“Why are you here?” Zia finally asked.
“All the clans sent two people to another clan. It’s this bringing clans together thing King Longray came up with.”
Zia went quiet again. Leo had to really fight the urge to turn around and watch her. He wanted to see her expression as he told her, and more than anything, he wanted to look at her again. There was something he couldn’t put his finger on, but she was different. Obviously, she was different than the Siren—her green hair alone made her stand out—but it was more than that. There was something that made her different from all the other green-haired Mavkas mer people, too.
“How long will you stay?” she finally asked.
“One week,” Leo replied. “And then home to face my punishment.”
He had no idea why he added the last part, but it was true. It was quite possible that the king was going to kill him for just thinking of leaving the Siren. While Leo had yet to actually commit an offense, it was Leo who approached Sam about leaving. Leo had no idea what Longray knew, but if he knew that, then Leo was pretty much a dead man.
“What did you do?” Zia asked so quietly he could barely hear her.
“I didn’t actually do anything, but I thought something that the king didn’t like,” Leo replied. She didn’t need to know the specifics. It really didn’t matter. Longray was emphasizing why Leo and Sam wanted out. You could be punished for thinking something in the Siren world if the king found out.
“That makes no sense. Why would you be punished for thinking something?”
“The Siren are bound to the king just like you are to your leader. He can go into our heads whenever he wants. It is supposed to keep us all honest, but in reality, it’s to keep everyone scared.” Okay, that was probably a bit too much. Leo was glad to be watching the ocean—this way the beautiful girl behind him couldn’t see that his face was going to be flaming red if he talked too much more.
“He holds you prisoner in your own mind.”
She explained it perfectly.
“So, tell me more about this place. How is this possible?” Leo changed the subject as a bright yellow and orange fish swam by.
“This? As in how do we live in gigantic bubbles at the bottom of the sea?” Zia’s voice held a bit of laughter in it. Leo was happy he had changed the subject and was able to actually hear happiness in her voice.
“I’d have to guess magic, but since none of the mer practice magic, I don’t know how,” Leo replied.
“Well, you’re right on both counts. It’s magic, and it isn’t by the Mavkas. These homes are ancient. They were put down here hundreds of years ago before the night human wars, before the mer were cast off to sea and thought to be dead.”
There they went again, going back to a dark subject. Zia’s voice seemed to mimic the conversation and dipped slightly lower in tone as she talked.
Leo, like every other mer, was well educated on the night human wars. The world consisted of two different types of humans: day humans and night humans. The difference between them was that the night humans needed the blood of the day humans to live. All mer were night humans. But they were the only ones who resided in the ocean. The other night humans all lived on land. Hundreds of years ago the night humans began to fight over the way they lived. Most day humans were unaware of the night human world. Yes, there were the few who knew that things roamed the night searching for unsuspecting people to feed on, but for the most part, day humans thought that they were myths and legends. One group of night humans wanted to come out to the world, and one side did not. Really, the whole war that followed didn’t matter except that the mer chose to be on the losing side. The winning side decided it wasn’t safe to allow any of the losers to live, and banished them all to death. Luckily for the mer, the ocean is a huge place, and they could hide from the night humans hunting them.
“So are the walls made of Jell-O?” Leo asked, trying to get back to a brighter subject.
Zia giggled. “No, but it sure feels like it. But don’t tell anyone else that. I don’t think the Mavkas know what Jell-O is,” Zia answered. “That’s actually how thick the magic has to be to protect their underwater world here when it was built. The ocean can be very heavy.”
“And they didn’t want to just live on land like everyone else?” All the clans Leo knew of lived on some sort of land above the sea.
“No. The Mavkas want to be at the bottom of the ocean. Something about feeling the sand on the bottom of the sea connects them to water better. Really, I don’t know the full reason. I wasn’t taught that much. For me, it just is what it is.”
“So why didn’t they just live in the water if that was the case?” Leo really was curious. Why build a whole underground world? Mer could breathe underwater, so they didn’t need to go to the extreme of making a world of bubbles.
“Sure we can all breathe underwater, but would you want to live that way? You’d never hear words or voices. We’d have to find a whole new way to talk … and don’t get me started on eating under water.”
No, Leo wouldn’t want to spend his whole life in the water. Voices he could do without, but he couldn’t imagine a world without music.
“We’re all still human, you know.”
And that was the truth. Even though they could turn their legs into fins and breathe through gills, the mer were all still human. That was what got to Leo the most. Mer were hunted like animals in the night human world, but no one seemed to stop and think about the fact that the mer were humans, too. In the hundreds of years that had passed, the original mer who chose the wrong side weren’t even around. All that were left were innocent descendants.
“So, what is it like living down here?” Leo asked. Zia seemed to be happy talking about the Mavkas even if they kept diverging onto the same dark subjects that followed the mer everywhere.
“The same as living anywhere I’d assume,” Zia replied with a chuckle.
Leo smiled at the sound. She was laughing at him, but he deserved it.
“So you’ve never left here?”
“Since the day I arrived in this world, I’ve been inside these bubbles and the water that surrounds them only. That’s what life is like for the Mavkas. The majority of us never leave. We are born here and will die here.”
“Which is why Chris has quite the audience with his stories,” Leo guessed.
“Oh, yes, Chris is always the entertainment. Yet I never know if he’s entertaining the mer around him or himself.”
Now that did make Leo laugh. From the little he had seen of the Mavkas leader’s youngest son, he was the most talkative mer he had met. All Leo hoped was that Sam was getting something out of his excessive talking. Leo knew he should take the opportunity to ask questions of Zia, but he felt like that was betraying her. They’d just met, but he didn’t want to get her in trouble.
“Can you tell me more about the homes down here?” That was a great way to get information without feeling like he would get her in trouble.
“It’s not homes like you find in other places. Here it’s like four big apartment complexes,” Zia replied.
“Wait a second. All seven hundred Mavkas live in four of these bubbles?”
“Yes, and these bubbles aren’t just what you’ve seen. This is the meeting and eating room. We come here for gatherings of our pod, and for three meals a day. They are hard to see, but each meeting room has five hallways that go off it. Off each hallway are dozens of more rooms for sleeping.”
Now Leo wanted to go exploring. And he wasn’t going to have fun telling Sam that there were three more of these they might have to search. Then again, they didn’t really know what they were looking for, so it could be easy. Probably not, but a guy could dream.
“So every family has their own apartment?” Leo replied, understanding her comparison to a complex.
“Not exactly. We have a room to sleep. That’s it. Everything else is more—” Zia stopped talking. “Shoot.” Standing, she peeked around the corner again.
Leo moved beside her to see what she was looking at. He was close enough to tell she smelled like a flower he couldn’t remember the name of, yet reminded him of home on the Siren’s island. It was the perfect tropical island with hundreds of different kinds of flowers. Zia’s light green hair whipped him in the face as she turned around. He hadn’t meant to be standing so close to her, but she was practically in his arms. It wouldn’t have taken much at all to lean down and kiss her.
Zia’s eyes went wide as she ducked under his arm and behind him to give him a push toward the open entryway.
“You need to leave. Like I said before, it isn’t safe here for you, and you shouldn’t be talking to me.”
Leo froze in his spot.
“I don’t see anyone around looking this way. No one knows we were talking, and I did as you asked, so if anyone came in, no one would know.” Leo wanted to spend more time with her.
“I can feel my family searching for me. It wouldn’t be good for them to find me with you,” she added.
Pushing him farther forward, she stayed behind the barrier, hidden from the party. He understood. Each clan in the mer world fought with the others. There was never peace, and no one agreed unless forced to by the king. But one thing they all did the same, though they would never admit they agreed, was that they shunned relationships between the different mer clans. He knew what Zia was saying, and basically, her family would take offense to him talking with her because he wasn’t a Mavkas.
Leo turned off the hurt he felt at the mer policies and put on his best happy-to-be-there face as he walked back to Sam. It didn’t matter what he felt, or that she was the most captivating mer he had ever met. Zia was a Mavkas and Leo was a Siren.
Zia watched the Siren walk back to the crowd at the party. She regretted that she hadn’t asked his name, but that was fine. She wasn’t supposed to be speaking with him. She didn’t want to fall for him, and she didn’t want him to be stuck in the Mavkas world. And no way was she going to let him kiss her. That would make it impossible to let him go. No matter how much her heart beat when he was near, she wasn’t condemning him to a lifetime at the bottom of the ocean.
It took only moments before Cate arrived. Zia pretended to be surprised when Lan’s younger sister walked into the alcove. Lan had connected Zia to the Mavkas, but none of them knew that her connection went two ways. It wasn’t just useful for them to find her, but for her to keep track of them, also. It was the same type of bond families had, even though she certainly wasn’t family.
“Father says to get dressed and ready to perform,” Cate told her as she glared at her.
Zia nodded and slipped past her adoptive sibling who pretty much hated her. She kept her thoughts to herself, but she also hated Cate. There was nothing she found redeeming in the girl since she had met her, and she was pretty much convinced there never would be. Cate was pretty much as evil as her older brother, Lan.
Walking away, Zia knew she wasn’t alone. Cate followed behind her as Zia made her way back to her own sleeping room. Zia walked past the barrier into the room, and Cate stood outside of it. At least Min allowed her that much privacy. Only Lan could access the room because she was technically blood bonded to him.
Zia took her time deciding between the three outfits she owned. She really didn’t need to, but it was driving Cate nuts to stand there waiting. She could take her time and bug Cate. It was a win-win. Zia made a show of being indecisive, and she felt the emotions of Cate through their connection.
“We’re going to miss the first song if you don’t hurry up,” Cate complained, flipping her neon green hair over her shoulder.
That was the hardest part to get used to about being a Mavkas. Zia was in awe of all the shades of green hair could come, but she didn’t like her own pale green hair. She would have much preferred a light blonde. But then again, she would prefer her life not bonded to a jerk like Lan. She could feel he was just down the hallway, also waiting. He was harder to annoy than Cate.
Finally, Zia couldn’t put off her command any longer. She randomly chose the short purple dress, which made her hair look more yellow than green. She wasn’t about to let the tiny spark of hope show through to Cate and Lan that she hoped the new Siren would like how it looked on her. Those thoughts she had to banish from her mind. She didn’t want him stuck, and she was going to save him from her if that’s what he needed.
Zia walked out of her room to find Cate getting red in the face with anger. Zia kept her own expression neutral as she tried to hide her joy from the bond.
“About time,” Cate complained as she turned and marched back to the main room.
As they entered the meeting room from the hallway, Zia stayed just inside the doorway. Without looking directly at the hallway, their visitors wouldn’t be able to see her. She didn’t want to enter yet since Lan was standing right beside the doorway, probably observing every little fact about her. She didn’t want him to know that the Siren boy she didn’t know the name of had captured her attention quite easily. She didn’t need Lan to see that she cared. And she didn’t need Lan to know she wasn’t going to do what his father ordered, since he wasn’t completely clear on his order.
“Chris plans to ask Sam to sing as we agreed,” Lan said quietly to Zia. “You’ll join in.”
Again with the bossing around. Zia was pretty sure if she had more time with Lan she would have realized what a jerk he was, and that there was nothing between them, but the stupid magic spell had fooled her. Maybe it was hindsight, but she couldn’t believe that even magic could make someone like Lan appealing. He was nothing but a power hungry brute, just like his father who was across the room laughing at something Chris had said.
“Do you remember your orders?” Lan asked as he continued to study Zia.
She glanced around the room before coming back to him. She rolled her eyes, knowing that was the one thing that would irritate him.
“I heard them all right,” she replied.
Grabbing her arm, Lan pulled her back farther into the hallway. “Don’t think this changes anything,” he growled at her, pushing her against the magical wall. “You’re still mine, and binding a stranger to our family won’t change that. Your second one will be only to trick that stupid Siren who came here to parade around how great they are. Siren are nothing. Just you wait and see … all of them will be dead by the time we get done with them. Just remember, night human bindings are forever and you’ll never get away from me.”
Lan had pushed her right into the magical wall. Just a little more and she would be pulled out to sea. Zia didn’t budge as she knew it was dangerous to exist anywhere but the end of two of the hallways. She was pretty positive Lan wouldn’t let her get away, but she didn’t want to bank her life on someone she never could trust.
Lan stared at Zia, his face only inches from her. Zia wasn’t stupid enough to fight back directly. He was twice her size. She was never going to best him physically. She was good at annoying him and his family, but she rarely did more than that. Now she wanted to fight back, but she was smart enough to know head on wasn’t the way to do it with him.
“You’ll be the perfect hostess to the Siren with Sam. You’ll be friendly and do whatever he asks,” Lan told her. “Do you understand?” Lan pushed harder on her hand. If she went into the wall, then there was no coming back; she would be pulled out to sea.
Zia nodded her head.
“Good. Now follow the plan, and we might even feed you this week.”
Releasing Zia, Lan strolled back to the main room. He didn’t wait around to see if she was with him because he knew she didn’t have a choice otherwise. Zia was trapped in the horrible Mavkas world, and Lan was the reason why. He didn’t really care for her at all like he had promised. The Mavkas were all full of lies, and he wanted her to be the same. She hated every last bit of him.
After leaving Zia in the outer room, Leo joined the group but didn’t really pay attention. Sam was busy nodding along with Chris
as the mer kept talking. Leo had already missed most of his tales already, so he didn’t feel the pressure to nod along. The fake smile on his friend alone made Leo’s smile genuine. Sam wasn’t one for sitting around, listening to stories. He had seen more of the ocean than most of the other mer. Chris used his stories to gloat, and Sam would never be like that.
When a Siren teen came of age, it was tradition that their family arranged for them to secretly be taken to a different location, and they would have to find their way back to the island. Siren were born with a sense of the ocean and where home was. It was a tradition of survival of the fittest. If you couldn’t find your way home, you didn’t deserve to be there. They didn’t mourn the few who never made it home, and celebrated those that did return by giving them their own place.
Leo’s parents waited until he was sixteen to take him to an uninhabited island. It took him less than a few hours to make it home. He encountered no trouble, and he didn’t have to fend for himself or talk to any regular humans. It was easy and the way most parents did it. Sam’s parents sent him off at thirteen and put him in another ocean. It took him over a week of constant swimming to get home. He had to go ashore to figure out the way to go and not get caught. In that one adventure, Sam had seen more than anyone Leo had ever met. And even so, it was hard to get Sam to talk about it. Chris was nothing compared to Sam.
Leo took the opportunity to look around as Chris kept yammering on about some great island he had been to. He wanted to see the doorways that Zia mentioned, but there were too many people standing around. And unless someone walked through one, Leo wasn’t sure he would see an open tunnel next to a clear wall.
“I hear from Tim that you have a band,” Chris said, bringing up the one thing that would bring Leo back to the conversation.
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