Surrendering (Swans Landing)

by Norris, Shana

  “Oliver’s boy,” someone said, though I didn’t see who.

  I nodded. “My dad loved the finfolk. He studied them and tried to learn everything he could about them.” I swallowed back the lump in my throat. “Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to get to know him. But I know if he was still alive, he would have made sure he was here tonight. There is danger coming to the island that will affect all of us, both finfolk and human.”

  For a second time that day, I told how Sailor and I had found our way to Hether Blether and met the finfolk there. I spoke about the things we had learned from them, the things we had seen with our own eyes and heard them say.

  “The king of the finfolk believes that his island is dying out because our ancestors left three hundred years ago,” I finished. “He believes that he can save the finfolk race by finding us. By taking over our home and our people, by forcing us to join him. Maybe it’s his duty to do what he thinks is best for his people, but it is our duty to protect our home from this invasion. We are not all finfolk here. Domnall knows how to use the finfolk songs against humans, even against those of us with a small amount of human blood. He will do whatever he has to in order to get what he wants.”

  The room fell silent when I stopped speaking. I looked around at the faces that stared back at me, waiting for someone to say something, to have an answer to help us.

  Mr. Richter straightened from where he was leaning against the wall. “Why does this Domnall think that coming here will save his people? What exactly is it he wants?”

  “He thinks that the mists that protect Hether Blether from the outside world are failing because the song has lost its power,” Callum spoke up. He stood, grimacing as he put weight on his wooden leg. We had left Sailor and her mother with Miss Gale, letting them all sleep in Miss Gale’s big bed, but Callum had insisted on coming to the meeting. He didn’t look as if he had managed to get a nap in the time in between, and dark circles lined his eyes. We were both running on empty.

  “Every finfolk carries the power to manipulate things through the song,” Callum said. “The song is the melody of the essence inside—the earth, the water, even living creatures. That explains why humans see things when they hear a finfolk song. It manipulates their minds into creating visions. But the song can also be used to manipulate places. The mists that protect Hether Blether were created by the combined song of the finfolk who live there. Whenever they sing, they renew the protective spell. But as the finfolk numbers have diminished on the vanishing isle, the song has lost some of its power. Domnall worries that the island will become visible to human eyes and will be at risk of invasion by them. It’s happened before, to an old island where finfolk used to live.”

  “So he comes here to invade us instead?” Mrs. Kinsey asked.

  “How do we fight them?” Mr. Waverly asked. Dylan stood next to his dad, his arms crossed and a deep scowl on his face. I was surprised he had come. He’d stood silently in a corner the whole time, glowering whenever anyone approached him.

  Everyone fell silent, waiting for my response. I took a deep breath, knowing that no one would like what I was about to say. “I don’t know.”

  Angry conversations started up again. I held up my hands to try to silence them. “There has to be a way to fight the finfolk, to make them leave Swans Landing,” I said. “We just have to figure out what it is.”

  “Maybe we shouldn’t fight them,” a man named Piers Rousay said. “Maybe we should let these finfolk have the humans. What have they done for us these last sixteen years anyway?”

  Claire’s face paled as she stared at the finfolk who agreed with Mr. Rousay. Mara patted Claire’s hand reassuringly.

  “We’re not letting anyone take our home,” Lake said, his voice roaring over everyone else’s. “This island belongs to both human and finfolk. We’ll have to fight together to save it.”

  “We need more people,” I said.

  Mr. Moody scratched at his wiry gray beard. “Good luck, son. Many of them ain’t likely to take orders from no finfolk.”

  “What about from you?” I asked.

  Mr. Moody shrugged. “Can’t make no promises. Some of them are stubborn. Harry Connors, in particular.”

  Mara’s gaze shot across the room, locking on Dylan’s, who stared back at her. Something in my gut twisted as unspoken words passed between them.

  “We have to try,” I said, pushing away thoughts of whatever was going on between Mara and Dylan. It wasn’t the biggest thing to worry about right now.

  “Do you have any idea when these finfolk will be coming?” Mr. Richter asked.

  Callum shook his head. “We swam as fast as we could to try to get ahead. We don’t know how far behind us they are.”

  Lake stood, pushing his long hair out of his eyes. “Then we have to be prepared, for whenever they show up.”

  “I’ll talk to as many people as I can,” Mr. Richter said. “I’ll try to get them to listen.”

  “The rest of us should do what we can to fight, whether or not we have help,” Lake said.

  Everyone stood and began breaking off into groups or leaving. It seemed that the meeting was over, though I didn’t know what we had really accomplished. We still had no idea how to fight Domnall.

  “How did things go?” Mara asked, reaching across the counter to touch my hand. “With your mom?”

  We hadn’t had a chance to talk again before the meeting, so I hadn’t been able to tell her anything.

  “Not as well as I’d hoped,” I said. “But pretty much what I expected. She kicked me out.”

  Mara’s eyebrows shot up. “What?”

  “I guess I’m homeless now.” The words didn’t bother me as much as I expected them to. I had known how mom would react back when I decided to leave. I had been homeless for the last five months.

  “You can stay at my house,” Mara said.

  I looked across the room to where Lake stood talking with Mr. Richter. Mara’s dad and I had never really talked. Before anyone knew the truth about me, I had spent my life avoiding crossing paths with other finfolk as much as possible, as if maybe they could figure out the truth about me if they got too close. I had no idea what he thought of me, or of the fact that I was involved with his daughter.

  “You sure that’s a good idea?” I asked.

  Mara nodded. “It’ll be fine.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “Absolutely not.”

  Mara glared at her father, crossing her arms. “Why not?”

  Lake shot her a look like she had gone insane. “Because you’re seventeen and you are not moving your boyfriend into my house.”

  I shifted from one foot the other, staring at the toes of my dirty sneakers. It was pretty clear how Mara’s dad felt about me now.

  “Where is he supposed to go?” Mara asked. “His mom threw him out.”

  “I’m very sorry about that, Josh,” Lake said. “But I have to be Mara’s dad here, and I’m not comfortable with the two of you living under the same roof. I know what it’s like to be a teenager.”

  “We are capable of restraining ourselves without tearing each other’s clothes off every second,” Mara snapped.

  Lake’s neck reddened and his nostrils flared.

  “What if I promise to keep at least three feet between us at all times?” I asked, cracking a grin to try to lighten the tension in the air. It didn’t work, judging from the way Lake’s eyes flashed.

  Mara let out an annoyed huff. “Now you want to be my dad. Just in time to piss me off.”

  Lake scowled. “Watch your language. It’s my final decision. He’ll have to stay somewhere else.”

  Mara opened her mouth to say something, but I reached out and grabbed her hand. “It’s fine,” I said. Mara and Lake had a rocky relationship, and I didn’t want to be the cause of any new problems between them. There was no reason to make him more upset than he already was. I nodded to Lake. “I understand. I’ll find some place else to go.”

  M
ara shot her dad one last glare before she followed me out the door. We sat down on the top step, our sides pressed close together. Mara leaned her head on my shoulder. Twilight had fallen and the half moon hung in the sky behind the thick clouds. The island was quiet and still. In the peacefulness around us, it was hard to imagine that something bad was coming.

  “Sorry about Lake,” Mara told me.

  “It’s okay,” I assured her. “Maybe I can stay with Sailor. Callum and I can snuggle together on the couch.”

  Mara’s mouth curled into a slight smile. “So about Callum,” she said. “What’s the deal with him?”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  She lifted her head, her eyebrows raised. “What’s going on between him and Sailor?”

  I shrugged. “They became close. That’s all I really know.”

  “Are they dating?”

  “Yes, they went out to the movies last week,” I said dryly.

  Mara punched my arm. “You know what I mean.”

  “Does it matter?” I asked, kicking at a loose rock on the step near my foot.

  “Not to me,” Mara said. “But I think it matters to Dylan.”

  My forehead creased into a deep scowl. “And whatever concerns Dylan concerns you?” I snapped.

  Mara pulled away slightly. I felt her gaze on me, but I didn’t turn to look at her.

  “Dylan is my friend,” she said.

  I let out a bitter laugh. “Is that all he is?”

  “Are you accusing me of something?”

  “You two have had five months alone together,” I said. I didn’t want to fight with Mara, but I couldn’t hold the words back. Everything that had happened that day had settled heavy on my shoulders and I was suffocating under the pressure. My nerves were too frayed and on edge. I needed a release, to vent something before I exploded.

  “I saw the way you two looked at each other,” I went on. “Why don’t you tell me what happened while I was gone?”

  “What about what you’ve been doing?” Mara asked. “How do I know you didn’t find your own Scottish finfolk like Sailor did?”

  She scowled at me with those golden brown eyes I had thought about for months. I wanted to take back everything. I was tired and had missed her too much.

  “I’m sorry,” I said softly. “I didn’t mean that. I’m just tired.”

  We sat there silent for a long time, before Mara leaned her head against my shoulder again.

  “Dylan is my friend,” she said. “Just my friend. I’ve waited five months for you to come back to me.” She sighed. “But I thought it would be different when you did. I didn’t think that we’d be waiting for an invasion of finfolk.”

  I slipped my arm around her back and pulled her close to me, kissing the top of her head. The wind lifted strands of her hair, brushing them against my face.

  “I’ll do everything to protect you,” I told her.

  Mara turned her head toward me, smiling up at me. “And what about you? Don’t you need protecting?”

  I laughed. “Are you volunteering?”

  “I’m not a damsel in distress, you know,” Mara said. “If some finfolk king thinks he’s coming here to take over just because he wants to, he hasn’t met me yet. I’m the girl who punched Elizabeth Connors in the face, remember?”

  “I don’t think I’ll ever forget that. You were kind of scary. And awesome. But mostly scary.”

  Mara punched my leg gently. “That’s right. So just wait until these finfolk get here. I’ll make them wish they’d never left Hether Blether.”

  I leaned down to kiss her, enjoying the feel of her warm lips against mine and hoping that she was right.

  * * *

  My neck felt like I’d slept while contorted into a pretzel. I stared up at a gray sky visible through the skylight high overhead. Crystal prisms hung from fishing line under the skylights, but there wasn’t enough sunlight for them to reflect it anywhere.

  I groaned as I stretched, my feet hitting the end of the couch and my arms hitting the other end. My head was turned at a painful angle and I had to slowly ease myself around into a sitting position. I rubbed at my neck, trying to work out the kinks.

  Voices behind me caught my attention and I turned, blinking as I peered toward the kitchen area. Two figures sat at the island bar, their backs to me and their heads bent together, one red and one brown.

  I padded over to the kitchen, rolling my head around to stretch out my neck. “Morning,” I groaned.

  Sailor and Callum pulled away from each other slightly as I joined them. They had empty cereal bowls in front of them and a box of Corn Flakes on the counter next to a half-empty gallon of milk. Miss Gale was known across the island for her home cooking, so the fact that she wasn’t in here making one of her famous breakfasts spoke volumes about her condition.

  “How are you?” I asked, studying Sailor. She looked better than she had in a long time. Some color had returned to her cheeks and her eyes didn’t show as much exhaustion as they had the day before.

  “I’m good,” Sailor told me. “Hungry though.” She reached for the Corn Flakes and poured herself another bowl.

  “That’s her third bowl,” Callum told me with a smile. “I like a lass with a good appetite.”

  I found a bowl and a spoon and joined them for breakfast. “I hope you slept better than I did,” I said.

  Callum had insisted on taking the love seat and letting me have the longer couch, claiming that he didn’t need as much room as I did. I doubted that was true, since we were about the same height and build, except for the fact that Callum had one less limb than I did.

  “Probably not,” he said. “But I was too tired to care much.”

  My stomach growled as I chewed my first spoonful of cereal. I hadn’t thought about how hungry I was until then. I had been too busy to eat after we’d arrived in Swans Landing, and then once I made it back to Sailor’s house, I was so exhausted I wanted to sleep for days. I felt like I could eat a few bowls of cereal myself.

  “So Callum told me how the meeting went,” Sailor said through a mouthful of cereal. “Do you think anyone will be able to convince the rest of the humans to help us?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. If they’re all like my mom, probably not. But I don’t see what other option we have. We need as many people fighting back against Domnall as we can get.”

  “I don’t know how much help the humans will be,” Callum said, shaking his head. “They’ll be easily susceptible to the song’s effects, and Domnall knows that. He will use it against them.”

  “Is there anything else the song can do?” I asked. “Is there a way we can use it to protect them? To manipulate their reaction to the song with a different one?”

  “Not that I’ve ever heard,” Callum said. “The song was only meant to help finfolk. We’ve never really been interested in trying to protect humans, so we wouldn’t have tried to develop songs for them.”

  I hated that the stories about finfolk were true. I had read all the books and websites about finfolk that I could find, and they all said the same thing: Finfolk were cruel creatures and they used their powers to trick humans into following them to their deaths, or else kidnapped them to keep as pets. I had never wanted to believe it. The finfolk in Swans Landing seemed like ordinary people.

  But if these stories were true, if finfolk could be that cruel, was there something inside me that could be just as bad as them? Did that kind of cruelty live in the blood within me that gave me the ability to change?

  I gulped down the last of the cereal and drained the milk from the bowl. I wiped my mouth and then stood, looking Callum up and down. He still wore the tattered, dirty robe he’d been given back in Hether Blether.

  “I think I have some clothes that might fit you,” I said. “Look in my bag. There should be some jeans and T-shirts. Sorry I don’t have extra shoes.”

  Callum inclined his head once. “That is fine. Thank you.”

  “Where are
you going?” Sailor asked as she watched me deposit my bowl in the sink.

  I ran a hand over my hair. “I’m going to talk to some old friends,” I said. “See if I can convince them to join us.”

  Sailor raised her eyebrows. “Humans?” she asked.

  I nodded. “I have to let them know what’s coming and try to make them see that joining together is the only option we have.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  I shoved my hands deep into the pocket of my hoodie as I stood on the Moorings’ front porch and looked at the ominous fog that hung low in the sky. It was way too cold for August. Things just weren’t right here on the island, something other than the threat that lurked out in the ocean. The island reminded me of Hether Blether, and that thought chilled me all the way to the bone.

  As I walked down the stairs, a movement out of the corner of my eye made me stop in my tracks. I peered into the shadows underneath the house. Like most other houses in Swans Landing, it was raised off the ground by wooden pilings, to protect it from flooding during hurricanes or other rough storms. Most people used the area under their homes as storage for things like lawnmowers and yard tools. Miss Gale kept her belongings a little more neatly organized than most people did, but there was still a lot under there and a lot of places that someone could hide.

  A chill prickled the back of my neck. I felt unseen eyes watching me. I moved down the steps and then walked slowly toward the area under the house, my eyes scanning every inch.

  Was Domnall here already? Had he arrived while we were sleeping and now either he or one of his people waited under the house for us?

  I reached the first wooden piling, where a shovel leaned against an old cabinet. I reached for the shovel, my eyes never leaving the space under the house.

  “I know you’re here,” I called out, trying not to sound as nervous as I felt. “Come out now.”

  There was movement to my right as a large shape rose from behind another cabinet. Brandishing my weapon, I took off after the figure, leaping over a push lawnmower.