise to reverse my wish, and I’ll get it for you.”
“My dear, you have forty-eight hours,” the sea witch said in her deep voice. “Otherwise, it will be too late to reverse your wish. And it will become permanent. Do you understand?”
Shelly felt torn and deeply unsettled, but she didn’t have a choice. She couldn’t turn into a fish! She had to do exactly what the sea witch wanted. “Yes, I understand,” she said. “I’ll do it. I’ll get the trident and bring it here.”
A deep cackle emanated from the darkness. “Don’t fail me—or else!”
Slowly, the lair dissolved into nothingness and the sea witch along with it. Last, the two glowing eyes of the eels vanished into the watery shadows.
“What’s so important about this trident?” Shelly asked herself.
She stared through the thick glass while tourists milled around, oohing and aahing at the main exhibit. The reef shark darted past the glass, drawing excited squeals from the crowd.
But Shelly didn’t flinch. The shark was harmless; he just looked scary.
But also, she had bigger fish to fry.
She kept her eyes fixed on the trident in the main exhibit, trying to process everything she’d just learned from the sea witch. The prongs pointed upward. The trident itself was badly corroded and covered in barnacles. Behind it, a treasure chest overflowed with faux precious gems and ancient gold coins. Or at least, she thought they were faux. But then she remembered the other day. The old trident had flashed with golden light. She’d thought it was a trick of the eye—shifting sunlight filtered through water—but what if it was something else?
A sunken pirate ship towered over the scene while fish, sharks, and the leatherback sea turtle swam around the exhibit. Sunlight rippled over everything. The trident really did look like a rusty hunk of junk. But she caught a flash of gold again as the sunlight shifted, the same shimmering she had noticed the other day. It wasn’t just her eyes playing tricks on her.
Maybe it was full of magic. And if it was, what did the sea witch plan to do with it? What exactly would she use it for? And how had Shelly’s family gotten involved in the first place?
Enrique appeared behind her, clutching a slop bucket of fish to feed the dolphins. It was after school, when he came to the aquarium to help out his brother, who still interned there.
When he saw her, he frowned. “What happened to you? Looks like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Shelly bit her lip. She couldn’t tell him, could she? He’d just think she was imagining things. Maybe he’d even tease her about it. She started to turn away, but he stopped her.
“Come on, spit it out already,” he said, flashing her a mischievous grin. “I promise, I’m good at keeping secrets. The dolphins tell me all their gossip. And my lips are sealed.”
“The dolphins gossip?” Despite her stress, she cracked a smile.
“Yup, they’re worse than my dad’s book club.” He grinned but then turned more serious. “Look, I see you here all the time. And lately, you’ve been acting . . . different.”
“Different?” she said with a start, nervous he was on to her. “How so?”
“Jumpy. Quiet. Running away from me.” He frowned. “You never used to be afraid before. It’s what I liked most about you. But now, it’s like something changed. Ever since I pulled you out of the ocean that day you almost drowned.”
She hesitated. He was right—it had all started when she intentionally dropped that stupid coffee cup into the ocean and the wave swept her out to sea. Enrique had saved her life. Shouldn’t she trust him? But something stopped her. She remembered Kendall’s disgusted face in the locker room when she saw Shelly’s webbed hand. “Why do you care so much?” she asked, torn. “It’s not your problem.”
He grinned. “Science nerds have to stick together, right?”
“Then prove it. What’s the name of that fish?” She pointed to a bright orange-and-white fish floating in a sea anemone’s glowing blue tentacles. Its adorable little face poked out.
“Clown fish . . . also known as anemonefish.”
“Okay. And what are its attributes?” pressed Shelly.
Enrique studied the fish as the sea anemone’s tentacles caressed it. “Well, it’s called anemonefish because it’s symbiotic with that sea anemone. The anemone’s tentacles are poisonous—but not to the clown fish. Those tentacles protect it from unwanted predators.”
“And that?” Shelly pointed to two eyes in the sand.
He rolled his eyes. “A flounder, obviously. Ask me a hard one next time, okay?”
Shelly giggled. He really was a science nerd like her. For a moment, her troubles dissolved, but then they rushed back in, like a riptide. She glanced around and lowered her voice.
“All right, something did happen . . .” she started, feeling completely paranoid. Tourists milled around the exhibits. “But you have to promise me that you won’t think I’m crazy.”
“I swear,” he said. “Cross my heart.”
“And we can’t talk here,” she added. “We need to talk somewhere private.”
He lifted the slop bucket. “I know just the place.”
* * *
Shelly and Enrique stepped out onto the sundeck, where the aquarium looked out on the open sea. The waves rolled
