Landlocked (A water witch novel) (33 page)

“So you think that I predicted them coming with my dreams?” I asked skeptically.

“I know you did.”

I sighed. This wasn’t getting me anywhere. “Why did you have Cala mess with my head?”

Dylan spoke. “We thought it would be safer for you and easier to hide you if you were blind to the things of our world and they were blind to you.”

“Our world? Well, what do you think is out there that you need me to be blinded to? I can take care of myself, you know.”

“Maribel,” Jaron whispered. “You know about my parents. All your aunt and uncle were trying to do was protect you from that fate. These people want you, and they’ll do anything to get their hands on you.”

“What makes you think that?” I asked.

“The favor I owed them, the thing that I agreed to do if they saved Owen… was bring them you.”

My stomach dropped and it felt like icey water was being poured on my chest. “What?”

“They couldn’t get to you so they used me. They said that you could see them coming somehow. I was the answer to that. I didn’t want to do any of it. I tried to pretend to go along with their plan—”

“This whole time, you’ve been acting… so I would let you take me to those men, the ones who might have murdered your parents?” I stood up slowly.

He stepped in front of me. “No, Mari. It’s not like that… I had to do what they told me for Owen’s sake.”

I pushed him out of my way and he grabbed my arm. “No, you don’t get to touch me!” I yelled. He allowed me to slide my wrist out of his grasp. I turned my stinging eyes to him. “You were right… people really are capable of anything.” He looked like I had slapped him. Tears burned behind my glare, and I willed them not to spill over and show how hurt I really was. I couldn’t stand him acting like it was me who had hurt him, so I turned and ran out of the room.

“But, I love you. Maribel, I love you!” he shouted at my back.

His words cut through me and only made me feel worse. I loved him too, or at least the person he had pretended to be. When I reached my room, the tears finally made their escape and fell down my face.

Sylvia stepped in without knocking. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

“He's the only boy I’ve ever felt anything for, and none of it was real.” I almost choked on the words. Jaron had only been pretending.

“Listen, Mari. We are different than other people… and we’re only attracted to our own kind. There is nothing wrong with you, and there may not be anything particularly special about Jaron.”

I laughed. Saying there was nothing special about Jaron was like saying there was no water in the ocean. He was all I wanted to see when I closed my eyes.

“No, listen to me. He’s just the first… I think we should head to the studio. I have something to show you.”

“I don’t care about art right now,” I said, putting my head in my hands.

“You’ll care about this—I stayed up late and…” She took a deep breath. “Finished the painting of your mother.”

I jumped out of bed in one fluid movement. “Really?” I ran for the door.

“Mari, wait!” Sylvia called.

It was too late. I was taking the steps to the studio three at a time. I had gone my entire life wishing to see my mother’s face, and now I was moments away. I stood outside the door, trying to catch my breath and slow my pulse.

I heard Sylvia ascending the stairs below me. “Hold on, Mari.”

The temptation was too great and I couldn’t wait any longer, I wanted to see my mom. Maybe if I could just see her face the insanity of the last few days would make sense, maybe I’d be able to see myself in her, and just maybe seeing her face would ease the ache in my chest that Jaron had created. I flung the door open and was face to face with a large canvas depicting my mother. She had long chocolate brown hair flowing well past her waist. I smiled—she must have had the same quirk that I had. Her face was just as heart-shaped as mine, but her eyes where a violet blue. She was much more beautiful than any person I’d ever seen, but I didn’t get to linger on her features for long—too distracted by the shimmering deep coral pink tail attached to her. My stomach did a flip.

The floor creaked as Sylvia walked in behind me.

“What is this?” I asked, spinning around to face her. I knew it was supposed to be the picture of my mother, there were no others there. Not that it would have mattered. I could have picked it out in an exhibition with a hundred paintings. This was the face I pictured when I tried to remember my mom. All these years I'd thought I was just creating the most angelic face I could imagine and pretending it was her. But it really was.

“Is this a joke to you?” I yelled. “You know how much this meant to me, how could you paint that?”

“Mari, I have a lot to tell you… and this is as good a starting point as any.”

“Sylvia,” I grumbled, wanting to put my head in my hands, I resisted the urge so I could continue to look at my mother. She was perched on a rock, a calm sea stretched out behind her.

“I guess the first thing you should do is forget everything you think you know, because the world that you grew up in is a blind one—”

Nausea turned my stomach and I put my head between my legs. When would things make sense again? I hadn’t woken up from my insanely long dream, that had to be it.

“Please listen to me! You wanted answers and I’m trying to give them to you. How do you explain your little water trick last night if the laws of the humans are the only laws?”

“The humans?” I looked at the painting. “So now we aren’t humans. I’m guessing you want me to believe that we’re—”

“Mermaids? Yes, and if you think about it, it will make sense.”

“I very seriously doubt that,” I said. Just because I had dreamed of the ocean since I was a child didn’t mean I was some mystical being… and I hadn’t yet wrapped my head around the fact that I was able to move and control water. How was I supposed to believe this?

“Please, just let me tell you everything,” she pled.

I sighed and sat on the chaise.

She pulled her hand through her hair nervously. “I don’t know where to start…” Sylvia began pacing. “Okay, throughout history there are stories of magical creatures, they are thought to be nothing more than that, stories to entertain. But they are real. Unicorns, dragons, and mermaids were always the most magical of all… now it’s only us left. The humans conquered the land and the skies, but they have yet to truly conquer the sea. Of course we have our own predators to worry about. ”

Why was I wasting my time with this? “That can’t be possible. They aren’t real, Sylvia, I am not a mermaid!”

Her beautiful face fell into a frown. “You are, and so am I…” She paused. “Think of any number,” she said.

“This is ridiculous, I don’t want to—”

“You control water, I do this. We all have something special. Now guess a number.” She folded her thin arms across her chest and stared at me.

I rolled my eyes but obliged. I was always partial to the number seven.

“Seven,” Sylvia said as soon as I thought it.

I eyed her back steadily. She knew that was one of my lucky numbers. I’d have to do better than that… three thousand two hundred and twelve.

“Three thousand two hundred and twelve.” Sylvia smiled when my mouth fell open. “I can read minds, I’m much better at it in the ocean. I have to concentrate very hard when I’m on land.” I searched for some way that she could be tricking me, but couldn’t find a way… or a reason that she’d want to. “That’s how I have my lie detecting abilities.”

I couldn’t deny that. “But, if these things ever existed there would be bones, a fossil record… something.”

“Bones of magical creatures are too valuable to be hanging in any museum. Anything found would be sold to the highest bidder. We have been hunted to near extinction—”

“By whom?” I asked.

“The sirens and the humans have both been harvesting us for centuries.”

When she said the word ‘harvest’, Jaron’s story flashed through my mind. “Do they take our blood?” I whispered.

“Yes, it’s very valuable. They say drinking it is like sipping from the fountain of youth.” She crossed the room and sat next to me. “Don’t worry, we will protect you from them. That will never happen to you.”

I didn’t understand the odd inflection in her voice for a moment, and then it dawned on me. Tears burned a trail down my face and I couldn’t hold back a sob. “Is that how my parents were killed?” I cried, picturing my own mother hanging upside down being drained of blood.

Sylvia held her breath and wiped a tear from my cheek. “Your mother was more than a mermaid, she was a witch. It was her enchantments that kept us safe and protected. When she was murdered, all of the enchantments fell and the sirens came pouring into the city. She was the last witch in our kingdom. They were hunted most rigorously of all. Many of our kind fled to land… we actually stand a chance against the human hunters. The day she died was the saddest day of my life. I lost my best friend and my home all at once.”

“So you’re saying that’s why we’re here?”

“You believe me?” she asked.

“I don’t know… it’s a hard thing to believe. But there has to be an explanation for what Jaron and I can do—but mermaids? It’s just so unreal.”

“But, it is what we are. We can be done with this dry terrible place and return home just as soon as your father sends word,” she said, smiling at me.

“My father?”

“Oh!” She bit her lip. “Yes, he’s the one who sent us here. He gave you to us to protect until it was safe for you to return to the waters.”

“My dad is alive and he sent me away? He never tried to call, or visit… you told me he was dead!” I screamed, jumping to my feet. “Why would you do that?”

Sylvia’s eyes filled with tears. “He asked us to—”

“So what? That didn’t mean that you had to do it!” I spun around and ran from the room, moving as quickly as I could away from everything that she'd just told me. The whole house felt suffocating, so I ran outside and looked up at my home, which appeared distorted and blurry with tears, I had no desire to go back.

Beyond the hedge to the parked cars and hoped that I’d find what I needed. I ran on the pads of my feet, making more noise than I wanted to, and glanced through the window of the Prius. The keys were in the cup holder.

There was only one place I wanted to go, one place that could hold the answers, and no one was going to stop me.

***

On my way down Main Street, I was silently thanking Toyota for making driving the Prius so much like a video game; there was a joystick and everything. If Jaron’s manual Mustang had been the only choice, I doubt I would have made it past the driveway. It was just after noon, and my classmates were walking the sidewalks, finding a place to eat during their lunch hour. It was the last day of school before spring break. A time I had looked forward to even before Jaron’s plan to run off to the ocean. It was a beautiful out; the perfect weather for the excitement I remembered feeling before spring break. My aunt and uncle had always taken me and Clarissa somewhere fun after the spring kick-off party they threw every year. I should be out there right now with Clarissa, bickering about where to eat and who her next dating conquest should be. But I wasn’t. I'd never felt one hundred percent comfortable with my schoolmates, but it was more than that now.

A horn sounded behind me, making me jump. For a second, I thought I'd run a stop sign or something, then I saw Clarissa’s car in the rearview mirror. I sighed and pulled to the side of the road. As soon as she came to a stop, she hopped out of her new luxury car and jogged to my window. I rolled it down.

“What the hell, Mari, since when do you drive? I haven’t seen you since my party. Where have you been?” she asked, gripping the side of the car.

“My aunt and uncle have gone crazy and Jaron’s a liar. I’m outta here.”

Her eyes widened. “What happened?”

“I don’t want to talk about it… listen, I have to go,” I said. The urge to leave was becoming unbearable.

“Wait!” She pulled the driver’s door open.

“No, Clarissa, I have to—”

“Whatever you have to do, and wherever you have to go, I’ll help. Now, get in the passenger seat. You can’t be trusted to drive.”