Everblue (30 page)

“What?” I laughed under my breath. “Wow. Now that says a lot.”

“Yeah.” Dad chuckled, too, while Mom handed me a Coke. “And I wanted to bring you along, but I needed you there for your mom and your sister. I had a feeling Phaleon would twist things around to his advantage in my absence somehow, but—” he groaned and slapped the water “—Azor stealing Tatiana’s promise should have gotten him stripped of his fin. If it were anyone else—”

“We’ll get her back,” I interrupted.

“I know. But I can’t help but think this is all my fault. I should have talked with her earlier, let her go to home base when we had the chance. She of all people shouldn’t have to endure Natatoria. All she craved was human life. She constantly got in trouble for gallivanting all over with Ashlyn and staying out ‘til the last minute. Have you seen her room? It’s covered in posters of human boys and her bookshelves are filled with those gossip
magazines. I just thought we’d have more time.”

Mom swam up and touched Dad’s arm. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. Fin’s right. We’ll go back and get her. I’m sure Azor is treating her fine.”

I gritted my teeth to keep from responding. Mom didn’t know what Azor was really like—what an animal he was. I could just imagine his treatment of her—more like a possession than a person. Even with the promise binding her to him, I had a feeling once the lovey-dovey feelings dwindled and real life set in, he’d have her locked up in his compound to do chores for him all day—and night.

Dad and I exchanged hard looks. He clenched his jaw and nodded. We knew the truth and we had to get her out.

“Once I find out what happened after we left and get my men together, we’re going in,” Dad said, softening his expression and placing his hand on top of Mom’s. “I’m not leaving her there any longer than I have to. And Fin, you’ll get to escort Azor out of Natatoria. How’s that?”

A malevolent grin spread across my face. “With pleasure.”

Mom tensed. She knew this meant a war—the first of its kind for our people.

“And we promise to be careful, mama,” Dad said quickly and gave her a kiss. “So don’tcha worry.”

They looked at one another; pain of longing in her eyes. “Just bring her back,” she said quietly.

“I promise.”

“So,” I said slowly, breaking the tension again. “Did you find Phaleon’s daughter?”

“Aye,” Dad said. His response made me think of Badger and miss him. “What a mess. We found her, barely alive and in the middle of a botched attempt to become human. There were people and authorities all over her apartment complex. I’ve never had a bigger mess to clean up.

“Apparently her roommate found her finned up and bleeding to death in the tub. Of course she freaked and called nine-one-one. Poor girl was working completely alone and off rumor. With all the people involved—it got ugly fast.

“But we managed to mind-wipe the witnesses and erase most of the evidence. But with smart phones now days, pictures get on the internet so quickly, it becomes impossible to retract. But luckily, only a few really bad pictures leaked out and they don’t look any different than the mermaid lore online now anyway. We got lucky this time.

“But I blame Phaleon. His insistence of forbidding the teaching of how to become human and keeping mers trapped in Natatoria just fuels the desire to explore.”

Mom agreed.

I shivered at the image. Dad had told us how to switch when we were younger. The visual scared me from ever wanting to do it. The graphic description of allowing yourself to bleed to death, but capturing your blood (like in a bathtub) and lying in it so it can heal you from the outside during the transformation was a horror show in the making. But you weren’t supposed to do it alone, in case of trouble or a complication. And then afterward, a male mer needed to erase your memories so you wouldn’t tell the secret. I wouldn’t have though, let alone imagined doing that, until now. Until Ash became my everything and I’d go through anything to be together, forever.

 I looked towards Mom who watched Dad with empathetic eyes. “Did she live?”

“Yes, but she’s not going home. We’ve got her in the safe house with friends for now. But if it wasn’t for my connections and computer skills, this could have been our undoing. Phaleon’s fear of humankind has become his downfall and the mer are no longer satisfied with just having merlings and tending to the colony. One day people are going to revolt.”

“So then who were those warriors?” I asked.

“Friends of mine and Badger’s. We’ve been grooming men for such a situation as this for several years under the guise of Azor’s army training. Due to Phaleon and Azor’s poor treatment of their people, the mermen have been eager to join our cause and keep it secret. Even when it came to this mission, I was the only person who was willing or even able to lead it. But what he doesn’t know is that my connections with people on land is what made me successful. He’s got a thing or two coming, especially now that his son has stolen my daughter from me against her will.”

I looked him straight in the eye. “Mom told me about what happened when you were younger, with Leon wanting Mom but she chose you and then your parents getting banished.”

“Yes, it was time you knew the truth. I’ve never trusted him fully after that. He’s always wanted to keep me under his thumb, but he’s too much of a coward to do anything directly. That’s why this mission became something to his advantage. It’s too bad his parents aren’t still on the throne. They were true leaders.”

My chest tightened. “Do you think he’ll seek revenge? How long do you think we’ve really got here?”

Dad looked to Mom and shrugged. “I’d say a month or two.”

“Really?” The hope calmed my nerves. Ash could finish school and then we could leave for Florida in June—to get her all set up for college, of course. “This is good news. Ash has been so nervous about when we’d leave and how things would work out.”

“But I’m going back to get Tatiana sooner than that.”

“Oh, right,” I said, worried what Ash would think of me leaving so soon.

Mom touched my arm. “Ash will come around. Just let things marinate. With the promise, she’ll follow you to the ends of the earth.”

“And I her,” I said quickly. “I’m going to tell her now.”

Mom smiled. “Enjoy your talk.”

I shimmied up the stairs and checked the time. Exactly an hour had passed. The phone barely rang before she answered.

“Hey, baby,” I said, intending to be cheesy. “Where have you been all my life?”

“Right here. Waiting for you.”

58

ASH

Just hearing his voice made me whole again. In the time waiting, I’d chewed my nails to the nub, worn a new groove in my carpet, eaten half a box of chocolate chip cookies, and yelled at my sister for messing up the bathroom.

“I’ve got good news,” he said.

“Tatchi’s home?”

“Well, no. Not that good. I’ve talked to my parents and the Florida thing works in perfectly with their plans. There’s a safe house for runaway mers, so we’ll be together while you go to college.”

“Great,” I said and pulled in a deep breath.

A safe house sounded more reassuring than him living alone in the Atlantic. But I still didn’t know how to tell my parents we were getting serious, so serious I’d want to marry him if he asked. Being only seventeen and jobless without a place to live wouldn’t stack in our favor. And Fin seemed apprehensive about me becoming a mermaid. Would I have to wait long? The thought of swimming around with a real live tail exhilarated me. Would college end up being the cover-up? Would my family notice I’d changed? Heck, if we lived in the Atlantic together, why would we need jobs anyway?

“Ashlynnnn,” he cooed. “What are you thinking about?”

“Life.”

“Sounds serious,” he said with a little laugh.

“Since our first kiss, I can’t think of anything else.”

“That wasn’t entirely my fault. You were the one taking a pleasure cruise in freezing waters.”

“I’d heard that there was a hot merman stalking the waters around Fannette Island. I had to look for myself.” I giggled.

“Hot, huh?” he asked with a smile in his voice.

“And sexy.”

“I’ve been told that.”

“By whom?” I asked with pretend outrage.

“By all the mermaids.”

“Oooh, if you were here I’d—”

“What?”

“I’d pin you down and kiss you so you’d never think of anyone else but me.”

“Can I come over now?”

We both laughed.

“I wish,” I said

He continued to flirt with me and plan our future. In the back of my mind, I started to envision the wedding as well. I couldn’t imagine anyone except Tatchi being my maid of honor, but worried if I waited any longer, and let him go to Natatoria without me, they wouldn’t come back and I wouldn’t have the power to find him. My dreams and worst nightmares swirled together in a multicolored cloud of uncertainty.

“Geez,” Fin said in exasperation. “Who keeps trying to break in on our call?”

“What?”

“Call waiting. Hold on. I need to tell this fool where to stick it.”

“Okay.”

I heard the click and waited, imagining him chewing out the poor telemarketer who was trying to make their sales for the night. Out of my window I saw the bathroom light in his house filter through the trees and smiled. We were so close, yet so far away. After two minutes passed, I wondered if my phone still worked properly. I clicked a button so the screen would light up and the seconds counted away. After three, my heart began to speed up. What was taking so long? After ten minutes, I was about to put on my clothes and walk to his house myself.

“Sorry, Ash,” Fin said, finally clicking over. “It was an important call for my dad. Something’s come up.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” he said, but I didn’t believe him. His edgy voice told me something very bad happened.

“Is it—?”

“I’m really sorry. I can’t talk anymore tonight. I’ll come over first thing in the morning. I love you.”

I slid off my bed onto the floor, gripping the phone. He couldn’t hang up without telling me who called. “I love you, too.”

“Don’t worry. It’ll be okay. Goodnight.”

He hung up before I could tell him goodnight back.

Okay? How could it be okay if he’s worried?

My chest ached as I put down my cell phone and turned to watch his house. The bathroom light wasn’t on anymore—the entire house dark. Who called? What news did they bring? The fear I’d felt the entire time Fin was missing came back and scratched its nails down the chalk board of my soul. I wanted to run over and bang on the door. Why didn’t he tell me? Why did he make me wait?

I began to pace again and ate the rest of the cookies. In times of stress, a swim always did the trick to calm my nerves. I just wanted the phone to ring. I willed him to call me back.

An hour passed, then two. The rest of my family had gone to sleep and only the wind whistling through the pine trees kept me company. I couldn’t stop my mind from racing. I had to know what was going on.

Against my better judgment, I picked up the phone and called. Once the answering machine picked up, I hung up. He must have been in the pool in the basement with his parents.

I tried to sleep, but only tossed and turned. Nothing would ease my mind. In desperation, I grabbed my pillow, a sleeping bag, and four blankets from the hall closet and snuck outside to the dock.

I curled up in a ball on the cold wooden slats and draped my arm over the edge, just barely touching the water. I hoped to send Fin a little SOS with my finger tips. The brittle cold distracted me from the whirlwind of chaos haunting my mind. I hoped in some crazy way he’d know I needed him and swim to find me.

“Fin,” I called out over the water. “Please . . .”