Through Fire & Sea

by Nicole Luiken

  Eleanor huffed out a sigh of relief. “Good.”

  Hearing a splash behind her, Holly changed the subject. “Did you get all the leftovers put away?”

  “Yes. I was just coming to tell you Dana and I are leaving now.” Eleanor looked over her shoulder. “Where’s Ryan going?”

  Holly glanced back and saw the top of Ryan’s head as he stroked out to deeper water. “He wanted to cool off. I’ll tell him you said good-bye.” Holly steered her back to shore.

  Once Holly had waved off Eleanor, Dana, and Daniel, she hurried back out to Ryan. “They’re gone. You can come back now.”

  “Go away.”

  Just like when he’d told her not to look, Holly felt pressure to obey. She resisted. “Not until I know how bad your cut is.”

  He swam closer, then stood. “I’m fine.” His eyes had returned to their normal midnight blue, but he kept his hand underwater.

  “Let me see.”

  “Why are you so stubborn? I said, go away.”

  Holly ignored the urge to do as he said. “Give up and just let me see your hand already. You don’t have to hide the webs from me. I already know you’re a merman.”

  Ryan inhaled sharply. “What? But you said—”

  “That I’d imagined it? I only said that to keep you from freaking out.” They were alone, so Holly spoke frankly. “When you told me to forget the first time, I forgot that you’d rescued me, but I remembered everything that first day in Drama.”

  He stared at her. “All this time, you knew? And you haven’t told anyone?”

  Holly shook her head. “Not a soul.”

  He looked dazed.

  “Don’t worry. You can always make me forget again, right?”

  His eyes smoldered. “Believe me, I’d love to.”

  Her mouth dropped open as realization crashed in. “Oh my God. I’m immune to you. Your mojo doesn’t work on me anymore.” She scrunched up her forehead. “How come?”

  “No idea,” he said, goaded, “but it’s really annoying, and so are you.”

  She didn’t take the insult to heart. She was immune to his siren voice. Ryan looked rattled, which gave her confidence.

  Boldly, Holly took his hand and fanned out his fingers. Delicate webs connected his knuckles, the flesh almost translucent. The red line of his cut ran across two fingers. “The bleeding’s almost stopped.”

  She reached for his human hand and compared the two, fascinated. Nacre coated his merman fingernails. She ran her finger over one polished tip and smiled in delight.

  On impulse she asked, “So what happened? Why did you shape-shift so suddenly? How come you have legs, but your hand’s webbed?”

  “It’s the cut,” Ryan said absently. “When I’m in the ocean, my body wants to swim. I have to concentrate to keep my legs. Pain short-circuits my control.”

  The expression on his face perplexed her. He was staring at her as if she were the mysterious one.

  “What?” Holly asked.

  “This”—he flexed his merman hand—“doesn’t bother you? You don’t think I’m a…freak?”

  “Of course not!” Holly said indignantly. “I think it’s cool. I wish I had a secret power,” she confessed. “The only interesting thing about me is who my father is.”

  Slowly, as if expecting her to shy away, Ryan cupped her face in his hands, one webbed, one human. Holly’s heartbeat accelerated as he settled his lips over hers.

  A cold wave drenched the bottom of Holly’s shorts, but she didn’t care. She. Was. Kissing. Ryan. His mouth tasted of salt and the sea. She looped her arms around his neck, heat flooding through her.

  “You’re wrong, you know,” he murmured long moments later.

  “About what?” Holly asked, not caring about the answer so long as he kept talking to her in that wonderful, velvety voice.

  “Your father isn’t the most interesting thing about you. Not even close.” To demonstrate, he kissed her again.

  …

  “So, tell me about being a merman,” Holly said, as they walked hand in hand along the hard-packed wet sand. Ryan laughed and shook his head.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. It’s just—I’ve never had anyone to talk to about this stuff before.”

  “Really?” Holly felt flattered. “I’m the only one who knows your secret?”

  “You’re not the first to have caught me,” Ryan admitted. “But when I told the others to forget, they did.” He smiled down at her, but caution colored his voice. “What did you want to know?”

  Holly had dozens of questions. “Are your parents both merfolk, or just one of them?” Or maybe his mother had found him on the beach as a baby… Holly had had time to dream up all sorts of scenarios.

  “My mom’s human. As for my father…” A faraway look entered his eyes. “I don’t know who he is.”

  Holly waited.

  “See, my mom, she’s not all there. Mentally.” Ryan paused as if to get her reaction.

  Holly squeezed his hand in support.

  “I’ve asked her about my father dozens of times, but she always has a different story. One time she said he was a merman, another time she claimed he was Neptune, the Roman sea god.” Ryan shook his head in disbelief. “Usually, though, she says it was the elemental ocean itself in the form of a pearl.”

  Holly blinked.

  “Crazy, huh? And yet, here I am.”

  “So, no fabulous merfolk city under the sea?” There went that daydream…

  He smiled. “No. At least not that I could find. I swam for a week once, calling. All that answered me were some dolphins wanting to play.”

  Holly felt faint. “A week? Wasn’t that dangerous?”

  “Yes and no.” Ryan’s lips quirked. “It was probably pretty stupid to swim out into the middle of the Pacific Ocean by myself at age thirteen, but the sharks and killer whales left me alone when I told them to, and the dolphins bore me up when I needed sleep.” Ryan shrugged. “If the ocean’s safe for anyone, it’s me. I found it…peaceful. After I graduate, I might do it again. Maybe see if I can find Hawaii.”

  Holly tried to conceal how appalled she felt. “So your siren voice works on animals, too?”

  “Yeah. Mom says I have a silver tongue.”

  “So is your mom immune, like me?”

  “No.” Some memory shadowed his eyes.

  “That’s why you keep to yourself,” Holly realized. “You’re afraid of accidentally influencing people.”

  Ryan nodded, shoulders tense.

  “Well, you don’t have to worry about that with me,” Holly reminded him. She’d proven her ability to resist.

  “I guess not. Hold on a moment.” Ryan waded deeper out to some rocks. He returned a moment later with an oyster. “So you don’t hate the ocean,” he said huskily.

  Holly brushed off the grains of wet sand clinging to the blue-gray shell, not sure what to do with it. Her dad liked raw oysters, but she found them repulsive.

  “Let me.” Instead of using a knife, he simply ran his thumb down the crack and said, “Open.” The oyster unlocked for him like a jewelry box. He nudged up the soft flesh to show a pearl gleaming against the nacreous inner shell.

  “Oh!”

  “Go ahead, take it. He’ll be happy to have the irritant gone,” Ryan said softly.

  Holly plucked out the pearl. It was about the width of her finger, faintly pink and not perfectly round. A natural pearl as opposed to a cultured one. She rolled it on her palm as Ryan gently replaced the oyster in its bed.

  “It’s beautiful,” she whispered. “How did you know it was there?” Surely most oysters didn’t contain pearls.

  Ryan shrugged, smiling. “Maybe the ocean is my father. I just knew.”

  “I love it. Thank you.” She would treasure it forever. Impulsively, she turned and addressed the ocean. “Thank you for the pearl. It’s beautiful.”

  The ocean kept silent but seemed content.

  A moment later, Ryan’s mood darke
ned again. “Holly, I owe you an apology.”

  “No, you don’t,” she said at once. “You were protecting your secret. I’m just honored that you trust me with it now.”

  “I do.” He squeezed her hand. “But, ah, that wasn’t what I was apologizing for. See, it’s my fault Ms. Prempeh cast you as Gwendolen. I Voiced her.”

  Dread coiled in her stomach. “Why?” Please say it’s because you wanted to spend time with me.

  But that wasn’t it, of course. It never was.

  “I wanted to increase the chances that your dad would show up,” Ryan admitted.

  Without a word, she walked away, sloshing through the cold water. Dull hurt throbbed in her chest. Would she never learn?

  “Holly, wait.” He put his body in front of her, hands on her shoulders. “Don’t be mad. Please understand. Acting is my one talent, my best chance at clawing my way out of the poverty pit. All I need is a bit of luck. I swear, I won’t use Voice on your dad, I just want the chance to perform in front of him.”

  Blah, blah, blah. Excuses, excuses. It always came down to the same thing: people wanting to use her to get to her dad. God! She’d played right into his hands. She ducked left around him.

  He followed her. “I didn’t think you’d mind. I thought you’d jump at the chance to have a lead role.”

  “Like Dana?” Holly said acidly.

  “Like all the other girls in class.”

  Her cheeks stung with color, but she wasn’t about to admit she’d decided to take Drama because he was in the class. “Well, I do mind.” She plowed through the knee-high waves.

  “Come on, don’t I get any points for being honest?” He skipped in front of her again.

  “No.” Anger replaced hurt. She jabbed his chest. “You. Used. Me. I can’t believe I fell for that crap about my dad not being the most interesting thing about me.”

  His eyes widened. “But it’s true. I kissed you, not your dad.”

  “Oh, yeah? So if I call my dad tonight and tell him not to bother flying up, you’d be okay with that?”

  Silence. She read the answer in his expression.

  She blew air out of her nose and walked out of the surf onto the wet, packed sand. Where had she left her sandals?

  “You still don’t get it,” Ryan said, his voice hard. “You have no concept what it’s like to be poor.”

  “Being poor doesn’t give you the right to be a jerk.” She shoved her sandy feet into her sandals and marched toward her car, holding tight to her anger so she wouldn’t start crying here.

  “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll get Prempeh give the role to someone else,” he called out behind her.

  She stopped. Turned.

  “But only if you give me a chance to change your mind first,” he continued.

  “I’ve already heard your pathetic arguments.”

  “No. Come with me tomorrow and meet my mom. And if that doesn’t change your mind, I’ll get you out of playing Gwendolen and you can tell your dad not to bother coming.”

  Holly considered. If he’d asked her earlier, she’d have jumped at the chance. She was—had been—wildly curious about his family and where he lived. Now she couldn’t care less. But it might be worth enduring Ryan’s company if she could avoid going up onstage and his forced company for the coming weeks of rehearsal.

  “Okay.” A decisive nod. “You have a deal.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Warding

  “I need you to locate my Water self,” Qeturah said. “She’s warded her mirror so that I can’t contact her.”

  Leah stared. Should she ask? Qeturah seemed pleased with Leah now that she’d sent a hypocaust message to Duke Ruben saying that Qeturah’s chambers were locked and Qeturah had returned—but Leah was reluctant to risk angering her. Still… “Why would your otherself curse her own son’s otherself?”

  Qeturah sighed, but deigned to explain. “Out of ignorance. She believes she’s protecting her son—she doesn’t realize what her spell has done to Gideon—and she’s half mad.”

  Leah wet her lips and did not ask how Qeturah’s Water self could be insane while Qeturah was not. “How do I find her?”

  “The red leaf you found on your last visit is an emblem of the duchy where my otherself resides.” Qeturah patted Leah’s cheek. “That gave me hope, and now Gideon has claimed you as his soul mate. If he’s right, then your True selves have Bonded. Your otherselves’ fates are woven together with Gideon’s otherselves.”

  If her Water self loved Gideon’s Water self, then her otherself would likely know his mother.

  “When their paths cross,” Qeturah continued, “you must be lurking in the back of your Water self’s mind.”

  The prospect daunted Leah, but she would do anything to save Gideon.

  Leah spent the rest of the day standing in front of the Four Worlds mirror. She became an expert at Calling just enough to raise her otherself’s image in the ice, but not enough to take over her body or alert her.

  Whenever her otherself walked out of range of one mirror, the connection would snap, but mirrors seemed plentiful on Water, and Leah could usually Call successfully soon afterward.

  She learned her Water self’s name was Holly. Leah watched Holly sit with others her age, listening to an adult speak. Then everyone rose at once and filed out into a hallway, which was filled to bursting with yet more young men and women. Only a few of the girls wore dresses; most wore trousers like the boys, usually blue. Leah had never seen the like. A siege might crowd the surrounding villages into the castle, but where were the adults and elderly and children?

  And then Leah saw him. Gideon’s otherself. Holly sat beside him on a small dais.

  Leah turned to share her triumph with Qeturah, but she was alone in the Mirrorhall. The sunlight had faded to a sullen vermilion.

  By now the dragon would have its cruel talons in Gideon. She could do no more tonight. Exhausted, she sought her bed.

  Sabra pounced as soon as Leah entered the communal bedroom. “Come to pack your bags?”

  Too tired to respond, Leah crawled into her bunk still fully clothed.

  Sabra pouted. “So Qeturah decided to keep her precious Caller. I bet she has you on a short leash now.”

  Deliberately, Leah turned her back. The other girl’s hold on her was broken. She didn’t have to talk to her if she didn’t want to.

  Sabra pinched Leah’s arm. “Tell me about the boy. Does Qeturah truly have a son? Why haven’t we seen him before? Who’s his father?”

  Outraged, Leah grabbed Sabra’s wrist and ground the bones together. Her hands might not be ladylike, but they were strong. “I’m not telling you anything.”

  Sabra’s face flushed. “You will if you know what’s good for you. Duchess Qeturah may be willing to tolerate your low birth, but the other girls won’t. Right now they don’t know, but that could change.”

  “What don’t we know?” Niobe asked, entering the bedroom, Zamara one step behind.

  Leah hesitated. The nobility believed they were better than everyone. The idea of a servant successfully passing as noble born would offend them to their toes, for it meant their so-called nobility went little deeper than a set of clothes.

  Sabra smiled in triumph.

  No. Leah was sick of her bullying. Freedom from Sabra was worth the price of being shunned.

  She met their gazes boldly. “I’m not the true Jehannah. Duke Ruben didn’t want to foster his only child with Qeturah, so he sent his illegitimate daughter instead. Me. My name is Leah.”

  Niobe gasped in horror at her admission of bastardy.

  Zamara also looked shocked, but by something different. “Duke Ruben lied to Duchess Qeturah? He broke his honor?”

  “Not exactly,” Leah said. “He said that he had the right to name me whatever he wanted. He just didn’t mention to Qeturah that he had two daughters both named Jehannah.”

  This sort of manipulation apparently fell within the rules, because Zamara sighed in relief
. “Oh, good.”

  “Don’t speak to her.” Niobe pulled her cousin away.

  “I wish my father had thought of such a ruse,” Sabra said. “I’m sure I have a half sister tucked away somewhere. Then I wouldn’t be stuck here.”

  Zamara and Niobe agreed with heartfelt groans. Leah stared at them in amazement and anger. They would think it perfectly acceptable to destroy the life of a servant to spare a noble—them—from an inconvenience.

  You’re not being fair. You didn’t tell them about the duke’s threats. They probably think you were happy to leave a life of servitude and pretend to be one of them.

  And wouldn’t she have been, if the duke had used only bribes instead of threats?

  Yes.

  More fool her. That ended now. No more pretending to be what she wasn’t, Leah vowed. No more trying to better herself. She was a maidservant, that was all—

  Except that wasn’t true. She was also a Caller.

  Gideon might be high above her in rank, as out of reach as the stars, but her talent could save him from the curse.

  …

  For the next week, Leah practically lived in the Mirrorhall, joining the other girls only for breakfast and at nightfall. To her relief, Qeturah barred Sabra from the Mirrorhall and let Leah take lunch and supper with Gideon.

  Leah’s visits both refreshed her and drove her on. Gideon always insisted he was fine, but he seemed thinner, and the dragon wounded him twice more. The curse would be the death of him.

  Qeturah taught Leah how to overhear her otherself’s thoughts, but doing so required her hand to stay in contact with the cold ice, so she did it only during times when Ryan, Gideon’s otherself, was present.

  Finally, her diligence was rewarded when she learned Ryan had invited Holly to meet his mother.

  Qeturah insisted on standing by during the visit, which made Leah fidget.

  As soon as Holly entered Ryan’s house, she vanished from the mirror. Leah flattened her hand against the ice and prepared to Call again.

  Nothing happened. She looked to Qeturah.

  Qeturah sighed. “My otherself probably eliminated most of the mirrors in the house. Wait.” She began to pace. Watching her walk back and forth made Leah dizzy. Finally, Qeturah halted. “Try again, a full Call. This may be the only chance we get.”