Heart of Shell (The Mercrutian Chronicles Book 1) (9 page)

“
What do you mean you’re going away?” I asked suddenly feeling a rush of emotion that had me bereft and cold.

“
Hey there, Zale,” my father said walking by the entryway on his way to the kitchen. “I hear congratulations are in order. You received that prestigious nine month internship with the Sealatian Order in the main Atlantian city.”

My father reached out and shook Zale’s hand. I blew out a breath, exasperated that everyone kept interrupting my conversation with him, each time I felt like he was telling me something incredibly important.

“
Thanks Mr. Patel,” he replied and pushed back his hair off his face. “I’m looking forward to my time in the blue. It’s a little dry here for me.” He said and winked.

“
Don’t I know what you mean,” my father said laughing and patted him on the back. They were joking, at a time like this? Zale had just confessed that not only Merrick loved me, or would love m,e or something along those lines but more importantly he loved me too, and that he could teleport, and see into the future, and apparently was leaving for the ocean, and
most importantly
that he loved me! My head was beginning to hurt, I wanted to have this all sorted out. I shot my dad a look and he glanced back and forth between us.

“Well take care Tiger Shark,” he said to Zale, then turned to me. “I’m going to go see if your mother needs help with supper,Anya.”

“
Okay Dad,” I said and watched him until he was out of sight. I had grabbed Zale’s sleeve half-expecting him to disappear, while I waited to make sure my dad was out of earshot.

“
You can’t drop all of those things on me, and tell me you love me, and then just leave like you’ll be stopping by tomorrow when you’re leaving for nine months Zale, that’s just not fair.” I crossed my arms clearly demanding some answers.

He smiled sweetly, but I didn’t budge and grabbed his sleeve again when he moved to the door.

“
Don’t leave Zale,” I said pulling him into a hug.

He hugged me back and rocked me a little in comfort.
“
I’m running out of time Anya. Look I can tell you this much. I might love you more than Merrick at this particular moment, but he’s going to love you a whole lot more in the time to come. The teleporting and future seeing are things you’re just going to have to accept. The future is tricky business. I can only see so far ahead and even then it’s only once someone close is faced with a choice. And then, even if I do see things it doesn’t always mean they’re right.” He stroked my cheek in comfort and for that moment it felt as though everything thing he said was true, everything
would
be as he said. Then I thought about it all.

“
You said sometimes things you see aren’t right. So then maybe Merrick won’t love me like you say.”

“
No,” he said and shook his head as though I were way off base. “That’s not possible. That- I am completely right about.”

I looked into his eyes and he seemed so sure of himself, so confident that he was speaking the truth about Merrick and me.

“
What if you’re wrong?” For a moment I saw a flicker of doubt in his eyes and then he frowned.

“
I wish I was wrong.” He whispered. “Remember what you told me that night at my house? You said you would help me, Anya.”

“
I will,” I said eagerly. “I promise, but you need to tell me how.”

“
When the time is right you’ll know. The voice inside you will guide you to me.”

“
What? What does that mean Zale?” Then the timer on his watch started beeping and he looked at me saddened.

“
I’m out of time, Anya. I’ll be back.” He cupped my face and kissed me softly on the lips. My heart pounded only I couldn’t tell if was out of guilt or emotional connection.
What was with the Price boys and kissing me?!

“
Zale!?” I cried pulling back with wide eyes.

He smirked. “I couldn’t help it, you’re so cute.” He opened the door and walked out. The moment his shoe touched a pool of water on the porch, he was gone and once again I was feeling confused.

He dissolved into the water? Wait, he thought I was cute?

I had a sinking feeling, the type of dreaded feeling you get when something goes wrong. A jolt of pain shot through my leg causing me to jerk up. I opened my eyes slowly. I was in my room lying on my bed and glanced at the clock by the nightstand. It was seven o’clock in the evening. I sat up feeling hazy.
Had I been dreaming?
I could have sworn that Zale had come over.

Even though the air in the room was cold I shook back the covers and got out of bed, stretching out into my dark room. I slid my feet into my slippers and prepared to make my way downstairs.
Where was the e-reader that Zale and Merrick had bought me?
I rubbed my neck and walked zombie-like down the hallway.

“
There’s my girl!” My father said as I walked into the kitchen.

“
How long was I out for?” I asked him, looking around the room for any signs that Zale had actually visited.

“
Not long,” he replied, maybe half an hour. “Since we’re celebrating your birthday tomorrow with pizza while your friends are over, your mother thought tonight we could just have a nice cooked meal. We made some fish and fixings in the oven.”

“
Yeah, that sounds great, Dad.” I said and yawned while I walked over to the sink and glanced into it, there was no sign of the pot or the cups that I had used to make the hot chocolate. I even checked the dish tray and none of them were there.

“
What are you looking for Anya?”

“
Was Zale here?” I asked.

“
The youngest Price boy?”

“
Yeah...” I said and rubbed my face with my hand.

“
No, but Caspian stopped in on his way to Atlantis. He left that for you.” My eyes followed my father’s hand to the counter there was a large gold gift bag there with matching decorative tissue spilling out of the top.

“
For me?” I walked over to it and pulled on the tissue gingerly. There was a beautiful black cashmere sweater with a ribbon around it and a tag stating that it was from Ondine and Caspian. Beneath that there was a box with a sparkly red beaded bracelet and a beautiful purple scarf. There was also some make up, some nail polish and some other goodies which were marked as being from Coral, Pearl, and Rayne. Then, beneath that, was a leather book cover, just like the one in my dream. My hand trembled when I reached for it and my mother, who had joined us in the kitchen, gasped at how beautiful it was.

“
My Anya, that’s gorgeous.”

“
Very nice indeed,” my father said in agreement.

Written across the tag were the names Zale and Merrick, but if my dream had been right then I knew that Merrick had spent a lot of his money on me. Maybe it wasn’t an e-reader, maybe it was just a book. I unwrapped the leather tie, thinking a book would suit me just fine, but the moment I began I knew, it was the one thing I had really wanted. As I looked at the screen I thought I might collapse to the floor, but the dramatic display would only have my parents worried.

How could I have dreamed this very thing before it had happened?
And exactly what else about my dream had been true. My mind was starting to dissect everything that had happened while I'd slept and I raced into the office grabbing a pen and paper to write it all down.

“
Anya, what are you doing?” My parents asked simultaneously.

“
I’ll be right back,” I said still holding the e-reader to my heart. I scribbled quickly trying to remember every minute detail, the inflection in his voice each time Zale had spoken, and what he had said about Merrick.   When I returned to the kitchen my parents looked at me oddly, they had begun arranging our food on the table.

“Everything okay?” My dad asked stroking my hair.

“
Yes,” I said, “I’m going to have to write 'Thank You' cards for these wonderful gifts.”

“
That’s a great idea Anya.” My mother replied, placing our glasses of water on the table.

Only I didn’t know what or how I would start writing to Merrick or Zale and I was beginning to wonder if I should write to them both separately.

I was too tired and too hungry to think straight, so I reasoned that I had a long day and was maybe out of sorts. At least I had written the dream down to reference later. Since I could do nothing at the present moment about Zale, or Merrick, I would eat, rest, and tackle things first thing in the morning.

I finished writing my
thank you letters early in the morning, and spent the rest of the it trying to distract myself from thoughts of Merrick and Zale. My parents had given me a few presents the night before, an outfit for school, which looked like my usual dark blue jeans and black sweater and a gift card to buy more books.  So, I searched online to see if there were any titles that I wanted to purchase.

It was no use though after a few minutes I grew restless and couldn’t sit still, because all I could see were the visions of Merrick and Zale intermittently. Anytime I closed my eyes, they were there haunting me. So then I spent hours looking over the
grimoire
that Mrs. Keller had unknowingly given me, flipping through the pages in the hopes that I could find some Mer information on time travel, and water teleportation.

What was written about it was limited, and the whole thing was in an older dialect of Mer that was more difficult to transcribe. What I had managed to decipher was something close to a fog creating potion that allowed you to enter the mist and arrive somewhere else. It was odd to think that my dream of Zale had preceded my knowledge of that kind of Mer magic. I guessed that perhaps I had tapped into some sort of shared “Mer essence” to learn about it, which made sense for our species and its emotional capabilities.

There were many diagrams of Mers and as I flipped through the pages I fell upon one that looked so similar to Merrick, I stopped. Its uncanny resemblance had even managed to capture the same slightly rebellious inflection in his eyes. The portrait was a little older in appearance, but the top of the page had an inscription relating to a hero. Regrettably there was little of the passage I could decipher. For nearly half an hour I had been captivated with the image, though, and admired the details.

Near the end of the book there was another one that stood out to me. It was something about going back in time to change the path of a loved one. That one had many warnings written above it, and so seemed like it was not something to be conjured lightly. Even the pages looked foreboding.  On one side was watercolour with a pale blue sky, darkening to a greyish black as it met the horizon. It was a seascape with a lighthouse; the light from the structure captured by a speckled coating of shimmering dust. I gathered that it was some kind of sparkly paint used with a thin brush. On the opposite side was the transcription flanked by a diagram of a Mer with a navy blue cape, hooded, so that there was no way to distinguish any features of the face. Behind the figure, wisps of the grey depths seemed to reach out,and curl about it in a thick cloud. As I looked at the page, it was almost as if I could see the smoke move and I jumped when I heard the doorbell, I suspected it was my friends and went to the door to meet them, but it was too early.

Instead a postman had arrived with a letter for my father and mother. A large navy envelope with gold seals, clearly something from the Mer Institute of Science, I took it gingerly wondering what the contents would hold. They quietly looked at each other when I handed it to them, but no words were exchanged. I had an uneasy feeling about the envelope, but couldn't find the right words to ask what it meant.

Evelyn and Leah arrived
around three o’clock and I was pretty excited that they had both shown up early. I was grateful that they had finally come over because I needed the distraction from my recent dream and my growing feelings for Merrick. The book had been enchanting and had broken up my confusion about the dream with Zale, but even then the one image on the hero page was so hauntingly similar to my teal eyed Mer that it had only calmed my mind for so long.

I still couldn’t believe he had bought me an e-reader and not just any one either; it was the top of the line for that particular model. It made me euphoric just thinking about it, but then I had a thought that perhaps he hadn’t bought it- maybe his parents had. I scowled to myself. I was wrong, or right, I didn’t know and the only way to find out for certain was to speak with him, but that I knew wouldn’t happen for some time. Mostly, I was just grateful. The next week at school would be exam week, followed by our Christmas break. So the opportunity to see him would be in the future.

Thankfully, with Evie and Leah around, I could shift my thoughts to something else. Or so I had thought, until they positioned themselves on my bed, and pulled out a yearbook from the previous year at the high school.

  “
Where did you get that?” I asked knowing that both of them had started high school that very year, like me.

Evie looked over at Leah with a dubious smile. “Leah’s older brother Garrett went to Sir John A last year, before graduating and he somehow ended up with two yearbooks by mistake. So this one here pilfered it, and scribbled notes next to all the cute boys.”

I laughed, and then swallowed thinking about Merrick’s picture.
What would he have looked like then?
Probably not too much different than he did now, he looked like he had begun his transformation much younger.

Leah squealed when she opened the cover to a page bookmarked with a neon pink sticky note. “Oh my goodness! That Merrick Price is one delish dish.”

My cheeks heated in a blush. “You think so?” I asked trying not to give any hints at my feelings for him.

Evie smiled, “Yeah, but Murdock and Kai are more my type. Mmm mmm who doesn’t like a bad boy?”

Leah snorted. “Um me!” She raised her hand. “I think Hurley’s my favourite, with his copper curls and baby blues. I love that dimple in his chin!”

“
What about you, Anya? Which guy knocks your socks off?”

“
Umm none of them,” I replied with a shrug.

“
See! I told you she didn’t like Merrick!” Leah said to Evie, with a pat on her arm.

“
I could have sworn she did,” Evie said looking at me.

I laughed nervously.

“
You do!” Leah exclaimed, pointing at me.

“
I...I...”

“
It’s okay,” Evie said, “we kind of figured you did since we always see you with Rayne and Pearl. One of these days, you gotta tell us how you managed to swing an in with them.”

“
Our parents are friends,” I said using the same excuse that Merrick had given Gina.

“
Lucky!” Evie said flipping the page of the year book.

“
He’s got to like you back at least a little bit,” Leah started saying with a fishy look on her face, “otherwise G-dog wouldn’t have gone on the war path against you.”

“
It’s complicated,” I admitted. “We’re friends.”

“
Friends who sometimes kiss?” Evie asked looking up at me teasingly.

“
What?” I asked completely stunned. They both smiled as though they had caught me red handed.

Excitedly she sat up on my bed.
“
So— the other day we were sitting in on the grade ten advanced Math class at the back of the room, trying to decide if we were brainy enough to enrol and of course with our luck. Thank the heavens! We were seated just behind the table where Merrick, Kai, Hurley, and Murdock sat.”

My jaw dropped open. “Merrick told them!”

“
Not in so many words,” Leah said. “It’s true!? He kissed you?”

“
Oh Mother of Pearl! Why would he tell them?” I said loudly and while Evie and Leah exchanged excited looks I paced back and forth.

“
Oh my gosh! He kissed you!!” Leah exclaimed.

“
Here’s what happened,” Evie started. “Merrick strolled into class, later than the other guys, and joined the rest of the hotties at the table.”

“
Then,” Leah said taking over, “Murdock said some wisecrack about Merrick making out with you while Gina was on a rampage looking for him.”

“
Then, Merrick said that he was not making out with you at that moment, so she needed to chill, because lately her freak outs were getting worse and the guys were not doing anything to help the situation,” Evie said take over again. “But, Kai, because he’s brilliant and I love him, so much, realized what Merrick said and asked, ‘What do you mean at that moment?’”

“
To which, like a jackass Murdock said ‘ewww sick’” Leah said shaking her head in disapproval. “And she wonders why I don’t like the bad boys,” she said to me giving Evie a look. Evie replied with a comical facial expression and a jutting tongue.

“
Then, Merrick, in defending your honour told Murdock to shut up and smacked him across the back of his head, saying that kissing you was actually nicer than being choked by Gina’s new tongue piercing!” Evie finished excitedly. “Oh and Kai, because he’s so cute said, ‘At least Merrick is kissing someone!’ Which was definitely a jab directed towards Murdock.”