The Evensong

by Lindsay Payton

  The wind blew hard and the crack happened again, though this time I saw it was just some fragment in the air, blown up by the gusts. I took a deep breath and walked away.

  “Don’t be Nerio,” I muttered to myself.

  Hours passed without event and I tried to forget about the small crack. The gale outside was increasingly worse, but there was still no rain. Everyone seemed to be under a huge amount of stress that I didn’t understand, though I hoped it had nothing to do with any other Elementals. Since Linden didn’t seem to be in the best mood, I didn’t question him and I didn’t seek out Calder when he was alone. As night had fallen and I was too tired to keep guessing, I decided sleep was the best option. Linden was still hanging around the group, and I pulled him aside for a second to say I was going to sleep.

  “It’s not that late,” he insisted at first.

  I checked the time. “It’s 11:30, that’s late enough for me. Plus you seem to be in an important conversation. I’ll just see you in the morning.”

  “No, I’ll be up there soon. We just have to finish comforting Nerio, then I’ll be up.”

  I glanced into the kitchen, only seeing Tallulah and the back of Nerio’s head. “Fine, but don’t mention my name.”

  He just laughed as I walked away, but I sincerely hoped he wouldn’t. The last thing they needed to hear was that he was leaving them to be around me.

  There was a fair amount of sand on the floor when I walked in and I hurried to the window; I had forgotten to close it. The sound of the ocean was almost deafening, and I was only muted when the window was shut and locked. Even though I’d convinced myself things were all right, I still pulled the thin curtain across the glass.

  I took off my dress and put it on the end of the bed, wondering if Tally was keen on giving up a few more clothing items. She didn’t seem to hate me as much anymore, but she never spoke to me. As I lay down in bed, I hugged the pillow to my head and listened to the clouds rumble lowly. So far there was no threat of a headache coming on, but I was afraid of what might happen when it did start raining. It was just one Elemental that caused the extreme headaches, what would five do? I remembered Alysana’s scarred body and considered what might happen to me. Would I just pass out from the pain or would I be inhibited afterward? Hopefully Rhys understood these things and could possibly control this. I wasn’t about to ask, but the thought still lingered.

  Linden entered just before I started dozing. He closed the door behind him quietly and slipped off his shoes, looking at the pile of shells I’d sorted.

  “So what are you going to do with all of these?” he whispered.

  I rolled over to face him. “I’m not sure yet. Maybe I’ll just keep them around in whatever house I end up in. You know, for the sake of memories.”

  “Why, you going anywhere sometime soon?” he joked.

  “No, you know what I mean.”

  He just shrugged as he climbed over me. “Nope, I don’t.”

  “I’m not going to be here forever, so I’d like to take something with me to remember,” I explained.

  “Right, not forever,” he said, propping his head up with one hand. “But who says you aren’t going to live by the ocean eventually?”

  “I’d still collect shells and keep those ones.”

  He laughed and tucked his arm around my waist. “You’ll be one of those women who have shelves and shelves full of them.”

  His breath tickled my cheek, and I laughed, hoping he didn’t think I thought he was funny. “Thanks. So is Nerio feeling better now?”

  He sighed, “Not really, but what can you do?”

  “Does he still think I’m a magnet for vulcani?”

  “Yes. But Rhys has done enough to convince him to calm down.” He kissed my nose. “In reality you’re not the blame, believe me.”

  And I did. I would believe anything he said when he kissed me like that, or even just spoke to me in the same tone. He was about to go on, but I lifted my face upward and caught his lips, silencing him. He remained still for a second, and then cupped my face in his hands, opening his mouth. The heat of his tongue constricted my lungs, holding my breath until we parted for a second of air.

  I couldn’t not touch him when we were this close, ragged breathing almost louder in my ears than the thunder outside. Kissing wasn’t enough, and he pulled his shirt over his head, ruffling his hair. I ran my hands across his back; the bones and muscles moved under my palms as he slipped my shirt off. For a second I had the urge of stop and cover myself. No one had ever seen me like this, naked and uninhibited. He didn’t give me a chance to be embarrassed; his low moan went through my body as his hands covered my breasts.

  Bodies crushing, I felt the skin of his hips and the heat below his navel. It drove me to the edge and my hips moved on their own accord. Linden kissed me hard, asking me to swear to tell him if he hurt me. I nodded rapidly, clutching his shoulders. How could he stand to stop moving for even a moment? I went back to running my lips across his neck, stopping at the strong pulse near his jaw. One hand to my thigh and his chest against mine, I wondered if he could feel my heart like a hummingbird in a cage.

  He moved so slow and carefully. I didn’t even know I was holding my breath until he was inside me, and I sucked in a huge lungful of his warm breath. There wasn’t a second’s hesitation then; intuition and want took over.

  I could listen to him breathe in my ear for the rest of my life, marveling at the way his muscles moved under his inked skin. His hair curtained the sides of my face, shielding everything I didn’t want to see but him. He bit his lip as my body rose to meet his and the storm raged on outside. No one would be able to hear anything under the thunder. When the rain finally came, pounding on the roof, my head didn’t explode in pain. Instead, it felt like my chest was opening, stretching open to give me the deepest feeling of content and completion.

  It must have been the cold that woke me. I opened my eyes slowly to the bedroom, tinted pale gray-blue with the dawn light. Memories flooded my mind and I smiled to myself, turning over.

  This was the cause of the cold: Linden wasn’t there next to me. Holding the sheet to my chest, I sat up and looked around the room. I didn’t expect him there, but I searched for any sign of his leaving. Nothing pointed out obvious evidence, but I still panicked a little. Had he left earlier and I never noticed? More importantly, why would he leave? It almost made my heart curl up into my ribs, but I saw the door handle turn.

  He stepped into the room wrapped in a blanket. When he saw me he smiled and I relaxed. “Sorry—I was just watching the sun.” He crawled in next to me, his body cold.

  “Isn’t it a little chilly?” I asked as I held him.

  “Yeah, but you’re plenty warm,” he replied, arms wrapped around me. “Sometime you’ll have to see it with me, but you looked pretty comfortable when I woke up.”

  I smiled against him, breathing in the smell of his skin. I still felt that same strange feeling in my chest, but it was great, whatever it was. It was a sort of high I’d never had, and it only increased as Linden held me and rested his head on my stomach.

  We stayed like that for a few hours until I suggested breakfast. Linden mentioned a shower first, but only if I joined him. And how could I refuse?

  Refreshed and still hopelessly glowing, I followed him downstairs where the others were already eating. I sat at the table when he asked me to, waiting while he picked out things from the cabinets. Nerio stood only after a few seconds of coping with my presence, but I just glared after him as Calder snickered. Tally was watching me closely, but she didn’t react. She seemed occupied with analyzing something else about me.

  “Feeling better this morning?” Linden asked Nerio. Nerio shrugged as he put his dishes in the sink.

  “Sure, your concern for my worries was just so comforting,” he replied. “I slept well through all the noise.”

  I wasn’t sure which noise he was referring to, but I felt myself go crimson anyway. Linden chose no words a
nd just shoved Nerio jokingly.

  Or at least it was supposed to be jokingly. Instead of stumbling, Nerio fell a good five feet before catching himself on the counter. He stared in shock, but Linden seemed even more stunned.

  “Jesus, what, have you been lifting or something?” Nerio asked as he stood up.

  “No—sorry … sorry, I didn’t mean to do that,” Linden said, shaking out his hand. He looked confused and almost worried as he came to the table. Tally kept on looking between the both of us, frowning slightly.

  I ate silently, and Linden just stared into his bowl, keeping to himself. Nerio stood alone for a few minutes, kneading his shoulder where Linden had pushed him. Suddenly everyone seemed very reserved, even Calder. What a way to put a damper on my morning.

  After we left the kitchen, I cornered Linden and asked him what was going on. Something wasn’t all right with this.

  “I’m fine, I just feel a little weird,” he replied lowly.

  I waited for an explanation. “Weird?”

  “I just need to clear my head.”

  “It’s not because of—”

  “No,” he replied quickly, looking up at me. “It’s nothing like that, it’s got nothing to do with you. Don’t worry about it, all right?”

  But I was going to worry, at least a little. It didn’t help when Tally rounded the corner, stopping to stare at both of us.

  “Well aren’t you too just little beacons of sunshine,” she grinned. “Nice night?”

  I didn’t want to know how she seemed to have guessed.

  “I did, thanks. But give it a rest,” Linden smiled.

  Tally grinned sarcastically. “Just wondering.”

  I rolled my eyes once she had walked away. “Okay, so how does she know?”

  Linden sighed and pushed his hair back from his face. “Who knows.”

  I looked at him for a long moment as he chewed his lip. He didn’t look so good … his face had little color to it, making his eyes seem brighter. I asked him again if he was sure he was okay. When I pointed out he looked kind of sick, he just laughed once.

  “Maybe sitting outside wasn’t such a good idea,” he said. “But come on, let’s—let’s do something.”

  He started to walk away, but I grabbed his arm to hold him back. “Wait—just a second.” I stretched up to kiss him lightly, hoping to make him feel a little better. He grinned slightly and hugged my waist. When he didn’t say anything, I assumed it would take more to get him to talk.

  ‘Something’ ended up not being much of anything. We walked along the beach as usual, but he seemed distant the whole time. He looked out across the ocean most of the time while I tried to drag him back to the present. It wasn’t working.

  I’d gone quiet after a while. Linden crouched at the edge of the water completely lost in his head. I stood back and watched as he experimented with the coming waves; the water moved around his hand, it made a small whirlpool under his palm.

  “I couldn’t really do this before,” he called back to me.

  “What?” I asked, barely interested.

  “Do anything to the ocean. Like this, I mean.”

  I watched as the water moved further and further away from him, arching out in a wide circle. I was impressed when the previously wet sand was dry.

  Linden stopped, and the water abruptly rushed back to him. It splashed up to his knees as he turned around, walking fast. “I need to find Rhys. Can you stay at the house for a little bit?”

  “Wait, Rhys isn’t at home?” I asked, going after him.

  “He left. Can you?”

  “Um—yeah, it’s fine,” I replied, slightly hurt. I wished he would let me in on what was happening. He took off towards the house, yelling that he would be back soon.

  I hoped to see him one last time before he left, but when I got to the house, his car was already gone.

  AUCTORITA

  ‘Back soon’ didn’t turn out to be as soon as I hoped. Hours went by until the day was wasted. As usual when I wasn’t with Linden, Calder and I tried to entertain ourselves. He had already filled me in on his brief story about going to a million different schools as he traveled around with Rhys. When I asked about his parents he just shrugged and said they preferred him to be with someone who didn’t live on the astral plane twenty-four seven.

  Of course, he bribed me to tell him everything about myself in exchange for a few answers concerning undines. He seemed almost more fascinated about me than I was about Elementals. Only when I described everything in detail would he even consider letting me talk about something else.

  “Do you have any idea what’s wrong with Linden?” I finally got to ask. We had migrated from the living room to the small parlor upstairs where there was more privacy.

  “I dunno,” he said, “but something’s up. Everyone can tell.”

  “Just because he looks kind of sick?”

  He shook his head. “No, when he pushed Nerio today that was weird. Nerio’s the biggest out of all of us and definitely the strongest. Physically, I mean. He was just built like that. Don’t get me wrong, Linden is pretty strong and all, but being able to have Nerio flying like that is just friggin weird.”

  I nervously began playing with a piece of my hair. “So … what does it mean?”

  “I have no clue. I bet he doesn’t either, that’s why he went to find Rhys.”

  I sighed and leaned my head against the back of the couch. “Well I hope he hurries up. It’s been forever.”

  “No kidding.”

  I suggested a walk, and Calder agreed, just as tired as the house as I was. Neither one of us mentioned to Tally where we were going. She heard us leave through the front door, and that was all that was really needed.

  It was already dark outside and the sun barely left any mark on the distant horizon. Tonight the sky was mostly clear with little wisps of cloud here and there. A lot of people were taking advantage of the weather just like us; they walked along the main road while we kept to the wooden walkway below.

  “So are you moving in soon or what?” Calder asked, looking at me curiously past his hair.

  “I haven’t thought about it,” I lied. Mostly I hadn’t asked Linden about it because the time never seemed right to ask.

  “You should. Just get it over with, I mean. Nerio will probably have a fit, but he doesn’t live here.”

  I still found it hard to completely accept that Calder was so comfortable with me being here. Besides Rhys, there didn’t seem to be a hope of the other two coming around. “Well—I thought Rhys lives here sometimes.”

  “Yeah, only sometimes. He’s usually looking for people to live in his houses while he’s not there. That’s why he left that one to Linden before he moved,” he explained.

  I thought about it for a second and then looked up at him, cocking one eyebrow. “You are a really strange undine. You and Linden.”

  “Strange?” He frowned. “What’s strange about me?”

  “I didn’t think any Elemental would be so comfortable with someone like me. It’s definitely not the same from my perspective. It wasn’t before.”

  He relaxed. “Oh. It’s not a big deal; you’re not as bad as they made you sound. I don’t have a reason to dislike you.”

  “Thank you. That actually is a good compliment coming from you,” I said, smiling.

  “It’s only the truth,” he muttered, kicking at the sand layering the path.

  “Why don’t you live here?” I asked. “Or with Linden. I get the impression you used to be pretty close.”

  Earlier, Calder had explained he lived with Linden and a few others when he was younger. Out of all of them, Linden was the most patient with him, so he naturally grew on him. He thought of him of a brother more than Nerio or other undines I didn’t know. That would explain why he resembled him in some ways. Looking back at the distant house, I realized I wouldn’t mind living there with Calder, too. My brain went in a million different directions then—the three of us could live toge
ther, then some of the others if they didn’t care, or maybe even Alysana and some of my old family. It could become the new boarding house.

  “Nah, I can’t really live anywhere right now. Just in one place. I still haven’t grown out of letting the instincts drive me,” Calder said as he stopped to sit on the railing, facing the streets.

  “They’re really that bad?” I asked, standing next to him.

  “Once you get to a certain age they are. I’m still kind of there. It was worse about five years ago, and it’s only sort of slowing down now. But I still can’t really stay put for long.”

  “That sounds tough,” I muttered, watching the ocean as I remembered how Linden had talked about it.

  “Sometimes,” he shrugged, “but you learn to live with it.”

  I sighed, the sound barely audible under the noise of the waves. “Is that why Nerio suggested Linden be with an undine instead?”

  “Maybe. But mostly I think he’s just looking for an excuse to get you out of here,” he smirked.

  I laughed and propped my foot up on the railing to tie my shoe. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

  While I tied, Calder went silent and looked up at the guardrail against the road. Tourists were still going up and down the street, their shadows occasionally falling over us. The moon was just hovering over the ocean, covering it with a silver film. I hoped Linden would be back soon. Despite all the talking and fascination over some of the things about Calder, I was worrying about it all day. Had I done something wrong? He said it wasn’t me, but he could easily be lying. Somehow I had to get the truth out of him …

  “Riley?”

  “Yeah?” I looked up at Calder. He was staring up at the road, a slight crease between his eyes.

  “Do you know anyone in this town? Besides us?” he asked, turning to me.