For all I knew, the train might have been powered by wind energy, funneled in with a magic engine scoop. Or maybe there were solar panels hidden on the roofs of the other cars. The possibilities fascinated me.
The train lurched as the train left the station. Its acceleration pressed Mara and Lev into their seats and pushed me forward out of mine. The outside scenery blurred, and we were underway.
Not long into the journey, Lev’s head dipped to the side, and he dozed off, his snore sounding, to me, like that of a sleeping whale. After the excitement of my first visit to Unseen Street, I wasn’t tired. Mara looked like she was trying to entertain herself by observing the passengers and then the world beyond our windows. When she gave up on the view, which was muddled by our speed, she examined her fingernails. I studied her carefully.
Aside from Lev’s belief, I had no proof of Mara’s good faith. I didn’t know her.
“Who are you?” I murmured.
To my surprise, her gaze jumped to mine, and she met my stare with her own. She had better hearing than I expected.
“Lev trusts you,” she said.
I didn’t let my gaze waver. “Maybe I earned it.”
“And I haven’t.” She grimaced.
“You said it.”
“Who are you?” I repeated the question. She had to answer it. She needed to.
“I’m a mermaid, trying to save my family.”
Family. That’s something I understood. Being Mer suited her. Now that I knew, somehow, it didn’t surprise me at all. “What else lurks in your past?”
She leaned closer to Lev. He shifted toward her, but he didn’t fully wake. “I want to find out as much as you do.”
“Will your truth kill my family, Mara?”
Her eyes turned glassy as tears collected inside them. “I hope not. I’m going to do everything in my power to keep that from happening.”
Then, she turned toward the window so I couldn’t see her face.
I leaned back into my seat and folded my hands. She hadn’t been appalled by my assertion. She’d taken it in stride, and she’d even answered my question when she could.
I considered the carved whale waiting for me at home, and my dogged suspicion faltered. Yet, in the last few days, I’d been reminded of another unfaltering truth.
Betrayal first requires trust.
And I didn’t have any trust to spare.
So I set my heart against the stranger who had yet to prove her loyalty to Lev.
No matter what happened next, I would choose Lev over helping Mara every time.
In my life, she was expendable.
29
Arrival
Lev
Paranormal Trans-World Locomotive, Unspecified Travel Corridor
A watery-tongued man gurgled next to my ear. I didn’t care. Rage consumed me. The hull of the ship splintered against my skull, and I breathed out.
“Quiet,” I growled at him as only a whale could. “Davey Jones will be along for you soon enough.”
Frightened sailors behaved like fools. I forced an indignant breath through my blowhole. The men would pay for their crimes, and I was the executioner. Careful not to inhale the salty liquid, I dove, preparing for another pass.
He harpooned my side, and blood poured into the water. I thrashed, reaching for him. I would run him to the bottom of the Topaz Strait.
Soft mermaid lips brushed against my ear, and a sweet voice whispered, “Come back to me, Lev.” Turning toward the sound, the water cleared and a mermaid floated beside me in the turquoise expanse.
Mara. I gaped at the silvery finned woman as she floated in the briny ether. She radiated joy, and her fins sparkled, reflecting the mottled light from above. The water warmed around me.
And then the sensation of the train faded in.
I’d only been in the depths of a dream, and now I pulled Mara closer as I began the slow ascent to the surface. She snuggled into me, and her curves pressed against my side, bringing memories from what she’d offered the day before. My blood heated, coursing through me, and, at that moment, I’d have given my whole arm for the privacy of a sleeper compartment.
When I opened my eyes, Woe stared at me from across the row, her eyebrows drawn in a thoughtful expression. Given my rush of erotic thoughts, her scrutiny disconcerted me, and I turned away slightly to appreciate the profile of the woman next to me.
Woe dipped her chin, but her eyes followed me. She wanted to ask something.
I leaned toward her. “What is it?”
We were stuck together in the same space for several hours with nothing to do. Woe could ask nearly anything, and I had time to answer.
She tucked her legs beneath her. “Do you have nightmares?”
“It seems to be a side effect of remembering my history.”
The happiness of recalling a family, then the hurt of losing them. It had been devastating. I’d wasted years on sorrow, decades on regret. “I hope I didn’t disturb you.”
She laughed a little and shook her head. “Oh, no, it was only a short time and then Mara woke you.” She pointed to the conductor as he walked toward the front and back by our seats without stopping. “It started when he first announced the next stop right next to your head.”
That made sense.
“Eilean Ren is the next stop. Is that correct?” Arún’s birthplace. If memory served, Woe had grown close to Arún’s sister. “Would you like to visit?”
The hum of the engine slowed, and the exterior view changed from a tunnel-like speed-blur to rolling hills. Some distance away, a stone spire reached into the sky with a bright white sphere at the top.
“I’m sure we could change our tickets to include a layover.”
Woe didn’t answer. Instead, she leaned forward to peer out the window. “No,” she breathed. “I can’t.”
She bit her bottom lip, quivering. A movement near the seat caught my eye. Her grip on the armrests tightened until her knuckles turned white.
“Wouldn’t Arún’s family like to see you?” They were family. If mine were alive, nothing could keep me from them. Her choice didn’t make sense.
“I was never one of them, never good enough for their son.” Her voice sounded far away.
“His sister?” Surely the sister alone would be worth a visit.
Woe’s lips moved, but no words came out.
Mara grazed my thigh. “Not everyone has fond memories of their family, Lev.”
“She has to see them. They’re family.”
Mara slowly shook her head, and the argument died on my lips. I couldn’t fight them both. I wasn’t a fool like Jason; I wouldn’t try to control everything.
The conductor strolled through. “Eilean Ren. We’ve arrived at Eilean Ren. Please exit at the rear of the car.” His voice jolted Woe from her reverie.
“What’s the spire?” Mara asked, her voice soft and soothing. The train halted, and passengers moved toward the exits.
“It provides light and heat for the people,” Woe explained. “It stands at the center of the acropolis. The Fae do not have a star in their world, so they’ve copied that reaction on a smaller scale and placed it at the center of their only city.” Her trembling had subsided as the words tumbled out of her.
“Tell me about what it’s like there,” Mara prompted.
“It’s beautiful, clean. It’s never stormy. Never cold. And every Fae has magic in a color unique to them. It’s a sight to behold. From Arún’s balcony, it was like watching a moving painting…”
Mara slipped her hand into the crook of my elbow, and we listened to Woe tell about her honeymoon in Eilean Ren. Passengers boarded, and the train pulled away from the station.
Woe talked until her agitation had worn itself out. The closer we got to Raishana, the more her head lolled to the side until her forehead was pressed against the window, and she snored lightly.
After Woe had calmed down, Mara had drifted to sleep, too. I had never expected that Woe needed someone to l
isten, more than she needed someone to help her reason through her anxiety. I didn’t agree with her choice to ignore Arún’s family. I couldn’t claim that I was unbiased, but I preferred the napping woman before me to the distressed woman on the verge of a panic attack.
The recurrence of those attacks troubled me. When she’d first come to us, she had them regularly. She avoided small spaces or being underground for very long. And she didn’t like straps across her chest. It had taken some work for Jason to find a belt she could tolerate.
We learned to help her through them, reminding her to breathe or getting her through a grounding countdown. I didn’t know if the hormones were causing it or if it was a symptom of a bigger issue. I’d have to ask Vic about it when we got back. Sometimes the chemist had uncanny insight into Woe’s inner workings.
Static sounded and then a squeal. The conductor’s voice came over a PA system in the ceiling. “Passengers, please fasten your seatbelts. We are now entering Raishana’s turbulent atmosphere.” I tried to locate the nearest speaker without success, and I linked the safety restraint over my middle.
He continued, “It is natural to feel unnerved by the sway of the track over the water and the station, but please be assured that we will not tip over into the ocean and that the bridge is not collapsing. We’ve been running this line for many years, folks. In three minutes, we’ll have you there safe and sound. Thank you.” Another squeal signaled the end of his brief instructions.
Mara fastened her seatbelt, and I did mine. “What about Woe?” I asked.
“She did hers a while back,” Mara studied Woe’s middle. “She looks to be strapped in.”
The car dropped unexpectedly as though a large hand had dropped us onto the track, and everyone in the car gasped. Woe woke in an instant, clutching the armrests and turning rigid in the seat.
I offered her a reassuring smile, but she didn’t relax. “Almost there,” I said. “Seat belt tight enough?”
“Yeah, I did it back at the Eilean Ren stop,” she said. She’d probably been hoping it would keep her fastened inside the train rather than visiting Ishka. OR maybe she was worried about the others coming aboard the train for her.
Large raindrops hit the glass and moved over us in waves, intermixed with what sounded like hail. With each gust, the car lurched from side to side. Woe squeezed her eyes closed and clenched her teeth. It would be a long three minutes for her.
As a whale shifter, my physiology didn’t upset easily, particularly when it was a rainy storm cell or choppy waters. I glanced to the side. Maybe Mara was too, owing to the Mer-blood in her. But Woe turned a frightening shade of yellow-green and started muttering under her breath.
As we came down on an incline, the ocean rolled beneath us, white-capped waves crashed into one another, whipped into a frenzy by the wind. The cloud cover obscured the light, but when there was a break, a rainbow showed through. I could see the hazy curve of a horizon line similar to the curvature of the earth. Maybe this was an alternate reality, but it seemed more like a faraway planet. And I didn’t know how we’d gotten there.
All I knew was that this place might hold the answers I needed.
The track led directly into the circular platform, which rested high enough above the water’s surface that the waves didn’t crash over the metal decks that lined the circumference. Almost there, a circle door opened, revealing that the tracks would actually take us inside the transportation platform at the surface of the ocean that covered the hurricane world.
Everything darkened as we slipped beneath the deck and into a tunnel. My eyes were slow to adjust, and Woe whimpered when she bumped against me. In the inky blackness, Mara moved her hand along my thigh, and I reciprocated, glad to know she’d woken. A low murmur moved through the other passengers. The train decelerated and came to a gradual stop as lights winked, then came on.
I turned to Mara. “Does that trip make me an astronaut or more like a Jaru Jumper?”
“I’ve never been particularly attracted to Jumpers.” Her eyes twinkled. “But uniformed astronauts are something else.”
I shifted in the seat. “Are you nervous at all?”
Mara didn’t remember anything, and we didn’t know what waited for us out there on the typhoon planet. She bit her lip.
“Yes,” she said. “But, since I met you, I believe we’ll save my sister. What’s out there doesn’t matter to me.”
A random thought stabbed me to the quick. Mara had so many missing memories. She could have a lover waiting for her to return to Raishana. The apprehension chilled my bones and took me by surprise.
Mara’s existence, her inability to remember everything, the way the Boss owned her… It all came together and made her a liability.
But somehow, somewhere in me, I wanted her, and I didn’t know what to do with that knowledge. Maybe she was just the first woman that had a chance to notice me.
It could be that. It had to be that.
I grasped the bags at our feet and turned to leave, struggling to keep a hold on my imagination. Mara tugged on my arm. When I turned back, she had a frown on her face, and her eyes were pinched with worry. “What is it?”
She glanced around. “Where’s Woe?”
30
At the Station
Woe
Train Station, On the Hurricane Sea, Raishana
I stood to one side of a large metallic circle and gasped at the humid weight in the air. The train had arrived at one side of the circle. At the other side, there was a ticket or information counter of some kind with a line of travelers leading up to an attendant.
Kiosks and seating areas were scattered across its center. Enclosed in a glass-like material all around, the circular structure I’d seen from the train window seemed impervious to the storm that raged.
Outside, the wind whipped around the corner, sounding like a pack of wolves howling in the distance. The foundation piers must have been built by locals; the metallic floor hadn’t swayed once beneath my feet. Sweat beaded on my skin, and my hair stuck to my neck as I waited for the strangled feeling to pass.
“Don’t see your kind around here much,” a whining voice said nearby.
“Huh?” I spun around.
“Pretty human.” The voice came from a bearded satyr. The snarl-lipped fellow wore no clothes, but curly hair that covered the lower half of his body like trousers. He shifted from hoof to hoof and studied me with too much interest and a lusty gleam in his yellow eyes.
I leaned my head back and let my wings unfurl. It always felt like waking from a long nap and enjoying a good stretch. My heartbeat still raced, but I closed my eyes. Iridescent, black feathers shimmered as they reached toward the high ceiling. The exposed portions of my primaries were half the length of my body and nearly twelve feet across.
I snapped them at the mouthy satyr, and it sounded like two sails popping in the wind. He would have been struck dumb by their beauty if there had been sunshine rather than artificial light.
I might strike him dumb anyway. He must have seen something in my face because his eyes widened.
“Beg your pardon,” he said and trotted away from me, muttering something about not being a mortal as though he worried I might do something rash. He probably needed something rash to happen to him.
I grimaced, but decided to leave my wings free. They weren’t odd or out of place here, and that made it the perfect place to keep things out.
How I loved the gift Arún had given to me. A belated wedding present. Feathers I could use to put an end to harassment by a satyr.
Ishka enacted Arún’s last wishes when I’d brought her brother’s body home to Eilean Ren for burial. The Fae healer had given them to me while she worked to put his soul back in his body.
I shook the wings once more and scanned the room, not sure where Lev and Mara had gone, moving with the wave of travelers that surged across the platform.
After we’d slipped into the tunnel and then into the dark, I’d felt choked an
d frightened, and I couldn’t wait to get off the train. The throng made it one hundred times worse as we exited, creating a feedback loop of static that muddled my thoughts. So I’d bolted away, knocking into two or three of the passengers as I’d raced out.
When the tightness of my breathing abated, I realized that I would have to go back inside for my bags. My need for the fizz-tonic warred with my desire to stay out of the traveling tin can. Though, I hoped Lev would notice that I’d left them behind and would bring them with him when he exited.
That’s when I saw him.
The dapper gentleman stood out in the swell of creatures, his fedora hat cocked at a rakish angle, and an unlit seaweed cigar tucked in the corner of his smile. Two suitcases were in each of his hands, with my bowling bag over his shoulder like a backpack, and the other case tucked under one of his arms.
Of course he’d grabbed my bags and turned himself into my white whale of savior. Mara ran along beside him with her two bags and an irritated look on her face.
The moment when Lev saw me, his smile brightened his face, and the cigar almost fell from his mouth. He puckered to keep from dropping it or the suitcases. Mara’s frown deepened.
I couldn’t decide whether to cross my arms or greet them as though I’d been waiting on them to return from a long trip, so I stood still.
Lev panted as he came up beside me and set his bags down, lifting his chin to gaze at my wings. “I don’t know what you’ve got in that bag, but it’s heavy.” He handed me the hard case filled with fizz-tonic and my clothes bag.
“Tonic,” I said, tapping the hard case. “Otherwise, I packed light.”
“Fashion statement?” He nodded toward the feathers.
Leviathan's Rise Page 18
