Revel (27 page)

It was one week after Revel when the nor’easter struck. Gran had an old-fashioned-looking barometer on the wall near her back door, and that morning the needle swung down to
Stormy
and trembled there all day. In the afternoon the sky turned dark. Not just storm-cloud gray, but with an acid green tinge that was unbelievably eerie.

“That can’t be good,” I said, closing a window.

Gran told me to fill buckets with water in case the electric pump for the well died. She also had me check the batteries in the flashlights and fill the kerosene lamps.

It was evening when the storm struck. Gran was in bed; she got tired in the evenings, which was no wonder, given how hard she pushed herself all day. I heard the wind first, battering branches of the lilac and forsythia bushes against the windows. When the rain began, it came in pelting icy drops. Then the wind picked up and moaned. Really moaned, like the air was distressed, as if it were having a heart attack or something. The lights flickered and went out.

“There it goes. Like clockwork.” I was sitting in the kitchen. Gran’s bedroom door was open; I could hear her muttering. “I’ve got the candles ready in the kitchen,” she called out in the darkness.

“I’m right here, Gran,” I answered. “Don’t get out of that bed.”

With the candlelight it was a little less spooky, but I still
jumped when a knock came at the back door. I carried my candle, set in a mason jar, to answer it.

Sean stood outside in the darkness holding a lantern in one hand and a plastic bag in the other. His tall frame filled the doorway and was backlit suddenly when a flash of lightning streaked across the sky. “I thought I’d check on you, see if you need anything,” he said, his voice raised against the wind and the battering rain. “That’s what I usually do when we get a bad storm like this,” he added, as if he had to explain himself.

“Come in.” I clutched my robe closer and waved him through, then nearly shut the door on Buddy, who yelped and wriggled past me.

“Buddy, sit,” Sean ordered. He twisted the plastic bag in his hands. “I’ve got some D batteries here, extra kerosene in the truck if you need it.”

“Thanks,” I said with a smile. “That was really nice of you. But I think we’ve got it covered. Gran told me what to do.”

“Is that Sean?” yelled Gran.

I stepped over to her bedroom door. “He’s checking to see if we need anything.”

“We’re just fine,” she answered. “Take the Tupperware on the counter, Sean. The tea for your mother’s in there.”

“Thanks, Miz McGovern,” Sean called to her, and tucked the container into the plastic bag and set it by the door. He pointed to the living room and I nodded, following him in.

“How’s she doing?” he asked in a quiet voice when we stood by the window.

“Okay. She’s healing.” I shook my head. “She’s amazingly
tough.” I looked up at him. “I’m glad to see you, Sean. I was hoping we could talk.” I peered at him. “Are you okay?” In the wan light afforded by my candle, Sean’s face looked different, the bones of his face more prominent, his eyes more deep-set. But it could have been a trick of the shadows.

“I’m fine,” he said.

“I never got a chance to thank you. For what you did at Revel.”

“I didn’t do anything but get my ass kicked,” said Sean with a rueful smile.

“I’m sorry you got hurt. Are your ribs okay?”

He shook his head. “I’m fine, Delia. Really.” He paused. “You look good.”

I let out a surprised laugh. “Um, thanks. Where’ve you been all week?”

“Working,” he said with a shrug. “Same old.” He cocked his head. “No, I mean it. There’s something really different about you.” He reached out and wound a coil of my hair around his finger, stretched it out and let it go.

I leaned back slightly and cleared my throat. “Yeah, I guess we all know what that is. My dark fishy side.”

Sean smiled, stepped closer and put his hands on my waist. “I wanted to see you tonight, Delia. I’ve been thinking about something for a while, trying to decide. And the other night I decided. So I’m feeling better about things.”

I tried to back away, uncomfortable with this sudden intimate touch, but Sean pressed closer.

“Sean.” I gently moved his hands away. “Are you okay?”

“I feel great,” Sean whispered. “I’ve just been wanting to do this, before it’s too late.”

He pulled me close and kissed me. His mouth was warm and hungry and it felt like every muscle in his body was coiled like a spring. I could feel the pounding of his heart against my own chest.

I pushed him away from me, breathing hard. “Sean, hold on a minute.”

He straightened up. He didn’t look flustered or put off by my resistance and still held my shoulders in a warm, loose grip. He let his hands slide down my arms before releasing me. “Sorry. Guess I just wanted a taste of what I can’t have anymore.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Revel,” said Sean, his voice low and rough. “I saw how Jax looked at you. And how you looked at him. So now I know where I stand. It makes things easier.”

Lightning flashed, illuminating his face. The outline of his jaw looked hard and the skin was taut over his cheekbones. There
was
something wrong. He didn’t look sick exactly. Just … 
changed
. As if he’d aged years since I saw him last.

“Sean, what’s happened to you?” I whispered.

Thunder rumbled through the house and shook the embroidery frames on the walls. Sean didn’t answer, only turned and strode away. I heard him call Buddy to him and the back door slam as he went back out, into the storm.

CHAPTER 27
 

A
nother week passed and I didn’t hear anything more from Sean. I didn’t know what was going on with him, and I was too embarrassed by what had happened to go searching him out. Maybe his strange behavior had just been a reaction to finding out about my Aitros side. But I hoped we could be friends again.

To be honest, I had a hard time keeping my mind on anything except the changes I was going through. So many strange, impossible things were happening.

For example, I was wearing a two-piece.

I regarded myself in the mirror. The bikini had belonged to Mom, who’d apparently been more daring than I thought. I’d found it in a trunk with some of her other old clothes in Gran’s attic. The skimpy suit of white eyelet fabric with tiny black flowers was a lot more revealing than I was used to. But
if I swam in anything that covered my gills, it felt like I was breathing through a mask.

And I had to swim.

At this point even if someone had told me that the Aitros changes would go away if I stayed out of the water, I wouldn’t have done it. I couldn’t have. I needed to be in the water for at least an hour every day, longer if I could. I felt tired and restless without it.

I think I looked good too. My body was getting stronger with the swimming. Lithe, toned muscles had appeared in my arms and legs and belly. I stood straighter and held myself taller. Unfortunately, I hadn’t
grown
taller, at least not that I could tell.

But the first time I stepped from the water and saw the webbing between my fingers, I
did
freak out.

The pearly membranes of tissue were almost see-through. And they were between my toes too. They definitely helped with the swimming, and after I was out of the water for a while, the webbing retracted. So it wasn’t so bad. But the thing I feared the most didn’t seem to be happening. Not yet. I hadn’t developed a fin when I went into the water.

Wouldn’t
that
be special.

“Come on,” Jax said, waving me to join him. He’d been wanting to take me out to see the reef. It would be the farthest I’d swum so far.

I tugged off my T-shirt and dropped it to the sand, then unbuttoned my shorts and slipped them down. When I stepped out of the shorts and used my toe to kick them onto the blanket, I glanced over at Jax. His raised hand dropped slowly into the water and he stared at me with those relentlessly blue eyes as I ambled to the water.

“What is that?” he asked me, his voice sounding strained.

“It’s a bathing suit. I can’t wear the other one anymore because of these.” I passed a hand over my gills.

He opened his mouth and closed it again. Nodded.

Ever since Revel, when he’d learned that I had Aitros blood in my veins and this strange power in my voice, Jax had been different. He was diligent about helping me learn my way around the waters of Trespass, and seemed to enjoy being with me. In fact, when we were together, he never left my side and was as protective as a mother hen with a chick.

But we hadn’t spoken about my voice or what happened that night. And Jax hadn’t kissed me again or even touched me. Even though sometimes I thought he wanted to. I stepped into the surf. The water sliding over my skin felt like a caress, but rather than thrill me, it only made me yearn more for his touch.

A rising wave lifted me and I felt the answering joyful surge in my belly. I arched down and kicked, slicing deep beneath the water. I came up beside Jax.

“Tell me about sirens,” I said.

I’d never seen Jax look unsure or hesitant about anything, but he did now. His brow furrowed and his eyebrows pulled
together, making his expression look at once fearsome and, strangely enough, worried. “I thought we were going to swim.”

“We will. After you tell me about sirens. Gran says that I can’t run away from this thing, that I need to learn how to use it.”

“You’ve never heard of them?” Jax asked, searching my face.

I shrugged. “From what I recall, they’re girls with big busts and long hair that used to sit on rocks and sing to sailors, luring them to shore and making them wreck their boats.”

Jax rolled his eyes. “As usual, the Landers have twisted the tale beyond any sense.” He frowned and stirred the water between us absently with his hand, creating a small whirlpool. “I can’t tell you very much, because a siren is a rare thing among our race. There hasn’t been one in these waters since the days of my forefathers. Two hundred, perhaps three hundred years.” Jax glanced up at me, his mouth curved in a faint smile. “It’s no wonder Mikos doesn’t have a clue what you did to him. He still seems to think you had some hidden device or trick to injure him so.”

He swept the miniature whirlpool away with a careless gesture. “Simply put, a siren is a female demigod of the sea but with the power of her will in her voice.”

“What does that mean?”

“Just this,” said Jax. “With the power of her voice, a siren can move the minds and the hearts of men. She can persuade
armies to battle or bring peaceful resolution to a violent conflict. The most powerful sirens can also kill with their voices.” He looked at me steadily. “As you did.”

Jax reached out and took my hand in his tanned and sinewy one. The simple touch between us felt electric to me, but his expression was unreadable.

“A siren is the most deadly weapon an Aitros clan can possess,” he said in a measured voice.

A weapon? As unbelievable as it was, I
had
killed with my voice. I’d seen the Icer’s head explode. And I’d hurt Mikos enough to disarm him and escape. But I didn’t even know exactly what I’d done to
make
those things happen.

I wasn’t so much of a weapon. More like a loose cannon.

“But why are there so few sirens?”

Jax was looking down at my hand and closed it gently inside his own. “Probably because they don’t live very long. The stories say that sirens were often killed as children, or even infants.”

“You’re not serious.” I pulled my hand back.

“You think I would joke about that?” His gaze shot to mine.

“No. I don’t know,” I said in a small voice, sinking down in the water. I realized that this had become a protective posture for me. I felt safer when I was enclosed like this, wrapped in water. “I just need time to understand what’s happening to me.”

“That’s why I told you not to tell anyone,” he said. “I
warned you on the night of Revel. I don’t think anyone in the clan should know. Not yet.”

I frowned, trying to remember his words that night. “I think I might’ve been passing out then.”

“Oh.”

“But I haven’t told anyone. Only Gran knows.”