Bad Habit's Arc

Chapter 10 of 10

Tricky Dayz still smoked on the ground when Bad Habit turned back to the water. Three thrones stood empty now. He had burned out the crew boss, the crocodile, King Slither, and now the north side shark. But one boss still ruled somewhere in the shadow districts, unchallenged, and Bad Habit did not know his name. He looked down at the dead shark by the trees. Sharks knew sharks. He had a way to ask. "I'm going to find out who this one knew," Bad Habit told his children. "There's a boss left. I need his name." He nodded at the smoking body. "His kind talk to each other. So I'll wear his face." Koul looked up from his fishing pole. His gold eyes moved over his father, then over the trees, catching something no one else saw. "Take me," he said. Flat. No begging. "You stay," Bad Habit said. "Watch your sister. Watch NIKO." Emmy folded her arms. "He does what he wants. You know that." Bad Habit knew it. But he needed to move quiet, and quiet was not a thing you brought a toddler along for. "I'll be back," he said. He crouched over Tricky Dayz. He fixed the flat black eyes, the rows of teeth, the skull-patch jacket in his mind. The fruit's power rose in him. His skin darkened to gray. His teeth grew sharp. His eyes went black as nothing. When he stood, he wore the shark's shape, and only his family knew the truth. Then he was gone toward the deep channel where sharks kept their business. Back on the dock, Koul stared at the spot his father left. He did not follow. His locs dragged behind him across the wet boards, and something old pulled up from the wood. He stopped. His gold eyes fixed on the water at the dock's edge. Something floated there. A fruit. Red, with lines of gold and violet crawling over its skin, glowing faint under the ripples. It bobbed against the pilings as if it had come looking. Not the shapeshift fruit his father ate deep in the tunnels. Another one. Whole. Waiting. Emmy came to his side. "What is it?" Koul reached down and lifted it out of the water. It was warm in his small hand. The gold lines pulsed once, matching his eyes. NIKO stopped pacing and sat, quiet, watching the boy hold it. "For me," Koul said. He did not explain. He closed his fingers around it and said nothing more. Bad Habit swam out wearing a dead man's face, hunting the last name in the shadow districts. He did not know his son now held a blessing pulled straight from the water. The throne count was three down, one to go. And on the dock behind him, something had chosen Koul, and Koul had chosen back.