Waterborn (The Emerald Series Book 1)

by Kimberly James

  “I don’t. Really.” Her eyes cut back to the tank and I witnessed that war she waged again. She wanted to swim. I could feel her longing, hear it in the pleading tone of her Song.

  “Caris?” Her eyes widened when I said her name. “What’s wrong?”

  She opened her mouth to respond then shut it again. I didn’t know how to reassure her, not without scaring her more. I couldn’t just come out and tell her there was nothing to be afraid of, that she was born to swim. She let out a long breath and looked me right in the eyes.

  “I can’t swim,” she said.

  “What do you mean you can’t swim?” The words left a bad taste in my mouth. What she said was impossible—unthinkable for someone like her.

  “I mean sinking, drowning, all of it.”

  Is that what her nightmares were about? Drowning? Another impossibility.

  And now I was a little scared because I’d never heard of a charm powerful enough to do that. And I flat out didn’t believe her. “How do you not know how to swim? You’re a…” Waterbreather, I finished to myself.

  “Because I just don’t. Never learned how.” She was getting defensive, and I could well understand, except I didn’t.

  “Well, have you ever tried?” Maybe the solution was that simple. God, I hoped so.

  “Yes. No. Kind of,” she sputtered.

  What the hell kind of answer was that? I took a step closer to her. The thought formed in my mind before I really had time to consider the consequences. It was the way we all learned. Granted, we were babies, but it couldn’t be all that different.

  I pushed her.

  Gently, with the tips of the fingers of one hand, but she fell in, and then I watched her sink straight the the bottom, which was probably normal. Instinct would kick in any second. She didn’t move other than the frantic bicycling of her arms. Her Song wailed like it had on the night of her nightmare and my blood ran cold. Ellie darted around, agitated. I could see her bumping up against Caris. Why wasn’t this working? Something was wrong.

  I dove in, grabbed Caris around the shoulders, and pulled. Or tried to. She didn’t budge. It was as if something held her down and wouldn’t let go. I planted my feet on the bottom of the tank, pushing for all I was worth off the bottom. Whatever clung to her let her go and we surged out of the water, landing on the platform in the rush of a small tidal wave, arms and legs tangled. She gasped and coughed and I flipped her over, pounding on her back with the flat of my hand. What the hell just happened?

  She turned herself over and slapped my hands away.

  “I’m so sorry, Caris. You just… God, I’m sorry.”

  “What is wrong with you?” She choked out the words. “Didn’t you hear me?”

  “Yes, I heard you. I just thought… Hell, I don’t know. I’m sorry.” I thought she’d swim was what I’d thought.

  “Would you stop looking at me like that? I’m sorry I’m not a candidate for the Olympic swim team. Not everyone was born part fish.”

  I wanted to argue that point but it would have been a waste of time. She would never believe me. Her body had no idea what to do. Or maybe she would believe me. She had to know something, feel something was different about her. I just didn’t know if it was my place to tell her. And this was more than not being able to swim. Her body didn’t know how to breathe either. That could hurt her. Kill her.

  “That’s not the point. You sank. Like a… Shit Caris, I’ve never seen anything like it.” My hands gripped my knees to keep them from shaking. “And would you please shut up,” I yelled over my shoulder at Ellie.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Caris rolled herself off the ground and wiped the hair out of her face

  “She’s pissed at me.”

  Ellie flipped over then flicked her tail in the air in dismissal, the gesture unmistakable.

  “I think she just gave you the finger,” Caris said and started laughing—a hysterical laugh that didn’t quite hide her fear. I wasn’t ready to laugh yet. All I could think about was the potential danger to her. And the fact that I’d pushed her without thinking.

  “She’ll get over it.” I wasn’t sure I would. My eyes roved over her body. Saltwater ran in rivulets over her smooth skin. I wanted so badly to touch her, but I didn’t trust myself. Less than an hour ago I had promised not to hurt her and that was the first thing I had done. Not that it had been on purpose, but still, it was a dick move. “Does that happen every time?”

  “Pretty much.” She shrugged like it was no big deal, but I knew that to be a lie.

  I was proven correct in the next instant when she burst out crying.

  “Hey. It’s okay.” I had to touch her now because the sound of her crying did something to my insides, churned them up and made my chest ache. When I put my hand on her shoulder she turned toward me and basically collapsed against my chest. I wrapped one arm around her and tucked her close to my side, resting my chin on the top of her head. I let her cry it out, the sound sparking anger. Not at her, but at whoever had done this to her. I pressed my mouth to the top of her head. Her scent was there, hidden under the minty smell of her shampoo. I could smell her, the salty, sweet smell of the girl she was born to be.

  When she pulled herself together, she pushed away from me, wiping her eyes with her hands, embarrassment keeping her from looking at me.

  “I’m sorry for crying all over you. This isn’t normal.” She pointed to the tank where Ellie swam in easy circles. “That wasn’t normal.” Her eyes were still wet with tears when she looked at me. She might as well have punched me in the gut. “What’s wrong with me?”

  “Nothing is wrong with you.” I wanted to tell her she was perfect. Dripping wet and red faced from crying, she was beautiful. I wondered how I’d ever thought maybe she wasn’t pretty. I wondered how I’d ever thought I could hate her. “And you don’t want to be normal. Normal is overrated.”

  Especially around here.

  “That’s easy for you to say. You seem pretty normal to me.” She rose to her feet, gathered her hair at her neck, and squeezed out the excess water.

  I had to laugh. If she could have seen me the day she had called me back from the Deep she wouldn’t have said that. And it stung that she would say it now. Was that how she saw me? As normal? Mundane like Jax and his friends? It kind of made me want to jump in the pool with Ellie, or steal her away to the Deep and show her just how not normal I was. How not normal she was.

  I’d show her normal. “I’ll get that shirt.”

  * * *

  “You don’t have to do this.” Caris stood by Betty, protesting for the third time.

  For the third time I ignored her. Once she’d unlocked her bike, I’d confiscated it and loaded it in the back of Betty. I figured I at least owed her a ride home after pushing her in the tank. And because that was what a normal guy would do: offer a girl he liked a ride home. And I had to admit now that I did like her.

  “It’s done. Get in.” I shut the back of the Bronco. I followed her around to the passenger door and opened it for her. She looked up at me with an odd expression on her face.

  “Don’t you ever wear shoes?”

  We looked down at my feet and I squished my toes together.

  “Rarely,” I said. “When the occasion warrants.” I shut the door and jogged to the driver’s side. When I got in, she had her phone in her lap and was frowning at the screen.

  “Something wrong?” I turned the ignition over then waited for her to put her seat belt on.

  “Not really. Ally invited me to go out on a boat this weekend.” The hint of longing in her voice scared me.

  Hell no. The last thing she needed to do was put herself on a boat. I forced calmness into my voice. “You do know that’s not a good idea, right?”

  “Yeah, my dad and I are supposed to do something together anyway.” She put her phone back in her bag and leaned her head back, letting the wind blow on her face.

  I’d never had a girl in the Bronco before. I’d barely b
een in it myself. No more than a handful of times including today. I’d never bothered to get a driver’s license.

  Caris cradled her bag in her lap over the t-shirt I’d given her to wear. The t-shirt was old and faded, and had a cheesy picture of a sunset on the front. Somehow she made it look good. I was having a hard time not staring.

  “I’m really sorry for pushing you in the tank.”

  “Noah, you can stop apologizing now. It’s okay. I’m over it.”

  She didn’t look over it. Her skin had a sheen to it that hadn’t been there before and excitement flashed in her silver eyes. They looked more silver now than gray. “Energized” was how I would describe the way she looked, which made perfect sense. One short stint in the saltwater and already she looked different. Subtle differences that I doubted she would notice. Caris, who wanted to be normal, had no idea she was a ticking time bomb of not normal.

  “Nice ride, by the way.”

  I had the top off on the Bronco and the wind was warm under the afternoon sun. I wouldn’t have been able to stand the closed confined space otherwise. My bedroom still felt stifling, and I’d been sleeping on the beach most nights, when I slept at all. Which, after running into Sol last night, had been zero hours.

  “Thanks.” I white knuckled the steering wheel. “She was my dad’s, then my brother’s.” I kept my eyes on the road, hoping she didn’t detect the slight quiver in my voice. It was the most I’d said about him in days. For some reason I just needed her to know. “He called her Betty.”

  “Erin told me about him. I’m sorry. You must really miss him.”

  Sometimes, like now, I heard traces of her Song in her voice. When I did, I was pretty sure I’d tell her anything and do anything for her.

  “Yeah, I do.” My hands relaxed on the wheel and the ache I always felt when I thought of Jamie eased a bit.

  “My Nana died a little over a year ago. And my mom when I was a baby. I never knew her though, so it’s not really the same. Nothing like losing a brother.”

  “You live with your dad then?” I was more interested in talking about her, finding out where she had come from, and where she had been all this time and why.

  “Yeah. We’re here for the summer.”

  I looked at her sideways, drawn in by the faraway timbre in her voice. Did she really believe that? Surely she felt the pull of the Deep already. She would be here for a lot longer than the summer. If the Deep ever got a hold of her, she would never be able to leave. I pulled up in front of her house and too late realized I hadn’t asked for directions. She didn’t seem to notice and reached for the door handle. A man who I assumed was her father walked around the side of the house and came out to meet us.

  “Caris, everything all right?” He jogged down the driveway, water sloshing in the bottle he carried. Sweat made a ring around the neck of his shirt, and sand stuck to his legs. It looked like he’d been running on the beach. An anxious crease formed under the hair slicked to his forehead.

  “Yeah, Dad. Noah just gave me a ride home.” She grabbed her bag off the floor then pushed the door shut.

  I hustled around to get her bike out of the back. A strange look passed over her dad’s face when he looked at the Bronco, like looking at an old friend he never expected to see again.

  “I can get that, sir,” I said, reaching in front of him to unload her bike. Caris stood behind us, windblown and dry. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and kissed the top of her head, totally at ease with the show of affection. I supposed that was a good sign, as if the kind of relationship they had was any of my business.

  “Dad, this is Noah. Noah, my dad.” She shifted her bag over one shoulder.

  “Patrick Harper.” Her dad held out his hand and I took it over the seat of Caris’s bike.

  “Nice to meet you, sir.” I might have squeezed his hand a little tighter than was necessary as we looked at each other in mutual regard. He knew what I was. I knew what he wasn’t. He kind of looked at me like I was his worst nightmare, and for someone who’d been lying to his daughter about what she was, I could understand. But then, I knew she wasn’t really his. That would be impossible.

  The urge was there to steal her away. This man might have raised her, but it was me she had called, and I felt a certain degree of responsibility for her, an innate need to protect her from harm, whether it was from this man who called himself her father or even Sol.

  “Thanks, Noah.” Caris touched the top of my shoulder and it felt like a shock of electricity shot down my arm. I barely kept myself from jerking away from her.

  “No problem.” I closed the back of the Bronco. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Harper.”

  He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, then looked at Caris and thought better of it. Honestly, I’m glad he didn’t say more. I didn’t trust myself right now. Didn’t trust myself not to blurt out the truth. That would be about as effective as pushing her in the water had been. Caris needed a more delicate hand than that, but all my hand seemed to want to do was punch Mr. Harper in the face, the lying bastard. Was this how it was going to be from now on? This desire to crush anyone I thought might hurt her, even if it was her own dad?

  “You too. Thanks for giving Caris a ride.” He ushered her toward the house as though he sensed he was in some kind of danger from me.

  “Anytime,” I said, climbing back into the Bronco.

  Mr. Harper looked back at me after Caris had gone into the garage with her bike—a sad look of the inevitable. I didn’t envy him.

  I’d give him a few more days, but if he didn’t tell her the truth, I would.

  Thirteen

  Caris

  “Dress up? Really?” I stared at Ally, mouth agape.

  Her bandana print bikini had little rhinestones sewn into the fabric. Cut-off denim shorts that showed off the curve of her butt cheeks were somehow more erotic than the bottoms alone. Her hair was done up in about a half a dozen loose braids, and gold hoop earrings dangled from each ear. A generous amount of black eye liner shadowed her eyes. She held up a tube and a brush, a wicked mad scientist smile pasted on her face.

  “Let’s do you,” she said, eyes alight with excitement.

  Apparently, this ritual was part of some festival celebrating a notorious pirate named Billy Bowlegs. I’d seen advertisements all over the place and had heard the shots of cannon fire all morning long—a reenactment of the pirate Billy taking the town Pirates of the Caribbean style. I’d gotten roped into participating in some kind of boat parade, which sounded like fun, except that the boat in question belonged to Jax. Of course, that’s not what I’d told my dad when I bailed on our little bike outing. He’d been left under the distinct impression I was staying at Erin’s house and would be hanging by the pool all day.

  “No thanks.” I couldn’t imagine how fast the make-up would melt under the scorching sun. I had two cans of SPF 50 sunscreen in my bag and planned on using every bit of it.

  “Well, at least put these on.” She dug around in Erin’s jewelry box, coming up with a pair of silver hoops. They were smaller than hers, which suited me fine. “Oh, and this.” She looped a bandana around my head and tied it off do-rag style. I snuck a peek in the small mirror above Erin’s dresser. Jack Sparrow I was not.

  “Arrgh,” I said to my reflection.

  Ally’s phone beeped from the bed. She swiped it up, devouring the screen with her painted eyes. “He’s almost here.” Ally did a little happy dance around the end of the bed.

  “Who’s almost here?” Erin came out of the bathroom, her black bikini outlined underneath a red lace cover-up. Hoops seemed to be the standard issue pirate accessory. Her hair hung down her back in a mass of intricate twists. I wasn’t quite sure what held it together.

  “Jax. Brendon and Tyler are going to meet us on the island on their jet skis.” Ally smiled at me, eyes narrowed to slits of pale blue. “Tyler is really into you.”

  “Oh, really.” I sat down on the end of the bed, my lack of enthus
iasm obvious.

  “Come on, Caris. Tyler is really cute, and he’s fun. He’s the perfect summer fling,” she said as though she’d given it a lot of thought on my behalf.

  “I think Caris has someone else in mind.” Erin lifted her eyebrows at me.

  “Who?” Ally looked between us, a confused crease marring her forehead. “She doesn’t know anyone else.”

  “Tall, blond, eyes like the ocean,” Erin quipped, totally making fun of me.

  “Noah Jacobs?” Ally’s jaw dropped, eyes darting between the two of us before settling on Erin. “And you approve?”

  “She doesn’t need my permission to go out with Noah,” Erin said, grabbing a backpack off the floor and stuffing a towel inside.

  “Wait a minute, ladies.” I held my hands up as though I was the referee of a fight. “Noah is just a friend. I barely know the guy.”

  Ally crossed her arms in front of her chest and her eyes hard-lined on Erin. They had that best friends thing going on where words weren’t actually necessary. “Does she even know?”

  “Know what?” Now it was my turn to be confused.

  “Nothing.” Erin took my hand and pulled me off the bed then looked pointedly at Ally. “I think your boyfriend’s here.”

  I peered out the window. It had been dark the night she’d told me her tragic story, so I hadn’t gotten a chance to see the view. The Choctawhatchee Bay sparkled under the sun like it had been covered in twinkle lights. I couldn’t even begin to count the number of boats cruising toward the island. The one pulling up to the dock looked big enough, the empty mast standing tall against a bright blue sky. Jax stood behind the wheel, guiding the boat to the dock, his baseball cap pulled over dark shades. My heart skipped a beat, and I squelched an inner warning that had Noah’s voice. I wanted to be out on the water no matter the risks.

  “Come on, y’all. The sun is calling.” Ally bounced out of the room and Erin and I followed with much less bounce.

  We walked down the dock, arms laden with towels and coolers. The sun warmed my face, and the ever-present breeze sang over my skin. Ally was already onboard when we got to the boat and I handed my cooler to Jax.