Revel (16 page)

“It’s perfectly safe, as long as we’re inside the reef, of course. This is Lander’s Beach,” said Zuzu as she pulled her hair into a ponytail.

“That’s okay, I’m good,” I told her. “Really. I don’t swim much.”

As in ever
. I brushed sand off the blanket and, wrapping my arms around my knees, surveyed the beach. A number of the islanders were out enjoying the hot, sunny
weather; blankets, colorful umbrellas and coolers dotted the sand, and a handful of people
were
swimming. It looked so normal.

“We go swimming all the time, don’t we, Reilly?” said Zuzu, prodding him with her toe.

“All the time,” Reilly muttered, lying next to me on the blanket. He was covered from neck to toes by an oversized towel, wore sunglasses and a UV-protective hat with earflaps, and had smeared zinc oxide over most of his face.

“Well, I’m going in,” Zuzu announced. “It’s too hot to sit here and melt. Look, there’s Derek. I’m going to go say hi.” She stripped off her T-shirt to reveal a daring pink-and-white-striped bikini and strode off toward the water.

“Have fun,” Reilly mumbled.

As soon as Zuzu was gone Reilly sat up. “God, I hate swimming,” he sighed. Then he got up and followed her.

I smiled. Reilly might have hated swimming, but that wouldn’t stop him from sticking to Zuzu. For a while I watched them swim and saw them join another group: a guy and two girls who were tossing a small football across the water to each other. I was hoping I might see Sean, but there was no sign of him.

I scanned the sparkling water out to the horizon. The smooth expanse was peaceful, unbroken. Idly I let warm sand run through my fingers. This place seemed like another world. I might as well have fallen into the Bermuda Triangle. Who knew? Maybe I had.

Closing my eyes, I lay back and listened to the sounds of laughter and waves and enjoyed the feel of warm sun on my skin. For the first time since coming here, I began to relax. I thought about Sean Gunn. It wasn’t hard to let myself picture his warm eyes and gorgeous smile.

But almost instantly another face drifted into my mind. Searing topaz-blue eyes. Dark, roughly carved features. I felt Jax’s mouth on mine again. And tasted the pulsing air and water and life in our kiss. I was never going to get over that kiss.

I squirmed beneath the hot sun and flipped over, but that was no better. It felt like I was being slow-roasted over a fire. The back of my neck itched with sweat, and sand was stuck to the sunscreen on my legs. I sat up and drained the last sip of my bottled water.

Reilly and Zuzu were far off down the beach.

The water
did
look inviting: cool blue-green in color and frosted with sparkles of sunlight.

“Cowboy up, Delia,” I muttered, laying my glasses on the blanket. I was grateful that Jax had returned them to me, but something must have happened to them—they seemed not quite right, and I found myself taking them off more and more.

I made my way down toward the water, feeling awkward. In contrast to Zuzu’s, my bathing suit, the only one I owned, was of the practical, no-nonsense variety: a navy blue one-piece Y-back designed for the swim lesson set. When you’re
struggling to dog-paddle and keep your face out of the water, the last thing you want to worry about is your suit giving you a wedgie, or losing your top.

Though on Trespass, those would probably be the least of my problems.

As I stood facing the water, Zuzu waved from a distance, then, breaking away from the group, she dove under the water and came up, swimming smoothly over to me. “Yay! You’re coming in!” she shouted.

“Yay,” I echoed halfheartedly.

I put my feet into the water and stifled a scream. “This is freezing!”

Zuzu ducked down until only her head was visible. “It’s best if you just dive in.”

“Right,” I said. “Like
that’s
going to happen. This is as far as I’m going.” My feet were already aching from the cold, and they sank into the sand as it shifted. I took a step in farther, just to where it felt more solid. “Okay,
this
is as far as I’m going.”

“At that rate you should be in by Tuesday,” observed Zuzu as she passed by, doing a backstroke. She stood up and smiled mischievously. “I could splash you. I’m willing to do that to help you.”

I wrapped my arms around myself. “Splash me and die, Zuzu. I mean it.”

The water was up to my knees now, and I had to admit it felt good, but it was still a shock when the small waves broke
against my thighs. I went in a little deeper, where the water was smoother. I couldn’t see the bottom. What if I stepped on something? What if there was something … lurking under there? With teeth? All of a sudden the familiar, menacing notes of a movie theme began to play in my head.

Dunh-dunh, dunh-dunh …

“What jaws?” asked Zuzu sharply.

“What?” I jerked my head up and spun around.

“You said something about jaws.”

“Oh. Did I? It’s just a movie. About a shark.” I looked around. “Let’s not talk about it, okay?”

“You started it,” she said in an arch tone. “We don’t joke about that stuff.”

“Got it.”

To my surprise I was in up to my chest now. The cool water was such a relief on my skin. With each rise of an oncoming wave, the water lifted me off my feet and set me down gently again. What a strange sensation. Weightless. I realized I’d been holding my arms up stiffly, out of the water. I let them drop.

When the water covered me, I didn’t feel cold anymore, and I let myself sink down and, without thinking, pushed off from the bottom and began to swim.

I was actually swimming. In the ocean. Admittedly, it was my signature style—an awkward, lurching paddle with my chin stretched up high—but it was swimming. It wasn’t so bad.

My arms cut through the water in tentative strokes, and then stronger ones as my confidence grew. Suddenly, I came eye to eye with the dark, rippling surface of the sea. It was such a strange, exciting view. And unlike a pool, it went on and on.

On impulse I dove under and kicked, exulting in the forward surge that my legs provided. This felt amazing. My whole body tingled and I laughed out loud when I broke the surface. I felt so
alive
.

“Delia!”

It was Zuzu’s voice. Sounding worried. And distant.

Disoriented, I lurched upright and gasped when I realized my feet couldn’t touch the bottom. Zuzu was a small figure near the beach. I saw her wave to me.

I’d swum the distance of a football field in a matter of seconds.

My legs flailed, the smooth, strong movements disappearing in panic. I paddled more awkwardly, but still covered the distance back to the beach pretty fast. It must have been a burst of adrenaline fueling my muscles. My breaths came in nervous gulps. Thankfully, I didn’t feel the tightness of an asthma attack coming. I hadn’t even thought to bring my inhaler.

When I got close enough, I could hear Zuzu yelling. “What the hell was that? You scared me to death.” She grabbed my arm to steady me as I lurched out of the water.

“I have no idea,” I gasped. My arms and legs were trembling as if my muscles had just been pushed to their limits.

“I thought you said you weren’t a good swimmer,” Zuzu said accusingly. “I looked up and you were halfway to Nova Scotia.”

“I—I’m not,” I stammered. “I mean, I didn’t do that. I couldn’t have. A current must have carried me out there or something.”

“I didn’t feel a current,” said Zuzu, frowning.

Reilly ran over. “We were all calling you, Delia. Didn’t you hear?” He looked ashen, the freckles on his face standing out in dark patches on his pale skin. “You’ve gotta be careful,” he said. “Sometimes there’re rip tides that can pull you right out to sea.”

“I’m sorry. I must have gotten distracted,” I said. I took the towel Zuzu offered and wrapped it around myself. “I’ve never swum like that before.”

I looked out to the sparkling water and felt a chill shake me. Something was happening to me, but it wasn’t anything I could explain to Zuzu and Reilly. I didn’t even understand it myself. Something was pulling me out there, calling to me.

But what was it?

CHAPTER 11
 

T
he screaming woke me up.

At first I thought it was a human scream, but it was too high-pitched. It was more like the cry of an angry bird. Maybe a seagull.

“Gran!” I called, running downstairs. “Do you hear that? What’s going on?”

Gran sat at the kitchen table, her hands gripped tightly together in front of her, her eyes closed. It looked like she was praying.

“It’s got nothing to do with us,” she said. She got up and strode around the kitchen, taking out pots and pans and banging them on the stovetop as if to block out the noise. “I’ll make you some breakfast.”

But the cry grew louder.

“God help us,” Gran said. “There’s nothing to do for the poor thing. Nothing to do.”

“I’m going to see what it is,” I said. “Gran? Okay?”

But she seemed to hardly hear me. Her face was blank and she was fixed on her preparations, as if the only thing in the world that mattered was breaking eggs into a ceramic bowl.

I ran outside and down the path to the beach, following that eerie, wailing cry.

The sun was rising in a blaze against the gray sky, and the tide was way out.

I could see something big and dark moving against the rocks. I stopped short as that unearthly scream came again and I saw what it was. A Glaukos.

The thing was
chained
to the rocks with a thick manacle fastened around one leg. I walked closer, repelled yet fascinated. The Glaukos was even more frightening now than it had been under the water; I could see its massive size and the grotesque details of its face. The long torso and short arms and legs looked reptilian, like a crocodile, while the leathery head with its vivid yellow eyes looked almost human.

The creature’s yellow eyes, rimmed with swollen red lids, fixed on me as I came closer. The Glaukos snapped and let out a scream of rage that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. The spiked tail thrashed sluggishly against the rocks with a wet, smacking sound. Heart pounding, I took a few steps closer, being careful to leave a wide circle for the reach of the tail, which must’ve been eight feet long. The
spikes were vicious-looking things, like the pointy parts of a medieval weapon. I recalled Sean’s warning about how poisonous they were.

How long had it been here? A while, judging by the spatters of blood and slime marking the rocks. The Glaukos had battered its own flesh trying to escape. I searched the beach for any sign of life, but it was empty. The creature had been chained and left here.

As I watched, the Glaukos slumped back on the rocks. Bloody froth oozed from the gill slits on its face and neck, and the yellow eyes closed. A sickening smell of blood and decay wafted over me. It smelled like something already dead and rotting.

Gran told me they couldn’t survive for long outside the water. The sun was up now, and its heat warmed my face. The tide wouldn’t return to this level for hours.

It was going to die.

“Hey,” I yelled.

The Glaukos didn’t respond.

I climbed up the rocks. Close enough to see the creature more clearly but away from the deadly tail. “Hey, you!”

The thing lifted its head and let out a weak rasping sound. I couldn’t help but cringe at the folds of leathery skin, now cracked and bleeding. The yellow eyes opened and blinked; they were covered with a hazy film. I could hear wheezing coming from the gills as its chest moved very faintly. The webbed digits of its claws twitched, looking pathetically like fingers trying to grasp at something.

Scrambling back down to the water, I scooped some with my hands and tossed it upward, splashing it onto the Glaukos. It didn’t seem to have any effect.

I ran to the house and dashed inside. Gran wasn’t in the kitchen anymore. I pulled out the first container I could find: a plastic dishpan from under the sink.

When I got back, I couldn’t see any sign of life in the creature. It hadn’t moved at all. I filled the pan with seawater and struggled up onto the rock until I was close to the Glaukos’s head.

“C’mon,” I whispered, and poured a stream of water onto its face and gills.

The water rinsed away some of the blood and algae from the gills, but they didn’t move. Blood trickled from the gills and mouth, tingeing the water.

“What are you doing?”

I turned around to see Jax a few feet away, leaning back on the rocks, his arms folded.

“What does it look like?” I turned away and splashed the rest of the water onto the Glaukos. “It’s going to die.”

“That’s the general idea. This is the creature that harmed you; I told you it would be punished.”

I looked down at the collapsed Glaukos. It was no longer the monster that had terrified me under the water. It was a pathetic, dying thing.

“You’re not punishing it.” I glared at Jax. “You’re
killing
it. What is this supposed to prove, anyway? It’s an animal. It
probably doesn’t even understand what it did. And I told you that it wasn’t necessary.”

“Let me clarify. This is not being done for
you
,” said Jax. “The Accord guarantees the safety of Landers from First Ones or their slaves.” His face was as cold, as implacable as stone. “The injury must be recompensed.”