Emerge (21 page)

Usually, I look forward to the end of the school day and the freedom it brings. But today, I dread it. Each passing second drags me closer to … How can I do it again? How can I keep defiling Clay’s mind this way? This will be the fifth time. The
fifth time
I commit an act so despicable it’s been considered a high crime for centuries. I can’t go through with this.

But if I don’t … It seems like maybe Melusine’s moved on to Jake, but what if she’s just messing with me so I’ll let my guard down and stop singing to Clay? Is she planning to swoop in and siren Clay again the second he’s free from my influence? After all, he’s the one she chose to keep as her fake, hypnotized boyfriend for weeks on end, not Jake. An image rises in my mind of Melusine sticking her tongue down Clay’s throat in front of the lockers. Of the haunted look in his eyes when he tried to explain to me why he was with her and couldn’t. Of his determination when he tried to break up with her on the boat. What else was she doing with him? I can’t let him go back to that.

That’s when I make an oath. I promise myself that I’ll siren him again to protect him, but I won’t do anything else to take advantage of him. It will just be temporary—until I can find another way to make sure he’s safe from Melusine.

“Clay,” I whisper, when the time comes and we’re half-hidden behind an ivy-covered column in front of the school tennis court, “I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do. I promise.”

After I sing to him, I tell him to do whatever he’d normally do at home, hoping it will ease my guilt. I’m almost glad that today I’m expected to intern at the Foundation—I can’t stand to be near him, knowing I’m the one who’s sucked the life from his eyes.

When I arrive at work, my mind still swims with thoughts of Clay and what I’ve done to him. Some secretary or other is researching in the file room today, so I type information on one
konklili
after another for over an hour until she leaves. The mindless data entry only gives me time to dwell on how much worse everything’s become. This morning I thought sirening Clay was my only problem. Now … what can I possibly do to protect Jake if Melusine does decide to siren him? I might not know him as well as I know Clay, and I might not … feel the same way about him as I do about Clay, but I can’t just let him or anyone else be the victim of Melusine’s brainwashing. I can’t sit by while that happens—it isn’t right. But what can I do to stop it? While the shells I’ve listened to say it’s possible for one siren to enchant many humans at the same time, I don’t know if I have that kind of power—and I won’t risk weakening my protection of Clay. A vein throbs in my temple. Even if I could siren Jake, Mel might just pick someone else. I can’t brainwash every boy she shows interest in. She’ll turn me into a monster no better than she is.

Clay’s expressionless face when I left him this afternoon rises to my mind’s eye. If I’m not a monster already …

I jump when the secretary slams the door behind her. Alone at last, I go through title after title, looking for anything that might help me. I can’t keep this up. Sirening Clay is wrong. It’s sick. I have to find another way to put an end to Melusine’s magic, and I have to do it now.

By the time I trudge through the front door, the only thing I have to show for my research is an angry red indentation biting into my ear from listening to so many
konklilis
. I try to do homework, but I can’t focus on my English paper … or my lab prep questions … or my problem set for pre-cal. The twins are out at their music lesson, and Amy’s over at Staskia’s. Em is embroiled in a heated conversation on her cellphone with what must be Leo. It doesn’t sound pretty. With none of my sisters here to distract me and my tension tight enough to snap, taking a dip in our hot springs grotto sounds too enticing to pass up. Maybe it will give me some clarity.

I sigh as my body sinks into the satiny pool deep under the house. The heat of the water sends pleasant chills all the way from the top of my head to the tips of my unfurling fins. When I’ve spent an entire day maintaining my legs, letting my control slip and my tail stretch out is a longed-for release. Allowing water to glide over my tail and between each golden scale is bliss. The pure pleasure of it almost silences the constant stream of fearful thoughts that assaults my brain. Almost.

My eyes fluttered shut at the first touch of the hot water on my thirsty skin. Now, I open them again. Amy insisted we hang twinkle lights down here, and they make the abalone surface of the cave walls sparkle an iridescent silver-blue. It’s calming.

The serenity of my surroundings, the rejuvenating water, and the freedom of spreading my fins all combine to soothe my frazzled nerves, and I take deep, relaxing breaths. I won’t be able to help Clay or anyone else if I can’t think straight. I haven’t slept properly in days, so, as the heat claims me and my eyes drift closed again, I let myself doze.

“Hello, sunshine.” The voice is syrupy sweet.

My eyes snap back open. Standing above me, one hand on her popped hip, is Melusine. I sit up straighter along the stone edge of the pool, scrambling to regain my awareness. Am I dreaming?

“Your mom let me in. She’s so eager for us to be friends.”

“She doesn’t know you.” Doesn’t know you’re a monster.

“No. You haven’t told her much at all, have you?” She affects a pout. “Keeping secrets, Lia? What a bad girl you are.”

“W-what are you doing here?” I surreptitiously reach behind me under the water, trying to find a sharp rock I can wiggle loose. She wouldn’t try anything with my parents right upstairs, would she?

“Aren’t you going to invite me in for a dip? I’ve had such a trying day.” She pauses, but I remain silent. What kind of game is she playing? “I’ll invite myself then,” she says, and removes her high-heeled Mary Janes. Part of me wonders if she’s been using some kind of magic to balance in them on the slippery floor of the grotto.

She removes her skirt without a modicum of modesty and before I can even turn my gaze away, her slender coral tail’s in place and she’s sliding into the water.

“Ohh,” she groans, the sound almost guttural. “This is divine.”

“What are you doing here?” I repeat, this time with more force.

She leans her head back and swishes her tail lazily through the water. Back and forth, back and forth …

Right when I’m about to ask again, she looks at me, and the intensity in her eyes belies her relaxed posture. “I wanted to let you know I’m not mad at you, Lia. For taking Clay. For,” she glances around as if double checking that we’re alone and whispers, “sirening him away from me.” She smiles like we’re both in on a secret.

Part of me wants to wipe the smile off her annoyingly symmetrical face and scream that “sirening” isn’t the password to some secret clubhouse. But I’m so shocked by her words that all I say is, “You’re not?”

“No.” She makes the word lilting, soothing. Then she glides toward me through the water, her movements serpentine. She stops with less than a foot between us. “In fact, I have a little proposition for you.”

The steam rises from the water and clings in small droplets to her hair and skin. “You watched me talk to Jake earlier. Isn’t he delectable? All that water polo sure does a body good. Have you seen his arms?” she asks, and she runs a hand up one of mine before stroking it back down.

I shudder and shrink back, but she doesn’t move her hand away. Her manicured nails lightly graze my skin. “Jake’s tall and buff and even passably intelligent. And from what I’ve heard in the girls’ locker room, he’d make a very
talented
boyfriend.”

This time I knock her hand away. “You can’t have Jake. I won’t let you.”

She lets out a throaty laugh, and the sound echoes off the domed walls of the grotto. “Oh, I don’t want Jake.”

“You don’t?” The heat, so calming when I was alone, is now oppressive, addling my brain.

“Nope.” She leans in close again and whispers in my ear: “He’d be the perfect present. For you.”

“What?” She can’t mean what I think she means.

“I know you sirened Clay practically by accident. That song you sang? He tried to sing it to me a few times. As if I have the patience to sit through his scribblings.”

I glare at her. That bitch.

“So,” she continues as if she hasn’t noticed my reaction, “you only managed to get him under your power because he’d written a song. Not every guy in school spends his time sitting around mooning to music—thank the current—so it’s not like you could siren anyone else. But I can.” Her lips curl into a devious smile. “I’m offering you a trade. You let Clay go, and I’ll siren Jake for you. I’ll even put a ribbon around his neck.”

“
NO
!” I don’t think I’ve ever been so disgusted. My head pounds with it. “You’re sick.”

“Come on, Lia.” She keeps her voice nonchalant, but her eyes flame. “Jake’s more popular than Clay. He’s much more—”

“That’s enough! You stay away from both of them, do you hear me? If you try to siren either one of them, I’ll go straight to the Foundation and you’ll be sent back to the ocean. They’ll drop you in a warzone. I don’t think you’d like being torn tail from limb by crazed rebels.”

“Aww … what a brave little bluff. Got any more?”

“I’m not bluffing. I’ll tell.”

“Right,” she says, her tone dripping sarcasm. “Even if we pretend that you’d be able to tell on me without revealing your own recent musical proclivities, you’d still have to reveal Clay’s identity. And who knows what they’d do to him?” She puts on a mock-fearful expression, her eyes going wide. “Don’t think I don’t know about your little crush. You’d never put Clay’s life at risk by telling on me. It’s cute really.”

She wraps her tail around mine under the water, a gesture far too intimate, and says in her low, melodic voice, “No one likes a tattletail.”

I can’t take it anymore. I push her back by the shoulders, her heated skin nearly burning my palms. “Don’t touch me.”

But she just keeps talking. “You want Jake for that? Bet he feels good. You could be like a normal girl, Lia, with a normal human boyfriend. All you have to do is release Clay back to me and I’ll fix everything for you.” She tries to keep her voice composed, but a wild, desperate edge sneaks into it.

Wait …

“Why do you want Clay so much? You don’t even seem to like him.”

“You’re such a child.” In a blink, Melusine has summoned her legs and is rising out of the steaming water. “Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.” She shimmies back into her skirt, the fabric hugging her damp legs. Picking up her enviable Mary Janes, she turns back to face me. “Consider my offer, Lia. I’m trying to … I’m not your enemy.” For a moment, the sibilance of Mermese creeps into her voice, and she sounds like she’s hissing. She must work so hard to conceal her accent. “And trust me—you don’t want me to be.” With that final threat, she’s gone.

The biggest change is the touching.

The way he takes my hand in his when we walk to class.

The way he drapes his arm across my shoulders—strong and safe—when we sit at our desks or in the library.

The way he pulls my hips a few inches closer to his body when we practice self-defense.

Or now. The way he reaches across the small table and curls a strand of my hair around his finger before tucking it behind my ear.

We’re at my favorite sushi place near Paradise Cove. I swore to Clay I wouldn’t make him do anything he didn’t want to do, and I remember he said sushi is his favorite food. So, I figure if he had the choice, he’d like to come here.
Yeah, but would he come here with you?
a little voice inside me questions. I ignore it.

On the days I go to the Foundation (where my research still hasn’t turned up anything), I have to siren Clay at the end of the school day, then call him later in the evening and sing to him again. That way, if Melusine tries anything, he’s out of her reach. But I want Clay to be able to be himself. So, any day I’m not expected at the Foundation, I spend the entire afternoon with him. As long as we’re together, it’s safe to let the enchantment wear off. Some days, we hang with his friends, so they can see him acting normal. But today, it’s just the two of us. As we sip iced green tea and wait for our order—the siren song waning with every passing minute—Clay’s almost back to himself.