"Sorry, sorry…" we said at the same time. I searched his face for an indication of what he was thinking, but he was unreadable.
"Are you all right?" he finally asked. I nodded, as he cleared his throat and straightened, then walked past me back to the controls.
"Wait!" I called after him. He ignored me and started pushing a series of circles on the control board, but the ship didn’t start up like it had before. "Djin told me the engine would be overheated," I said carefully.
His clear blue eyes were wide and full of questions when he looked at me, but instead of asking any of them, he just nodded absently and leaned against the wall of the small, windowed room.
He folded his arms over his chest and cut me a glare. "What did they mean when they called you water child?"
"I—it might have been—"
"Cora," he said abruptly. "They knew your mother. What were they talking about?"
"Nicholas, I really don’t—"
"You do know. What are you hiding?" He closed his eyes and pushed his hands through his hair, heaving a sigh. "Are you her?"
"Am I…who?"
"Please. I need to know if I’m losing my mind—I need to know if I actually saw what I saw, or if…" He trailed off. "I need to know if you’re the one from my ship. The one who brought me to shore." He looked at me, unguarded and seeming so alone.
My eyes started to burn, and although everything in me told me to stay quiet, to deny it all, I found myself nodding.
He slid down the wall, his forearms draped over his bent knees as he leaned his head back and closed his eyes again.
"I knew it." He almost laughed. "I knew the second I saw you. Your hair is blonde instead of silver, and your skin…the tail…" He did laugh now, seeming to surprise himself with the memory. He sobered after a pause and stared at me again. "But the look in your eyes was the same. There was no mistaking that."
"I’m sorry…" was all I could think to say, not quite sure how all this had happened. I scrambled to slow my mind, to think of some way I could still save Reed, not to mention myself from Luz’s—Ghob’s?—consequences.
"Why did you come back?" he asked, visibly calmer as he glanced at my legs. "How did you…change?"
My mind raced again for something to say that would reset everything, but there was no way out of this. I had to tell him.
"I was trying to stop the attack on your ship that day, but there’s a divide among my people," I started. "There are others, Nicholas…besides your people and mine—the Gnomes."
"Gnomes?" He blanched, barely restraining another laugh. "The little statues of men with mushroom hats in old ladies’ gardens?"
I smiled, letting my eyes trace the lines in the planking beneath us. "Gnomes are ancient, like the Undines. We were here before humans… We were the first creations of The Mother." Nicholas was silent. I glanced up at him to find him staring blankly at me. "We are not the children of Eve…like you."
"Eve? As in Adam and Eve? Right. OK…" He got to his feet. I scrambled to block the door.
"Why would I just admit to who I was and still lie about this now?" I pressed. This stopped him. He crossed his arms over his chest again and leaned against the wall. I took a deep breath, ignoring the ache it caused. "I don’t know who those women are, and it seems you don’t really know Doctor Zee after all, so that means we’re on the same side," I said, forgetting why I was here until the pang of guilt ran through me.
"And the rest?" he asked, fixing me in place with an icy blue gaze. "Why did you come back? How did you come back?"
"The siren who pulled you off your ship is called Mara. I knew you would drown before you stopped struggling against her in the water, and I couldn’t let that happen." I turned away from him and looked out onto the endless sea. "I brought you to shore because you didn’t deserve to die like the others who have hunted and tortured my people for centuries."
"Mermaids? Are we talking about mermaids here? Because that’s not how our stories go," he said defensively. "Mermaids aren’t real. They’re the delusional fantasies of sailors who have been at sea too long. Stories meant to keep them from going stir crazy and killing each other."
I rounded on him. "Did a story keep you from dying with your crew? Was that a delusion?"
He looked at me for a long time before finally speaking again. "Then answer me. Why did you come back? How are you standing there?"
I heaved a sigh and closed my eyes, trying to find a way to avoid telling him I was here to kill him. "Because the Gnome Queen, Luz, changed me. Mara wanted her to send me here after she led the attack on your ship. Luz helped her. She and Mara have united the Gnomes and the Undines…they’re planning a war on your people."
"So you’re their queen? You’re here to stop it?"
"My mother, Necksa, is the queen. I’m captain of her guard…"
"Then you’re a princess."
"I’m a soldier! And I’m not here to stop their attack. I’m here to stop you!" I slipped.
His expression sharpened, his dark brows arching as he studied me for several minutes before he spoke again. "Stop me from what, Cora?"
It was too late. There was only the truth now. "Luz has my lieutenant—my friend—aboard her ship. She’ll kill him unless…" I trailed off, scolding myself for even saying anything at all. But it was too late now. "Luz will kill him unless I kill you," I managed. "I’ve been given three days. Only two are left."
Nicholas stared at me and put his hands in the pockets of the white uniform pants he’d retrieved, which were now marred with dirt. "Well, this is awkward then." He smiled and turned his head but kept his eyes on me. "How was it supposed to go? Clobbering me in my sleep? A blade to my throat?"
"A kiss."
He raised his chin and smirked, despite his efforts to press his lips into a neutral line. "A kiss, was it…? Well, you could have killed me twice by now, Cora."
"I know," I whispered, swallowing hard as I turned again to the sea, wishing I could echo: I’m sorry Reed. I’m so sorry…but I didn’t make a sound.
I heard Nicholas’s footsteps behind me, and I didn’t care. It would be better if he killed me since it was clear I wouldn’t be able to kill him. I’d failed Reed. I’d failed my people. I’d failed myself.
Nicholas’s hands moved over my shoulders, and I waited for them to tighten around my throat. Instead, his arms crossed over my shoulders and held me against him.
His rough cheek brushed my temple. "This may just be out of relief that I’m not crazy after all," he said in a quiet voice. "But even though I’m not sure how to stop two supernatural races from conquering humanity—at least not yet—I imagine that together, we could figure out how to rescue your lieutenant."
I turned into him. "You would help me? After I came here intending to kill you?"
"Cora…" He laughed and stroked my cheek. "If intentions were all that mattered, I’d be dead already." I flinched as he bent to kiss my forehead.
"No…" I pushed against his chest to stop him. "It’s too much of a risk."
He raised a dark eyebrow and sighed, then pulled me against him. "We’ll fix this," he said into my hair. "But we’re going to need some help."
Djin, Paralda, and Doctor Zee were still sitting around the fire when we came back to it. I didn’t know why I was surprised they were still there since it was clear by now the women had come because of me. They knew I was Undine before they ever sat down, and apparently, Doctor Zee was the one who told them.
I narrowed my eyes at him. "How did you know about me?" I asked. He glanced at Nicholas, who put his hand on my shoulder and waited for the answer.
"Well, now… The fish is out of the bag." Doctor Zee smiled. "I’m also an Elemental, water child. A Gnome. We recognize our own. I’m sure you felt something similar when you first saw me…"
I ignored his question. "If you’re a Gnome, then why can you talk? Mama Luz is the only one of the Gnomes who has ever talked to us."
"Those aren’t Gnomes sh
e keeps on her barge. They’re the slaves she fashioned from clay—silent, obedient," Doctor Zee said spitefully. "The rest of my kind are scattered in the world. Some doing her bidding, some of us resisting. Necksa really told you nothing of us?"
I scowled at him. "Only that the Undines were banished from Eden for siding with the Gnomes. They told the Undines the humans wanted to make us their slaves."
Doctor Zee shook his head. "The humans didn’t know anything then. The Father wanted the Elementals to help them. To teach them. But Ghob—Luz—would have none of it."
"Mama Luz was there? Then?" I met her eyes.
"Of course, child. The Elemental queens are immortal." Djin shook her head at me. "Your mother didn’t mention that, either?"
"No," I answered.
"I told you Necksa would never forgive us." Paralda darted a glance at Djin. "I told you…"
I glared at her. "Forgive you for what?"
"Because we helped Ghob—Luz… Oh damnation, I cannot call her that—" Djin rolled her eyes. "We didn’t help the Undines after they and theirs were also banished from the Garden. But honestly, Necksa overreacted. We couldn’t have given the Undines back their legs."
Anger lit in my chest. "Our history says there were still Undines on land delivering water to The Garden when they were banished. They were trapped there! This was your fault?" I demanded. "What are you!?"
"Aren’t you listening?" Djin started. "It wasn’t our fault that Luz misled you mother. In fact—"
She was silenced when Paralda held up one hand to her. "But it was our fault that we gave Ghob—Luz—The Garden back and did nothing to help the Undines. Tell her the whole story, Djin."
I pressed my teeth together to keep from screaming. "Who are you?"
Paralda held her hand delicately over her chest. "I am the Queen of the Sylphs." She paused. "We are of the air, and the Salamanders"—she gestured to Djin— "are of the great fire. Djin is their queen. We are also Elementals, like the Gnomes and the Undines."
"Why did you give the Garden back to Luz? Why did you help her but not my mother?"
Djin took another bite from the smoldering stick from the fire and changed the flames into the image of lush trees. With a wave of her hand, bushes appeared behind a large, golden gate. "Paralda and I were ordered by The Father to hide The Garden from his exiled children…" She snorted again, then turned to Paralda, interrupting herself. "Do you remember that fool angel, Uriel, stoically patrolling The Garden gates with his ridiculous sword?"
"He probably still hasn’t turned around long enough to realize we moved it all back." Paralda laughed.
Doctor Zee shook his head like he’d heard the story a hundred times and wasn’t interested in hearing it again.
Djin saw him and sighed. "Anyway, after the pets were exiled, there was no one left to help in The Garden, so we gave it back to Ghob. Someone had to tend it…otherwise, what a waste! It’s hardly our fault The Undine couldn’t access it any longer."
"Djin," Paralda scolded. I was starting to understand why my mother had never spoken of these women before. In just this short time with them, I already couldn’t stand them.
Doctor Zee nodded. "Ghob could have given the Undines back their legs to come and go again as they pleased on land, but she feared it would bring attention back to The Garden, and all would be punished."
Paralda leaned forward, extending a long, slim hand to me. I pulled away from her. "Your mother ordered the Undines to attack the Gnome ships shortly after that. It was the only justice she could have since she could not reach the Sylphs in the air or the Salamanders in the sky’s great fire."
"And this became the Gnome War…" I said to myself, fully understanding the visceral hatred the Undines had harbored for Mama Luz for so long. But I didn’t understand why my mother was so careful to protect her now…or what could have happened to bring about the treaty we held with them.
Djin sighed, evidently bored with all of this. "There, you have your history lesson. Now, tell us how you’ve come to be on land."
I glared at her but thought better of it.
"You didn’t help my mother years ago,” I said carefully. "Make it right by helping me now."
14
I explained to Paralda, the Sylph Queen, and to Djin, the Salamander Queen, about Reed…about Mara and the pending war Luz was trying to wage against the humans. It was hard to understand her motives, especially since she’d actually regained Eden. She never had to see humans again if she wanted to live inside its gated walls.
"Luz wants more than that now," Doctor Zee said, finishing the last of his fish.
I nodded. "She’s convinced the Undines of the depths that the humans stole our world. She’s been recruiting them to take it back."
"Apparently, one boat at a time," Nicholas said with a scowl.
"But now there are other soldiers in the war she’s mounting," Doctor Zee said, glancing again at my arm. The dark outline of the bite mark was still visible, even though the burns from the electrical restraints were completely gone. "She’s creating them. Ferals—something between humans and Elementals that are both susceptible to infections like humans, but like Elementals, cannot be killed by them."
"How is she doing that?" Nicholas asked.
Djin passed her hand over the flames, which only showed one tree now, the others having fallen away with the dying fire. "She’s using The Tree of Life…"
"The Tree of Life? Adam and Eve again?" Nicholas asked, his expression dubious.
"It never ceases to amaze me how the children of Eve refuse to believe, even as the proof is in front of them," Djin said gently, her voice almost sympathetic.
Her condescension wasn’t lost on Nicholas. He gave her a steely look and clenched his jaw.
"I want to stop her, but before I can do that, I have to save Reed," I reminded them all.
"And yourself," Djin said, looking again into the fire, which had taken the shape of a boat on the sea.
I glared at Djin, remembering the severed Undine arm she and Paralda conspired to make me hallucinate. "If you could read the fire the whole time, why did you bother with your games earlier?"
"The fire only shows the story you start to tell, water child." She gave me a slow, closed lip smile that made my skin crawl.
Nicholas turned to me. “What else happens in two days?"
"I don’t even know. Not really. Mama Luz just said the earth would see us—Reed and me."
Djin poked at the flames, making them jump and recede in the glowing coals. "Seems she’ll let your friend bake in the sun. And when the last of your water marks dries…" She tilted her head to watch the fire from a new angle. "Old Mama Luz will send her scattered Gnomes to do the same to you."
"But I’m human now. How is that possible if…?” I trailed off, ashamed to even think it, let alone say it out loud. I cleared my throat and tried again. "She said I could only go back to being Undine if…I killed Nicholas. If I spilled his blood in the sea."
Nicholas drew in a long, slow breath.
"Seems there was fine print she didn’t mention," Doctor Zee added, the creases in his forehead deepening when he raised his eyebrows at me.
Nicholas scrubbed his hands over his face, then got to his feet. "What if we gave her what she wants? Just spill my blood into the sea."
"No! I can’t—" I started to protest, but he held his hands up to stop me.
"This can work," he said, almost to himself as he pulled his knife from his belt and ran to the shoreline.
"Nicholas!" I called after him, but he didn’t stop until he splashed knee-high into the water. When I caught up to him, he’d already slashed his forearm and was dripping his blood into the surf.
"How much did she say you had to spill?" he asked, balling his hand into a fist to make the blood flow faster.
"Stop this!" I took the knife from him and cut off the edge of my tank top, then tied it around his arm.
"It’s done then. What’s supposed to happen now?
" he asked, making my chest suddenly feel hollow.
Da water will make ya Undine again…Mama Luz’s words echoed in my head. I looked down at my legs, equally terrified they would change back into a tail and that they wouldn’t.
Nothing happened.
Nothing changed.
"It didn’t work…" I whispered, both relieved and afraid of what that meant. Nicholas’s blood had been spilled, technically, but the water knew somehow that he wasn’t dead. Would Mama Luz know too? Would the water betray me and tell her?
The irrational thoughts swam through my head, but realizing they were irrational didn’t make them stop.
"How do you know it didn’t work?" Nicholas asked, holding his arm. The blood was already soaking through the thin fabric of the torn, red tank top and dripping again into the water.
"Because I haven’t changed back," I said, afraid to take my eyes from my legs.
"What have you done to yourself, son of Eve?" Djin called from the shore, half-laughing, half-exasperated, alongside Paralda, who looked at us both with pity.
Nicholas cleared his throat. "It didn’t work…" he said, his voice sounding far away.
My legs started to burn, but it wasn’t heat, it was a frigid burn. "Something is wrong!" I shouted, falling backward into the silt with a splash. The water froze my hands, my wrists, my hips—everything it touched.
I scrambled backward onto the sand, and finally, the frigid burning started to fade. Nicholas fell to his knees in the sand at my side.
"What is it? What’s happening?" he asked, scanning me up and down. He gripped my shoulders, held my face. "Cora!"
His blood dripped over my sweatpants, the spots disappearing into the dark fabric.
"I’m all right. It stopped burning. It stopped…" I said, surprising myself that I was so out of breath.
Nicholas’s eyes widened as they darted to my throat.
He let go of my face and moved back, watching me in horror. "What’s happening to her?"
I brought my hands to my throat and felt around frantically, stopping all at once when my fingertips touched the ends of the second line. It seemed to sink until it was gone, leaving nothing but smooth skin behind, and only one raised line remained on each side.
Kingdom of Salt and Sirens Page 55
