by Sophie Davis
“But you did know that Dad was studying Greek mythology?” I pressed. Mr. Haverty had said as much when I was in the diner with Kannon. “Do you have any idea if he had a specific area of interest?”
Mr. Haverty studied me carefully while he considered his next words. “He had a particular interest in some of the more obscure myths.”
I bit my lip and tried to rein in the sudden rush of excitement. Was it possible that we were finally going to get some concrete answers?
“Like myths about the Egrgoroi?” I asked hopefully.
He nodded slowly. “Among others.” I held my breath, willing him to continue. Mr. Haverty didn’t disappoint.
“He was interested in finding these so-called Egrgoroi. He wanted to learn as much as possible about them.”
“Did he find any?” Devon asked excitedly.
“He did. But a lot of them refused to speak with him. They’re a secretive lot, you see. He did find a handful that agreed to be interviewed. He’s traveled all over the world to meet with them.”
I digested this new bit of information. The names in the folder, they were the Egrgoroi he’d interviewed, I realized. But why? What was he hoping to learn?
Devon spoke up next. “Is that where he went this last time? To meet with one of them?”
Mr. Haverty didn’t answer right away. He cleared his throat and resumed the nervous twisting of his ring. “No. Mark got a lead on the location of a gate to the underworld. He wanted to follow up on it.”
“But he didn’t tell you where that was?” Devon pressed.
“No, dear, he didn’t.”
Gate to the underworld? Dad was trying to find a way into the underworld? My stomach burned with the unpleasant thought. Why would Dad want to go there?
“Do you know why my father was so interested in the Egrgoroi?” My father clearly trusted this man to have shared so much of his research with him. I wanted to know whether he trusted him with my secret, too.
“I’m sorry, Endora, I don’t,” he said sadly.
Mr. Haverty reached across the counter and placed his hand over mine. His ring caught the light and I noticed the insignia for the first time. A polished blue stone sat in the center of the thick gold band. Carved into the center of the stone was a single eye, similar to the one over the pyramid on the back of a dollar bill.
“Your ring is very interesting, sir,” I said, leaning down for a closer look. “Is it a class ring?”
Mr. Haverty ran one finger over the markings on the stone, smiling fondly. “No, it belonged to my father and his father before him. It’s sort of a family heirloom. Supposedly it’s been in the Haverty family for generations.”
Devon shot me a curious, slightly annoyed look out of the corner of her eye, clearly wondering why I was wasting time asking about the diner owner’s ring. I wasn’t actually sure why I was. Something about it intrigued me, though.
“Mr. Haverty,” Devon began, “is there anything else you can tell us? No one has heard from Eel’s father in over a week. As you know, he was supposed to meet her here and never showed. There are private investigators searching for him, but so far they’ve found nothing. We just went to his house, and his car and research are all still there.”
“I’m sorry, girls. I really am. But I’ve told you all I know.” He patted my hand. “He’ll show up. He always does.”
****
That night Kannon and I had a blissfully normal date. He brought takeout from Amy’s Thai. We ate at the kitchen table while discussing St. Paul’s chances of beating Calvert Hall, their biggest rival, in two weeks. Following dinner, we watched a cheesy horror movie. I was too embarrassed to admit that I’d already seen it, in the theater on opening night. The movie was accompanied by a fair amount of mouth-to-mouth, both on- and off-screen. There was also some over-the-clothes hand-roaming, but that was all off the screen.
I wasn’t sure whether Kannon was trying to take things slow – we might share a strange otherworld connection, but we’d only known each other for two weeks, after all – or if he was afraid too much skin-to-skin contact would send one of us to the hospital. Either way, I was glad he held back. Kissing, I could hold my own; I didn’t have as much experience as he likely did, but I wasn’t a total newbie. Second base wasn’t new for me either, although Kannon made the experience pleasurable and not so much like I was being pawed. Anything beyond that and I would need a third base coach. The confident way that Kannon took charge told me he would be a good teacher.
“I think you have something to ask me,” Kannon said during a break in our lengthy make-out session. He’d pulled my dream catcher necklace free from its hiding place under my tee shirt and played with the golden feathers, sending light from the center prism dancing across the living room ceiling.
“Ask you?” I said, surprised. There were a lot of things I wanted to ask him, but our non-Egrgoroi-talk date was not the time.
“Isn’t Westwood’s prom in like a week?”
I laughed uncomfortably. Kannon had done me a favor by bringing up the topic, but that didn’t assuage my nerves. The sense of impending doom I’d come to associate with prom lingered in the back of my mind.
“How do you know I don’t already have a date?” I asked coyly.
Kannon’s eyebrows arched and his green eyes went wide. “Do you?”
He looked so stunned that I wasn’t sure whether to be offended or laugh. I chose the latter, but couldn’t hide the slight edge in my voice when I said, “Well, no, I don’t.”
His fingers were suddenly crawling over my sides, tickling me mercilessly. I giggled and swatted at his arms while squirming in the small space we were sharing on the couch.
“Stop,” I panted. “Please, stop.”
“Not until you ask me,” he teased. Now his mouth was close to my ear, his breath tickling my cheek as he spoke.
“Who says I want to go with you?” My words came with a wheeze and I gulped air, trying to catch my breath.
“I do.” He kissed my neck. “I’ve seen it.” He kissed my collarbone. “We’re supposed to go together.”
He dipped his head lower but I froze, suddenly immune to his teasing. We’re supposed to go together? He was joking, surely he was joking. But the statement made my heart skip a beat, and not in a good way.
Kannon stilled, too, sensing my unease. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”
“No,” I shook my head. Fingering my dream catcher, I dared to ask the question. “Did you…dream about us going to prom together?”
When I glanced up, the easy grin Kannon bestowed on me lessened the tension in my muscles. The flicker of something I couldn’t identify passed over his expression, but was gone so fast I thought maybe I’d imagined it.
“Something like that,” he replied, his gaze never wavering.
His answer, neither a confirmation nor a denial, bothered me. A nagging voice in my head insisted that I proceed with caution. That was silly, though. This was Kannon, the boy who’d dreamed about us meeting. It wasn’t beyond the realm of possibilities that he also envisioned us attending my prom together.
I broke eye contact first. “What about Jamieson? Hers is the same night as mine.”
“Is that what you’re worried about?” His voice was gentle. He placed a finger under my chin and forced me to turn my head to look at him again. “I already told her we wouldn’t be going together.” His lips brushed mine. “So, what do you say? You, me, limo, dinner, dancing?”
Smoke, fire, death, Devon, flashed through my mind.
“Endora?” Kannon smoothed stray strands of auburn hair from my forehead. “If you aren’t ready to be seen together in public…” his voice trailed off.
“No, no, no. Nothing like that,” I said quickly. “It’s just…”
Just what? That the thought of prom terrified me? That something bad was going to happen if we went? How was I supposed to explain that to him? Particularly when he was giving me imploring puppy dog eyes.
I swa
llowed my nerves. This was ridiculous. My paranoia and irrational fear were ridiculous.
“Kannon,” I began slowly, “will you escort me to my prom?”
A grin broke out across his tan features. “Why Endora, I thought you would never ask.”
He leaned down, bringing his lips to the hollow of my throat where he’d left off and trailing small kisses up the side of my neck. Electricity crackled everywhere that his mouth touched my skin until our lips met in an explosion of Fourth of July worthy fireworks.
“Kannon? There is something else I’ve been wanting to ask you about,” I began after another long make-out session.
“Black. I’m traditional,” he said smiling.
“Huh?”
“You were going to ask me what sort of tux I was going to wear, right? My tux is black.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I actually own one. Dad’s company throws all of these parties and my parents make me go with them.”
I laughed uncomfortably. “Black is good. I’m traditional, too. But that’s not what I wanted to ask you about.” I paused, not sure how to phrase my question.
That night at the lake had been weighing on my mind. The more I learned about the underworld and the Egrgoroi, the more I was convinced that the creature was real. And if Kannon had arrived in time to save me from drowning, he would have seen it too.
“What is it, Endora?” Kannon adjusted himself so he was sitting up a little straighter. His voice was guarded, like he was anticipating that he wouldn’t like whatever I had to say.
“That night at Caswell Lake, did you see anything weird in the water?”
Kannon sucked in a sharp breath. I met his gaze, but his eyes remained expressionless. Only the tightening around his mouth betrayed him. He had seen something.
“What did you see?” I asked quietly.
“I’m not sure, it was so dark down there,” Kannon began cautiously.
I waited for the “but,” except it didn’t come. “Please, Kannon. I don’t care how crazy it sounds, I want to know. Did you see something?”
Kannon averted his gaze and ran his hand through his hair, mussing the curls. “Yeah, I saw her,” he said at last.
Her? He saw her? So I hadn’t been hallucinating. “You saw the mermaid?”
He sighed. “She isn’t a mermaid. Well, not exactly anyway. She’s like a mermaid but not quite.”
Could he be any more cryptic?
“Technically, she’s a rusalka,” he continued, still not looking at me. “She is sort of like us. Rusalki are Egrgoroi who died violently, usually in the water. Unlike us they aren’t actually alive anymore. They get the chance to come back to earth to do the work of the gods, but they aren’t human and they don’t have a soul.”
I swallowed thickly. Kannon had been holding out on me. How much else had he been keeping back?
“What other types of Egrgoroi are there?”
This time when he spoke, Kannon did meet my gaze.
“I honestly don’t know. I know there are people like us, the traditional Egrgoroi, and then there are those like the woman in the lake – ones who pay a much higher price for their second chance.”
“How do you know all of this?”
Kannon shrugged with feigned indifference. “I’ve done some research, asked around.”
“And you didn’t tell me any of this. Why?”
“I didn’t know whether you’d seen her. That’s why I asked you what happened in the water, remember?” I nodded. That was the first question he’d asked after making sure I was okay. “When I realized that you didn’t know anything about what you are, what we are, I didn’t want to freak you out further. I figured once you got more used to the idea of being an Egrgoroi that I would fill you in on everything I know.”
His reasons made sense, but I still felt lied to. I sat up and scooted to the end of the couch cushion, rubbing my temples with my thumbs to ward off the headache developing behind my eyes.
“I’m sorry, Endora.” Kannon’s touch was light on my back. When I didn’t pull away, he wrapped an arm around my waist from behind. “I’m not trying to keep things from you. I just don’t want to overwhelm you with all of this. And there is a lot I don’t know, or only know superficially.”
He pulled me backwards until my back was pressed against his chest, then rested his chin on my shoulder. “Are you mad at me?”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“No, I’m not mad,” I said at last. “But can we not keep secrets like this from each other? I’m a big girl, Kannon. I can handle the truth. I want to know whatever you know. Okay?”
Kannon pressed his lips into the hollow behind my ear.
“Okay,” he agreed.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The ringing of my cell phone woke me at 7 a.m. the following morning. The Wentworths’ home number appeared blurry through my tired eyes.
“Hello?” I croaked into the phone.
“Endora, it’s James Wentworth.”
“Morning,” I said, sitting up in my bed and rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
“My tech man was able to crack the password on Mark’s computer. You’re welcome to pick it up whenever it’s convenient for you.”
He’d gained my full attention, I was suddenly wide awake.
“Awesome. Can I come now?” I was already dialing Devon’s cell on my home phone.
“That would be fine. See you soon.”
The moment I hung up with Mr. Wentworth, I spun the dial on the antique phone one last time. Devon’s voice was scratchy and low. I heard what was meant to be “hello,” I think.
“Get dressed,” I said without preamble. “I’m coming to get you. Mr. Wentworth has the password to Dad’s laptop.”
“Already?”
“I know. Super fast, right? See you soon.”
I pulled on jeans and a tee-shirt that were crumbled on the floor next to my bed. Brushing my teeth seemed like a waste of time, so I just swished mouthwash while finger-combing the tangles from my hair.
Mom was downstairs in her home office. I poked my head through the open door and told her I was having breakfast with Devon. By the time she got out the words, “Have a nice time,” I was already halfway down the hallway.
I picked up Devon in record time. She was waiting in her driveway, and I already had the Bug in reverse when she dove into the car. Between the lack of traffic and the urgent need to get a look at the laptop, I made the forty-five minute drive to the Wentworths’ in just over half an hour. My father felt the need to password-protect this information, so I was hoping it held some of the answers to my burning questions. Where was my dad? Why would he go to the underworld? What was to become of me? Did I really have to spend my life answering to the gods? And which side was I even working for?
With all of this running through my head, I wasn’t exactly a glowing conversationalist on the ride. Devon filled the time by prattling off theories as to what we might find. I only halfway paid attention to her, lost in my own thoughts.
When we were finally there, the laptop exchange went smoothly. Mr. Wentworth gave us the computer and a piece of paper with passwords for all of the files. Jamieson wasn’t home, thank the gods. The last thing I needed right now was to engage in a verbal spar with her.
Mom was gone when we returned to my house with the laptop, bagels with cream cheese, and orange juice. She’d left a note explaining she needed some files that were at the office and would be home by dinnertime.
Devon was practically bouncing with excitement when she sat on the sofa. She booted up the laptop, selected the “Endora” file and entered the passcode. Within the larger file there were a number of sub-folders. The first was labeled, “Gates.” When Devon clicked on it, a list of seven cities appeared: Hilo, Alexandria, Athens, Bhaktapur, Buenos Aires, Perth, McMurdo Station.
So Mr. Haverty was right, Dad had found possible locations for the gates to the underworld.
“Do you
have your phone?” Devon asked.
“My phone?” Confused, I pulled my cell from the back pocket of my jeans and handed it to her.
“Just as I thought,” Devon said, scrolling through the phone’s contents. She handed the phone back to me. Displayed on the screen were the pictures I’d taken of the maps in Dad’s house. “The pushpins on most of the maps are located in these cities, roughly.” Devon pointed to the list of seven cities on the laptop screen. “He has a couple extra pins on each of them, but they’re all blue. On every map the red pins correspond with the seven locations, give or take a couple degrees of latitude and longitude.”
I flipped through all of the pictures. Devon was right.
“I bet your father determined the seven gates to the underworld are located in these cities,” Devon was saying.
“I was thinking that, too,” I agreed.
“Now we just need to find out why he wanted to know where the gates were,” Devon said.
“That’s the million dollar question.”
Since neither of us had any ideas, we moved on to the next file. This one was labeled “SEC.” Samantha Elizabeth Cable, I realized the instant Devon clicked on it. My mouth went dry and I wanted to turn away from the computer screen. I couldn’t, though. I had to know why Dad felt the need to guard that information with a password. The moment the only document in the folder filled the screen, I wished that I’d listened to my gut. It was a digital copy of Samantha’s Death Certificate. Cause of Death: Exsanguination During Childbirth.
“I don’t want to see any more right now,” I said quietly.
Devon said nothing; she just closed the laptop without bothering to close the files or turn off the computer. She wrapped her arms around me. I didn’t how I was supposed to feel. Should I cry? Should I be mad? At whom? Mom for sparing me the truth? Myself for causing Samantha’s death?
“It isn’t your fault, Eel,” Devon whispered, rubbing my back.
“Really? Because she died giving birth to me, so that sort of sounds like it’s my fault,” I said pulling away from her embrace.
“No. Complications during childbirth are common, even now.”
