Oh geez, her mom was going to freak when she saw the fissure in the concrete. She would go ballistic when she found the house empty. Halen thrust through the water, picking up her pace, when suddenly her nerves ripped with a static charge. The sparks gripped her body, smoldering. She stopped swimming and floated for a moment. The flames skipped, catching fire within each of her cells, when she caught a glimpse of something in the water. She blinked the water from her eyes, and when the clouds drifted away, Halen saw her.
Tage’s arms floated beside her like broken wings. Her face was cast toward the moon, while her pale body bobbed on top of the dark waves.
“Tage!” Halen called out.
Kicking harder, Halen’s legs worked like scissors cutting through the choppy water. “I’m coming!” A wave rolled over her head, shoving her away, but she dug through the next wave—fighting the ocean—ignoring the warning flames. She spread the water with her fingers, reaching toward Tage’s limp body. Halen clasped her shoulder, and when her fingertips gripped her skin, a blast of sharp pricks sprung along Halen’s arm, as if a nail gun had unloaded against her flesh. She screamed, letting go at once, when suddenly Tage spun around and grabbed her by the arm.
A girl with wide eyes black as a corpse’s nails peered back at her. Thin, dark veins marred her alabaster skin. Her inky slick hair glistened like a web along the water. Her full black lips spread over needle-pointed teeth, as a silvery scaled tail rose out of the water, and curled over the girl’s head.
What the…? This wasn’t Tage. This wasn’t human. Her gaze fixed on the tail. Fish?
“Mermaid,” the girl whispered as if reading Halen’s questioning thoughts.
No way. No freaking way. Halen wrenched her arm away and churned the water as she kicked toward the shore. You’re hallucinating. Hypothermia is setting in. Mermaids are not real, she told herself, though the raging fire beneath her skin said otherwise.
The mermaid slapped her tail against the water, and Halen flew back. She caught sight of a second tail and dodged the fin before it made contact. “Leave me alone!” Halen screamed. She didn’t see the tail underwater, but she felt the pressure as the slick scales curled around her waist. The mermaid’s fierce gaze fixed on Halen. Halen clawed the air, and as she did, the mermaid dragged her hooked talon along Halen’s birthmark, only stopping when her talon caught on the silver bracelet. The mermaid pulled at her wrist, bringing the bracelet under her nose. Her glistening eyes narrowed, and she shook Halen’s arm so forcefully, she thought her bones might snap. Halen twisted out of the mermaid’s reach, when two others blocked her path. She was outnumbered.
The howling wind swept the waves around Halen, and the mermaid who had caught her by the wrist rose up from the water, so her scaled chest gleamed in the moonlight. She spread her webbed arms, commanding the waves so they formed a tall wall of rippling water. The other mermaids surrounded Halen, and three more liquid barriers sprouted from the ocean.
“Let me go!” Halen shouted as she shoved against the water wall, but she could not penetrate the rippling force. Beneath her, another translucent barrier slid into place, so she was no longer floating but standing. She reached toward the sky as the last liquid barrier sealed her inside.
“No!” Halen cried. She was terrified of tight spaces. She couldn’t even ride in an elevator without fear of suffocating.
A mermaid pressed her face against the barrier, her black lips rounded as if blowing a kiss and the walls crackled to ice.
Halen pounded the walls. Her toes began to prick from the cold, and she discovered the fire under her skin had quelled. Even if she wanted to unleash the flames, they had been snuffed by the chill. Suddenly, the cage of ice started to submerge. Ice doesn’t sink, Halen assured her racing thoughts. But mermaids didn’t exist either! Her panicked breath escaped her chattering lips in white wisps.
“Let me out!” Halen cried. She pressed her hand to her ribs, now coated in a wash of blood. She had been cut. No longer able to stand the biting frost on her feet, she crumpled to her knees.
Just then the entire cage plunged into the ocean. The mermaids followed holding glowing orbs to light the descent. With her head pressed to the ice floor, Halen screamed. Her tears froze in her eyelashes, and an aching numbness spread under her skin. Would she drown? Would she freeze? Would she bleed out first? Death had options.
The soft glow of the mermaids’ orbs flickered through the translucent walls. Halen wished for the sparks to ignite under her skin. All the times she had tried to suppress them, and now she needed them. The ice creaked and moaned with the sinking pressure. Above, a crack worked its way along the sheet of ice, followed by another. The two cracks joined with a loud burst, puncturing a bullet-size hole in the cube. The ocean gushed in like a geyser. Halen kicked the walls with her numb toes, hoping to expand the fissure before the cube filled. She wondered if Tage and Ezra were trapped in cubes beneath the ocean or alive at all. Her body floated to the top of the cube, and with her lips pressed to the ice, she sucked in the remaining air.
With her last breath in her lungs, Halen kicked as hard as she could and the cage of ice cracked. She kicked again and this time the walls shattered. The mermaids’ orbs dimmed to darkness. With nothing to bar her in, Halen swam as fast as she could. But it wasn’t fast enough. A fin swiped her side, and she drifted back down.
Halen closed her eyes, and the boy from her sketchbook flashed before her. His eyes were narrowed, his pupils inflamed with rage. His lips parted wide as if shouting. He had never appeared to her this way.
No more drawings, she said to the boy. This is goodbye.
Maybe it was her mind playing tricks on her, not wanting to be alone with death, but for the first time the boy answered her back.
Not yet.
Three
Heaven was not what Halen expected—maybe this was hell. The walls surrounding her jutted with uneven gray rock, curving up over her head like a dome. A thin coat of glimmering, golden dust lined the ceiling, casting a soft glow of light. Her hand bumped against a solid white stone table beside the bed she was lying on. A goblet, crafted of the same stone, sat on top. As she lifted her arm, pain shot down her side. Clasping her waist, her fingers pressed against a slimy substance. A dark emerald-green patch clung to her skin from her armpit to her hip. “What the…?” Slowly, she peeled back the layer. Wincing, she ran her finger over a red mark, where the mermaid had carved a long line with her talon. A flash of fangs and nails and a cage of ice pressed her memories. Had the mermaids taken her somewhere? Had there been mermaids at all?
There were no signs of water, only a pebbled floor. The mermaids would need water to reach her. Had she been rescued? But where was she now? “I’ve got to get out of here,” she whispered. The only problem was, where was here? As she lifted her leg, she discovered another patch of green covering the black streaks running under her skin. She peeled back the patch and brought it under her nose. It smelled like sour tea leaves. The texture was as slimy as wet fish skin.
She pushed herself off the bed and tried to stand, but her legs felt like they were stuffed with pudding. She toppled back, and the mattress crunched under her weight, as if she had fallen in a pile of dried leaves. She ran her hand along the lumpy mattress. The cloth was rough like burlap. A bit of dark green material poked from a small tear. Halen dug her finger in the hole and pulled it out. Rubbing the material between her fingers, she realized it was some kind of plant. She crumbled the bit, making a green dust. The smell was similar to the patches that had coated her skin. Clapping her hands, she blew off the dust.
“You’re awake,” a boy’s voice said.
She jumped and scanned her surroundings, but found no one.
“Who’s there?” Finding her balance, she stood. Her bare feet pressed into the pebbles. “Where am I?” she called out. “Who are you? Are you the one who brought me here?”
“I am,” he said, emerging from the shadows.
Her breath caught like a ho
ok in fish’s gullet. “You!” Sparks trickled along her arms. Halen blinked, thinking her eyes… no, her mind, was out of focus. Seeing mermaids had been a delusion, but this… She shook her hands by her side, fighting the urge to reach out and touch him. Standing a few feet away with his arms crossed over his chest was the boy from her sketchbook. His hair was slicked back over his high forehead, which made his eyes appear much larger than she had ever drawn them. And the color…they weren’t gray at all, but a storm of blues in a turbulent sky.
“Who are you?” She now reached toward him and as she did, her hand stopped mid-air as though it had hit a wall. There didn’t appear to be anything in front of her. Raising her other hand, a slight buzz tickled her palms. She placed them higher and then a little lower, like a mime in an invisible box. Another trap? Her chest tightened as if all the air had been sucked from the room. “What is this? Am I locked in here?”
“You’re in there for your own good.” His voice was deeper than she had imagined, and his tone reprimanding, even though he appeared to be the same age as her. He nodded toward her wrist. “Where did you get the bracelet? Did you steal it?”
“What? No!” Why was everyone so obsessed with her bracelet? Halen clasped the silver band Daspar had given her. “I didn’t steal anything. This was a gift.” Sparks pricked the back of her neck, working their way down between her shoulder blades. “You let me out of here, right now!” She slammed her fist against the invisible barrier, and a shock ran up her arm. Her limb grew heavy and fell limp by her side. As much as she tried, she could not lift it.
“You shouldn’t do that. Your injuries are extensive. You’re only going to delay the healing process.”
Healing process? This was not a hospital. She thought of Ezra and how he too had been interested in the bracelet. Were they part of a team? “Look, I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing here. Are you with Ezra? Did he put you up to this? Where’s Tage?” Anger swelled within her as she thought of Tage. What had they done with her? Halen rammed the barrier, and as she did, her entire body wilted and she collapsed to the ground. She tried lifting her arm, but it was if she were wearing a concrete block for a ring. Only her eyes were free to move, and they rested on the boy.
He shook his head, letting out a heavy sigh. “I told you not to do that.” He turned and walked from her view.
She wanted to scream—demand he let her out—beg him to peel her off the ground. But her throat felt stitched closed. How dare he? A tear trickled down her cheek. She couldn’t even lift a finger to brush it away. Halen only hoped that wherever Tage was, she was better off.
Four
Gray clouds fought the rising sun for a space in the sky. Tage yanked her collar up over her ears to block the whistling winds. She wiped her sandy hands on her pants only to find more sand. She needed a shower and cup of hot tea. Standing outside the condominium where she lived with Daspar, she inhaled a deep breath. Hopefully Halen’s mom was still at the hospital, so she wouldn’t know Halen was missing yet. Tage wasn’t sure how she was going to break the news to Daspar. Understanding was not one of Daspar’s virtues. Really, there wasn’t anything she could have done differently though. She had waited all night on the beach, thinking maybe Halen would surface. There was no sign of her. When she had made the decision to divert the boy instead of sticking with Halen, she thought she would be able to double back and find her. The boy had surprised her. She hadn’t expected him to mirror her every move. He was fast—too fast. Being born a siren, half-Elosian, and half-human gave Tage the advantage in the water. She could navigate the ocean like a shark, but still she couldn’t lose the boy. He was always one stroke behind her. He had to be a siren like her. She had to swim miles before he finally gave up and headed to the shore. She watched him as he gathered his clothes and disappeared down the beach pathway. She wanted to follow him, find out why he had come to the beach house, but if she had tailed him she wouldn’t be there for Halen when she surfaced. But Halen hadn’t surfaced.
Slowly she opened the door a crack. Peeking inside, she saw Daspar’s desk piled high with books. His chair was empty. The kitchen was vacant as well. She quietly stepped inside.
As she eased the front door closed, Daspar’s voice raised the hairs along her arms. “Long night?” She spun on her heel to find him with a brown paper bag stuffed with groceries in his arms.
“Um, you could say that.” She skimmed his face for any signs of anger. He was placid, for now.
“You look horrible. Why are you...?” His gaze fell to her sand-coated jeans and bare feet. She hadn’t wanted to go back to Halen’s and retrieve her boots. She didn’t want to take the chance Corinne would be waiting for her there. Halen’s mom had always been so nice to her. How could she tell her she had lost Halen? She held up her hands. “Let me explain before you go all ape on me.”
Daspar kicked the door shut and locked it behind him. He set the grocery bag on the kitchen counter. There wasn’t a lot of space in this condo. The living room, eating area and open kitchen were in one big room. They each had a bedroom, but they shared a bathroom. Tage longed for a mansion, with halls to run down, and places to hide from Daspar’s intense stare.
“Start talking,” he said flatly.
“There was boy. I mean a siren.”
“Who?”
“I didn’t recognize him. He’s not in our database. He’s totally off the grid. Or he’s a new siren.” Tage played this thought out in her mind. He could be a new siren. It was totally possible another siren gave his soul to Ezra. Sirens could transfer their souls to others. If a siren merged its soul with a human’s soul, the human would share the siren’s abilities, making them able to navigate the water. It was a rare exchange. But maybe? “I don’t know who he is. He came to the beach house.” She traced her toe along the wooden floor. “Halen’s gone.”
Without a word, Daspar unpacked the groceries, sorting them into the fridge and then into the cupboards, while Tage chewed the end of her nail. She hated silence. She preferred a good match of yelling. At least that way she knew what the other person was thinking.
“Did he take her?” he finally asked.
“No, she’s still in the ocean or she could have resurfaced somewhere else. She could be anywhere.”
He tapped the counter with the back of his ring. It was big gaudy piece of jewelry, with an oversized square red ruby in the center. The ring looked out place with his sleek clothes. It looked out of place for anyone in the twenty-first century. The tapping grated on her nerves, as she waited for him to respond.
“Go clean up,” he said.
“That’s it? You’re not going to yell at me? I lost her. You told me to watch out for her. We’ve been shadowing her every move. You’re not going to freak out on me? You’re not going to send me back out there to look for her?”
“There’s nothing you could have done. This is my fault. I should have never let them move here. Not yet, anyway.” He ran his hand over his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “Go take a shower, kiddo. You’ve had a rough night.”
“But what about Halen?”
“This is a problem. We’re going to have to adjust the plan.”
The plan. Tage sighed. The plan was always changing. Some days Tage wished Daspar had left her in the hospital, hooked to all those drugs that made her forget. Sometimes when you agree to something, you only think of the here and now; you don’t think of how you will feel three months down the road. A lot had changed since Tage had lost her parents. She wasn’t the fragile girl who Daspar had taken in. Fighting the ocean with the boy on her heels made things very clear in Tage’s mind. She no longer had a death wish. She wanted to live.
Daspar’s golden stare narrowed. He grabbed a ripe green apple from the counter and held it in his hand. “You have to always be prepared for change.” He tossed the apple up in the air and caught it. She followed the motion as he repeated it. “Always be ready.” The third time, when he released the apple in the air, he ble
w out, and the apple burst into flames. He blew again, and the burning apple spiralled toward her.
The apple spun as if in slow motion. Swiftly, she brushed the sand from her sleeve into her cupped hand. She blew the gritty grains, so they spun in a vortex and an arrow formed. When she blew out, the sand arrow shot through the whirling ball of flames. The arrow exploded, extinguishing the fire, and the apple dropped to the ground at her feet. She picked it up. One half was waxy green, the other half blackened to a crisp. Holding the apple up to her mouth, she took a bite.
“The sand was quick thinking.” Daspar walked to her closing the space between them. He nodded toward her arm. “The bracelet will ground your thoughts. Make it easier to concentrate on spells. Don’t take it off.”
“Are you serious?” The bracelet was so not her. She wore several bands of leather strapped around her wrist. Her favorite was the one studded with tiny pewter skulls. The silver cuff from Daspar was too wide, the intricate engravings too much like the birthmark she had cleverly hidden under a net of tattoos. Tattoos her parents thought would help hide her from the Elosians and the hunters. “It sucks,” she said referring to the bracelet, but her thoughts were drawn to her parents. Death sucked.
“I don’t ever want to see it off your wrist.” He towered over her. She was tall for fifteen, taller than most boys at the school, but Daspar was a tree. She longed to get out from under his shadow.
“Do I really need to wear it? I mean, I can read Halen’s emotions without it. I am an Empath like my mom—remember.”
Tage’s mom had been an Empath. She could read the emotions and the true intentions of the soul, and Tage had this gift as well. One of Tage’s duties was to report any emotions of Halen’s that were out of the ordinary. Tage reported “out of the ordinary” every day to Daspar, but she had kept the exploding windshield a secret. She had wanted to punch Josh herself for getting all grabby with Halen. He deserved more than a broken windshield.
Coral & Bone Page 3
