Coral & Bone

by Tiffany Daune

  Forcing a smile to her lips, she said, “I’m sorry I destroyed your bedroom. You must cherish these things.” She ran her hand along the bedpost. “Since they are all you have.” Blood had dried on his cheek, but the spot where he had hit his head on the marble still bled. She felt a swell of pity and had to fight against reaching out to touch him. She tore her eyes away and studied the planks of the oak flooring. Resisting was hard. Maybe she was foolish to think she had a chance.

  “It’s okay,” he said, interrupting her thoughts. “I still have eighteen other rooms that haven’t been visited by your presence. Perhaps the next room will fare better?”

  She could hear the smile on his face, but she didn’t dare look up. Stay strong. “This is a lot for me,” she said. “I know what you want from me, so why haven’t you killed me yourself and just taken the bracelet?”

  “I can’t. You have to offer it to me. There are many secrets that have been kept from you. Your power and the power of the bracelet are linked.”

  “I just got this bracelet. I had my power my whole life.”

  “You think you’ve had power. Like a lion in a zoo thinks he’s free. But truly set the lion free, let him roam the wild plains, and you have an entirely new beast.”

  “I don’t understand,” Halen said.

  “You wouldn’t and that is why the bracelet is better off with me. Even Natalie could see that. Why do you think she gave it up?” He nodded toward the bracelet. “Why do you think you have it?”

  “What? What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying she knew where the bracelet belonged.”

  “And where does it belong?” Halen asked.

  “With me, of course.”

  “I don’t believe Natalie would want you to have it. She spent her life training to defeat you. I’m sure you saw that through the orb.” Halen’s mind was spinning with these new ideas, making it hard to focus. Asair knew. He had seen Natalie. He could tell her what happened to her. If she killed him now, she would never know the truth. She just had to keep it together a little longer.

  “I saw a lot of things. I saw how bitter Natalie was and how willing she was to let me into her mind. The Tari kept her from your mother just as they kept you from your powers. You can’t help but feel some betrayal?”

  Halen couldn’t deny that feeling. All the lies were what fuelled her anger. So far most of her magick was triggered by her anger. “So Natalie felt betrayed? And you’re saying she left. So she wasn’t killed by the hunters?”

  “So many questions. If you want answers you have to answer some on my questions first.” Asair lay back, resting on his elbows.

  She had relaxed him. He was no longer set to strike, and even though she had a hard time controlling her own restless feelings, at least Asair was tame for now.

  “What do you want to know?” she asked.

  “I want to know about your guardian. Not the girl who you thought was your guardian.” He smiled that mischievous smile. “I want to know about the boy.”

  “There’s nothing to tell.” Halen was telling the truth. She didn’t know what to say about Dax. Her feelings were just as jumbled when it came to him. She thought of him with the bracelet on his wrist. As much as she tried, she couldn’t believe he was her guardian.

  “You know I saved you from him,” Asair said.

  “By hanging him from the ceiling?”

  “No, by giving you my blood.”

  She inhaled sharply. She had drawn her attention away from his blood and the mention made her weak all over again. If Dax was her guardian, where the hell was he now? She needed help—now!

  “How does your blood keep me safe from Dax?” she asked.

  “You would be all over him, if it weren’t for me. You couldn’t help it. Just as I couldn’t help falling for Elizabeth. I saved you from the heartache.”

  She hardly thought this was true, but then she had kissed Dax. It was impossible to resist doing so and Dax had kissed her back. “So you loved your guardian—Elizabeth?”

  “I loved her more than the sun, the stars and the air. She was my everything. Your guardian is linked to you in ways you cannot undo. Your soul’s seam is stitched with the same thread.” He thumped his chest. “Even after her death I could still feel Elizabeth tugging at my soul. I can feel her tortured soul trapped in the hunter’s arrow. I still feel her. And the Etlins, they did nothing. I begged them to dispel the hunters’ curse, so her soul could be free, but they sent me away.”

  “And that is why you burned Etlis?”

  “Each and every day the hunters’ curse remains is another day of suffering for Elizabeth. They needed to feel the pain. You are lucky you have not fully bonded with your guardian. Now you never will. I have saved you from that torture. Soon your heart will belong to me, and I will take care of you. You won’t feel the pain of his death.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying once I leave here, I will take care of your guardian. There is no need for him to live.”

  “You’re not going anywhere.” Halen gripped the mattress. He might have the answers she needed but she couldn’t wait any longer.

  His lips turned with a wicked grin. “I’ll get what I want. We can do this one of two ways. One, you can give me that pretty trinket willingly. Or two, well, you already know two.”

  “Yeah, wait for me to get so lovesick I want to give you gifts.”

  He laughed, sitting up next to her. He met her gaze and she bit back her lip. “I want you to wait. I would love to have you follow me around, drape your arm over me in the night. I would gladly wait around another hundred years just to have your lips…”

  “Stop.” She held her hand up. “I get it.” Her gaze shifted past his shoulder. Could she do this—could she really kill him? She could run back to the portal, but she knew better. He would follow. It was too risky. There was only one way out of this dimension and his blood just complicated things. As much as she fought the idea, there was only one way. Still she needed more time. “I have to know one thing.”

  “Anything,” he said.

  “Why do you want this so badly?”

  “The Etlins betrayed me. The villagers who swore to protect Elizabeth and our human mothers gave them up to the hunters. So my answer darling is revenge. I know it’s a simple reason, but I know it will bring me peace, and if not, at least it will be a whole lot of fun. Every generation will die. I will remove the flames from Etlis, but I will rule the realms and they will all answer to me. All the magick will be mine. And I will show them what it really feels like to suffer.”

  She was not expecting this answer. She didn’t realize his plan involved ruling the realms. He was crazy. She swallowed hard. “So, in all these years, there was no part of you that considered forgiveness?”

  He choked back the laughter. “You’re one to talk. Have you forgiven? Your own mother and father betrayed you. They conceived Natalie and you, so you could destroy me. They filled your head with half-truths your entire life. Even your own guardian lied to you. Forgiveness doesn’t come that easy.”

  She had to admit, he was right. Tasar had said forgiveness was as easy as love, but love for Halen was filled with betrayal. Dax had been the last straw; she couldn’t believe he hadn’t told her sooner.

  He brushed her cheek. “I would never lie to you.”

  She recoiled from his touch, and as she followed the trickle of blood lining his temple, she fought back the tears. This is what her life had become. Sitting in another dimension with a boy with the heart of a demon to trust. Her breath grew heavy, the reality pressing against her chest. She stood, distancing herself from him.

  “See, we are the same.” He stood.

  She thought of the red sky shadowing Etlis, and the mermaids who were once Elosians, now cursed with tails and an insatiable love for him. If he ever got out of this dimension he would make the realms suffer, and if he didn’t die the fires he had created would burn through Etlis and destroy the worl
d she knew. Everyone she ever cared about would die. As much as she felt betrayed by them all—she loved them more. She was nothing like him, and she would not be a part of him. Not now. Not ever.

  “If what you are telling me is true. I’m sorry the hunters killed Elizabeth and I’m sorry you feel her pain.” She inhaled a deep breath. “But you are not the same as me.” She shoved his chest not just with her hand but with the force of the anger that welled under her skin. He slid along the wooden floor, not stopping until he slammed into the wall, and Halen lowered her hand when she heard his skull crack.

  He showed no signs of pain. “So you want to play a little more?” he asked.

  “No. I’m done here and so are you.” The fire under her skin leapt from her fingertips. It caught the edge of his shirt and he snuffed the flames with flick of his fingers.

  With a wave of her hand she snapped off the four posts from the bed frame, and then drilled them through the wooden floor, making a cage around him. “Having any more fantasies about you and me and this bed?” She smiled. For the first time, fear flecked his eyes, and it felt good to see him squirm.

  Then he nodded and the posts flew into the air, spiking the ceiling above. He pounced, thrusting her back to the floor. Hovering over her, his hot breath brushed her ear. “You really do like to destroy things don’t you? You are so much like me.” She could smell the sickly sweet blood dripping from his temple onto her face.

  He will take away all you love, she told herself. You can’t let him live this time.

  She wound her fingers in the twine of his hair. “I’m nothing like you.” She yanked his head back, so his mouth opened wide, and as his jaw fell open, she inhaled. She breathed him in deeply as if she were taking in the entire ocean. Her lungs expanded. She felt she might explode. He squirmed in her grip, but she held him tightly, locking him in place. She could see now a girl in her mind, beautiful as spring, her hair a halo of dark curls. The girl smiled, calling out to Asair. His body jerked in Halen’s arms. She had reached his seam.

  An oak tree with winding branches emerged along the line. Three bodies hung in a neat row swaying in the summer wind. Halen inhaled an even deeper breath. She wanted to see their faces. She wanted to look Elizabeth in the eye. She lifted her hand in the air and waved. The ropes snapped and the bodies fell in a heap to the grass. Asair hovered over them, his tears a river carving their way into the valley below.

  When Halen looked up, she found Dax standing along the seam, behind him a wall of light. “Stop, Halen!” he said. “You need to come back to me.”

  “I don’t need you!” she screamed. “You lied to me. You all lied.”

  Dax was like a mirage on a summer’s day, wavering in and out of her sight. His voice was the only thing steady in her mind. “I was wrong,” he said. “I wanted to protect you. I listened to the others, but if you come back to me I will never lie to you again. You have to trust me.”

  She looked to Asair crying over the bodies, his tears now up to her ankles. Her heart ached, thumping loudly over Dax’s voice. She could feel Asair, the rise of anger swelling as his grief was shadowed by rage. She held on to the rage, feeling the rush of energy jolt through her.

  “Halen, let go of him.” Dax held his hands out to her and he was gone.

  She spun around. Asair and the bodies were gone too. The valley below now swelled with a river, waves churning and thrashing. Villagers scattered, running for shelter, climbing onto their rooftops. Halen waded through the water which was now up to her waist.

  The villagers promised to protect my love. Asair sobbed and the water rose. They were supposed to hide our mothers, but instead they let the hunters have them. They’re dead. They are cowards and fools to think the hunters are stronger than me. My beautiful Elizabeth is dead.

  Halen shook her head. These were not her thoughts, though she could feel his pain.

  Look at my mother’s face. She wasn’t even a siren, neither was Elizabeth’s mother. And the hunters killed them anyway. And the villagers hung their bodies, so I would come, so the hunters could kill me too. Well, I’m here and they will pay!

  Asair’s rage clawed at Halen’s emotions, their two seams merging as one. His sparks of rage now bolts of lightning charging under her flesh. Commanding the water, Halen thrust it upward, and then with a wave of her hand she unleashed the wave against the village. Asair whispered through her thoughts. That’s it, darling, let them have it.

  She thrust another wave against the side of a house.

  Keep breathing, we’re almost there. Asair urged her. You’re so much stronger than I ever expected. We’re going to do wondrous things, you and I.

  “Halen!”

  She spun on her heel, her palms outstretched ready to cast the next wave, when Dax appeared before her. The crease between his eyes was deeper than she had ever seen. As he raised his wrist, the glimmer of the silver bracelet caught her attention. On his fingertip, a single butterfly fluttered with ivory wings. “Remember who you are.” He released the butterfly and it floated up over the dark water.

  He can’t make you feel as good as I can, Asair whispered through her mind. Release him and accept me.

  Halen followed the butterfly, its delicate wings spreading the fog that had captured her thoughts. She could clearly see the village sinking under the waves she had cast. Her pulse quickened. This wasn’t her. She would never hurt these people. Asair’s rage was fueling her magick. The butterfly floated toward her, and as the butterfly’s wings spread the darkness, she knew what she had to do.

  She concentrated now on the wind, beckoning it to her, as she summoned more butterflies. Ivory-winged butterflies flew out from her palms, transforming to indigo and black as they swarmed the darkness absorbing Asair’s anger and rage. He couldn’t control her magick. This was not who she wanted to be. She crawled up to the seam, pulling herself out of his darkness.

  “Where are you going?” Asair shouted. His voice separated from her thoughts. “Don’t leave me!”

  “It’s time for you to forgive!” Halen shouted and she blew a thousand fluttering butterflies into the air. They swarmed him, encircling his body in a tornado of wings. He swatted them, but he could not push their forceful wings away. As the last butterfly fluttered free from her palm, her hands fell at her side.

  She was back in the bedroom now, with Asair slumped in her arms. His mouth hung open, his eyes closed. His skin was as pale as his stark hair. With what little energy she had left, she pushed him off her. Her chest felt so heavy, her limbs the same as if the entire dimension were crushing around her. She had to get out, but she was so tired. She didn’t even know if she could make it to the door.

  Her memories flashed. When he had taken the coral and bone, he had placed it in his pocket. Reaching over him, she paused. His chest was still. She could not hear a heartbeat. Carefully she slid her hand in his pant pocket. Touching him turned her stomach; all desire for him was dead. Her fingers fumbled over several objects until she found the vial. Slowly she curled her fingers around the glass vial, when suddenly his body jerked. Asair’s eyes opened wide, and Halen raised her fist to strike him. But his eyes rolled back as his head lolled to the side. She let out a heavy breath and lowered her fist.

  Halen clutched the vial in her hand. It took several attempts to unscrew the lid because her fingers were shaking so hard. When the vial finally opened she barely had enough strength to bring it to her lips. The sweetness dripped under her tongue and down her throat. Her fingers pricked alive. The rest of her body responded to each drop. Still, when the vial was empty she could barely lift herself from the floor. Using the wall for support, she shuffled into the hallway. As she stepped on to the blue carpet the door shut with a whoosh behind her.

  The door with her black mark was two away, yet she felt miles apart. Pressing her shoulder to the wall she walked ahead, when she suddenly was captured by the sound of a girl’s voice.

  “Are you there?” the girl asked. “Is anyone out there?�
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  Halen glanced over the doors. Had Asair been lying? Was he not alone?

  “Please don’t leave me.” The girl called out, and Halen realized her voice was coming from the translucent bubble. She fumbled her way to the iron rail and peered over. The motion alone made her head feel like it was floating. The coral and bone wasn’t working. She had to leave, but if there was someone trapped inside, someone Asair had held captive, she couldn’t leave them.

  “I’m here,” Halen called out, but no one answered. As she turned to leave, the girl called once again.

  “Don’t go.”

  Halen focused on the voice, and the section of Earth popped up to her. Her eyes widened as the piece revealed a girl huddled in a corner. Her dark hair covered her face and gray blanket draped her shoulders. She was in a room of tinted glass, and though the girl couldn’t see the other side a boy watched her, observing her like a specimen. He wore black from head to toe, with matching combat boots. At his hip he holstered a long serrated knife. His features were just as sharp at his weapon. His hair spiked. Everything about him made Halen prickle.

  “Emil please—there is nothing more I can do!” the girl yelled, and Halen’s spine ripped with chills. She knew this name. The hunter had been sent to find her and bring her back to Emil. Who was this girl? Was she a siren and why did he not kill her?

  Suddenly, the glass parted and Emil stood before the girl. As she rose to her feet, the blanket fell from her. She was small in size, though she was cuffed with chains around her wrists and feet as if she were a giant.

  “You never should have given up the bracelet,” he said. “Now I need to find your sister.”

  Halen clutched the rail tighter, the metal of the rail chiming with the bracelet. The girl’s hair still covered her face. If only she could see her. Was this… No it couldn’t be. But it was too much of a coincidence to not be. Natalie?

  “Good luck,” she spat her words. “Halen’s a ghost. She doesn’t exist. Just a story made up by the Tari. I’m the only blue moon siren.”