I stumbled up the staircase to the small A-frame house and pounded on the door with my fist, not even pausing to catch my breath.
A moment later, the door whipped open and I froze as all thoughts vanished from my mind. Mara’s golden brown eyes widened, her mouth open in an O shape.
“Josh?” she whispered.
I had dreamed about her every night for the last five months. Everything I had been through in the months since I’d last seen her slipped away as I stared into her eyes.
“Mara,” I said, choking back the lump in my throat. I stepped forward, wrapping my arms around her and pressing her body as close to mine as I could. She still smelled the same, like salt and the lilac body wash she used to remind her of her mother.
Her lips found mine and I kissed her long and hard until my lungs felt like they’d burst.
“When did you get here?” Mara asked when she pulled away from me. She looked me up and down, her eyes roaming over my clothes and shivering shoulders. “You’re soaked. Come inside and warm up.” Then her gaze fell on the bloodstains on the tattered shoulder of my robe. “Oh my god. What happened? Are you okay?”
Reality crashed back into me. “Sailor,” I said. “I need help with Sailor. We have to get Miss Gale—”
Mara grabbed my arm as I started to turn. “Miss Gale is sick,” she told me.
I shook my head. “Miss Gale doesn’t get sick.” Sailor’s grandmother was one of the healthiest people I had ever known. She was always seen walking around the island or raking oysters in the sound. She was still strong and solid, even as she had gotten older.
Mara’s face was grim. “Apparently she does. She’s been sick since you guys left. What’s wrong with Sailor?” She was already stepping out the door, pulling it closed behind her.
“Is your dad home?” I asked.
“No, he’s fishing,” Mara said. “Josh, what’s wrong?”
I swallowed, shivering again as the cold breeze hit me. “Something really bad is about to come here.”
CHAPTER THREE
Mara was the one who thought to stop at Dylan’s house on the way back to Pirate’s Cove. He followed without any questions as soon as he spotted me.
I pushed through the low hanging branches along the path once again, holding them up high enough for Mara to pass underneath. It was dark inside the forest, even though it was the middle of the afternoon. The sun barely broke through the gray clouds outside and almost no light filtered through the spindly branches over our heads.
“Sailor healed me,” I explained. “We learned that finfolk can combine the songs of earth and water into one and use it to heal each other as we change forms.”
“Combine them?” Dylan asked behind me, his voice loud in the silent woods. Not even birds sang from the trees around us, as if they had all disappeared. “I’ve never heard of anyone combining the songs. No one even sings the earth songs at all.”
“There’s a lot we’ve forgotten how to do,” I told him.
“So what happened?” Mara prompted. “What’s wrong with Sailor?”
“She passed out,” I said. “It takes a lot of energy to use the songs like that. We did it once before, back in Hether Blether. Trust me, it’s not something you want to do every day. But the shark had bitten my arm pretty deep, and Sailor stopped me from bleeding to death. We’ve been swimming for so long with barely any food or rest. She was too exhausted and shouldn’t have tried.”
“So you just let her do it and hurt herself instead?” Dylan roared. Mara and I stopped to look back at him, but he shot us a glare and then pushed past us. He ran down the path, jumping over roots and brush. We had to run to keep up.
Dylan skidded to a stop when we broke through the trees and reached the little strip of beach. Sailor still lay on the sand, her head in Callum’s lap. He had reattached his prosthetic, and the wooden leg was stretched out in front of him. Coral walked along the edge of the water, picking up seashells.
Dylan’s hesitation only lasted a second and then he hurried across the sand, kneeling at Sailor’s side. He picked up her hand and leaned over her, his long blonde hair falling over his shoulders.
“Sailor?” he asked.
Sailor’s eyes fluttered open and she smiled. “Hey,” she croaked. “Bet you thought you’d never see me again, huh?”
Dylan smirked. “I knew you couldn’t stay gone for good. How are you feeling? Are you hurt?”
Sailor closed her eyes, but she shook her head.
“She’s tired,” Callum said. “She needs to sleep for a while. And she needs food.”
Dylan’s gaze darted up to meet Callum’s and he scowled. “Who are you?” he snapped.
“This is Callum,” I explained. “We met him in Scotland. He’s finfolk, and he helped us find Hether Blether.” I gestured to the others. “This is Dylan and Mara.”
Callum nodded and offered Dylan his hand, but Dylan ignored him and focused on Sailor. Mara stepped forward and shook Callum’s hand, shooting Dylan a scowl that he didn’t see.
“Oliver, look what I found.” Coral rushed over to me, holding up a pearly pink seashell. Her eyes sparkled when she smiled. “Isn’t it pretty?”
Mara studied Coral for a moment, then gave me a confused look. “Oliver?” she asked.
“My father,” I explained. I took the shell Coral offered me and smiled gently at her. “This is Coral Mooring, Sailor’s mother. We found her in Hether Blether, but she’s not…not well. Something is wrong with her mind. She thinks I’m my dad sometimes and she doesn’t know where she is. Or when it is.”
Coral had already become distracted in something else and turned away, humming to herself again.
“She’s fine,” Sailor growled as she sat up. She pressed a hand to her head. “She just needed to come home.”
“Aye,” Callum said, “hopefully being home will do her some good. But for now, we have more important things to deal with.” He looked up at me, his expression grim.
I nodded. “Something bad is coming this way,” I told Mara and Dylan.
“What is it?” Mara asked.
Callum struggled to his feet, groaning as he stood on the wooden leg. “We should get Sailor inside somewhere. Get her some food. Then we can talk.”
“I’m fine,” Sailor said. She stood as if to prove her point, but she swayed on her feet and stumbled back a step. Dylan started to reach for her, but Callum slipped his hand into Sailor’s first.
Dylan’s mouth snapped shut and he stepped away, putting distance between himself and the two of them.
“You’ll be fine once you sleep and eat,” Callum told her gently.
“Fine,” Sailor relented, rubbing her forehead with one hand. “I want to go home. To Grandma’s.”
Dylan and Mara exchanged a look, and I couldn’t stop the stab of jealousy that pierced through me. They had spent the last five months together, five months to grow closer while I was thousands of miles away. They had shared experiences and secrets I wasn’t a part of. I hated that they could look at each other and convey thoughts without speaking.
But I couldn’t think about that now. There wasn’t time for jealousy. Domnall would be here soon.
“Let’s go to Miss Gale’s,” I said, turning to lead the way.
Again, I was struck by how empty and silent the streets were as we made our way through Swans Landing. It was the height of summer vacation and the island should have been full of tourists wandering through the shops along Heron Avenue. But most of them were closed, the windows dark and doors boarded up like they were waiting for a hurricane. The whole island had that ghost town feel to it that accompanied a hurricane warning.
“What’s going on?” I asked Mara as we led the way toward Miss Gale’s house. Dylan and Callum held Sailor between them, helping her walk. Callum’s face was twisted into a pained scowl as he walked on his wooden leg, but he didn’t complain even once. Coral wandered along at my side, smiling vacantly as she gazed up at the fog over us.
> “What do you mean?” Mara asked.
I gestured at the silent landscape around us. Not even seagulls made their usual cries. “Where is everyone?”
Mara shrugged. “The tourists didn’t come this year. Without the tourists, the shops didn’t reopen for the summer. And without the shops, most people stay at home. It’s been like this since you left.”
As we turned a corner, we saw that we weren’t alone. Kyle McCutcheon and a couple of other guys from school stood on the empty street, bouncing a basketball on the asphalt. They had no net, but they shuffled against each other, trying to block the other’s movements.
“Foul,” Kyle said, straightening up and tucking the ball under his arm. “You pushed—”
He broke off as he caught sight of us coming down the road toward them. Kyle stared at us, his mouth hanging open. The other two guys—Gabe and Will—turned to see what had Kyle’s attention. The three of them looked like gaping fish as they watched us.
“So you’re back,” Kyle finally said when I was only a few feet from him. He glared at me with dark eyes, a sneer curling the corner of his lips.
“I’m back,” I confirmed. Kyle had never been one of my favorite people in Swans Landing. The guy was an idiot and a jackass on top of that. But this wasn’t the time for pettiness.
“We came to warn everyone about some people that are coming here,” I said. “They want to—”
But Kyle didn’t seem interested in hearing my warning. He dribbled the basketball, the thump of the ball against the asphalt echoing loud in the silence around us. “Elizabeth is going to be pissed when she sees you,” he snarled. “We all figured we had gotten rid of two of you mutants for good.”
Will’s gaze fell on Coral and Callum, and he scowled. “Who are they? More freaks?”
Mara gripped my hand tight. “Let’s just go.”
“Listen to your girl-fish,” Kyle said. “I’d hate to beat you like I did your little buddy over there.” He nodded toward Dylan, who stood rigid and glaring at Kyle, his face red.
“Come on, Josh,” Sailor said. “Let’s just go. They deserve whatever Domnall does to them.”
Maybe she was right. If Kyle and his friends wanted to be jerks, then maybe I should let them be handed over to Domnall with no warning.
But something wouldn’t let me leave without at least trying. I turned back to Kyle and said, “There are people coming who will do everything they have to in order to get what they want. They don’t care that you’re human, they see it as a weakness. Don’t let them near you. Stay in your house. Stay hidden.”
Kyle rolled his eyes as he turned away, dribbling the ball again. “I ain’t scared of no freaks, Canavan,” he told me. “I know how to deal with people like you.”
“This isn’t a game, Kyle,” I said through gritted teeth. “This is serious, and you could seriously be hurt by these people. Or killed. You need to warn as many people as you can.”
“Who’s ready to play some ball?” Kyle asked the other guys. He hurled the ball at Gabe, hitting him in the stomach. Gabe caught the ball with a grunt and then the three of them launched back into their game.
Frustration welled inside me as I continued past them. I had tried, at least I could say that. I just hoped that the rest of Swans Landing would be a little more open to listening.
* * *
My stomach churned as I led Coral by the hand up the wooden stairs to the bright blue house. Mara walked ahead of us, and Dylan and Callum were last, helping Sailor keep herself steady as she moved up the steps. Neither of them had spoken as we made our way to Miss Gale’s house, and they avoided looking at each other.
Mara paused at the door, her hand on the knob.
“How is she?” I asked, keeping my voice low so that Sailor wouldn’t overhear.
Mara pressed her lips together, but she shook her head and then opened the door without speaking.
The large combined living room and kitchen was empty when we entered. The lights were off, the house dark. There was no sunlight shining through the skylights overhead. No sounds filled the house. The quiet had settled deep into the cold shadows. It almost felt like no one lived there anymore, like everyone had left.
“Where’s Grandma?” Sailor asked, her eyes scanning the room, as if she expected Miss Gale to materialize from the shadows.
“In her room, probably,” Dylan said in a solemn tone. He squeezed her hand. “Come on, I’ll take you to her.”
He glanced quickly at Callum, an obvious sign that he wasn’t invited to come along. I looked at Coral, who still held my hand tight and then at Mara. “Maybe I should take Ms. Mooring to see her too,” I said. “It might help her remember.”
Mara nodded. “I’ll wait here with Callum. You go ahead.”
Coral followed me quietly as I led her down the hall, following Sailor and Dylan who were just ahead of us. The air in the hall was cold, as if the air conditioner was running needlessly, and I shivered as goosebumps prickled along my arms.
“Miss Gale?” Dylan called, knocking softly on the first door we reached. He turned the knob and the door swung open with only a whispering swish as it brushed across the carpet.
We crowded into the doorway, all four of us looking into the darkened room. A big bed took up most of the space, covered with a thick white comforter.
When my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could make out the shape under the blanket. My gaze followed the curving slope up to the pillow, to someone who looked too old and too frail to be the woman I had always seen walking around the island. Miss Gale was vivacious and feisty. She always had something to say and wasn’t afraid to say it. She served grilled cheese and sweet tea at the food counter in the back of Moody’s Variety Store. She lugged home buckets of clams and oysters without asking for help.
But this woman’s skin sagged in all the places Miss Gale’s never did. Her white hair was strewn loosely across the pillow instead of being bound in its usual braid. The sound of her ragged breathing reached me in the otherwise silent room. Her eyes were closed and if it wasn’t for her breathing, I might think she was already gone.
Sailor stood frozen at my side, her mouth open, but no sound coming out. She stared at her grandmother, unmoving.
But Coral stepped forward, dropping my hand as if she had forgotten I was there.
“Mama?” she asked in a tiny voice.
Miss Gale’s eyes opened. Slowly at first, blinking, and then her eyelids snapped open wide as she looked between Coral and Sailor.
“Coral,” she croaked. “Sailor. My girls.”
Sailor let out a choked sob and then rushed forward, throwing herself onto the bed and wrapping her arms around her grandmother. Coral followed, settling onto the bed on Miss Gale’s other side. The three women huddled together, all of them crying.
Dylan and I exchanged a look. This was definitely a woman-only thing. I jerked my chin toward the hall and Dylan nodded. We backed out of the room quietly and I pulled the door closed behind us.
CHAPTER FOUR
Mara and Callum sat on stools at the island bar in the middle of Miss Gale’s kitchen when Dylan and I found them. I slid into the empty seat next to Mara while Dylan stood on the other side of the island, his arms crossed and his body turned slightly away from Callum.
“Is Sailor well?” Callum asked.
I nodded. “She’s with her grandmother. We thought they should be alone right now.”
Callum nodded and tapped his fingers on the counter. “It’s been a long journey. She should rest.” He sounded as tired as he looked. I still felt invigorated by the effects of the song, but I knew that Callum was fighting against the same exhaustion that had overtaken Sailor.
“So what happened?” Mara asked, looking between me and Callum. “You found the finfolk?”
My stomach churned as I thought over the last few months. “We did. Sailor and I made our way to Scotland, to the Orkney Islands. There was a place there called Westray.” I met her gaze and smiled.
“I took it as a sign, that the island had your name.”
She rolled her eyes, but I caught the smile she tried to hide.
Callum and I told them about how we had made our way to Hether Blether and how we were captured by Domnall, the king of the finfolk, and imprisoned for a while. Mara’s eyes were locked on me, her expression tense as she listened. Dylan kept his gaze on the floor, but his face was pale as I talked about everything we’d seen and learned and found. The muscles in his jaw twitched when I mentioned how Domnall’s men had attacked us before we left.
“So we got away,” I finished, letting out a long breath. “We couldn’t stay there, not with Domnall intent on coming here. We had to get back to Swans Landing before he did.”
“What does he want with us?” Mara asked.
“Domnall wants control,” Callum said. “Hether Blether is dying and he thinks that taking control of more finfolk will help. He believes the lost finfolk—your ancestors who came here—broke the protective spell around Hether Blether by leaving. The door to Finfolkaheem closed and our people became susceptible to diseases that had never reached us before.”
“Finfolkaheem?” Mara asked.
“The finfolk homeland,” I explained. “A city under the ocean.”
She ran a hand through her hair, making her curls stick out on one side of your head. “How long do you think we have before they get here?”
Callum shook his head. “Not long. We should prepare your people.”
“Prepare them for what?” Mara asked. “To fight an invasion of finfolk?”
Callum looked solemnly at her. “Yes, exactly. If you want to keep your island and your life the way it is, you will have to fight for it.”
Dylan snorted. “We’re not soldiers, we’re fisherman. Who do you think is going to fight them?”
“You,” Callum told him. “You can use the song’s power just like they can.”
“But if Domnall already suspects that Sailor and Josh aren’t fully finfolk, then maybe he suspects the same thing about the rest of us,” Mara said. She looked at Dylan. “How many people here are full finfolk, without any human blood?”
Surrendering (Swans Landing) Page 2
