Surrendering (Swans Landing)

by Norris, Shana

  Dylan shrugged. “Probably no one. Even those who call themselves fully finfolk have some trace of human blood, several generations back. Most of us are susceptible to the human reaction to the song. Even Lake and Miss Gale. Everyone.”

  “And the humans wouldn’t be able to fight it at all,” I added. I slid a salt shaker back and forth across the counter in front of me. It was shaped like a mermaid sitting on a rock, with long blonde hair that fell down her back. Sailor had told me once that her grandmother loved to collect mermaid knickknacks, amused by the way humans depicted us.

  “So we’re supposed to fight an invasion of fully finfolk people with only humans and mixed breeds,” Mara said. She hated the term mixed breeds, so I knew our news had shaken her if she was using it now.

  Callum shook his head. “Not all of the people in Hether Blether are fully finfolk.”

  My head whipped toward him. “What do you mean?”

  Callum shrugged. “I told you, the finfolk of Hether Blether used to keep humans on the island. Long ago, before I was born. Most of them were kind of like pets, but others had come willingly and married finfolk. They had children. Some of the finfolk still remaining in Hether Blether today have human blood in them, though they deny it.”

  Dylan’s face was red and his nostrils flared as he looked at Callum. “Pets? You kept humans as pets?”

  “Not me,” Callum corrected him. “It was a long time ago.”

  Dylan turned his back to Callum, focusing on Mara and me as he leaned over the island, his fists clenched on the countertop. “How do we know we can even trust him? He’s one of them. For all we know, he got here early so he could tell the others how to find the island.”

  “Callum has helped us,” I answered. Dylan and I had never been very friendly, despite the fact that we both cared about Sailor. The last time I’d seen him before Sailor and I left Swans Landing, he had been furious at Mara and me for sneaking around together behind his back. He liked Mara, and I had known that since her first arrival on the island. It was obvious from the way he looked at her. But I had liked her too, and I didn’t want to stay away from her. I couldn’t lose her to him.

  Dylan curled his lip as he shot a glare at Callum. “These are his people coming after us. Let him go out to fight them off.”

  “Dylan,” Mara snapped. “Josh, Sailor, and Callum have risked their lives getting back here in time to warn us.”

  “And doesn’t it seem very convenient that they were able to get here before the other finfolk?” Dylan asked, his voice almost a growl. “Maybe he needed to get here first so he could send a signal to the others to let them know exactly where we are. Maybe the plan all along was for him to win our trust and then blindside us later.”

  Callum stared evenly at Dylan. “I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. I’m here for Sailor, to protect her.”

  Dylan’s glare darkened at Callum’s words.

  “This is your home too,” Mara told Dylan. “You can fight for it.”

  Dylan stepped back, his jaw tight. “Whatever. Fight the damned finfolk with your new friend. But don’t come to me when he shows who he really is.”

  “Dylan,” Mara started.

  But he turned and stormed out of the house, not looking back at us. The door slammed shut behind him, then silence fell over the house again.

  Mara sighed. “He’s been acting weird the last few months.”

  I studied her for a moment, then looked down at my hands. “Did anything happen while we were gone?” I held my breath, not wanting to know how she and Dylan had spent the spring and summer, but at the same time, I wanted to hear it from her. If there was anything I should be worried about, I wanted to know now when I could try to distance myself before we fell back into the same spell that had taken over us before.

  Mara shook her head. “It’s nothing. He’s had a rough time with Sailor being gone.”

  On her other side, Callum traced the line of the tiles on the counter with his thumb.

  I cleared my throat. “So we have to figure out a plan.”

  “What can we do?” Mara asked. “How do we fight them?”

  “We’ll need more people than just the three of us,” Callum said.

  I nodded. “We need to gather as many finfolk and humans as we can. We have to let them know about this and get them to work together.”

  Mara let out a short laugh. “Good luck with that. Things between the humans and finfolk haven’t gotten any better. Everyone says this summer is the worst it’s ever been. The tourists haven’t come. We thought the fishing was picking up in the spring, but then it fell apart again. It’s like the fish can’t even find their way to the island. Almost like…” Her voice trailed off and she frowned.

  “Like what?” I asked.

  Worry haunted her eyes. “There have been days when the ferry never comes. It’s been happening off and on ever since May. The people on the mainland act like they’ve never heard of Swans Landing.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” I said.

  “I agree,” Mara told me. “Mr. Richter told Dylan the island was being forgotten. Like it was disappearing from the rest of the world.”

  Over her shoulder, my eyes met Callum’s. His mouth was a thin, straight line, his eyes narrowed in thought. Something tickled up my spine. Fear? Foreboding? I wasn’t sure.

  “That’s crazy, right?” Mara asked.

  I sucked in a deep breath, then nodded. “Of course. How could a whole island disappear?”

  But I already knew how an island could disappear. I had found a disappearing island only three months ago.

  But this was Swans Landing, not Hether Blether.

  I shook my head. “We can’t worry about that right now. We have other things that are more important.” I stood and stretched my aching arms. The shark bite had healed and no longer hurt, but my body ached from the weeks of endless swimming. “We need to talk to people soon. Tonight, if we can.”

  “Maybe we can meet at Moody’s,” Mara suggested.

  I nodded. “That would be great. Do you think you can talk to everyone?”

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  I ran a hand over my still damp hair and looked away from her. “I need to go home. To see my mom.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Mara’s footsteps matched mine as we walked down the empty street. I lived only a few blocks over from Miss Gale’s house, but then, everything on the island was within walking distance. Mara walked with her hands in the pockets of her sweater, her gaze focused on the ground in front of her feet.

  I wanted to hold her hand or kiss her or just touch her. But I kept my arms crossed over my chest to block out the chilly wind. I had thought about the moment I’d see Mara again a hundred times while I was gone. I wanted to tell her I loved her. I knew I did. I had never felt the way I did about her with anyone else. While I was gone, I had worried that maybe it had all been my imagination, just the rush of something new. Maybe Mara had never felt as seriously about me as I did about her. Maybe distance and absence had made me exaggerate the bond between us in my head.

  But seeing her again had settled all doubts. The words were there, on the tip of my tongue, but they wouldn’t make their way past my lips.

  Sailor had said once that Mara and Dylan were probably taking comfort in each other while we were gone. I knew she had said it just to get a reaction from me, but I hated that it still lingered in the back of my mind. Mara and Dylan had acted so strange around each other earlier. They shared looks like they had secrets between them, things they couldn’t tell the rest of us. I hated Dylan for getting to have these last five months with Mara while I followed Sailor thousands of miles. It wasn’t fair. He was supposed to be the one to go, not me. But when he backed out, I couldn’t let Sailor go alone. Finding her mother was supposed to answer questions for both of us.

  But had my absence given Dylan the chance to move into my place?

  I wished I had the courage to just a
sk Mara these questions. But I was too much of a coward to know.

  “I can come in with you,” Mara said when we reached the end of the path to my house. The yard was overgrown with tall weeds that stuck up from the sandy earth. The paint looked as if it had peeled even more since I’d left, and the dark windows stared back at me gloomily.

  I shook my head. “That’s okay.”

  “You sure?” Mara asked. She shifted from one foot to the other. The last time Mara and my mom had encountered each other, Mom had thrown a glass at Mara’s head.

  “It would probably make things worse if you were there,” I said.

  I knew instantly it had come out the wrong way. Mara’s mouth tightened and her forehead creased into a scowl.

  “I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “I didn’t mean—”

  “It’s fine,” Mara said, shaking her head. “You’re probably right. I need to go talk to Mr. Moody anyway. I’ll see you later.”

  She waited a moment, but when I didn’t move toward her, she turned and walked back down the road, her gaze locked on the ground at her feet. I stood there, watching her leave and wishing I hadn’t hesitated. I should have kissed her.

  In some ways, I felt years older now than I had before the swim across the ocean. But in this, I felt like a little kid fumbling his way in the dark.

  I wanted everything to go back to normal. I wanted the island I had grown up with. I wanted Domnall and his people to disappear. I wanted to be with Mara without worrying about Dylan or people at school or anything else.

  I turned toward the house, looking up at the weathered door with the cracked window.

  But first, I had to face my mother.

  * * *

  The keys I had taken with me when I left Swans Landing were long gone, probably still drifting in the boat we’d taken when we left Westray in search of Hether Blether months ago. So I knocked softly on the front door of my own home, unsure whether anyone would even let me in.

  After a moment, the door opened and my mom peered out at me. She looked older than she had before. Had those wrinkles around her eyes always been that deep? Did she always have so much gray in her dark hair? Her eyes widened at first when she saw me, but then they narrowed, her lip curling as she looked me up and down.

  “I see you didn’t die out there after all,” she growled.

  She stepped back and started to close the door, but I stuck my foot in the way and pushed against it with my hand. “Mom,” I said, my voice thick with the sadness inside me. “Can I come in?”

  Mom looked at me a moment longer, then turned away and disappeared into the house. She didn’t give me an actual invitation, but she left the door open, which was good enough. I stepped into the home I had grown up in, my gaze roaming over the worn, tattered furniture, the dusty shelves and crooked pictures on the walls. A picture of myself as a kid grinned at me. I barely even recognized the person I once was.

  I walked slowly toward the kitchen, stepping so softly my feet didn’t make any noise on the old floors. Mom stood at the counter, slathering mustard on a piece of bread. She didn’t look at me when I entered the room. She moved with short, jerking movements, her shoulders tight.

  “We found the finfolk,” I said after a long moment of silence.

  Mom paused only a fraction of a second before continuing with her sandwich. She replaced the cap on the mustard, tightening it.

  “We found Coral Mooring too,” I said. “We brought her back home.” I knew this news would hurt Mom the most, but she had the right to know that my father’s mistress was back.

  “You should have stayed there,” Mom said as she slapped a piece of bologna onto her bread. “You should have stayed with the rest of your filthy kind.”

  Her words felt like a slap. I had always known my mom blamed the finfolk for my father’s death, just like everyone else on the island did. But she had never referred to me the way she did them. She had made me keep my ability to change a secret from everyone so that they wouldn’t know. She had said they would treat me the same way they did the rest of the finfolk. She had said she was protecting me.

  But I knew now that she was just hiding her own shame at the fact that she had given birth to a mixed breed.

  “Coral might remember what happened the night Dad died,” I said. “We had to bring her back home. She’s sick—”

  “They’re all sick, Joshua!” Mom whirled around, pointing her butter knife at me, the blade still smeared with yellow mustard. “The whole damned breed is nothing but disgusting, sick fish-people. They’re not human. They’re an abomination! They shouldn’t walk the same earth we do!”

  “Mom,” I said, holding up my hands to try to calm her. “We’re just like you. We can change form, but otherwise we’re the same.”

  I ducked as the knife whirled from her hand, turning end over end until it hit the wall behind me and clattered to the floor. “Get out of my house!” she shrieked.

  “This is my home too,” I said.

  “Not anymore,” Mom spat at me, her lip curled in disgust. “I don’t want to see you again. You’re not my son.”

  Tears stung my eyes. Her face became a wild blur in my vision. “Fine,” I growled, turning away.

  I stomped down the hall to my room. I had to get some things before I left. I had played along with Mom’s game for years, pretending to be human to make her happy. But that all had ended when I’d left with Sailor. I had made my choice between being finfolk or being human, and Mom wouldn’t forgive me for that.

  My room looked like someone had torn it apart while I was gone. Clothes were strewn across the floor, spilling out of the dresser drawers. My sheets were torn off the bed and the mattress sat crookedly on the frame. My guitar was smashed, pieces scattered across the floor.

  I was familiar with the aftermath of one of Mom’s rampages. I had cleaned up enough of them in my lifetime to know what it looked like.

  After stuffing some random clothes and toiletries into an old backpack, I changed into jeans and a big black hoodie. It felt good to be in normal clothes again, even if nothing else was normal anymore. I found some old sneakers and shoved my feet inside, not even bothering to lace them.

  Mom was sitting at the table, eating her sandwich. She chewed slowly, staring at the wall as if I wasn’t there.

  I ran a hand over my hair. “I’m going,” I said.

  Mom kept chewing.

  “Mom.” I paused, then cleared my throat. “I love you, so I want you to be careful. There is something coming that won’t be good for anyone. If you need me, you can find me at Sailor’s house or Mara’s.”

  I waited another moment, but she didn’t say anything. So I hitched my bag up on my shoulder and walked across the room.

  As I reached the doorway, Mom’s croaking voice broke the silence.

  “You keep playing with that damned fish girl and you’ll end up just as dead as your daddy, Joshua.”

  I stopped, but I didn’t look back at her. My nails dug into the strap of my bag.

  “I don’t know how Dad died,” I said, “but I’m going to find out the truth. Even if it takes me years. I’ll find out what really happened that night.”

  Then I left my mom sitting in the kitchen, alone once again.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Usually only one or two people at a time shopped inside Moody’s Variety Store outside of tourist season. Tonight there were more people crowded inside the small shop than I had ever seen at once before. The crowd had gathered at the food counter in the back of the store, where usually Miss Gale could be seen cooking and humming. But the dishes were dusty, and the stove looked as if it hadn’t been used in a while.

  People sat on every surface available—the barstools, the countertop, an old barrel. The ones who couldn’t get a seat stood along the wall or leaned against the display shelves full of duct tape and canned beans and mosquito repellent.

  Jim Moody stood behind the counter, his bushy arms crossed over his chest as he studied the cr
owd in the store. Maybe he was watching to make sure no one stole anything, or maybe he was just uncomfortable being around so many finfolk at once.

  It didn’t surprise me that most of the crowd in the store was finfolk. Only a few humans were actually friendly to finfolk—Mr. Moody; my guidance counselor from school, Mr. Richter; Mara’s friend Claire, who stayed close to Mara’s side; Mrs. Kinsey, the local lawyer; and a handful of others. Not enough. Not as many as we would need if we hoped to fight back against whatever army Domnall brought with him.

  “There are some people missing,” Mr. Moody said as he looked over the crowd. “More getting sick, I reckon.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Sick?”

  His beard twitched as he pressed his lips together. “Strange symptoms, like Gale’s. Fatigue, confusion. Humans and finfolk both. Dr. Hanson can’t figure it out.”

  I frowned as this information sank in.

  “Go on, boy,” Mr. Moody told me, nodding his gray head. “I think that’s all that’s coming.”

  I exchanged a glance with Mara, who sat on a barstool next to her dad. Lake’s mouth was set in a firm, thin line. I was sure he had already heard some of the details from Mara.

  I cleared my throat, trying to get everyone’s attention. “Hello,” I called out.

  But the conversations continued and my voice became lost in the noise.

  “If I could have your attention,” I said.

  When the noise still didn’t settle down, Mara shouted, “Shut up and listen!”

  All conversation came to an abrupt end and dozens of eyes turned toward me.

  I wasn’t a public speaker. I had spent my life trying to be as invisible as possible. The urge to burrow into my big hoodie and disappear overwhelmed me, and I had to take a deep breath before going on.

  “If you don’t know me, I’m Josh Canavan,” I said, though the words were unnecessary. Everyone knew everyone else on the island, whether we wanted to or not.