Elegy (A Watersong Novel)

by Hocking, Amanda

  Her heart skipped a beat, and she stared at him in surprise. “Really?”

  “Really.” He lifted his head, evenly meeting her gaze. “Every day I’ve felt more and more like myself since then.”

  Gemma didn’t know if that was true, or why kissing would alter the effect the siren song had on him, but at that moment, she didn’t care. She’d been certain that she’d never be able to be with Alex again, and now she had a chance, and nothing else mattered.

  “Well … we could try kissing again,” Gemma suggested with bated breath. Her blood pounded in her ears, and her cheeks flushed.

  At first he only stared at her, his expression blank and his eyes unreadable, and she was afraid she’d gone too far. It probably lasted just a few moments, but to her, it felt like an eternity, where she couldn’t breathe, and her heart pounded madly in her chest.

  Then, finally, he leaned in to her and kissed her gently on the mouth. There was the tenderness that she’d come to know and love, the almost innocent way he kissed her.

  But that was quickly replaced by the sense of desperation. It had been so long since they’d really kissed, and that added a fervor that made her skin flutter. The way Alex was touching her whetted the appetite of the siren inside her, but she silenced it. She refused to stop kissing him.

  He pushed her back down on the couch, so he was on top of her. He held himself up with his arms, but she felt the slight weight of his body against her, the firmness of his chest and stomach against the softness of hers.

  As he kissed her deeply, she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him closer to her. He felt so much different than he had before. Through his shirt, she felt his muscles, warm and solid under her fingertips. His back and shoulders were broader than she’d remembered, and his kisses more demanding.

  When she tried to pull him to her, Alex didn’t move. She’d have to use her siren strength to get him to budge, and she didn’t want to let the monster out. Alex was still kissing her. He had one hand on her side, gently squeezing her.

  He seemed to want to take things slower than she did. The hunger inside was flaring up, and the flutter was running across her skin. Not to mention the heat in her belly, spreading like a flame down her legs.

  Putting her hand on his chest, she pushed him up so she could catch her breath, and she felt his heart hammering against the palm of her hand.

  “Is something wrong?” Alex asked, his eyes searching hers.

  “No.” She smiled up at him. “You’re stronger than you were before.”

  “Sorry.”

  “No.” Gemma laughed. “It’s just … strange. I got used to the way you felt in my arms, and I’ve been kinda clinging to that memory. And now you’re different.”

  “You’re different, too.” He brushed back a hair from her forehead. “You feel the same, but your eyes…”

  “What?”

  “I don’t know. They look older somehow. You’ve been through a lot this summer.”

  “We both have,” she said.

  He took a deep breath and in a low voice, he said, “I’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve missed you, too.”

  When Alex kissed her again, Gemma decided that she didn’t care about the monster. In that moment, all she wanted was to feel Alex and be as close to him as she could be. She’d missed him so much, and she wanted to feel him, holding her, touching her, encompassing her.

  With her lips still pressed to his, she reached down and started pulling up his T-shirt. Alex tried to mumble some kind of protest, but her mouth on his silenced him. They separated long enough for her to pull his shirt up over his head, then they were kissing again, his bare flesh pressed against her.

  Alex had slid his hands up her shirt, preparing to do the same thing, when a loud clearing of the throat interrupted them.

  They both looked up to see Alex’s dad standing in the living room. His expression was unreadable behind his glasses and graying beard, but both Alex and Gemma hastily proceeded to sit up and scramble to straighten out their clothes.

  “Dad, I didn’t think you’d be home until later,” Alex said as he pulled on his shirt, muffling some of his words. He’d moved to the other end of the couch, putting as much distance between himself and Gemma as he could. “I thought you were at the school all day.”

  “And I thought you got your job back, Alex,” Mr. Lane said in the same emotionless voice that Gemma had heard him giving lectures in at the high school.

  “Uh, yeah, I did, I don’t start at the dock again until tomorrow.” Alex smoothed out his hair as Gemma combed a hand through her own.

  “I haven’t seen you around in a while, Gemma.” Mr. Lane took off his glasses and began to clean them with his shirt.

  Gemma laughed nervously. “Things have been crazy lately, Mr. Lane.”

  “Are you looking forward to being a junior in a couple weeks?”

  “Yeah, I guess.” She smiled at him because she wasn’t sure how else to respond.

  “Alex could’ve been enjoying college, too, if he hadn’t gotten all turned around,” Mr. Lane remarked once he put his glasses back on. That was the first time his tone had taken on anything really disapproving.

  “I’m getting myself back on track, Dad,” Alex said with a heavy sigh.

  “I should probably get going,” Gemma interrupted, since the situation only seemed to be getting more awkward and tense by the minute.

  “Yeah, I’ll walk you out,” Alex said, getting to his feet before Gemma even had a chance to.

  He ushered her out to the door and held it open for her. She stepped out on the front step and turned back to face him.

  “Sorry about my dad,” he said.

  “No problem.” She chewed her lip and stared up at him, waiting for him to say something or kiss her good-bye. When he didn’t, she said, “So … I’ll see you around?”

  “Yeah.” He nodded. “Definitely.”

  Alex gave her a small wave, then shut the door. Gemma turned around and walked back to her house, wondering what had just happened.

  The brief makeout session had been nice, but she had no idea what it meant. Especially with the brush-off he’d given her at the door. Admittedly, they were both flustered, but everything felt more confusing than ever.

  She still cared about Alex so much, and she wanted to believe that he still cared for her. But maybe Alex was just trying to get back to normal, and he thought kissing her would help.

  Which brought up another concern. Why was Alex back to normal? Was it the kissing, and if it was, why would that even work?

  Or was it as she feared? When she used the siren song on him, she’d broken his heart. He didn’t love her anymore, so the negative effects of the song were fading.

  Maybe things were really over between them forever, and what they just shared had been nothing more than an extended good-bye kiss.

  SEVEN

  Translation

  “What the hell happened here?” Marcy asked as she surveyed the carnage on Liv’s half of the dorm room.

  Harper had been working on a paper on her laptop when Marcy texted her and said she was on campus. She hurried to finish up her thought, so she could save the document and leave. She’d told Marcy just to come on up to her room and barely even noticed when she came in.

  “What?” Harper glanced over her shoulder and saw Marcy staring at the dismantled bed, the pile of Liv’s clothes, and shredded books and posters. “Oh, that.”

  “Oh, that?” Marcy scoffed. “What do you mean ‘oh that’? Half your room has been destroyed.”

  “It’s my roommate’s half,” Harper pointed out.

  “Yeah, I can tell, it’s like perfectly down the middle. Did you run a piece of tape down the floor, and say, ‘Here, you can wreck that half’?”

  Harper shook her head. “No, she messed up her stuff when I wasn’t here, so I picked up all her stuff and put it on her half.”

  “Of course you did,” Marcy muttered. “God, you’re so me
ticulous sometimes, it’s gross.”

  “Thanks.”

  “That wasn’t a compliment.”

  “Can you give me like three seconds?” Harper asked, glancing back at her laptop as she typed. “I’m just about done with this, then I’ll be able to tell you all about my roommate from hell.”

  Harper went back to finishing up her homework, but it only took a few seconds for Marcy to get into trouble. She heard Marcy poking around behind her, then the sound of tumbling wood as the rest of the bed frame clattered to the floor.

  “Oops, sorry.”

  “It’s okay. I’m done now anyway.” Harper clicked save, then closed her laptop and swiveled her desk chair around, so she could face her friend.

  “You should really have someone take this out of here.” Marcy jabbed her thumb at the mess behind her. “It’s probably a fire hazard or something.”

  “I want to, but I don’t know if I should. She still technically lives here.”

  “So what happened?” Marcy leaned over, inspecting the bed frame more closely. “Why’d she go all Tasmanian devil on you?”

  “I don’t know. I think she’s on drugs or something. I tried talking to her, then she freaked out on me. She did this.” Harper tilted her head to the side and pulled her hair back, so she could show Marcy the scratches.

  “Wow.” Marcy’s eyes widened behind her black-rimmed glasses. “You really need to talk to someone. You can’t let her come back here.”

  “I know. I just don’t want to deal with it. There’s way too much other crap going on, and I haven’t had a chance to even look for a job here, and I’m so backed up on homework, and I don’t know what to get Daniel for his birthday, and oh yeah, I still haven’t cracked the code to the scroll that’s trapped my sister in a horrible curse.”

  “How about cuff links?” Marcy asked.

  Harper scrunched up her forehead in confusion. “What?”

  “Daniel, for his birthday. Every guy should own a nice pair of cuff links.”

  “Thanks for the tip, Marce.” Harper stood up. “Should we go see Lydia now? I have to meet with a study group in a couple hours.”

  Marcy nodded, so Harper grabbed her purse, and they walked out into the hall.

  “You’re taking this whole college thing way too seriously,” Marcy said, as Harper locked the dorm room behind her.

  “Did you go to college?” Harper asked once they’d started walking down the hall, past the other dorm rooms.

  “Yeah, for a year,” Marcy said. “I went to this New Age college in Arizona. They had no grades. I thought it would be awesome, but they kept making me talk about my feelings. I did learn how to play disc golf, so it wasn’t a total loss.”

  “What did you go for?” Harper asked.

  “I don’t know. They didn’t really have majors, but I was working for a degree in sunshine or something. It clearly wasn’t for me.”

  “Clearly,” Harper agreed, as they reached the elevator. Ordinarily, she would’ve taken the stairs, but she knew that Marcy wouldn’t be up for it.

  When they got to the lobby, they walked onto the campus lawn. Some of the maples had already begun turning orange and yellow, but the air still held the warmth of summer instead of the crispness of fall.

  They made their way over to visitors’ parking and got into Marcy’s aging Gremlin. The air didn’t work, but she’d left the windows down, and a few leaves had made their way inside. The car sputtered and jerked as Marcy tried to start it.

  “We could’ve taken my car, you know,” Harper pointed out.

  “Lucinda will do it. Give her time.” Marcy turned the key again, and finally her car roared to life. “There we go.”

  Within a few minutes, they arrived at Cherry Lane Books. The town seemed to be bustling a lot more now that school had started. The closest parking spot Marcy could find was nearly a block down, and she had to parallel park, which Lucinda did not seem to enjoy.

  The windows on the bookstore were tinted too dark for Harper to see through, and the arch above the door creaked as she pushed the door open. There was almost a spooky air about the place, which made it all the more strange that such a cheerful little pixie ran it.

  “Hey, guys!” Lydia beamed at them as Harper and Marcy came inside. She was carrying a stack of Edward Gorey books to the children’s section, but she walked to the front of the store. “How are you doing?”

  “I got off work early, so I’m doing pretty fantastic,” Marcy said, sounding about as happy as Marcy was capable of sounding.

  “You guys can have a seat if you want.” Lydia gestured to a children’s sitting area while she placed the books on the shelves.

  There was a child-sized chair shaped like a dragon across from a My Little Pony recliner. In between them was a Lego table, where kids could play. Marcy chose the dragon chair, which was much too short for her, and she began shifting around to get comfortable. Harper sat on the floor, crossing her legs underneath.

  “I’m sorry I don’t have much to tell you,” Lydia apologized. “This translation is ridiculous.”

  Harper couldn’t help the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t realize how much she’d been hoping Lydia could really help them until the hope began to fade.

  “I need to explain why this process is taking so long,” Lydia said, and sat down in the My Little Pony chair, which seemed to fit her petite frame almost perfectly. The bright purple flower she wore in her hair was coming loose, and she tucked it back behind her ear.

  “English didn’t exist back then,” Lydia went on. “Even if something translates to an ‘a,’ it’s not necessarily the same kind of way we use an ‘a,’ and the words are in an entirely different language, and once I figure that out, I then need to translate them again into English.

  “The problem is that I don’t think it’s written in just one language, and it appears to be some kind of slang as well,” Lydia elaborated. “Unfortunately, back in the day, they weren’t real constant about language or grammar, so it can get pretty tricky.”

  “I can’t say I’m not disappointed, but I guess I’m not surprised,” Harper admitted. “What about Achelous and Demeter? Were you able to find out anything on them?”

  “I still have feelers out, but so far, it’s not looking good.” Lydia shook her head. “The last anybody was in contact with Achelous seems to be about two hundred years ago, then he just fell off the map. I’m not sure if he went into hiding or what, but he hasn’t been confirmed dead.”

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you. How does one become confirmed dead?” Marcy asked.

  “Two or more immortals must see your remains shortly after you’re dead. If they can see you die also, that’s a bonus,” Lydia answered.

  “How come only immortals can confirm it?” Marcy asked.

  “Most mortals don’t know what they’re looking at. Humans don’t have a good grasp on the magical, so they might think they’re seeing a werewolf die when it’s just a crazy hairy guy. Or they might think it’s a human dying, when really it’s Athena.”

  “I would be able to tell the difference,” Marcy said definitively.

  “Maybe you would, but experts only trust testimony from other immortals,” Lydia said.

  “What about Demeter?” Harper asked.

  “She’s even trickier,” Lydia said. “She’s been off the grid for a very long time. Something really spooked her, and she hasn’t interacted with any other immortals in centuries.”

  Harper raised an eyebrow. “Something spooked her?”

  “I’ve heard that it was Achelous’ daughters. I know that the sirens are his daughters, but that’s not how my source referred to them. I’m assuming that they are one and the same, but I don’t like passing off assumptions as fact.”

  “So what did Achelous’ daughters have to do with Demeter?” Harper asked.

  “They were trying to kill her,” Lydia explained. “They hate her. Demeter doesn’t have a lot of enemies because she�
��s the goddess of earth and growth and helped people farm and raise families. She’s a nice one. So she stayed above the surface for most of her existence, but then, once she had a target on her back, she went underground the way a lot of gods have. Hades has been off the grid since almost the beginning of time.”

  “Wait, wait, wait.” Marcy waved her hands to stop Lydia. “Hades is still alive?”

  Lydia nodded. “Yeah. He lives in Iceland.”

  Marcy put her hand to her chin and seemed to think about that. “Interesting.”

  “If he’s off the grid, how come you know where he is?” Harper asked.

  “Nobody messes with him there. He’s lived there for like five hundred years. He has a quiet life now,” Lydia said. “And Demeter did pop up for a while in Asia, but I’m not sure if she’s still there. When I find her, I’ll tell you.

  “In the meantime, I do have more bad news about the muses.” Lydia frowned. “I thought they were all probably dead, but the last two that I thought had any chance of being alive—Erato and Polyhymnia—have been confirmed dead. Sorry.”

  “How many muses were there?” Marcy asked.

  “Nine originally,” Lydia said. “The first one died fifteen hundred years ago, and they’ve been dropping off ever since. The last one died only fifty years ago, and she lived right in Maryland. The sirens might have been looking for her when they came to Capri.”

  “Why would they be looking for a muse?” Harper asked.

  “Muses keep secrets. Their lovers were gods and immortals, and they would divulge all their hidden truths. A muse might know where Demeter is, or Achelous, or how to break a curse, or any of a million other things the sirens might want to know.”

  “You think a muse would know how to break the curse?” Harper asked.

  “Possibly.” Lydia wagged her head from side to side, like she was skeptical. “But we’ll never know. When the last muse died, she took all her secrets with her.”

  “Why would the sirens come to Capri for a dead muse?” Marcy asked.

  “They didn’t know she was dead,” Lydia said. “It takes a while for news to travel in supernatural circles. It’s not like they can post things on Twitter. And Thalia was the last one, so they’d—”