by Sarah Jaune
“She will, too,” Adele agreed, clearly amused. She stepped forward to gently cup Haleigh’s cheek. Her lined face deepened into concern. “Oh, my dear. Well… the worst is over now.”
“Thanks,” Haleigh managed to say.
Rudolf cleared his throat. “We need to get moving. I want to put some more distance between us and your family.”
“I am all for that,” Haleigh assured him. She hugged Ivy, then Thane, and finally kissed Eli’s cheek and whispered into his ear, “thanks for making me leave.”
“You’re welcome,” Eli shrugged in embarrassment.
Diana, likewise, gave hugs around, and within two minutes, the van was pulling away, heading back to the north.
Eli stood with Ivy and Thane while Claire ran after them, waving.
“So, that’s the job,” Thane said simply. He turned to them. “Are you still up for this?”
“Yes,” Eli and Ivy said together.
Eli sighed heavily. “It was worth it.”
They watched Claire as she finally turned and headed back for them. “I’m going to take Claire some place safe, then try to figure out what happened in Tulsa,” Thane told them. “If you hadn’t stopped where you had, it might have been too late for me to get back to her.”
It was a thought that haunted Eli as well. “Where is safe?”
Thane didn’t answer, and Eli knew. He would take her to Beth and Naomi. Eli didn’t know if that was any safer, not with what Thane had told him about his twin, but he could understand that. Plus, as galling as it was, he understood why Thane wouldn’t tell him where they lived. The more people that knew the location, the more vulnerable they were. Not only that, but Naomi didn’t want Eli to find them and if Eli knew where they were, he doubted he’d be able to stop himself from seeking them out.
“We’ll deal with Price,” Ivy said heavily. “I am tempted to dump him in a lake, but we’ll give him a fair shot.”
“Just don’t underestimate him,” Thane warned them. “He’s a sneaky jerk.”
They cleaned up any trace that they’d been there. Ivy hugged Thane, and Eli shook his hand. Claire teared up a bit as she held onto Eli’s throbbing arm. He had to work not to cry out.
He felt terrible.
“Thank you for everything,” Claire told him with one last hug.
Eli nodded. “Tell… tell my sisters that I love them and miss them, okay?”
It was stupid, sentimental, and sappy, but Eli didn’t care. He did love them. He did miss them. If he’d thought it would do any good, he’d ask Thane to tell Naomi he was sorry.
There was a part of Eli that Coral, back in San Antonio, had poked at when they’d spoken. Whatever it was that Eli did in his past, he knew he didn’t want to remember it. If it was so bad that he didn’t want to remember, he wasn’t sure that Naomi would ever forgive him.
They drove back to the main road minutes later while Thane and Claire headed north, following after Adele and Rudolf’s van.
“I have an idea of where I want to dump Price,” Ivy said as she glanced at him in concern. “Are you okay? You look pale.”
Eli closed his eyes. “Still tired. Payton wore me out.”
She didn’t say anything for a moment. “It was pretty cute how he followed after you.”
“What can I say?” Eli tried to joke through gritted teeth. “I’m adorable.”
“I think Haleigh thought you were.”
Eli didn’t think Haleigh thought any such thing. “I think she was just grateful. She wasn’t going to come with us.”
“I know,” Ivy replied sadly. “She told me what you did. It was the right call.”
He didn’t really have the strength to reply, so he rested his head against the window and was soon asleep again.
Eli didn’t wake until Ivy poked him in the shoulder. When he found he couldn’t move, he felt her hand on his forehead. “You have a fever.”
He tried to deny it, because he definitely felt cold and not hot, but his mouth didn’t want to work.
“Where’s the pearl?” Ivy asked him.
That had Eli moving, albeit slowly, to get out of the car.
What he saw was a huge, meandering lake that was in a long valley, surrounded by soaring trees. “Where are we?”
“I’m not sure exactly. We’re somewhere in the middle of the Montgomery Zone and the Atlanta Zone,” Ivy explained as she came around the passenger side of the jeep. She stared at him in concern. “What happened?”
Eli slowly held out his arm for her to see the angry, red arm. “Infection is worse.”
“Daggers,” Ivy grimaced as she held his arm up for her to examine. “Okay, let’s dump Price and get out of here.”
She moved over to the trunk and pulled it open. The moment it swung up, Price leapt from the trunk and grabbed Ivy around the neck.
Eli yelled, staggered towards the two, but before he could get anywhere, a wall of water shot up and encased the two, dragging them both into the lake.
Eli’s heart pounded as he found his feet swept out from under him. His head connected with a rock on the shore and stars burst into his vision, making it impossible to see anything beyond the bright, dancing lights.
He rolled as the water drained back into the lake and tried to crawl for the water. “Ivy!” he cried out as he squinted through the pain in his head.
For agonizing, long seconds nothing happened, then Ivy’s head broke the surface of the water and she started to walk out, dragging a limp body behind her. Acute relief swamped Eli, and he found his hands shaking so badly that all he could do was lie on the beach, and stare at her.
She was soaked, and clearly annoyed. The water floated Price up onto the beach and she knelt next to the guy. Ivy aimed a well-placed punch straight down into Price’s chest, and he immediately started coughing again, throwing up water and who knew what else while Ivy turned him onto his side. “The pearl,” Ivy reminded Eli as she held out her hand.
Eli forced himself onto his knees as he crawled towards them. “Stand back, Ivy,” he told her as he pulled the pearl from his pocket. He wanted to say more, but the strength was not there. If the pearl made a person forget, he didn’t want to risk Ivy being affected. She was the only one with the strength to drive at this point.
“Eli, I can do it,” she said, but didn’t argue when he shook his head.
Eli forced open Price’s mouth and shoved the pearl into his teeth. He slammed his jaw shut and heard the pearl break.
Price gagged and coughed as a small trickle of white smoke floated from his mouth.
The smell was sickly sweet and immediately Eli’s head began to spin.
Ivy grabbed his arm and dragged him backwards. She half-carried him to the car and dumped him into the back seat where Eli curled up, shivering and barely holding onto any semblance of wakefulness.
“We’re going to Savannah,” Ivy said as soon as she was in the driver’s seat. “It’s only about five hours, okay? Just hang on.”
Darkness clouded in around Eli’s vision as he gave up the struggle and slipped from that world.
The dreams came, horrible and clawing. He saw a girl behind bars, reaching out for him as he stood staring at her, unable to move. She pleaded with him for help, but there was nothing Eli could do. His feet were stuck in dry mud and he couldn’t move. Eli had never felt more helpless or angry in his life than he did in that moment.
The world around him tilted until he saw a figure outlined in gold, but with no distinct form. “You did well,” it said. “It was all I could ask for. Sleep and dream no more.”
The dream faded into nothingness.
When he awoke, Eli felt perfectly fine.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Ivy exclaimed in relief as she stood over him.
It was only then that Eli realized he was in a very comfortable bed, in a very nice house. “Where…”
“We’re at Zen’s house,” Ivy explained quietly. “You needed healing. Do you remember what happened?”
<
br /> “Bits,” Eli admitted as he slowly sat up and glanced around the well-lit room. It was the same one he’d used the last time they’d stayed with Zen. “Where is he?”
“Getting something to eat. You’ve been out for hours, now,” Ivy told him as she helped him sit up. She handed him a glass of water. “We weren’t sure if the pearl would take away your memories. Zen said he could heal that, as well, but I think he was just bragging.”
“I was not!” Zen said indignantly as he pushed into the room carrying a tray laden with food. “I know what those pearls are. It’s one of the few bits of magic the mermaids have. They lure sailors to them, make them forget everything, and then steal whatever they have on their ship after they sink it. The men show up on the beach confused about what happened.”
Eli took a proffered bowl of soup and drained it in one go. His eyes watered a bit at the heat, but he didn’t care. He felt like he hadn’t eaten in months.
“So… the story is real?” Ivy asked in amazement.
“Sure,” Zen said as he sat on the edge of Eli’s bed. “I healed a guy who washed up on shore in front of our house, and he was able to tell us what happened.”
It was so unbelievable that Eli absolutely had to believe it. The mermaids in New Orleans might not have been doing that, but they were being kept under strict control by the Overseer and wouldn’t have a chance to sink any ships.
“Do me a favor,” Ivy said to Zen. “If a big guy who reeks of corruption and elitism wanders over here, claiming he’s lost his memory, just leave him that way.”
Zen’s mischievous grin flashed across his face. “No problem.”
CHAPTER 26
OLD FRIENDS
“So, let me get this straight,” Zen’s deep brown eyes danced with mirth as the fading light shone off his brown hair, making it almost orange. The thing Eli noticed most, though, was that Zen’s freckles were more pronounced now than they had been seven months before. His skin also looked pink, as though he’d burned a few times recently. “A guy named Dingus bit you and that is what dropped you?”
“I was also hit by a metal lawn chair,” Eli retorted defensively. “It wasn’t exactly painless.”
Zen shrugged. “You had a broken rib from that one. Did you know that?”
Ivy gasped. “Seriously?”
“It wasn’t a bad break,” Zen said as he mockingly examined his fingernails. “I was able to fix it in a moment. What would you do without me?”
“Die from the nasty teeth of a gang leader,” Eli replied with a shudder. “I don’t even want to think about what he had in his mouth.”
“It was pretty gross,” Zen mused as he stood up. “Well, we need to get ready for dinner.”
Eli glanced down at his tray and saw he’d nearly finished the whole thing. “I can come down.”
“Nah,” Zen waved him off. “You rest for a bit longer, maybe get a shower because you smell terrible.”
“That was about the first thing I did,” Ivy said as she stood as well.
Eli took a closer look at her and saw that her hair, which had a few loose curls framing her face, was braided back in a French braid and looped around to form a low bun in the back. “Your hair is…” he waved his hand, at a loss for what to say.
Zen burst out laughing and even Ivy smiled. “Keep working on that, mate. We’ll see you in an hour or so.”
Ivy gave him one last smile then walked out with Zen, probably to change into a dress. Zen’s parents, Annamarie and Kasper Morton, demanded formalwear for all dinners. The last time they’d been there had been the first time Ivy had ever worn a dress. It might have been the last time, too.
Her hair looked nice, though.
Shaking his head, Eli forced himself to stand and headed for the shower. He had about twelve layers of gunk to scrape out of his own hair.
Ivy came knocking after dinner, already back in jeans and a clean shirt. “We’re going down to the beach. Do you want to come?”
Her hair was still up in the fancier design, and Eli couldn’t help but stare at it. “How did you manage that?”
“One of the maids did it for me,” Ivy smiled hesitantly. “I like it.”
Eli shook his head. “It’s not that, I mean…” he floundered for a moment, trying to grasp the right words. “It looks nice, and all, just different. It’s all neat and…” He forced himself to shut his stupid mouth before he sounded even more like an idiot.
Ivy gave him a look that told him clearly that he hadn’t managed it. “So… do you want to go down to the beach?”
“Yeah,” Eli dug his shoes out and sighed in relief when he found that someone had cleaned them up. “We need to double the staff’s pay here.”
“Probably,” Ivy grinned as she led the way from the house.
The sun had set by the time they made it out the door towards the beach, and Zen already had a large quilt spread out on the sand down towards the shore. He sat, staring off at the moon which was making its way up into the night sky.
Ivy plopped down in the middle of the blanket and immediately lay back. “This is the life, Zen.”
“It’s the water,” Zen agreed as he grinned out at the breaking waves that were only ten feet away.
Eli settled himself next to Ivy and propped his arms on his bent knees as he watched the water roll in, crest, then fade back out again. Over and over it went, the same and yet always different. “Why do the sailors go for the mermaids? They’re kind of weird looking.”
Zen shot him an amused look. “You’ve really never heard this story?”
“I lived inland my whole life,” Eli reminded him. “There aren’t a lot of mermaids in the lakes. Maybe none at all.”
“Well, the pearls cause hallucinations if you breathe in the powder,” Zen explained. “The mermaids break them in the boats so they can convince the men to crash the ships. They sometimes let them drown, but every so often they leave the sailors alive but with wiped memories.”
Eli’s eyes went wide. “I breathed in the smoke. Am I hallucinating?”
“You were in the car,” Ivy said without bothering to open her eyes. She shifted a bit on the blanket. “You were talking about unicorns and rainbows and other things. You muttered most of the way here. I was too scared that you were dying to pay attention, sadly. If I’d written it down, we’d have had a lot of fun teasing you about it now.”
Eli tried to hold back a smile as Zen clutched at his sides, laughing at Eli’s discomfort.
“We met Coral,” Eli said smugly, knowing this would shut Zen up.
It didn’t, not in the way Eli expected. His friend’s entire face transformed into peace or happiness; or maybe both. It was so startling an expression to see on Zen that Eli found he couldn’t speak.
Ivy grabbed for Zen’s sleeve, groping a bit at his arm until she found it. She still didn’t open her eyes. “She was so sweet, Zen. You really lucked out with her. Her mind reading drove Eli nuts, though. I think he likes being mysterious.”
That snapped him out of whatever had frozen him. “No, I do not! I just…” Eli considered that. Coral had seen things in Eli that he didn’t want to see in himself. They were uncomfortable, probably painful things. He didn’t let himself see them. “I think she could see all the things I never want anyone to see in me.”
The other two were silent, and Eli had to fight not to spring to his feet and run down the beach.
Ivy’s hand slipped into his and he turned to see her green eyes on him. “We all have ugly things, Eli.”
“She said there was something with you,” Eli reminded her. “You didn’t want to talk about it, either.”
Ivy sucked in a deep breath, and her fingers tightened in his. “Okay, I’ll tell you the story.”
“You don’t have to,” Eli said quickly, sorry now that he’d goaded her.
“I’m actually really curious about this,” Zen admitted, “but not if it’s going to upset you.”
Ivy’s eyes closed and her lower lip tr
embled. Eli had never seen her cry, and she didn’t now, but he knew it was close. “I was five when my mom dressed me in my nicest clothes. It wasn’t much, just nicer jeans and a shirt without holes in it. I liked the shirt because it was purple. I used to think purple was a special color, but I can’t tell you why now.”
Her voice was so brittle, so unlike the girl who had dragged Price into the water and knocked him unconscious. Eli wanted to beg her to stop. Somehow he knew that whatever he was about to hear was going to be horrible.
