Shifting (Swans Landing) (5 page)

But I felt the weight of my cell phone in my pocket, waiting for a text that hadn’t yet come.

“What do you want me to do?” I asked.

Mara backed up a few steps. “Act natural. Stand there and look at the water. Walk. Whatever you want. I want to play with textures.”

I shoved my hands into the pockets of my cut-off khakis. The wind whipped my hair into my mouth as Mara started clicking away with her camera. I felt ridiculous.

“What do you mean, textures?” I asked.

“I mean the way the lines of your clothes and hair and skin contrast against the roughness of the wooden pilings and the foaming water.” Mara knelt, not seeming to notice that her knees would be soaked from the wet sand.

I still didn’t know exactly what she meant, but I decided not to question her further. Mara took beautiful photographs. She had a way of capturing life with her camera, like her dad could capture it within his seashell artwork. I wasn’t exactly artistic. Stringing shells on fishing line didn’t count as works of art and didn’t take much skill.

I kicked off my shoes and pressed my toes into the wet sand. On the edge of where the ocean met the beach, I could feel the call of both water and earth within me. Part of me wanted to dive in and swim, while the other part wanted to stay rooted to the land. It was hard to fight these two opposing sides of myself. Sometimes it would be easier if I was fully human, if I could walk around every day like the people at school, ignoring the water if I chose to, able to go and do whatever I wanted.

Instead, I was tied here, stuck to live out my life on this island, caught between land and water.

“What was it like before you came here?” I asked, casting a glance over my shoulder at Mara. “When you lived in Memphis, I mean? What was it like to not live near the ocean?”

Mara shrugged as she continued to take photos. “I don’t know. It was just normal. It was what I’d always known.”

“Didn’t it hurt be so far from the water?”

“Not really,” Mara said. “In the back of my mind, I always knew something was missing, but I didn’t know what. I had never changed form before, so I don’t think the ocean had the hold on me that it does now.” She frowned. “I guess now I can’t go too far from the water, can I?”

I shook my head as the water slipped across the sand, foaming around my toes. It called to me, begging me to go in and swim. “You’ll feel like you’re drowning on air if you try to leave the ocean. The earth’s essence can sustain you for a short time, but the water will always call you back.”

“How far inland have you gone?” Mara asked.

“I used to go see a doctor on the mainland when I was a kid,” I said. “But it hurt too much and I told my parents I wouldn’t go anymore a couple years ago. I don’t leave the island very often anymore.”

Mara lowered her camera, her eyebrows raised. “But you could go to the other islands, couldn’t you? You would be able to survive traveling along the coastline.”

“I don’t really see the point. I’m still stuck.”

Mara opened her mouth, but voices caught our attention. A group of people broke through the heavy fog along the shoreline. As they drew closer, my stomach clenched and my body tensed.

Elizabeth walked with Jackie and Kyle, and another guy, Mark from school. Kyle had his arm slung around Elizabeth’s shoulder, keeping her body tucked close to his. Apparently, that little thing between them was back on again.

My teeth ached with how hard I grit them together.

They caught sight of us when they were only a few feet away and their expressions changed to hostility. Elizabeth looked at Mara, her eyes never glancing my way, as if she could pretend I didn’t exist and the time we’d spent together had never happened.

“What are you doing here, shark bait?” Jackie sneered.

Mara ignored them and studied her camera. “Let’s go somewhere else,” she said to me. “Somewhere a little more private.”

Elizabeth’s eyebrows drew together in a tight scowl at Mara’s words. “There’s no such thing as privacy around here,” she said. “This is Swans Landing. Everyone knows what you do.”

Not everything,
I thought, suppressing a smug grin.

“We’re not doing anything that concerns you,” I said. “Go somewhere else to do whatever it is you’re doing.”

“This is our island, Fish Boy,” Kyle said, stepping toward me. “Why don’t you go off and swim with the crabs?”

Jackie and Mark laughed, but Elizabeth glared at me with apprehension etched into her features. What, did she think I’d spill her little secret to these guys? Like I wanted Mara to hear about it. Maybe if she hadn’t been there, I’d take pleasure in seeing the fury on Kyle’s face when he heard it had been me with my hands on Elizabeth the day before. But for now, I’d keep my mouth shut and my secrets to myself.

“Clever,” I told him. “Did you think that up all by yourself?”

Elizabeth grabbed Kyle’s arm. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go somewhere else. They’re not worth it anyway.” She cast a sneer over her shoulder at Mara.

“Oh, no,
please
don’t go,” Mara said, rolling her eyes. “What will we do without your company to remind us what scum we are?”

Elizabeth’s gaze finally met mine. She kept my gaze for a long moment, then finally turned, pulling Kyle by the hand behind her. “Come on,” she ordered. “Let’s get away from the stench. I can’t stand fish.”

Mara scowled as they walked away. “I’m aching to punch her in the mouth again,” she muttered.

I kicked at the sand under my feet. “Maybe she’s misunderstood.”

Mara stared at me like I’d grown another head. “Oh, please. It doesn’t take much to figure her out. Spoiled, self-centered brat.”

I resisted the urge to look back to where Elizabeth and her friends had disappeared. We were from two different worlds, and we had no allegiance to each other. I didn’t care who she messed around with.

“Maybe she’s like us, but is too afraid to step outside the boundaries around here,” I said.

Mara wrinkled her nose. “Are you actually defending her? Elizabeth Connors, the girl who has made your best friend miserable?”

My gaze darted toward the beach, where I could still see four dark specks growing smaller in the distance. Then I shook my head. “No, of course not. Elizabeth’s not my problem.”

Chapter Seven

My body ached with the need to stay close to the water. Reed had already left for school ahead of me, eager to find his place among the soccer team before the first bell. I was lagging so far behind that even Mara had gone on without me. I was a good student, not a genius or anything, but I made good grades in all my classes. The problem was that sitting in those classrooms all day felt so stifling. Some days, especially near the new moon when the pull of the water was the strongest, I felt like I’d suffocate if I had to sit inside the concrete walls.

My feet had turned off the path before I realized where I was going. If I was lucky, Reed wouldn’t find out I wasn’t in school. He’d tell our parents for sure, unless I could bribe him before he had a chance. I needed a day to clear my head. One last day on my own before tourist season started and I had to be even more careful.

The silence and stillness that hung over the island among the gray clouds made it almost impossible to imagine tourists coming this year. Already I’d heard people talk about how their businesses might not survive if the tourists didn’t come soon. Something felt different, something other than the weather, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.

I emerged from the narrow path on the other side of the maritime forest to the little strip of beach where the ocean and sound met at the tip of the island. The water churned and the wind blasted across the sand. I sat down just out of reach of the foamy water that rushed onshore. Seagulls squawked overhead, swooping low to see if I had any food and then soaring away when they realized I wasn’t going to feed them. I closed my eyes and breathed the salt that hung thick in the air.

A chill crept over me, but I pulled my shirt off to absorb what little sun broke through the clouds. I scanned the horizon as far as I could see into the fog as I sat in the sand, digging my fingers into the golden grains. There was nothing on the water. Ships only passed by far out to sea, rarely ever stopping at this island. The only people who really used this beach were the finfolk, once a month during song night.

I stared at the rippling water as hard as I could, looking for signs of life. But there was nothing other than the birds swooping over the water in search of fish.

“Where are you, Sailor?” I asked aloud. “Are you even still alive?”

Only the sound of the waves crashing toward shore and the calls of the birds answered me.

After a while, I got up and slipped out of my jeans. I tossed my boxers onto the sand and then made my way into the water. It was still cold enough to shock me a little as the water hit my legs, but I pushed myself farther.

Only a short distance in, the change overtook me and I let myself slip fully underwater. The cracking and popping of my bones felt in a way like some kind of bittersweet release. I didn’t know how something could be so painful and pleasant at the same time. Despite the few minutes of agony, my body still craved this change.

I swam for a while, diving as far down into the water as I could and fighting against the rough current that tried to push me back toward shore. I dared a few flips, breaking the surface and arcing through the air before diving back down.

When I turned back toward the shore, shaking water from my eyes, I caught sight of a figure standing on the beach. Brown hair whipped around her head in a dark halo. She held one hand to her forehead to shield her eyes as she looked toward me.

For a moment, I let myself think it was someone else waiting there on shore, as she had many times before. I let myself believe briefly that this summer wouldn’t be so bleak.

But then I pushed that thought away and headed toward shore. I stopped only a few yards out, studying Elizabeth as she stood knee deep in the water. We looked at each other for a long moment in silence.

Finally, she smirked. “Nice boxers,” she said, nodding her head toward my clothes.

I admired the lean, muscled look of her legs protruding from her cut-off jeans. “Nice legs.” I’d never been good at flirting, but there was something different about Finfolk Dylan that made me do things Human Dylan never would.

“I suppose you don’t have any of those right now, huh?” Elizabeth asked.

I laid back in the water, letting my tail fin flip and splash water toward her. The scales shone a brilliant blue in the sunlight before disappearing back under the water.

Elizabeth didn’t even protest when the water sprayed across her, leaving a big wet spot on her shirt. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the water. “How do you do that?”

“What?”

She gestured toward me. “Grow a tail and scales.”

I shrugged. “It’s just what happens.”

I started toward shore, ready to shed my finfolk form and be human again, but Elizabeth held up her hands.

“Wait.” She waded deeper into the water, fighting to stand up in the rushing waves. “I’ve...I’ve never seen a finfolk up close like this before.”

It seemed strange that she had lived her whole life on the island without seeing a finfolk up close, though it wasn’t entirely unbelievable. Her father didn’t like finfolk, so when would Elizabeth have ever had the chance to be around one in the water?

I extended a hand toward her. “Come on.”

She hesitated, looking down at the water around her legs. It was up to her thighs now and she wobbled as she tried to keep her balance.

“I’ll hold onto you,” I promised. “I’ll keep you above water.”

She bit her lip, then walked toward me, reaching her hand until our fingertips touched. I entwined my fingers in hers, pulling her toward me. When she couldn’t touch the bottom anymore, I wrapped my other arm around her waist to pull her close and keep her head above the surface.

We were so close, I could see the tiny golden flecks in her eyes. Her hair spread out on top of the water like octopus tentacles. Her teeth chattered slightly, but she didn’t make any movement back toward shore.

“Can I touch your tail?” Elizabeth asked quietly.

I swallowed. “Go ahead.”

Her hand slid down my chest, her fingers fluttering over my stomach. I suppressed a shudder when her palm pressed against the area where skin became scales as a warm tingle spread through me.

“I’ve never touched a...someone like you,” she said. “It’s different than I expected.”

“What did you think it would feel like?” I asked.

Elizabeth tilted her head to one side. “Like a fish. But you’re more...I don’t know. Smooth.”

I couldn’t help laughing. This whole situation, being here in the water with Elizabeth, was so strange and unexpected. It felt like at any moment I’d blink and find it was all a hallucination. She would still be Elizabeth Connors, the girl who lived to torment finfolk, and I would be invisible Dylan Waverly again.