10. Tempi

CHAPTER 10

TEMPI

I screech as we fall, my hand clinging to Artemis' sleeve so that this time, I'm not alone. Meanwhile, Artemis is laughing as we fall, hooting loudly as if this is an amusement park ride. If I didn't think him insane before, I do now. He's laughing up until we leave the blackhole and plummet toward water.

I curse the same time as he does, right before we splash down into the endless ocean I've been in before. The cold water closes over my head briefly before I kick up and break the surface sputtering. Artemis is doing the same in front of me.

"I hate this one!" I growl as I try to wipe the salt water from my eyes. "We need to get out of the water. There's a really big fucking monster thing in here I don't wanna meet again. Vamos ."

This time at least, when I spin around us, I spot a small raft of some sort. It's not extremely far away. We can make it.

"Over there!" I exclaim and start to swim. I hear Artemis follow behind me, but he doesn't answer, instead choosing to mutter about the water. When we reach it and I slowly drag myself up and out, I collapse onto my back as I wait for Artemis to follow. Only once he's up there with me do I look at him.

I nearly scream.

In my world, Artemis looked like a normal person. Sure, he had quirks, but what college professor who specializes in conspiracy theories doesn't? Here, he looks completely different.

"What the fuck?" I ask, staring at him in horror. There's nowhere for me to go to get away from him so I can't run. It's either I sit here, or I go back in the water, and I'm not sure the water is the safer option given the circumstances. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Artemis sighs. "Calm down, Tempi. I'm hardly a threat in the middle of an ocean."

"You have cat ears!" I say, staring at the large tabby ears now on top of his head. "Your eyes!" My own eyes bug out when a tail whips around his hip and snaps in agitation. "You have a tail! "

"As many cats do, yes," he nods.

"Artemis—"

"It's a fake name," he interrupts. "Your kind doesn't like strangeness, so I had to go by something else."

My mouth opens and closes, not quite sure where to begin. "So. . . then who are you?"

"Ah yes," he says, grinning. He grabs my hand and kisses the back of it. I have to fight the urge to jerk my hand away. "You can call me Puss."

"Puss?" I repeat, staring at him. "As in, Puss in Boots?"

He gestures to his feet. "I do so love my boots."

"Okay," I breathe. "Okay. So. . . why do you look different? What's going on?"

He shrugs. "My magic is not stifled here. Your world has no magic. This world is full of it."

"So you just magically grow cat ears?" I rasp, confused.

"No, no, no," he says, clearly getting annoyed. "I've always had cat ears. You just couldn't see them."

"That makes zero sense," I growl.

"Well, I'm not the only one who looks different here," he hisses back. "It's really not that difficult to understand."

I blink. "What do you mean?"

"Look at yourself," he grunts, gesturing to my arm. "You clearly aren't as human as you think you are."

Looking down at my arm is a new experience. It's like in those horror movies where the main character knows there's a big bad waiting behind them with a knife and they do that slow turn. That's how I look at my arm, equal parts afraid and defiant. I don't want to know and yet, I have to.

When I hold up my arm, it catches the sunlight above. Tiny sparkles flicker there, as if I got into a bottle of glitter and rolled in it. That shit never leaves, so I immediately start questioning when the last time I used glitter was. Fifth grade? Third? Is that too long for there to still be glitter there? Shit, I'm thirty-eight now. That might be too long.

I rub at the sparkles, but they don't disappear, so I splash a little bit of water on it to help. Still there.

"It's not going to come off," Puss sighs. "It's just a sign of your magic."

"What magic?" I growl. "I don't have any magic!"

"The merges following you around say otherwise," he answers with a shrug. "Embrace who you are. It'll make things easier."

In the distance, a ship appears, small at first, and then slowly gaining size as it draws closer far too fast.

"Fuck," Puss mutters, staring at the ship. "That can't be good."

"Who is that?" I ask, staring at the literal pirate ship.

"I don't know. Can't be anyone good, though. Not here in the Deep Seas." He glances at me. "That's where we are by the way. The Deep Seas."

"Marvelous. I've just been wondering what to call my grave," I grunt, annoyed. "We should run?"

Puss levels me with his gaze. "Now, Tempi. Where would we run? I know you're much smarter than that."

I blink. A cat telling me I'm stupid isn't high on my list of things I want to come across in life, but here I am.

"Well, any fucking ideas then?" I growl as the ship looms over us and men start looking over the balustrade at us.

He shrugs. "We reason with them, or we fight." Puss meets my eyes. "At least it's you and me. I'm glad I'm not alone. . ."

A whooshing sound echoes behind me and my eyes widen the same time Puss' do. He reaches out for me, but we're a few steps too far apart.

"Oh, come on!" Puss snarls just before I'm yanked backward and leave the Deep Seas behind.

Puss isn't pulled with me.