Underwater (22 page)

“Which means there are divers in the lake and people scouring the waterline.” I played with the hem of his shirt. “And the Mer have to hide their existence.”

Saxon rested his chin on the top of my head.
Which makes it harder to find food, which make it difficult to make our offering to the Mere Monstrom. Which leads to more incidents, and…you get the picture.

“If humans knew this was under the surface of the Pend Oreille,” I said, closing my eyes, “they’d go in and kill it. You know that. It would be killed in a week.”

He rubbed his hands up and down my arms, leaving trails of heat behind as they moved.
I know. But then they would know Mer exist. We would be captured, researched, and even killed ourselves. Sometimes I think allowing some humans to know about the existence of Mer would be better than living in fear for the rest of our lives.

I cringed. Talk about stuck. Saxon’s options were face death or face death.

“I don’t know that living under the rule of the Council is much better.” I sighed. “They force you to do things you don’t want to do, and they threaten to kill you if you refuse.”

We don’t have a choice. Everything the Council does is for our best interest. They tell us all the time that sacrifices have to be made, for the good of the Clan as a whole.

“Do you really believe that?” I searched his eyes for the flicker of doubt. “I mean, don’t you think there could be another way?”

He smiled weakly.
I don’t know. I was raised to believe these things, and so were my parents and grandparents. It’s terrifying even to think about
not
following the rules.

“But you didn’t follow the rules when you met me.” I rested one hand on the back of his damp neck. “What’s to say other things couldn’t change too?”

I hope you’re right.
He rested his forehead against mine.
I hope you’re right.

“How will I know how tomorrow goes?” I sat up straight. “I’ll be at Ian’s memorial service tomorrow. How will I know if you’re OK?”

He brought his hands up to cover both of my cheeks. He stroked my bottom lip.
I will be
.

“Yeah, but—”

I will be. I want you to get through Ian’s funeral. Be there for Evey and Hayden, and put me as far out of your mind as possible.

My eyes welled up again. “That’s not gonna happen.”

He offered me a smile.
You have to
try
. For me.

Choking, I covered my face. “It sounds like you’re saying goodbye.”

I am. But just for today.
He moved my hands and pressed a long kiss against the corner of my mouth. My heart sped up.
On Saturday, I want you to get ready for your prom, and—

“Are you kidding me?” I sniffled. “The last thing I care about right now is a stupid dance.”

Eyes twinkling, Saxon caught a stray strand of my hair, and twisted it around his finger.
Do you think I’d give up the chance to take the most beautiful girl to my first prom? I’ve even got a suit to wear.

“A suit?” I laughed, a tear escaping and heading down my cheek. “Where did you get a suit?”

Saxon didn’t have a job. Living with the Mer didn’t exactly require money, and he usually spent his time in town sneaking in and out of places. Where had he gotten the money for a freaking suit?

He swept his knuckle across my cheekbone, catching the tear.
Downtown. The clothing bank.

Biting my lip, I felt my heart expanding. Much more of this incredibly nice attitude, and it was going to pop. “I love you. Do you know that?”

Saxon anchored me to his chest and burrowed his face in my hair.
I know. And I love you too.

Were these my last moments with Saxon? Would we see each other again after today? Would he ever break the surface of the Pend Oreille again after facing the Council the next day?

I tangled my fingers in his hair and squeezed my eyes shut. For just one tiny blip in time, I didn’t care.

Chapter Twenty-Two

There were three places I hated being with every ounce of my very soul.

The first was the dentist’s chair. The buzzing sounds, the tooth dust in the air, gagging on the fluoride rinse….never was a fan.

Second, I hated being in a hospital bed. After my accident, I was in one for weeks on end. There was nothing worse than looking out the window and realizing that the seasons had changed and you hadn’t even realized it.

And third?

Third would have to be at a funeral for a teenage kid.

I didn’t think I’d ever seen something so agonizing in my life. The entire gym was packed. People were leaning against all of the walls and standing in groups outside the doors. As expected, Coach Timmons delivered the eulogy, and my heart tugged when the football team members laid Ian’s jersey across the head of the empty casket. In the front row, Hayden sat—stone faced and stoic—between his parents, whose shoulders shook in unison as they wept. Mrs. McClendon’s cries could be heard over the Lutheran church choir singing hymns between speakers.

It was surreal to sit through a funeral for someone who wasn’t dead. There were times when my eyes filled, but not necessarily for Ian. But rather, for his parents, who would never see their son again. As angry with my parents as I was, I didn’t know what I would do if I were cut off from them permanently. Sure…I could go a month. Maybe six. Crap, with the way things were between my parents right now, maybe a year. But forever?

I shuddered. It was too difficult to imagine.

I pictured my parents at the Deep Lake Coffee Company, not speaking to each other as they cleaned the Grindmaster in tandem. They hadn’t come to the funeral because the McClendons asked them to cater the reception afterward, and they still had about a bazillion scones and muffins to make.

Hayden snuck a glance back to the bottom corner of the bleachers where Evey and I sat as the pastor stood to give his sermon. My sister dabbed at her eyes behind her glasses, and I handed her a tissue. “You OK?”

“Yeah…it’s just…” She nodded as she watched the back of Hayden’s head. “He looks so sad. I wish I could have…” She cast cautious glance around. Nobody paid us any attention; they were all too busy crying. “I wish he could have seen Ian before they dragged him back.”

Nodding, I covered my sister’s hand with my own. “I know. Me, too.”

My stomach gurgled nervously, and I used my free arm to wrap it around my middle. Saxon was meeting with the Council right now, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t quite focus on Ian’s service. It didn’t matter how beautiful the hundreds of flower arrangements were or how the choir’s singing filled the gym and poured out through the windows. My mind was under the dark water of Pend Oreille with Saxon.

Evey wiped her nose with the crumpled tissue. “You know what’s weird?”

I sniffed. “There’s a lot that’s weird right now.”

“Right.” Her green eyes scanned the crowd slowly. “There are literally a hundred people here.”

“Uh-huh. What’s weird about that?”

“Every person in here is crying. Or has been crying.” She shuddered next to me. “Even Mr. Habberman. It’s eerie.”

The meanest history teacher in the entire school stood by one of the exits, wiping his eyes on a folded handkerchief. He’d given me detention once for not bringing a pencil with a usable eraser to class. At the time, I’d been pretty sure he had no soul. Now I knew I was wrong.

“Agreed.” I watched the crowd of people outside the door. Most had sunglasses on, as the spring sunshine had decided to grace us with its presence, and light flooded the foyer of Sandpoint High. Every second or so, people lifted tissues or hankies to their faces or noses, wiping and sniffling while the music vibrated in the floor beneath us all. “There are people here from all over the lake.”

“Well, his parents are on the board at the yacht club.” Evey spoke in a hushed voice. “Popular parents, popular son.”

I sighed quietly. I knew about Ian’s popularity more than I really wanted to. The McClendons’ didn’t raise sons who weren’t part of the inner social circle. Or, they hadn’t until recently anyway. Who knows what they would do now that Hayden—the quieter and more serious of the two sons—was an only child.

“I wonder what—”

My words halted, and the rest of the air in my lungs eked out with a squeak. Just beyond a group of mourners was a face looking directly at
me.
Greenish skin…long blonde creped hair…and a ferocious sneer that still chilled me right down into the bone marrow.

“Evey, get your purse.” My words came out louder than I intended, and the woman in front of us turned around and glared at me. “We’re leaving.”

“What?” She whipped her head in the direction of the door. Her ponytail slapped me across the face.

When I looked back at the doorway, Isolde’s face was glowering at me from behind the men—a tractor beam of pure hatred from her eyes to mine as I sat trembling in my chair. The sound of the choir muted, and all I could hear was my lungs expanding and contracting.

Somewhere next to me—though it sounded a block away—Evey made a choking sound. “Is that…is that…?”

“We’re leaving.” My wheels were unlocked before she could even say the name. I bumped into someone’s toe as I wheeled around the end of the bleachers, muttering my excuses to the crowd as they reluctantly parted for me, grumbling their disapproval.

Evey followed. In a flash of green and white, Isolde disappeared into the mass of bodies. “She’s getting away!” My sister hissed in my ear, as we shoved our way through.

“Watch it,” a woman snapped as we squeezed past.

I pointed through the double glass doors. “There she goes!”

Isolde wore an oversized gray T-shirt she’d obviously stolen off of a clothesline somewhere, as there were stretched out peaks in the fabric on either shoulder. When she sprinted across the damp grass outside the front of the building, the hem lifted, flashing the bottom of her perfectly toned butt cheek. Isolde looked back over her shoulder as she bolted toward the tree line, her crimpy blonde hair whipping her across her taunting smirk. Hatred boiled in my blood, and I rammed into the bottom half of the door. I wasn’t letting her get away again. It took some serious audacity to show up for the funeral of the guy you
drowned.

Evey jumped in front of my chair and threw open the door. “She’s getting away!”

“No, she’s not,” I snapped, rolling through. I watched as Isolde’s body disappeared around the corner of the brick school building. “Dammit!”

“We’ll never catch her.” Evey pulled her cell out of her pocket and batted at a strand of blonde hair escaping from her ponytail. “I’ll call Mom.”

Bringing my hand down over the phone, I raised one eyebrow. “Do you really think Mom’s going to accompany us on a mermaid chase?”

She drooped her shoulders. “What are we going to do? She’s gone.”

A deep voice spoke up behind us. “Did you see which way she went?”

When Evey and I turned around, we were met with Hayden standing in the doorway, suit and tie on and a program with Ian’s face on it crumpled in his hand.

“What are you doing?” Evey breathed. Her cheeks went a bright pink. “Your parents are gonna be—”

“Pissed. I know.” Hayden let the door slam shut behind his back.

“I was going to say worried.”

Hayden fished his car keys out of the pocket of his slacks and offered us a half-shrug. “They’ll think the funeral was too much for me to take and I took off to be alone.”

“Doesn’t sound like such a stretch to me.” I pushed my wheels and followed Hayden as he strode toward the parking lot. “Except for the whole
alone
part.”

“Where are we going?” Evey brought up the rear.

Hayden spun around on the heel of his dress shoe. “We’re going to catch her.”

* * *

We spotted Isolde—who’d discarded the T-shirt—in several spots between the school and Moon’s Bay. Whenever there was a break in the trees along the side of the road, there she was, her eyes wide as she stared at us from between the huckleberry bushes. Hayden pulled over twice, his tires spitting gravel as we slid to a stop on the shoulder of the road. The moment his car jerked to a halt, though, Isolde darted off into the brush again. Afterwards, we would peel back onto the winding road to follow her some more, Hayden cussing as the rear wheels caught and spun in the dirt at the sloped sides of the road.

She was toying with us. Taunting us.

“I’m gonna kill her myself.” Hayden steered the car as we careened down our driveway and slid to a stop just inches from the end of my wheelchair ramp. “She’s completely mental.”

“You’re just catching on to this now?” I threw open the back door and tossed my chair onto the ground with a clatter.

“I think we need to be smart about this.” Evey hopped out of the passenger’s side and immediately unfolded my chair. “I mean, she’s tried to drown Luna a few times now. What makes you think she won’t try to take you too, Hayden? I mean, if your brother is rejecting her, then what makes her think she won’t have better luck with you?”

The chair snapped open with a decisive click, and I hoisted myself into the seat. “Thanks.” I pointed toward the trail. “That way! Go!”

We ran. Well, they did. I rolled behind them, my arms aching as I rammed into the root with all of the leverage I could muster up.

“Go, go!” I blinked back tears, ordering Evey and Hayden to chase the streak of green nakedness through the woods. Sometimes having the memory of being able to use my legs was worse than the injury itself.

He’s going to be put to death, you know.

I gasped so hard, I released my wheels and nearly swallowed my tongue.

Evey and Hayden stopped in place as soon as they heard Isolde’s voice inside of their heads. My sister slapped her hands over her ears, and she squeezed her eyes shut behind her glasses. “Oh, no…” she whimpered. “I hate that.”

Hayden spun in a circle, his fists clenched. “Where is she? Where are you?”

“Guys, relax.” I turned right and left in my chair, straining my eyes to spot her through the trees. “She’ll come out, if…if we tick her off enough.”

“So leaving my brother’s funeral wasn’t enough?” Hayden growled.

Evey slowly dropped her hands. “Apparently not.”

“That was pretty bold, showing up at Ian’s service like that.” I spoke loudly, knowing Isolde could hear me, even if I couldn’t see her. “It’s clear you’re not only a psychotic murderer, but a cocky one, as well. It’s no wonder Ian rejected you.”

He hasn’t rejected me. There’s still time.

Evey put her hands back over her ears, and Hayden shuddered.

“That’s not what I hear.” I gripped the edge of my armrests with white knuckles. “Ian said he’d never take you as a mate. He said you make him sick, that you’re repugnant, and—”

I should have killed him when I had the chance!
She stepped forward out if the pine trees about halfway between where we stood and the water’s edge. Evey and Hayden’s eyes widened at the sight of Isolde in the daylight.

Isolde was beautiful, there was no denying that. Wide eyes that toed the line between doe-like and freakish, lined with lashes that were impossibly long. Her hair was waist-length and wavy blonde, dreaded into thick ropes at the bottom. It was easy to forget she was naked, though I could practically
feel
how uncomfortable Evey was with her boyfriend staring down a chick with no clothes on.

This was my first time being so close to Isolde outside of the water, and I could see that the skin on the sides of her thighs, hips, and upper arms were patterned with greenish yellow speckles. At first glance, they looked like freckles, but when she stepped closer to us, twigs and leaves crunching underneath her bare feet, they were identical to the colorful splotches dotting the backs of many of the trout breeds in Pend Oreille.

Hayden was the first to move toward Isolde. “You’ve done enough. You need to stay away from me. Away from my family. Do you understand me?”

“Be careful,” Evey whispered.

Isolde pricked one side of her mouth upward.
Yes. Be careful, little brother. You might be next.

I rolled forward. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Her focus turned to me.
Wouldn’t I?

I shook my head, feigning confidence. “If you did that, it would be murdering a second human, and we both know that’s not an option. That would be considered conspicuous, wouldn’t it?” I drew in a shuddering breath and glanced at Hayden. His anger was palpable. “The Mer won’t tolerate Isolde trying to take a second mate. They’ll destroy her before they do that.”

Conspicuous is falling in love with a human and refusing to alter her. Conspicuous is then telling her idiotic friends about our existence and expecting them to keep it a secret. My kind will be hunted down, trapped, and murdered before we’d have time to flee. Or worse.

“What could be worse than being murdered?” Evey’s voice cracked. I shot her a look. We didn’t need to have a heart to heart with Isolde.

Isolde stepped close to my sister, and my heart lunged into my throat.
A Mer’s existence contradicts everything humans believe in. If one were caught alive, that Mer would be researched for as long as it survived. Blood samples, tissue samples, test after test intended to torture that Mer until they understand every last detail about my kind and have enough knowledge to eliminate our clan as a whole. If it were
you
being researched, I would imagine you’d beg for death.

Isolde reached for Evey’s face, but Ev took a stumbling step backward. Clenching my fists, I prepared to launch myself at her. If I could just get Isolde onto the ground, I would have the upper hand. It would feel so gratifying to ram my fist into her face a dozen and a half times. If she so much as
touched
my sister…

“Back away from her.” Hayden insinuated himself between Evey and Isolde.

Isolde’s focus shifted to him, and she fingered his lapel.
I should have found you first.

I heard Evey suck in a sharp breath when Isolde’s eyelids sank low on her eyes, her lips curved into a seductive curve. She leaned her chest into Hayden’s and he relaxed his fists, letting them fall open at his sides.