by Naomi Fraser
A small smile creases my face and I lean back in my chair. The other men from the hostel soon join him, standing to one side of the room. They wheel in a projector and a presentation of Ralph’s life plays on the screen. The men from the hostel move to fill up the first row of seats on the right so I can see their backs.
I bring my hands up to either side of my face as I watch, fingers trembling. Though my eyes are wet, I’m not a complete mess. I view Ralph’s laughing face, his witty quips on the screen, and I wipe away the tears, wanting to celebrate his life.
He says things on the screen that have me choking back a muffled laugh, remembering him squishing his cap, video footage of him on his boat with the wind pushing at the waves, sharing a few drinks with the guys from the hostel.
And then finally, Ralph sits by himself, looking out to the sea, his face angled toward the sun as it dies fire-orange behind the horizon. The film goes to a white screen and then black.
Lakyn strides to the podium. His hands fist, and he stands there, opening his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. A few deep breaths later, he manages, “Ralph was like a father to me here.” His face screws up and he brushes away tears with the back of his hand. “When I first arrived at the hostel, I had no family, no one wanted to take me in. But Ralph gave me hope, a place and that’s something I believe he offered everyone he met. He’d put every single person . . .” Lakyn pauses, breathes, “into his heart, and though he had a tough exterior,” everyone chuckles in remembrance, “you would never find a man with a greater sense of family, especially for those who weren’t his blood. The lengths he would go to for his hand-picked family were unlimited. In fact, it’s because of him I can now count these men as my family.” Lakyn’s gaze drops to the men in the front row and he struggles for composure, tears reddening his face.
“Ralph led a great life, experienced many things most of us can only dream about, the highs and the lows. I hope he finds the peace he deserves.” Lakyn chokes on tears and then turns away with hunched shoulders. He walks toward the others, sitting in the front row beside Joey.
Joey wraps his arm around Lakyn’s shoulder and draws him in for a hug.
Family. Yeah, I know the feeling of losing a father. If Ralph’s been taken by the sirens, it also means his soul is lost.
How can I help set it free? I curl my knuckles against my cheek, leaning on my elbow, allowing the tears to fall. I try to blow my nose quietly and swallow the lump in my throat. The service finishes after three more prayers, another two speakers from the hostel and a song sung by a woman who is definitely finfolk turned human. The pitch of her voice reminds me of the sirens. A clear, high tone sparking emotion deep inside my heart.
The funeral director takes back control of the podium. “Refreshments will be served in the room next door. Please take your time and pay your respects if you’d like.” He gestures to the dark mahogany coffin front and centre in the room, though it’s a closed casket.
I rise, stomach feeling like lead and heart aching. The sunlight glares outside the door, and my knees shake so badly, I wobble on the wedges. I move along the grass, in long, unsteady strides and my head swims. “Bye, Ralph,” I whisper, looking up at the green field, to the huge gum trees and plethora of graves. I muffle another sob and wipe my face.
I smell the men before I see them. The salty intense wash comes with the breeze. One stands on either side of me, and if they catch me while I’m across the field that means I’ll have no one to turn to. I stop and stand my ground, left hand on my hip, wind tousling my hair.
“Eloise Mitchell?” the guy on the right calls and casts a look at the other man closing in, quickening his pace in a bid to outrace him.
“Yes.” I frown open-mouthed at both of them, my gaze flicking back and forth. Then they both break out into a run and bum-rush me at the last second, almost knocking me down in their eagerness to grab my arms.
“Hey, stop it. What are you doing?” I growl, and try to shake them off, twisting my arms. “Let go!” They both babble about sirens, making absolutely no sense. I look around for help and catch sight of Richard. Though I want Lakyn, anyone remotely sane will do.
“Richard!”
He whirls at my call, glances at the two men, shakes his head and then approaches in long strides. “Having trouble, Eloise?”
“Your observational skills are shockingly good,” I grit out between clenched teeth. “Excellent, even.”
He laughs. “I guess they want you for the same reason I do. Nothing unusual about that.” He makes a gesture behind him to a beautiful brunette near the building. She slinks toward him in towering black heels, and he slips an arm around her waist, kissing her temple. “Meet my fiancée, Clara.”
“Nice to meet you.” I nod obligingly, and then glare at him. “Now, a little help, please?” I’ve been able to ignore what the men were saying to me thus far, but now their tight grip and pleading voices make my heart pound with panic. “They want me to transform them.”
He sighs. “You don’t understand how important this is to us. You’ll have to listen to them first. I want to go back to being finfolk and so does my fiancée. These men most likely have family they left behind.”
The one to my left barks out, his breath hot against my cheek, “Yes, yes tell her Richard. You can help us transform,” he says to me in desperation. “You’re our best hope. No one else has ever been so lucky. Maybe your—”
“Stop.” Steel enters my tone. “One more word out of you, or him, and I’ll be calling the police. Let go of my arm right now, both of you.”
When they finally do as I request, I rub my arms, my eyes narrowing on them.
“This isn’t police business,” Richard says, but even he looks nervous when three more men appear out of nowhere and join our little group. I try to move away from them all, but they are adept at steering me like a trapped fish. Richard sweeps us all to the far side of the graveyard. The lawn is thick and green, and the leaves on the trees rustle in the breeze as I consider escape routes.
“Now,” he begins, “We all want Eloise’s help—”
An arm snakes around my waist and yanks me hard off my feet and back against a rigid chest.
“What is everyone doing here? Eloise’s help with what?” Lakyn growls over my shoulder, his breath warm and soft across my ear. I sink with a sigh of relief into the protective circle of his arm. “Ellie?”
“They’re hassling me,” I say quietly.
Richard’s gaze catches mine in a hard stare.
“OK, Richard was about to start helping. Maybe.” I relent. “That is after asking me to help turn him and his fiancée back into finfolk and wanting my blood to experiment on. He wants to get me before the sirens do, see? The other two—I’ve forgotten their names, they grabbed me and wouldn’t let go—and those three just appeared. I figured Richard should help me in exchange for—”
“Her blood?” Lakyn pushes me behind him, his voice cold and cutting. Absolutely deadly. “You. Want. Her blood?” His nostrils flare, and knuckles crack as his tone rises on the last word. His body fully shields me against them.
“We believe her blood may assist us in the change,” Richard snarls, violence in his tone. He stalks forward, almost nose to nose with Lakyn. “Experiments may—”
“You’re that keen to die.” A block of dry ice held more warmth than Lakyn’s voice. “Touch her,” he wraps a hand around my waist and glares at the men who grabbed me, then at Richard, “or pester her again and you will. I promise. You know who I am. You know who she is.”
They stand there in stunned silence until Lakyn drags me away and mutters in my ear, “I warned you not to come, didn’t I? Don’t you ever listen to what is good for you?”
“It was a really moving service,” I say. “Ralph looked happy in the film.”
Lakyn’s face softens, and the hard planes shift, throwing off some of his anger. “Yes.” He exhales a hard breath and rubs a hand through his hair. “We tried our best wi
th the amount of time we had. I thought they were hurting you,” he bursts out and glares back at the men again, but they’re too far away to see the expression. “The look on your face . . .” He studies the people around us, pulling me tighter against him and moving away a secluded spot under the gum trees. “How did you get here?”
“Bus.” The scent of his salty musk twines around me, making my poor heart gallop with joy. I lean into him and breathe deeply, rubbing my cheek against the fine wool of his suit. I whisper, “I missed you.”
He runs a caressing hand through my hair, and I almost purr at the sensation. “I’ll take you back home.” He moves back, and his gaze sweeps over my outfit, his pupils expanding and a small smile plays across his lips. “You shouldn’t be let out on your own in that dress.”
His last parting words at the hostel play on my mind and I decide to take a stand. “Lakyn, I can get home by myself.”
“Of course, though you’ll never have a moment’s peace if you’re followed. They’ll figure out where you live. They want to turn back into finfolk.”
“And I was supposed to figure out that’s why you didn’t want me to come?” I ask angrily. “To avoid them? What do I look like, a mind reader? I thought you didn’t want anything to do with me ever again.”
“It won’t work, anyway.”
I look at him, confused.
“Them using you,” he explains.
“I know,” I say coolly.
He drops his arm and stiffens. “I see.” His eyes are alive with trepidation, moving over my face, taking in my features as though afraid I really do understand.
I smirk up at him and toss back my hair. “So yes, it’s useless them asking me. But they still seem to believe they can grab me all they like.” I rub at my arms. “Rather bad manners if you ask me. Are all finfolk like that?”
“I’m sorry.” He stands stock still, releases me but a hint of satisfaction shines in his eyes. “No one else has figured it out.”
“You have.” My reply is bullet swift.
Confirmation must bother him, and the air grows tense between us. “Stay by my side. We’ll eat and then leave,” he whispers into my ear. “By the way, did I say how much I love your dress?”
A silly grin twitches at my lips and heat moves up my cheeks. I should be angry as all hell for what he’s put me through the last few days. But when my dad died, I fell to pieces, so maybe I can forgive Lakyn, because, well, his reactions make him human. “Does this mean we’re friends again? Since you’re not throwing me out?”
“Friends?” His look is hot and my stomach quivers. “I can’t get you out of my mind no matter how hard I try. If that’s your definition of friends . . .”
36
“DO YOU THINK they followed us?” I glance over my shoulder and scan the street after we exit the bus near my house. Things got tense the last few minutes at the funeral between the finfolk men who didn’t want me to leave and were prepared to fight and Lakyn who threatened them all. Some of the more determined said they’d track us home, and I’d been looking over my shoulder the entire trip.
The bus roars and then rumbles away in a cloud of seeping black smoke. I choke on the fumes and watch the driver take a corner far too close.
“He drives worse than I do,” Lakyn says and rubs his jaw. “It’s possible they’re watching,” he concedes with a frown. “Their transformation was forced by the council. But there’s no way they’re taking your blood—”
“We could’ve all squeezed into the Hyundai.” I cast him an amused glance, lengthening my strides to match his along the pavement.
He slows a little and laughs. “Yes, seven of us in a five seater. You could’ve sat on my lap,” he teases. “Imagine that.”
I flick my hair to the side, allowing the strands to hide the heat in my cheeks. “You chanced six on the way to the crematorium.”
This time his laughter rings out. “I would never subject you to such a drive. You did me a favour, really. We had to unfold out of the car.”
I laugh along with him as we turn the corner. The heat of the day is a distant memory as the stiff sea breeze suddenly buffets us along the hills. Moreton Bay Fig trees line the roads, shadowing the front yards of beautiful, old Queenslanders, all refurbished in white, pale greens and blues.
The first day I came here I caught sight of an old man digging in his front garden, planting white agapanthus and shaping a hedge. He threw all the clippings in the tray of a Ute and waved at me on his way down the road. Wynnum is like that—the long, winding esplanade makes people happier, they greet each other with a smile and always say hello to strangers.
The air here smells of the ocean: windswept, salty, fresh. Like you’re a sail, caught up in the essence of the sea. I breathe in deeply, sighing with pleasure. One of the most breathtaking sights is the blue water glittering at the bottom of the hills, like a mirage.
After being grabbed and crying my eyes out at Ralph’s funeral, I want nothing more than to relax in the sea—but I can’t do that. Sirens wait and they’ll use me to get to Lakyn. The blue hides so many predators.
The clack of my skin-coloured wedges on bitumen reverberates in the street, and a fierce longing seizes my heart, shaking me to the very core of my being. Silence. I close my eyes, drifting away—imagining liquid silk wrapping around my body until I float on nothing. The gliding power of my crystalline tail; a diamond matrix of brilliant gems. Sinking my head beneath the waves, hair slicked back and free. Totally free.
My exhale is long and loud.
“. . . all right?”
I open my eyes, realising I’ve stopped. “Oh. Sorry.”
Lakyn’s smile is sharp as though he knows all my secrets. He grabs hold of his collar and pulls it away from his neck. “You don’t have to pretend with me, Ellie. I know you want to go back in. Once we get rid of these sirens, you can. Within limits.” Humour crinkles the corners of his eyes. “Don’t go swimming off to another country just yet. I want you to stick around for a while longer.”
I love my skinny jeans, short shorts, small tops and Converse, walking around the shops, and doing sport, but my finfolk side is a gateway to an extraordinary reality. A gift. Though, I’m pleased to hear Lakyn laugh after watching him fall apart today and I need to ask him more about finfolk magic.
“Hey . . . so when are you going to ask me? You know—ask about how I know I can’t transform the others into . . .” I lift a shoulder in a half-hearted shrug, trying not to make such a huge issue of it. “There’s a lot of things I want to ask you. We have another ten minutes left to walk,” I cajole.
Lakyn lifts his head slowly and seems to pin me with his ocean-hued gaze. A muscle jumps beneath the smooth, perfect line of his jaw. He steps closer and I suck in a breath. “When the time is right, I’ll tell you all you need to know,” he says softly. “Stopping the sirens is my main priority. Being around me is dangerous, Ellie, and I can’t protect you while I’m worried how far you’ve investigated into finfolk culture. Or how you’ve done so.”
I sigh, frustration gnawing me at his no answer. “Well then. I guess that shuts me down.”
Confusion, a rare sight, crosses Lakyn’s eyes. He’s become so good at hiding his uncertainty about this world from others. “Shuts down? What does that mean? Nothing bad?”
I shrug, unwilling to supply an answer.
“Ellie.” His voice hits me square in the chest. “Tell me. I don’t want to do what I did at the hostel again and ruin everything. I’m not overly familiar with human ways. I heard some of the students in the men’s room talking about Jamie and Alexa. The boys were mad about being shut down by the girls. I pretended to know what it meant.”
“I could tell you,” I offer, “but that would mean I get to ask you about magic. Swapsies. Is it possible you transferred a sorcerer’s power—Hey!”
Lakyn sweeps me over to the trunk of a Moreton Bay Fig. He looks over my shoulder, then up and down the street and his hands shake as he releases
me. “You can’t. I will help you with everything, but take my word for it, now is not the time.”
“I disagree. Now is the perfect opportunity.”
He leans into me, and I stiffen against the trunk, but the heat of his body is inescapable. The slight brush of his cheek against mine sends an out-of-control frisson across my skin and his scent wraps around me. His shoulders shield me from onlookers as he whispers in my ear, “If the council knew what I gave you, they’d be in control of your life forever. You would need to run. Power and self-interest is all they respect. My uncle is King but the council is corrupt. They won’t listen; they’ll do what they want. I escaped with a light punishment.”
“Losing your fins was light? Can’t your uncle dissolve the council?”
“No, they were there before him and the only way to destroy them is with magic. He’d have to kill them. But there’s a sickness in the council and there’s no way of knowing how far it reaches. Even though no one has turned in so long, they still punished me by the old law and they believed you would come to nothing. They’re watching, Ellie. Let them believe you’re human for a while longer. It’s easier to fight one enemy.”
“You’re lucky I didn’t say anything to Dr. Farrow then. What could they do to me?” I ask, hating the shake in my voice. The council might have seen me manipulate the waves on the way to school.
“Take you into the sea and never release you,” he replies. “Experiment on you. Try to get your bloodline reproduced so others can turn. Kill everyone you love or threaten to. Remember power and self-interest. What would humans do with a merman?”
“But it’s not my bloodline—it’s yours.”
“Shh!” He looks up and around again. “As soon as I performed the transformation, someone must have known. They don’t want me there if I can control magic like that and, without fins, I’m no real threat to the sirens. I’m an easy target, but they’ll stop at nothing if they know about you. Whoever is controlling them wants to get rid of me. Then they’ll work on my uncle.”
