The ship’s intercom turned on, and the captain announced, “Attention, passengers, we are hitting some rough seas. The best thing you can do is remain calm and trust the staff and Veendam. Currently, we are sailing away from the storm.”

  To the intercom, a passenger yelled, “What about that jerk? Did we hit something?” As soon as he asked that, the ship jerked again, and another round of screams exploded into the atmosphere.

  A few seasick people hurried to the edge and stuck their faces over it.

  Tracey knew it was the Kraken causing the jerking. It was looking for him. The best thing he could do was lure it away from the Veendam, and the only way to do that was if he threw himself into the fray.

  The Kraken’s tentacles soon escaped the ocean and started to slither up the Veendam’s sides.

  One of the seasick passengers saw them and pointed. “Kraken!” he shouted.

  Immediately, other passengers hurried to the edge and also examined the approaching tentacles.

  Another round of screams escaped into the atmosphere.

  “We’re all gonna die!” shouted a woman.

  The three women from before, Coralline, Alexa, and Lillie, soon appeared on the crowded deck.

  Lillie still held Gina. “What’s going on?” she asked a passenger.

  “Kraken!” he responded.

  Gina’s beak dropped. If the Kraken was on the Veendam, then that meant Tracey was, but where? Gina immediately searched the area.

  “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding!” Alexa snapped at the man who told Lillie about the monster. “The Kraken is a myth!” Right as she said that, though, the ship jerked for the third time, and the Kraken roared. Its tentacles had reached the lifeboats, and they kept creeping up.

  Gina’s entire face turned blue, and she screamed through telepathy, “Tracey!”

  Up on the funnel, Tracey heard his friend. “Gina?” He dropped to his knees and studied the deck. His eyes caught the three women struggling to their feet, since they had been knocked down when the ship jerked, and Gina’s white blob. “Gina!” This was it. Tracey had to be brave. Those people needed him.

  Jumping to his feet, he yelled, “Cowabunga!” and leaped off the funnel. Tracey dove down to the panicked deck and soared past the three women.

  They gasped when they saw him. “What the—?” Coralline yelped. “It’s him!”

  “Tracey!” Gina squawked. Her brown eyes widened at the sight of his new transformation.

  “Coming through!” Tracey shouted, rocketing through other passengers, who also gasped.

  Little children pointed at him, announcing, “It’s a fairy!”

  Tracey flew over the ship’s edge, past seasick people.

  Another crowd, including the three women, hurried to the railing and watched him.

  With his mask over his face, Tracey cupped his hands and shot a spell at one of the Kraken’s tentacles. It slammed into it, and the monster screeched.

  It let go, and the tentacle fell into the ocean.

  Tracey approached another tentacle and chucked a magic throwing star. It sliced through the arm, severing it.

  Again, the Kraken screeched, and it watched as its severed limb splashed into the salt water.

  The passengers aboard the Veendam observed, amazed. It wasn’t long until they cheered Tracey on, including the three women and Gina.

  Tracey flew back to the ship’s stern and hovered. Another ball of light appeared in his hand, and he shouted at the Kraken, “Hey, Kraken! I’m up here!”

  Right as he yelled that, the rest of the Kraken’s arms slithered off the ship and moved toward him.

  Tracey readied his attack, but just before he launched it, he heard Alexandria in his head. “Stop, Tracey. Don’t hurt him.”

  “Alexandria?” he asked. “What? Are you crazy? This is a Code Red crisis! The Kraken is trying to kill these passengers!”

  “No, he’s not, young one. He’s not trying to kill anyone, including you. Poseidon forced him to do this. The Kraken is not as evil as he looks. The real enemy is the Octopus Man.”

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  Yeah, right. Tracey couldn’t believe that. A monster as scary as the Kraken was good? At the same time, though, what if Alexandria was right? After all, she was an oracle. He was only an Apprentice Fairy.

  Tracey’s fairy instincts told him to trust her, and he repeated the mermaid sea lion’s words in his head: “The real enemy is the Octopus Man.” There was only one way to find out if that was true.

  Tracey canceled the spell and pulled his mask off his mouth, clenching his fists.

  The Kraken’s shadow hurried toward him in the ocean: a light blue blob that looked like a whale when it was close to the surface.

  Tracey, though, refused to move.

  On the Veendam, Gina flew out of Lillie’s arms and landed on the stern’s railing. “What are you doing, Trace?” she frightfully questioned.

  Coralline, Lillie, and Alexa gulped.

  Tracey heard his friend, but didn’t answer. He had more pressing priorities.

  As the Kraken crept closer, Tracey opened his mouth and sang a song about the ocean, and how it was the source of all the magic and love in the Magic World.

  The Kraken lost his glare and leaned his head in close to Tracey.

  Merlin’s apprentice pressed his palm against his forehead. For a minute or two, there was silence on the ocean and the Veendam. Tracey, then, received something he never expected from humans.

  They cheered and started to clap.

  Tracey cried tears of joy at hearing the humans congratulate him. Maybe not all humans were bad like Peter Nelson.

  “Yeah!” Lillie yelled from the deck. “Thank you, Tracey! Thank you! You saved us!”

  Gina couldn’t help herself. She hopped off the railing and hurried toward her friend.

  Further away from the ship, in the ocean, Alexandria popped her head out. Her bright, blue eyes landed on Tracey, waving at the humans, and she grinned. “Yep,” she told herself. “He definitely deserves those wings.”

  As much as Tracey wanted to stay on the Veendam, he couldn’t. It wasn’t safe. As long as he was close to it, Poseidon’s storm would slam it instead of him, and that would guarantee the ship sinking to the bottom of the Triangle. He did what he thought was safe.

  Tracey gestured for the Kraken to follow him, and he did. Waving one last time at the Veendam’s passengers and three women, he soared down to the ocean and dove. Underwater, he excitedly watched his hair change color and glanced back up at the surface. He moved out of the way when the Kraken splashed into the ocean.

  The two exchanged smiles.

  Gina flew to the area where they disappeared and began hovering. “Tracey!” she squawked. “Tracey!” With a sigh, she crossed her legs over each other like they were arms and mumbled, “He ditched me.”

  Just as she said that, Tracey’s gloved hand emerged from the ocean, and he grabbed one of her legs. Green and purple sparkles surrounded the tern, and she said, “Whoa!” as her friend pulled her underwater.

  Tracey led the Kraken and Gina to the seabed, where they met up with Alexandria. Swaying beneath them was a seaweed forest, with rocks and coral.

  Alexandria swam to Tracey and gripped his shoulders with her front fins. “What a performance, young one! I don’t think you know, but you just saved hundreds of lives! You proved to me that you definitely deserve those new wings! Well done!”

  Tracey waved his hand. “Ah, it was nothing. Sensei told me once that—”

  Before he finished, Alexandria jerked her fins away from his shoulders. She looked alarmed by something, but what? “Hide!” she whispered.

  “Hide?” Tracey said. “Why?”

  Alexandria, though, didn’t answer. She, instead, snatched his arm and pulled him into the seaweed forest.

  During the process, Tracey caught Gina’s leg and pulled her in with him and Alexandria.

  The Kraken was too big for the forest, so he camouflaged himself to blend in with the ocean and swam back.

  Gina, Tracey, and Alexandria peeped out from their hiding places, and Tracey said, “What’s the big drama?”

  Alexandria put her left fin to his lips and pointed out the forest with her right.

  Tracey glanced in the direction she pointed, and his face brightened.

  Prancing around the ocean floor before him, the oracle, and Gina was a scuba diver. He had come down there to do a little research in the Triangle. Every once in a while, he glanced at the hose he was attached to and tugged it.

  Tracey looked at Alexandria and innocently spoke, “Oh, my gosh! It’s a human! Who would’ve thunk that they’d be around a cruise ship? It’s a human!”

  “Yes,” Alexandria nervously whispered, “and if he finds out who we are, I don’t even want to think about what he’ll do. Right, Tracey?”

  Tracey, though, swam out of the forest and headed toward the scuba diver.

  “Tracey, what are you doing?” continued Alexandria. “Tracey!”

  “He’s insane!” Gina admitted. “Oh, I can’t watch.” She quickly hid behind her wings.

  With wings flapping slowly behind him and leg fins glowing, Tracey hid behind a rock and peered over the top at the scuba diver. Hair swayed in his face, but he pulled it out.

  The diver kicked his flippers and headed toward a cluster of different-colored coral. As he swam, he took pictures with a waterproof camera.

  The camera fascinated Tracey. What was that thing? He’d never seen something like it. The curiosity was killing him. He had to find out about the object the human held!

  Swimming out of his hiding place, Tracey waved at the scuba diver and called, “Hi!” in his innocent voice.

  The diver heard him and said, “Huh?” behind his mask. He shifted his body, and his eyes widened at the sight of the fairy approaching him. A wave of shock exploded across his entire body, and he yelled, “Ah! It’s a fairy!” The scuba diver was so surprised that he dropped his camera. It ended up falling through a large crevice and sank toward the bottom of the Atlantic.

  Tracey soon reached the diver and announced, “I know! This is my first day with my wings back! Not only am I a fairy, dude, but I am also Merlin’s apprentice!”

  Screaming, the scuba diver swam back a few feet, yelling, “Get away from me!”

  “Yeah, I know it’s worth screaming about!” Tracey called out, clueless. “I haven’t had my wings for over a year! This is a miracle!”

  The diver’s back soon hit a rock, and he pressed his palms against it. He kept his distance from Tracey.

  Back where she and Gina hid, Alexandria closed her eyes and brought her fin to her face.

  Gina merely unwrapped her wings and crossed them.

  It wasn’t long until the oracle shook her head and admitted, “Oi. We’re going to have to teach that boy about the dangers of being a merfairy.”

  “Ya think?” sarcastically asked Gina.