Saylor laughed as he ducked. I was not in the mood for laughter.
I conjured up two fireballs, one for each hand, and threw one high and one low.
Saylor danced away from them and before I could ready another blast, the dragon reappeared and swooped down. It grabbed my purse with its mouth, pulling it from my hands, and soared away. Once again the dragon flew over Lady’s house and seemed to drop down somewhere behind it. The back of the yard bordered on a land preserve. The dragon could be anywhere.
“Nice going, asshat,” I said. “Now neither of us has the Mermaid’s Lament. Your mother’s not going to be happy, and neither is Lady.”
Saylor laughed again, but there wasn’t much humor in it. “I think Lady will be pleased.”
“Why do you think that?”
Saylor’s gaze moved away from me and focused on the side of the house. I didn’t know if it was a trick to get me looking in another direction so he could attack or if there was really something worth seeing. Nola maybe? More likely Edwin who hadn’t been seen since he disappeared along the side of the house with witches chasing after him. I hoped it would be Edwin and he’d be all right. I glanced quickly over my shoulder.
Edwin held up my still dripping purse. Nola stood beside him.
Saylor made a scoffing sound and I looked back at him.
“You didn’t know, did you?” he said.
“Know what?”
“Edwin has a dragon form. All the demigods can change. It’s in our DNA. Of course the gods and goddesses can be practically anything they want. Edwin only has the dragon.”
“Check that the necklace is still inside,” I called as I came to grips with this new information. A dragonshifter. Fuck me. And he’d pulled Nola from the water and saved her.
Edwin unzipped my bag and rummaged around inside. Men have no idea all the bits and bobs women carry in their purses. He finally pulled out the soggy box that all but fell apart in his hands, and held up the Mermaid’s Lament.
Saylor made this weird rumbling noise deep in his throat. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Did he have another form as well? Was I about to see him change?
Instead he burst forward, covering the distance between he and Edwin so fast that Edwin didn’t even get the smile off his face before Saylor tackled him to the ground. Saylor grabbed the necklace, leaped up, and ran back my direction.
A car was coming up the drive. I didn’t dare turn to look and see who it was. Lady maybe? The getaway driver for Saylor?
I focused my mind and made the earth under his feet buck and tremble. Saylor stumbled but kept to his feet and continued running. I upped the ante. The ground rose up and sunk back down, then shimmied side to side. The front yard was in turmoil. Flowers were uprooted and tossed aside. Chunks of grass flew into the air. I had trouble keeping my own balance.
But Saylor fell.
A car door slammed behind me at the same moment a horrid shriek sounded from somewhere above the trees.
A lone witch who must have been waiting all this time dove from the branches and landed on Saylor’s back. She grabbed the necklace and tugged, but Saylor wouldn’t let go. They rolled and tumbled in the soggy grass, both of them getting wet, both yanking on the necklace.
“Stop,” Lady yelled. “Damn it, stop. Being cursed might have weakened—”
The witch gritted her teeth and pulled. The string broke. Pearls scattered across the lawn.
The witch jumped to her feet and gave Saylor a hard kick in the ribs.
“Idiot,” she said.
She turned a harsh eye on Edwin. “Where are my sisters?”
“The hell with your sisters,” Lady said.
Edwin grinned. “In the back. Bespelled. Care to join them?”
And who had cast that? Edwin or Nola?
The witch screeched and turned. She ran toward a tree and up the trunk. In seconds she had disappeared among the branches and leaves. Seconds later she reappeared at the top branch, leaped into the air, and seemed to just disappear.
I’ve seen lots of magic, but that was a first.
26
Lady looked at the ruined remains of her yard and sighed. Nola and I were wet and bedraggled. Saylor, who slowly pulled himself to his feet, was wet and worn out from fighting with the witch on the lawn. The pearls lay scattered in the grass. His gaze bounced from pearl to pearl. Lady shifted her gaze to him.
“What are you doing here, Saylor?”
He didn’t look up but his voice came out strong. “I came for my mother’s pearls, of course.”
Damn. That boy could lie like nobodies business.
“Well, you didn’t manage that very well, did you?” Lady said, crossing her arms over her chest.
Saylor raised his head to look at Lady. The heat in his eyes could have burned through steel. “My mother sent me to retrieve the pearls.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” I said. “Lady will return them to her at first light. Calypso didn’t need to send you to steal them.”
Saylor laughed. It was a harsh, ragged sound.
“I see,” Lady said. “Calypso meant for it to be impossible for me to return them.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I think Calypso doesn’t know Saylor is here.”
Edwin and Nola began picking up loose pearls in the wet grass.
“Oh, leave it. Leave it,” Lady said, the flick of her hand showing her anger and impatience. “We’ll gather them later. Not that it matters. The pearls can never be restrung in the right order. The spell is lost.”
Edwin stood next to me. I leaned over and asked in a soft voice, “Why can’t they be restrung? Someone devised the spell originally. Why can’t it be cast again?”
“That sorcerer is dead,” he said quietly. “Drowned.”
Drowned—by Calypso? So the sorcerer couldn’t enchant another set of pearls or anything else? So only she would have the magic he’d made?
Lady drew in a deep breath. Evidently she’d made up her mind what to do next.
“I think it’s time for a drive,” she said to Edwin. She turned and locked her gaze on Saylor. Her voice grew chill and hard. “Shall we go talk to your mother, ask her if she sent you here tonight or not?”
The fear emanating from Saylor was so strong I could practically taste it. He was in trouble and knew it. Big time trouble. I didn’t pity him one little bit.
Nola sidled up next to me. “Weird to say, but I’ve had enough excitement for one day. I’d like to go home now. Would that be all right?”
“I don’t see why not,” I said. Lady didn’t need Nola to find Calypso and tell her what Saylor had done. She didn’t need me either.
“Um,” I said to get Lady’s attention. “Nola would like to go home, if you don’t need her.” I paused. “I’d like to go home as well.”
Lady pursed her lips. Her gaze never left Saylor. “Nola may go. You, Shayna, will accompany Edwin, Saylor, and me.”
Nola and I gave each other little shrugs. She pulled her miraculously dry phone from her pack and ordered an Uber, which was pretty much what I wished I were doing at the moment. I also thought that if Nola kept her phone safe and dry through some sort of spell, I’d like to have her bespell my purse so it couldn’t be stolen, or opened by anyone but me, and that everything inside would be safe no matter what happened. That would be useful.
Lady closed her hand around Saylor’s arm and gave him a bit of a shove. “Get in the car.”
Saylor obeyed like a boy being sent to his room, knowing he’d committed a family crime.
“Will you be all right here alone?” I asked Nola.
She nodded.
I got in the car on the shotgun side. Lady sat with Saylor in the back. Edwin didn’t ask where to? He simply backed the car out of the driveway and turned to go down the gravel road.
I wasn’t surprised when we arrived at the same stretch of beach where we’d last spoken with Calypso. Lady nodded to Edwin and he took hold of Saylor’s othe
r arm. Lady turned loose the arm she’d held and we walked down to the shore.
As before, Lady called a fish and told it we needed to speak with Calypso now, it was urgent. The last time Lady had sent a fish to ask Calypso to appear, she’d come immediately. Now we stood by the shore, the waves lapping on the sand, and waited.
And waited.
Lady crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot impatiently.
Finally Calypso arrived, riding a dolphin. She surely did like to make an entrance.
The sea goddess dismounted into the water and glided to the shore.
“It’s not yet dawn,” she said. “Are you returning my necklace early?”
“I have sad news,” Lady said. “The Mermaid’s Lament has been destroyed. The string was broken during a tug-of-war between Saylor and a witch, both of whom were after your necklace. The pearls themselves are scattered on my front lawn.”
The sea goddess regarded the goddess of California for a long moment.
“I see,” she said and shifted her gaze to her son. “Is this true?”
Saylor puffed out his chest. “I was trying to get it back for you.”
Calypso put on hand on her hip. “Were you?”
“In truth, it seems your child wanted the Mermaid’s Lament for purposes of his own,” Lady said coolly.
Calypso’s gaze remained locked on Saylor. “Oh?”
“Evidently he was jealous of our near immortality and wanted the same for himself,” Lady said. “It is only through the great efforts of Shayna, Edwin, and one other that the necklace was recovered at all. They brought it to my house so I could deliver it to you. Unfortunately, Saylor—”
Calypso’s gaze was so white hot it could have burned a hole straight through her son. She shifted her gaze to Lady. “Yes, I understand. You acted in good faith. I consider your debt paid as fully as if you’d put the Mermaid’s Lament into my hands. I shall consider us still good friends.”
“Thank you,” Lady said, but there wasn’t much warmth in her voice.
Calypso returned the harsh glare of her gaze to Saylor, who hung his head.
“Look at me, son.”
He slowly raised his head.
“You will return home with me now,” the sea goddess said. “I will devise your punishment as we travel.”
Saylor gulped but nodded. He waded into the water to await his fate.
And still I had no pity for him.
Calypso faced Lady. “My deepest apologies for my son’s behavior.”
Lady waved it off with a flick of her hand. “My yard is in ruins. You will, of course, send a crew to repair it and oversee them yourself.”
Calypso stared hard at Lady a moment. “Of course. Tomorrow is acceptable for you?”
Lady nodded her approval.
Calypso turned and walked into the sea.
Outside, a mockingbird sang his midnight serenade, a combination of various songs interspersed with the sound of a car alarm. Lady had gone to bed saying she had an important business meeting in the morning and wanted to be fresh for it. Edwin and I sat in the kitchen unwinding over a couple of beers.
“Will Calypso really show up tomorrow to oversee the workers, or was that just face-saving goddess bullshit?” I said.
Edwin laughed under his breath. “She’ll show up, but she won’t stay all day, especially once she learns that Lady isn’t even here. She may bring Saylor though and make him stay and probably make him do the cleanup work as well. Probably whatever she decides is the very worst job there is to do.” He tipped the bottle to his lips. “Our job will be to get out there at first light and gather all the pearls before the workers arrive.”
I glanced at the clock. Getting up at dawn meant I wasn’t going to get much sleep, but I was too wound up to simply slip off to bed now.
“Is it true that with the pearls out of order, the spell is broken and can’t be recast?”
He gave me one of those ‘who knows?’ looks. “They say the sorcerer who cast the spell spent years working it up and refining it. They say he never shared the secret. They say he’s dead. If there’s a lie in there somewhere, I’m sure Lady will find it. She’s very persistent.”
“Hence the reason we need to gather all the pearls.”
“Yes,” he said.
“Then my job is done. Lady hired me to recover the pearls and now—“ I turned my palms up in a gesture of finality.
Edwin peered at me over the top of his bottle. “I think she plans to keep you on full-time. Lady appreciates competence.”
He must have caught the look the word competence inspired.
“More than competent,” he said. “Good enough for her to continue to employ you, and she does have exacting standards.”
There were questions that had pricked at the back of my mind for a while. This seemed a good moment to have them answered.
“The day of the interviews at Lady’s office—were you there playing the demon role? Two demons in fact?”
Edwin shrugged. “I have many talents.”
I sipped my beer thinking how true that statement was. I set the bottle on the table.
“Saylor said that your only other form was the dragon,” I said. “How did you pull of the demons?”
“Saylor doesn’t know everything.”
Saylor and I seemed to have that in common. I was sure there was more to this new society I’d fallen into than I knew. Much more.
He smiled. “A good glamour goes a long way.”
“Cast by you or by Lady?”
“Lady doesn’t have that sort of magic,” he said.
So, cast by Edwin, whom I didn’t know had that sort of magic? Or by Dr. Sharma, who plainly showed he did have magic? Or a different, outside entity I knew nothing about?
I lifted my bottle and took another sip of beer. I was keyed up, but worn out. Did it matter who had cast the glamour?
“They’re harsh, aren’t they? The goddesses,” I said.
Edwin shrugged again. “They have their own ways.”
I pursed my lips, wondering if I should ask the next question. Did I really want to know?
“You know my house flooded.”
“Yeah,” he said.
“Did Lady make that happen?”
Edwin shook his head. “Again, she doesn’t have that sort of magic. Her powers of persuasion are strong. She can heal the land. She could probably divert a river if she wanted, but I don’t think she can control something manmade like a sewer.”
“You don’t think?”
He shrugged. “You’re going to have to ask her directly for a definitive answer.”
“So she might have done it?” I said.
“Might have. As I said, the gods and goddesses have their own ways.”
I let the question go for now.
“The same could be said for you,” I said. “You’re a demigod and a dragon. I work in the magical world and you’re the first person of that combo I’ve met. First dragonshifter I’ve met at all.”
“I’m Edwin,” he said, looking straight at me. “No different than you are Shay, despite your special abilities.”
I thought about that. We might not be ordin, but we felt ordinary to ourselves, at least I did. Maybe it was something like being a music virtuoso or a brilliant athlete—a gift of birth you could hone but ultimately simply was who and what you were. Or in my case, a gift handed to me whether I wanted it or not.
“Fair enough,” I said, and we fell into a companionable silence.
Thank you for reading The Mermaid’s Lament. I hope you enjoyed it. Please be so kind as to leave a short review on Amazon. Reviews help future readers know if they might also enjoy the book.
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