“He’s a good worker.” Brian twisted the cap off his beer and took a long drink. “He doesn’t say much to me. He never really did, but now it’s even less. He was always a quiet kid, and weird. Still is. Just quieter and weirder.”
“He’s not ‘weird,’” Harper said. “He’s just … reserved.”
Brian leaned back against the kitchen table. “Do you know why Gemma and Alex broke up?”
Harper lowered her eyes and shook her head so forcefully her ponytail whipped her in the face. “Nope.”
“I feel like it was something bad,” Brian said. “Something happened between the two of them.”
“Maybe it just, like … I don’t know.” She shook her head again.
He watched her for a moment, then said, “I thought she might tell you.”
“No, it’s teenager stuff.” She shrugged. “You know she’s secretive.”
“Yeah.” He took another drink of his beer. “Did she tell her mom?”
“What?” Harper looked up, surprised to hear Brian even mention Nathalie.
“I don’t know.” He looked away, but not before Harper noticed how pained his blue eyes looked. “She always liked talking to her mom, so I wondered if Gemma still told her things.”
“Um. Yeah,” she said finally, nodding. “Sometimes I think she does. She knows Mom will keep her secrets.”
“Yeah, Nathalie will. Whether she wants to or not.” He took a deep breath, then stepped back from the table. “There’s something I want to talk to you about. Why don’t you have a seat?” He motioned to a chair.
“It’s a have-a-seat kind of talk? What is it?” Harper asked, already panicking.
“Just sit down,” Brian said, taking his own seat at one side of the table. “I wanted to talk to you first, before your sister. She’s at play rehearsal tonight, right?
“Yeah, until eight or so.” Harper sat down across from him, literally sitting on the edge of her seat. “Dad, you’re really kinda freaking me out. Can you just spit it out? Are we losing the house?”
“What?” Brian was confused, then appalled. “No, we’re not losing the house. Where would you get that idea?”
“I don’t know! It sounds bad.”
“It’s not bad. You worry too much. You know, you worry more at the age of eighteen than I do at forty-one. You’re gonna give yourself an ulcer or have a heart attack if you’re not careful.”
“Dad!” Harper said, barely able to contain her anxiety any longer.
“All right, all right.” He held up his hand and took a deep breath. “Um … I think I need to go see your mom.”
Harper waited a beat, staring at her father blankly. “You want to visit Mom? That’s your bad news?”
“I told you it wasn’t bad news, but…” Brian wouldn’t look at her when she spoke, and that didn’t help to ease her fears. “I’ve been thinking about a lot of things lately, and I need to see her again before I make some decisions.”
“What kind of decisions? What are you talking about?” Harper asked.
“Harper, I told you there’s nothing you need to worry about. I want to see Nathalie, and I wanted to go with you and your sister. Are you both going this Saturday?”
“Um…” She stopped to think. “Yeah, I think we are.”
“Okay, then. Can I come with you?” Brian asked, finally looking up at her.
“Yeah, of course you can. You can go see her anytime you want. She’s your wife.”
“I know that.” He began to peel the label off his bottle, and more quietly he repeated, “I know.”
“That’s all you wanted to talk about?” Harper asked, confused as to why he wanted her to sit down for something relatively painless.
“Yeah.” He nodded, then lifted his head. “Unless you needed to say something.”
“I do, actually.” She took a fortifying breath before beginning. “There’s something I’ve been needing to tell you…”
“You’re not pregnant, are you?” Brian asked, nearly cutting her off.
“Dad! What? No. Of course not.” Her eyes were wide. “Oh, my god, Dad. Daniel and I’ve been together, like … No. We’re not even … Dad. Just no.” She couldn’t help herself and began to blush.
“Good, because babies are wonderful, but not until you’re ready,” Brian said, sounding relieved. “They’re a lot of work, and you have all that college ahead of you.”
She saw her in, so she said, “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“College?”
“Yeah, I was thinking about maybe holding off another year.”
“Harper Lynn Fisher, you are going to college,” Brian said firmly.
“I know, Dad. I’m just thinking it might not be the right time.”
“Is this about Daniel?” He narrowed his eyes and his expression hardened. “If he’s holding you back, I will get rid of him.”
“Dad, stop. Get rid of him? Are you in the Mafia?” Harper asked in disbelief. “And this has nothing to do with Daniel. I’ve never let a boy interfere with my future before. Why would I start now?”
“Then what is this about?” Brian asked, his tone carrying an edge of confusion and irritation.
“I just think it’s not the right time,” she said simply.
The real reason—that Gemma was a siren—she couldn’t tell her dad. He’d never understand or believe her. And even if he did, what good would it do? Harper was already driving herself crazy with worry. Brian didn’t need to go through that, too, not when there was nothing he could do.
“If it’s about money, Harper, we can do this.” He leaned forward on the table. “You’ve got those scholarships, and you’ll lose them if you don’t go. I’ve got some cash put away, and you’ve got loans lined up. We’ll make it work. You don’t need to worry about it.”
“No, it’s not about money.”
“Then give me one good reason why you shouldn’t go,” Brian said.
“Gemma.” Harper gave the most honest answer she could. “There’s something going on with her.”
“I’m glad that you love your sister so much, but she is not your child. She’s not your responsibility. She’s mine. I’ll take care of her. The only thing you need to concern yourself with is getting ready to leave for school. The rest of us will be fine.”
She sighed. “There’s stuff that you don’t understand.”
“Understand this—I have not worked forty-plus hours a week for the past nineteen years for you to throw your future away. Everything I have done, I have done so you and Gemma could have a better life than what your mom and I had. This is what we both wanted for you, and it’s what you want for you. I don’t care what the reason is for not going. There isn’t one good enough.”
“But Dad…” she said, but she was already giving up trying to convince him.
“No buts, Harper. You are going to college. And that’s final.”
FOURTEEN
Minotaur
“If I were a magic papyrus scroll, where would I be?” Gemma asked herself as she stood in the entryway of the sirens’ house.
For once, she’d actually lucked out. Harper had let her borrow her car—something Harper very rarely let her do—and when Gemma’d arrived up at the sirens’ house, Penn, Lexi, and Thea had been gone. Thea was at play rehearsal, but she had no idea where Penn and Lexi were, so she had to get her search under way as quickly as possible.
The house was nice, but it wasn’t really large. That made it easier, because there were fewer places to look.
Gemma did a cursory search of the kitchen, opening cupboards and drawers, but while she inexplicably found a drawer filled with lacy panties next to the fridge, she saw no sign of a scroll or any other important papers. The pantry was stocked with canned goods and a broom, but nothing else exciting.
The rest of the downstairs was about the same. What little storage space they had in the living room was filled with movies and more lingerie. They had to have the most extensive coll
ection of sexy undergarments outside of Victoria’s Secret.
She’d made it two steps up the stairs to the second floor when she heard an odd flapping sound coming from outside. Her heart dropped, and she slowly turned back around. Through the windows she could see Thea just touching down on the driveway—her massive wings beating behind her.
Thea hadn’t shifted fully into her bird form, so she still remained human, aside from the giant wings sprouting from her back. The wings were a gorgeous scarlet, shimmering in the sunlight, and the flapping caused her skirt to flutter up for a moment. The wings folded up behind Thea as she walked toward the house, and by the time she reached the door, they had disappeared into her flesh.
Gemma thought about hiding or trying to sneak out the back door before Thea spotted her, but at the last second decided against it. During her quick search, drawers were left open and lingerie had been tossed about. It wasn’t like she had enough time to cover it up, and Thea would probably guess that she’d been the one ransacking their house anyway.
When Thea opened the door, she didn’t seem that surprised to see Gemma, but then, she’d probably spotted Harper’s car in the driveway.
“Looking for something?” Thea asked, surveying the state of the house.
“What are you doing home?” Gemma countered, trying to hold off answering the question until she figured out what she wanted to say. “Shouldn’t you be at play rehearsal?”
“When I saw you weren’t there, I knew you were up to something.” Thea sat down on a chair in the living room and leaned back, putting her feet up on the coffee table across from her. “So I left early to find out what it was.”
“How did you know I would be here?” Gemma asked.
Thea shrugged. “I didn’t know. I just had a hunch. And with Penn and Lexi out of town for the evening, I thought I’d better follow up on it.”
“Where are Penn and Lexi?” Gemma asked.
“Gone.” Thea rested her green eyes squarely on Gemma. “So, are you going to tell me what exactly you’re looking for?”
Gemma debated on how to answer before finally deciding to go with the truth. “The scroll,” she said as she descended the steps.
“The scroll?” Thea arched an eyebrow but appeared otherwise unfazed. “You say that as if I should know which one you’re referring to.”
“The one with the curse written on it.” Gemma sat down across from Thea and tried to play it as cool as Thea was. “It has everything the curse entails, what the rules are, maybe even how to break it.”
The side of Thea’s mouth curled up in an amused smirk. “I can assure you that it has no way to break the curse on it. Although I can see why you’d find some of the other information interesting, particularly how to kill a siren.”
“So…” Gemma licked her lips. “You do know what I’m talking about.”
“Of course I do.” Thea laughed. “Did you really expect I wouldn’t?”
“No, I guess not,” Gemma admitted. “But I thought you might lie about it.”
“I have no reason to lie. If you already know, what’s the point?” Thea tilted her head. “Though I am curious. How did you find out about it?”
“I have my sources,” Gemma replied quickly.
Thea may have been Gemma’s closest friend at this point, but that didn’t change the fact that she was still a siren. She wasn’t about to give up Lydia or Marcy’s name, in case Penn or even Thea decided to retaliate later on.
“Well, whoever your sources may be, if they told you the scroll is the key to breaking the curse, they’ve misled you,” Thea said.
“Maybe,” Gemma said. “But why don’t you let me see for myself?”
Thea laughed, throwing her head back as she did. “Oh, Gemma, please.”
“What?” Gemma asked. “Why is that so funny?”
“Your arrogance.” Thea subdued her laughter but smiled broadly. “You presume that you can solve a puzzle that we’ve spent hundreds of years analyzing. Do you really think me and my sisters are that stupid?”
“No, of course not,” Gemma said in a hurried apology. “Penn may be many things, but stupid isn’t one of them.”
“Then what do you think you’ll see that we haven’t already seen?” Thea asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe nothing,” Gemma admitted. “But I have to try. My only other option is giving up, and I won’t do that. Not until I’ve exhausted every avenue, and until I see this scroll for myself, I still have one more path to explore.”
Thea shook her head. “That’s not the only option. You can embrace this life. There are parts of being a siren that are truly wonderful.”
“Don’t try to sell me on it, Thea,” Gemma cut her off. “I just want to know where the scroll is.”
“Why do you think I would tell you?” Thea asked.
“You told me you would. You said you’d do whatever you could to help me.”
“If it didn’t end up with me or my sisters dead,” Thea corrected her.
“You think that if I find the scroll, it will kill you?” Gemma asked.
“Not exactly.” Thea stood up and started walking over to the kitchen. “Would you like something to drink?”
“No, I’m fine.” Gemma turned in her chair to watch Thea. “What do you mean, ‘not exactly’?”
“I don’t know how much you really know about the scroll.” Thea opened the wine fridge located in the kitchen island. She debated a few seconds before pulling out a bottle. “It’s supposed to be indestructible.”
“I had heard that,” Gemma said.
“And it is, as far as I know.” Thea pulled out a corkscrew, then shut some of the drawers that Gemma had left open. “At various times over the centuries, other mortals have tried to destroy our scroll. Even Aggie went through a phase where she tried to burn it.”
“But it didn’t work?” Gemma asked.
“Nope.” Thea uncorked the wine and pulled out a glass. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like a glass?”
“No. I make a point of not drinking anything from a siren,” Gemma said wryly, and Thea smiled.
“That’s probably a good rule.” Thea poured herself a large glass of wine and took a long drink before continuing on. “We’re not the only cursed creature in the world, as I’m sure you can imagine. And almost all of them have tried to break their curse by destroying their scrolls.”
“None of them have succeeded?” Gemma asked.
“Depends on your definition of ‘succeed.’” Thea walked back to the living room. “But very, very few have managed to destroy it.”
“So you’re saying it is possible?” Gemma asked.
Thea sat down across from her again, crossing her legs and setting the glass on the coffee table. “Have you ever heard of a minotaur?”
“I think so. It’s like half man, half bull, right?” Gemma asked.
“Sort of,” Thea said. “The original minotaur was Asterion. I never met him, but I’ve heard that he was an incredibly gorgeous young man, and Pasiphaë fell in love with him. She was already married to King Minos, despite being a rather powerful goddess in her own right.
“The king found out about his wife’s adultery and threatened to behead her lover, so Asterion broke off the affair. Pasiphaë became enraged and cursed him to have the head of a bull,” Thea explained.
“Why the head of a bull?” Gemma asked.
“I’m not sure exactly, but I was told it matched his other … appendages,” Thea said carefully, and Gemma wrinkled her nose. “Pasiphaë went on to have many other lovers, and if they tried to end the affair, she cursed them to the minotaur form and locked them away in a labyrinth so that they could never escape.”
“That sounds terrible,” Gemma said. “But what does that have to do with your scroll?”
“It was terrible, and I’m getting to my point,” Thea said. “Eventually Pasiphaë died, and someone set the minotaurs free. But it was a terrible way to live. I met one once, and they truly were hideous
creatures. Monstrous bulls with gigantic horns and angry eyes. Not only that, they were all a little insane from living in that maze for so long.
“Naturally, they didn’t want to go on that way,” Thea went on. “Pasiphaë had made them immortal, but Asterion was determined to get out of it. He came up with a way to destroy his scroll.
“If I recall correctly, he had to eat the scroll when the sun was shining above him.” Thea tilted her head as she thought. “I don’t remember the details exactly, but I know it was odd and very precise.”
“Isn’t it the same way to destroy your scroll?” Gemma asked.
“No, each scroll has its own set of rules for destroying it, and they are never told to the bearer of the scroll,” Thea said. “Meaning, we were never told how to destroy ours. I don’t even know for sure who was told, and even if I did, they would probably be long dead by now.”
“How did Asterion find out?” Gemma asked.
“One of the muses told him.” Thea waved her hand. “It doesn’t matter. That’s not the point of the story.”
“Then what is?” Gemma asked.
“Pasiphaë had turned Asterion and all those other men into minotaurs centuries before he destroyed the curse, long after their natural mortal lives would’ve ended,” Thea explained. “So the second the scroll was destroyed, they all turned into dust.”
“Why?” Gemma asked.
“When the scroll is destroyed, it’s as if the curse never even happened,” Thea said. “And if the curse had never happened, they would’ve been dead and decomposed for many years. So that’s what became of them.”
Gemma realized that this only confirmed what Lydia had told them earlier, and let out a long sigh. “And that’s what would happen to you and Penn and Lexi if anyone destroyed the scroll.”
“Exactly.” Thea picked up her glass and leaned back in her chair. “So, as much as I’d like to help you, I can’t help you with this. I won’t do anything that leads to my sisters’ deaths, or mine.”
Gemma stayed where she was for a few minutes, letting this all sink in. Even if she found the scroll, it didn’t mean she’d be able to figure out how to destroy it. She’d still need to find someone who knew how, and if she did that, it would turn all the sirens to dust.
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