by Kristie Cook
I stopped short. Azor, Colin and Uncle Alaster were standing in my living room, each of them exuding their own flavor of a condemning stare. The one I wanted to wipe off with my fist, though, was Colin’s ugly little smirk.
“Finley, we need to talk,” Azor said calmly, motioning for me to sit down.
I darted my eyes to Mom, then Tatch, who both were a little pale. My heart began to hammer but I remained composed, taking my seat. Yes, I’d left my post without permission, but no one saw me leave Natatoria.
Crap!
Then I remembered. I forgot to deliver the rocks. Kiernan must have told Azor I didn’t return. If only I had gone back, then he could have been my alibi.
Azor ran his hand through his obsidian hair and frowned. “Where were you today?”
Great. Here we go. “At Mr. Gumboot’s place.”
He raised an eyebrow. “The whole time?”
“No. He wasn’t happy with his selection of rocks, so I left to find him some new ones. Good customer service is key, you know.” I smirked.
“You never returned.” Azor’s eyes fell into slits.
“I couldn’t find any that where smooth like he wanted. The work day was over, so I went home.” I leaned back and rested my ankle on my leg. Neither Alaster, nor Azor would be able to do so, forced to sit ladylike in their archaic man-skirts.
Azor leaned forward. “You were seen today, outside of Natatoria.”
A laugh exited my lips. “Oh, really? By whom?”
Uncle Alaster sat up and placed a digital camera encased in a watertight container on the coffee table. “Colin was able to recover this—” The blood drained from my face as I eyed the proof. “—and mind-wiped the owner, but I’m not sure if anyone else saw.”
My glare landed on Colin’s overly happy, beady eyes. “And you’re sure it’s me?”
“Quite sure, Cousin. I, of course, was running a charter when you chose to jettison out of the gate, creating five-foot waves. My cruisers panicked and thought an earthquake had erupted along the fault line, causing a tsunami. I had to mind-wipe the entire group and confiscate this camera.”
Every cell in my body wanted to pummel the little snitch.
“Five-foot waves? I highly doubt that.”
“Tomorrow the lake is going to be swarming with boats and divers. I can’t wait to see what they say on the evening news.”
“Colin, you little—” I lunged for him, but Azor held me back.
“That’s enough, Finley. Unfortunately, you’ll need to be sanctioned. This is serious. A trial will be set after we assess the damage. You’ll need to come with me to a holding cell.”
“What? And Colin mind-wiping an entire group of people isn’t grounds for sanctioning, too? What about the gate? And even now, who’s guarding it?” I glanced over at Tatiana’s anxious eyes and then towards Mom. She wouldn’t look at me. I threw my hands into the air. “This is insane!”
Azor ignored me. “Alaster, I’m hoping you and Colin will be able to contain any rumors. And keep a better eye on the gate.”
“Of course, Captain.” Alaster bowed his head.
Out of the corner of my eye, Colin moved to snatch up the only known evidence of my infraction off the table; I countered to stop him. What was on the camera anyway? I didn’t surface the water until I reached Ashlyn’s body. No one was around.
Tatch caught the nonverbal exchange.
“Don’t you want the camera, Azor?” she asked with a silkened voice. “For evidence?”
“We should return it as quickly as we can to its owner,” Alaster shot back. “Before his subconscious forces him to remember what really happened when he can’t find it.”
Azor glanced towards Alaster, then at the clear box in Colin’s hand with disgust, apparently undecided on what to do. His naÏvetÉ had to have left him unsure how to work the foreign gadget. As a rule, human technology was looked at as being something useless to the mers and thus to be avoided. Azor strictly followed those guidelines.
“Azor,” my sister purred as she slithered closer to Colin and plucked the box right out of his hand. “Let’s look at the pictures first.” The case opened with a hiss.
She clicked the buttons with a stoic disposition, then her shoulders softened.
“Maybe you should look, Azor?”
She got up and perched herself on the arm of the chair Azor sat in. She demonstrated the gadget with one hand and wrapped her other hand around his shoulder. “See? There’s no fuss.”
Azor tightened his eyes for a fraction of a second as each picture flashed on the screen. “Yes, I see what you mean.” He ran his hand through his hair again. “Still, Alaster is right. The camera should be returned. Colin?”
Tatiana held out the contraption with a coquettish smile. Colin took the camera and threw it into the box, unconcerned with damaging the device. Azor, unaware, gazed headily into Tatiana’s eyes.
I gasped. “So there’s no damaging pictures?”
Alaster coughed and grabbed his son by the arm. “Come, Colin. We have a gate to guard and rumors to squelch.”
They left through the porthole before I could raise a larger stink.
Azor snapped out of Tatiana’s bewitching stare and looked angrily at me. “Yes, the pictures seem to have discounted Colin’s claim you were seen as a merman by humans, but your unauthorized exit must be discussed. You better hope they don’t find any other evidence against you.”
“Wait. Let me get this straight. I leave unauthorized through an unguarded gate, and I alone get in trouble?”
“You didn’t have permission to leave, Finley. As far as your uncle’s post is concerned, that’s my business.”
“I was getting rocks!” I yelled. “Because it’s my job to make the elder mers happy. I only left for a minute!”
Azor turned and scowled. “You just can’t leave and get rocks.”
“This is utterly ridiculous!” I pounded my fist on the chair, breaking off a piece.
Tatiana batted her eyelashes at Azor. “Aren’t you overreacting?”
“No, Tatiana. Finley has broken the law,” he said plainly, then turned to me. “Be prepared to answer when the Council asks what you were doing. How you managed to create a wake while retrieving rocks is beyond me, but a solid explanation might reduce the time of your punishment.”
Unlikely. “You’d better stop rumors here in Natatoria too. Once it gets around the gate’s unguarded, other mers might stop by for a visit,” I said with a sneer.
Azor glared. “Don’t test me, Finley. The other mers respect our rules and you need to be reminded why we don’t break them.” Azor motioned for me to get to my feet. “We must go.”
Mom kept eyeing me with worry. “When can I visit my son?”
“Mag—excuse me—Mrs. Helton, not until after the trial next week.”
The withering glance of my torn mother ate at the lining of my stomach. How could I have been so careless? Colin tricked me into revealing what happened and I fell for it—hook, line, and sinker. By blaming me, Alaster completely avoided a reprimand. Without Dad’s help to smooth matters behind the scenes, I doubted I’d get a fair trial. I could kiss Tahoe goodbye for my future now.
Azor made me go behind the curtain and phase first.
“Sorry,” Tatiana said, once she exited the porthole behind us. She and Mom floated, clinging to one another, in the current under the eve of the porch. “What were you doing out there anyway?”
“Nothing,” —besides promising myself to the girl of my dreams, risking the family’s livelihood and putting everyone in jeopardy— “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Better not have been nothing. I just flirted with Azor. Ugh.”
I withheld a nervous laugh. “Something personal. I’ll tell you later.”
“Oh-kay,” she said disparagingly.
If we had more time, she might have pulled out the truth. “Take care of Mom. Who knows how this will turn out.”
“It’l
l be fine. I’m going to see you before the trial somehow.”
Our eyes met. “Don’t you dare do anything rash.”
“We’ll see.”
“Finley, let’s go,” Azor said, noticing I’d stalled.
Azor and I crossed the bluff and the girls disappeared out of view, leaving me with my guilt. I had no idea what the punishment would be for leaving without permission. If Alaster or Colin testified, it would be my word against theirs, considering they had no proof. Maybe I could mention the fact that they weren’t monitoring the gate. There was no way I was going to take the fall for everything.
As we swam closer, I noticed a few changes to his grandiose living quarters—more gilded surfaces and additional spires. The magnificent coral garden stood out, rumored to be directly from Fiji to accent his statue of a bare-chested mermaid—a custom he wanted reinstated.
A new room protruded off to the side, which he bragged he had built specifically for his hunting trophies. But in the back, behind a barnacle-encrusted stone fence loomed the ravenous creatures no one ever wanted to contend with—great white sharks.
From the Pacific Ocean, the sharks swam in and out of the Pacific gate as they pleased, only allowed in one small corner of Natatoria and blocked by floor-to-ceiling rock spires so they couldn’t have a feasting frenzy on the mers. The windows of the jail cells off the back of his house were within this gated area.
No one had ever escaped and lived to tell about it. I was trapped until Azor let me out.
30 - ASH
My eyelids slowly opened, registering my surroundings. The clock on the wall said it was only one in the afternoon, but it felt later. Mom and a male’s voice spoke outside the doorway, probably Dr. Peet. From the anxiety in her pitch, I figured my condition had worsened. I turned up the volume of the TV with the remote and flipped through the lowly thirteen channels. My choices were Bonanza, soap operas, Let’s Make A Deal, or daytime reality TV.
Before I’d fallen asleep from the pain meds thirty minutes ago, the nurse said my white blood cell count was higher than they liked and they wanted to monitor me for infection. I wasn’t sure if that meant here, or at home.
My dream fluttered back into my mind. A huge hourglass protruded out in the middle of our dining room table. Within the sand, bits and pieces of blue wood were showing through. Only I knew what was underneath. I struggled to move the gigantic thing out of sight of my inquisitive family—without success. Once more grains fell away, The Sea Star would show everyone what I’d done today.
My attention jerked to an interruption on the TV; warning of unusual activity in Emerald Bay.
“… mysterious waves over six-feet tall accosted the shore shortly after eleven thirty this morning, damaging small boats in the harbor. Seismologists say there wasn’t any activity on the fault line, leaving them baffled as to how the occurrence happened. Locals blame Tessie for the disturbance, others the full moon. Officials are asking, until further notice, for extreme care to be taken near the water until divers can determine the cause.”
I wanted to laugh until I heard, “In other news, a local high school girl was swept out into the bay after a rogue wave hit the beach …”
I dropped the remote.
“I saw the whole thing,” a guy in a dirty shirt said, his missing tooth creating a lisp. “The girl got washed into the lake by this crazy wave over there and then some guy jumped in and saved her.”
Did someone else have an accident besides me? I wasn’t close enough to shore to have someone dive in and save me. All I remembered was the bright light underwater. My lips prickled again at the memory.
The camera cut to the lake and panned across the water, Fannette Island in the background. A pit formed in my stomach as I anticipated seeing the empty blue boat bobbing along. Then the Ranger came into view, the same one from earlier.
“Ranger Prescott, people are touting that you’re the hero today. Did you jump in and fish this girl from the lake?”
He cleared his throat and looked down. “I didn’t rescue anyone, ma’am. I found her in my station, bundled up and almost frozen to death. I did what any citizen would have done and called nine-one-one.”
His words hacked through the fluff lining my brain. This story was about me. I started to break out in a sweat as the woman continued to ask him probing questions about my injuries and if I’d said anything. He didn’t have much to say. The others she interviewed blamed the waves and, surprisingly, not my stupidity. Did no one truly see me fall? What about the jet boat riders?
“Ashlyn!” Dad said breathlessly, as if he’d run all the way here.
His voice made me jump. I pawed at the covers to find the remote, shutting off the TV. He walked briskly over and hugged me hard.
“Thank God you’re all right. I got here as soon as I could.” He kissed the top of my head and held me, letting out a sigh. “If anything ever happened to you, I don’t know what I’d do.”
“I’m okay, Dad. Really.”
He didn’t move, just kept his arms around me. His sniffle set guilt careening through my body. Why did I do something so stupid? We stayed that way for several minutes. I finally melted into his shoulder.
He composed himself and stood by my bed, still wearing his fire-station T-shirt. “You worried us. How are you feeling?”
“Okay, I guess.” I pushed my hair out of my eyes. My chest clenched watching him suffer, the “what ifs” playing horror films within his eyes. “I didn’t mean to get anyone upset.”
“Just—” He put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed—torture running wicked grooves across his forehead and eyes. He sighed again, sounding tired, defeated. “We need you to be more careful. Mom said you weren’t feeling well, so you didn’t go to church today. What were you doing down by the water?”
I worked to catch my breath as the truth smoldered on my tongue. I wanted to come clean, but knew their reaction would be fierce once they realized what I’d done. Could the consequences be punishment enough? My injury grounded me from swimming for a few weeks and the scar would forever mark my thigh. “I—I needed some fresh air.”
“How did you fall in?”
I nervously chuckled. “A wave, I think.”
The timing of the huge waves couldn’t have worked more perfectly to my advantage. But as far as I could remember, other than the ones from a jet boat that knocked my oar into the water, nothing unusual happened.
Dad didn’t appreciate my jocularity and frowned. “You don’t remember where you were or how you ended up in the lake?”
“No.” I held my breath, the treacherous sand falling faster and faster.
He shook his head. “Hmmm.”
My mind slowly whirled, thick with pain meds, searching for an alibi to his next set of questions. What if someone saw me? Or worse, what if my rescuer comes clean? Maybe I could stage a break-in to make it look like someone stole the boat.
Mom came from around the curtain and interrupted my thoughts. She slid her hand into his and kissed Dad. “Good, I’m glad you’re here.”
I faked a smile. In private, they’d compare notes of what happened and bust that hourglass wide open. Should I just come clean and take the heat?
“They’re keeping her tonight,” Mom said, as if I wasn’t in the room. “There’s an infection somewhere. And her quad muscle is injured pretty badly so she’ll need to stay off her feet. She’s not allowed to swim for several months either. Then there’s physical therapy, too.”
“What?” I’d figured weeks, but not months. That would be the rest of senior year. I slouched back in the pillows and turned my face towards the window as the tears welled up in my eyes. A knock at the door cut the dreary silence.
“Come in,” Mom said softly.
Callahan walked in with a beautiful bouquet of gerbera daisies and yellow lilies. “Sorry to interrupt.” He nervously held out the arrangement, his gaze darting between my parents and me. “I heard about what happened and wanted to bring you these.”
/>
I wiped away the tears and tried to smile, taking the flowers from him. “They’re so lovely. Thank you.” I put them to my nose, inhaled the sweet fragrance, and swooned. No one had ever brought me flowers before.
Realizing his arrival was poorly timed, he looked at me with questioning eyes, then shifted his weight from side to side, as if preparing to bolt out the door. “Sorry. I should have called first.”
“Sit, son,” Dad said and motioned to the chair next to me. “We were just leaving.”
Mom blinked as Dad pulled her towards the door, her eyes filled with frustration. Now that the initial grief and shock had worn off, I’d have to answer to why I’d lied and left the house. “We’ll talk later.”
Once they shut the door, I exhaled the breath I’d been holding. “Parents. They won’t stop smothering me. I’ve insisted I’m fine.”
Callahan looked concerned. “What happened?”
Gazing at his curious expression made me realize I’d be retelling this story for a very long time. Maybe missing some school might not be a bad thing after all. The rumor mill could drum up the tale just fine in my absence. And really, my brief story didn’t make sense with all its incongruous edges.
“Other than falling into the lake, I’m not sure. Someone must have saved me, I guess. All I remember is waking up here.”
“Weird.” Callahan squished his eyebrows together in a cute, confused way. “Did a wave knock you in?”
“I don’t quite remember—”
Technically this wasn’t a lie; a wave did knock me in. Just not from shore. I ached to confess to ease my battered conscience.
“I’m just glad you’re okay. When I found out, I freaked.”
I played with my fingernails. He did care after all, proving my breakup theory wrong. But now I was more confused. His comment should have made my heart soar like a bird, but surprisingly it didn’t. My gaga feelings had evaporated; I no longer saw him as the most adorable boy in school that tripped up my tongue and made me blush.
He took my hand, startling me. “So, when do you get out of here?”
“Tomorrow, I think.”
He traced my knuckles with his thumb, giving me goose bumps across my arms. “If I’d been there, I would have jumped in and tried to save you. Even though you’re a better swimmer than me.”
