Uh oh.
“Don’t you cry,” she choked, as much to herself as to him. “These are happy tears. Don’t cry!”
Elan wandered out from the house scratching the back of his head and yawning. New denim shorts hung low on his taut hips. He saw them and sobered. “What is this disaster?”
“It’s just like you said.” She sniffed hard, but tears sprang to the backs of her eyes and spilled right over her cheeks. “We really are connected. Me and Zain.”
Zain opened his mouth and wailed.
She hugged her baby and rocked him. He didn’t protest, just sobbed on her shoulder.
Elan stared at the two of them, the shadows dark under his eyes.
But this was how it felt to heal a broken heart. Sometimes, it set incorrectly and had to be re-broken. The agony of these past days? She’d had to relive her darkest fears.
Now, for the first time, she knew hope.
Milly burst in from her morning classes and stopped abruptly. “Oh, wow. You already heard.”
Zara sniffed, wiping tears from her face, and looked over her shoulder at her sister. “Heard what?”
“Our parents.” Milly made her hands into fists. “They’re back.”
13
“I will need my trident,” Elan announced to the Border and Immigration later that week. “Release it. Now.”
Zara stiffened beside him in the hard chair. Zain wiggled in her arms.
Since the moment she’d heard her parents were near, she had kept Zain closer, and this change had calmed her heart. Sad or happy, through all his moods, she steadfastly held him. Their cathartic cry together had healed her surface fears. Now she fought primal dangers.
Elan would protect her. Against her parents, he would not fail.
The agents hemmed awkwardly. “We still have questions about it, Mr. Elan.”
“Such as?”
“Its construction and lethality.”
“My trident has been passed down through three generations, since my great grandfather’s was broken in the Seven City’s war. It was grown in the sub-Arctic coral fields and finished in volcanic vents.”
“Grown?” the agent repeated.
“Its lethality depends on the skill of the warrior. When going to war, it is tipped in poison from what you call ‘blue dragons.’ These are nudibranchs that float on the surface of the ocean amassing barbs from other poisonous creatures such as jellyfish and your man o’ wars.”
The agent winced. “We’d avoid poison barbs in our general populace.”
“I do not intend to prepare it for war. Only for defense.” He darkened. “Unless Zara’s parents declare first.”
The agent didn’t look convinced.
Zara cleared her throat. “It’s his property. You don’t have any laws about tridents.”
“We don’t allow exotic weapons without the proper permit. Especially if you intend to use it.”
“He won’t,” Zara said, at the same time Elan assured them, “If it is necessary, I will use it.”
She clenched her teeth.
The agency was unwilling to compromise or release his trident. They were unwilling to grant emergency passports. They were unwilling to offer police patrols.
“Inform us right away if you are contacted by your parents,” the agents told her firmly.
“By then it will be too late!” She flared with her former glory. “You need to act now. Where are Elan and Zain’s passports?”
“Please be calm, Ms. Robertson.”
“I will calm down once we’re all on an airplane bound for California!”
The agent smiled dryly; the expression did not reach his tired eyes. “I, too, look forward to that day.”
In the end, they did not return Elan’s trident or produce passports.
Zara fumed as they exited the historic colonial building that afternoon. “These people have no idea what we’re up against. They’re going to jerk us around until we’re hurt or dead.”
He lengthened his stride to keep up with her quick steps. “I will protect us.”
“You don’t know what my parents are capable of.” She scowled back at the shuttered brick offices. “They’re not the kind of people who talk things out.”
“I have daggers hidden in the reef.”
She looked at him. A measure of respect entered her gaze, and his chest puffed in response. “Thank you for not confessing that in the offices.”
“I would not.”
She raised a brow. “Law-abiding Elan wouldn’t lie to authority.”
“They asked about weapons I had brought onto the land. My daggers are under the water.”
Her lips quirked. “Never change.”
“That is something I cannot promise.”
They traveled directly to the shoreline.
“Make it fast,” she told Elan.
He stepped out of his slacks and button-up shirt and strode naked down the shore. The humans at this hour still formed noticeable crowds. He moved quickly to avoid prolonging their offense.
Zain wiggled to go too, but Zara held him tight, immune to his cries.
“Shhh.” She bounced him on her hip and walked along the sand. He strained for the crashing waves. “Maybe later. Okay? Your father will be back right away. He’s not abandoning us on the shore. Shhh.”
Elan leaped into the surf and dove, shifting as the water closed over his head. The shore-churned sand dusted up from his powerful kicks. He flew across the volcanic rock and entered the vibrant, lava-formed reef.
Zara would love it here.
After she’d drunk the elixir and transformed, her wide eyes had been mesmerized by colorful parrot fish swirling, fan and brain coral spiraling, and the pulse of life and the soul-song of the water creatures.
He kicked hard, plunging through the thermoclines to deeper water. There, he located the small cave guardian’s hole where he had stashed his daggers. The cave guardian’s harsh song buzzed in a terrible cacophony. Cave guardians were easily identifiable by their ear-offending noise.
He called out to the cave guardian. His words rumbled in his chest and the small creature crawled from its safe fissure, its eight, long legs curling around and dragging his leather-wrapped daggers.
“Thank you, noble guardian,” he told it.
The creature’s song changed to a happy screech, and it twirled, shifting colors to peaceful green and back to excited red spots.
Elan tied on the weapons — biceps and thighs just above the knee — and tested his blades. The sharp points were well-honed for deadly combat.
Last time, he’d defeated Zara’s parents with his bare hands. If they threatened her, he would not hesitate to escalate to blades.
The small cave guardian’s song changed to a questioning call. An unfamiliar predator had entered the area. Elan turned and scanned the ocean, simultaneously melting backward against the reef. Strange noises did fill the water. Almost like warriors talking…
Warriors talking!
Elan rotated and dove. Beneath him the currents converged into an echo point. He hung silently in the strangely calm pocket of water. Any noise he made would project outward as clearly as the sounds came in.
Ghostly words — Some signs … exile… catch them, we will execute any traitors to the covenant… — floated across the still echo point. So faint. He wanted to doubt his hearing.
But that would be folly.
They had come.
He knew they would.
Danger drew nearer. On land, Zara’s parents. Under the water, his city’s vengeful warriors.
Their voices faded away. He would have to be more careful. No allowing Zara and Zain into the ocean until he had verified a location was safe.
Elan kicked to the surface. His daggers never felt heavier — and more needed — than when he climbed out.
Zara frowned. “What is it?”
“Nothing.”
Yet.
With vigilance, he would make his answer true. He would n
ever fail her again.
14
Elan emerged from the ocean with a look Zara knew meant danger. When she pressed him, he said it was nothing.
Okay. He took her parents’ threat seriously. That was reassuring.
“It’s my fault,” Milly said miserably during a quiet moment at dinner.
They’d returned to Vaw Vaw’s all week. She’d insisted, and Zara had thought it might be good for Zain to be surrounded by other children. Now, she wanted the company. Vaw Vaw was the only stranger she trusted with Zain, and the more witnesses, the safer everyone was from her parents.
“All my fault,” Milly continued. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“It is.”
“Don’t torture yourself like this.”
“Zara, you don’t know—”
“I do know,” she insisted, and Milly stopped, surprised. She grasped Milly’s too-cold hands. “You were still recovering from the kidnapping and brainwashing. How could you give an effective testimony?”
She frowned. “No, Zara—”
“I didn’t mean to make you face our parents all alone. I was stupid. I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m the one who’s sorry!”
“I just wish, when Dad skipped bail, they would have stayed gone.”
Milly’s lips folded together.
Zara picked up her spoon and took a comforting bite of rosemary chicken stew.
Her dark time had started after she’d been forced to the surface, but Milly’s dark time had been the year Zara had been missing. Still recovering from her parents’ kidnapping and then desperate without her sister, she’d been unable to give proper evidence to the prosecutors. It was Zara’s fault for not being there for Milly, again. Their parents had then sailed off in their yacht without serving even the token amount of jail time their father had been sentenced. Their mother had been declared a completely innocent victim and not charged at all.
Not protecting her sister in her hour of need still gave her nightmares.
And now the nightmares had come to life. Her parents were back.
One of the uncles chimed in. “Your father is stupid for returning here. He will be jailed for a long time for skipping his sentence.”
“They have to catch him first,” Zara returned.
He tsked and waved his hand. “Negativity.”
“He has a lot of friends in these islands.”
“He cannot hide,” the uncle said. “We will find him.”
It was a sweet thing to say, and hugely over-confident. Zara smiled tightly and sipped her small tumbler of homemade blackberry wine.
Elan caught her eye. His medium-length blue shirt concealed the dangerous bulges at his biceps.
He had once grabbed her father by the throat and thrown him across a cavern.
The urgent panic bubbling under her skin lessened.
He leaned closer to her, filling her senses with his salt masculine scent. “You will feel better once you harness your power into a weapon.”
“It wouldn’t work above water anyway.”
“They are in a boat, yes? It is easy to go from a boat into water.”
“Shifting isn’t easy or else Zain would already be able to do it.”
“He is young.”
“That means he’s adaptable. It should be easier for him.”
A cry arose on their other side of the room. Vaw Vaw had been once again holding Zain. A spoonful of mashed stew dribbled from his mouth.
“His fins!” one of the younger children cried, pointing at Zain. “They’re gone!”
Zara jumped out of her seat and raced to him. He slobbered, startled by the attention.
Where his fins once were, now wiggled chubby, stubby baby feet.
He had shifted. Right into a normal, human baby boy.
“Now we can walk him!” the children celebrated.
“After dinner my babies. After the dinner.”
Elan murmured in Zara’s ear. “It requires practice. But all you truly need is will.”
She bunched her hands into fists.
She couldn’t defeat her parents. She couldn’t defeat his warriors. She couldn’t run away on land. She couldn’t escape into the water.
They were backing her into a corner. Her only choice was to turn, keep the wall at her back, and fight.
“We’ll go to the ocean,” she said through gritted teeth.
He looked surprised. Then, he darkened. “No.”
Huh? But he’d been trying to get her in the water since the beginning.
She argued with him on the way out to the car that night, while Zain slumped over his shoulders, asleep. “You wanted me in the water. I’m agreeing to go.”
He tapped her chest with one finger. “Your mouth says yes but your heart says no.”
She rubbed the spot viciously. Just because he could literally see into her heart via her “soul light” made her feel exposed and angry. “I know that! But this might be the only way to get over my issues.”
“Or it will not.” He eased into the back seat as usual. “We will begin on the land.”
“It doesn’t work on land.”
“You can make fins anywhere.”
“The power doesn’t work. That’s the whole point of making fins. Who cares if I have fins? The point is to make them so I can get superpowers, and those only show up under water.”
“Your heart does not know this.”
“Yes, it does.”
He eyed her as if to say, Really? You’re lying to me about a light only I can see? But he didn’t say so.
She wanted to slam the door on him, hard, but out of reverence for Zain, she closed it gently.
Inside, she hissed, “You can see my soul light or whatever, but that doesn’t mean you can see the future. I haven’t been in the water for a year. Maybe when I get in, it’s like you say, and I’ll suddenly have a reawakening.”
His voice rumbled, low and quiet. “You already said it is impossible.”
“That was then!”
The drive home was stiff, and they whispered their arguments while Milly cleared her throat about a hundred times in the driver’s seat. She dropped them off at the house. Elan went into the house to put Zain down.
She called Zara to the window. “I’m going back to the university.”
“Sorry.” Zara felt a headache coming on. She rubbed her forehead. “We’ll tone it down.”
“Oh, no. It’s not that.” Milly smiled awkwardly. Their argument certainly was driving her out of the house. “You want to talk and I want to retrieve a document on mermaids from my saved folder. It might be helpful. The computer lab is still open.”
“Okay, but we’re not going to argue anymore.”
“Take your time.”
“Don’t stay out too late.” There was a small but real possibility that the target her parents were returning to exploit wasn’t the mermen.
Milly had always been their favorite.
Zara’s hackles rose. “When I find out who’s helping them this time, they’re all going down. My parents, their friends. Everyone.”
Her sister swallowed, nodded, and wheeled off. Her taillights glowed red against the fallen darkness.
Zara returned to the house with a heavy heart.
Elan was waiting.
He’d put Zain down in the bathroom and lingered in the living room again, a dark and knowing look in his eye. With his shirt off, his glorious pecs revealed to the night, wicked blades affixed to them with tight weave. He drew her into his arms and cupped her head.
Heat sizzled through her.
She rested her hands on his forearm to keep from curling them around his waist. “I thought we were discussing how to capture my power on land.”
“We are.” He tilted her jaw and lowered his mouth to hers. “This is how.”
15
She murmured her protest as Elan captured her mouth in his. “My parents…”
“Are not here
now.” He burned with promise, teasing her lips with his. “And when they come, we will fight them.”
“I have never faced them directly and won.”
“You will.”
Her lashes fluttered. She clearly wanted to believe Elan, but doubts still tinged her voice. “They’ve never really been caught. And they’re so normal in front of other people. Only to me and Milly do they show their true colors.”
“Then you have the advantage because you are forewarned.”
Her expression cleared. She had never thought it a blessing she and Milly had been targeted, but Elan was right. Better to know an enemy than be blind-sided by a friend.
“Knowing didn’t help me in the past.”
“Now, you know about your true power. It will spill forth once your soul light reaches its maximum brightness. And I have watched you carefully this week, Zara. Your soul light glows when you fight Border and Immigration, hold Zain close to your heart, watch over the children at Vaw Vaw’s house, and…” He slid his hand up her smooth skin to her elbow. “When you give in to passion.”
“I am not a passionate person.”
“You are very passionate,” he corrected, and brushed feather-soft kisses across her worry-wrinkled forehead. “Passionate about justice. Passionate about your family.”
Her soul light strengthened with every word.
He tugged her into her bedroom, sat on her bed, and drew her on top of him. “Passionate with your husband.”
She rested one knee on the bed beside his waist. The other wedged between his bent knees. “I’ve been hiding. When you came with Zain, I wanted to run away. I’m not really brave.”
He cursed his earlier words. “I spoke unfairly. You were injured, Zara. Ignoring your pain dishonored your experience and I apologize.”
Her light shone even brighter.
She cupped his jaw, sweet passion darkening her brown eyes. “You were hurt, too. Worse than I was.”
“Warriors are taught how to recover from a lost battle.” He removed his knives from his thighs and folded them beneath the bed. Resting his hands on her waist, he savored her softness, and then pulled her down. “Time heals all scars.”
Sirens and Scales Page 64
