Dangerous Depths (The Sea Monster Memoirs) (7 page)

BOOK: Dangerous Depths (The Sea Monster Memoirs)
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Koraline grabbed two cookies, practically inhaling the first one. “I’m
fine
.” She waved her hand, sending crumbs dropping into the pool. Pango tsked her and tried scooping them out of the water while Koraline kept talking. “At least tell me what you said to convince them to send you back. I mean, you were dead!”

“I told Medusa I was her only shot at filling her place in the gorgon trinity. That I couldn’t die. I demanded she send me back.”

“And she just agreed?”

“At first she said no, but my uncle and—” I didn’t want to get into a long explanation about how Liora was a ghost that still communicated with Uncle Lloyd. “Let’s just say I had wise advisors who told me not to take no for an answer.”

Koraline nibbled on a cookie with a giddy smile. “It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by Harriet Stowe. Never give up, for that is the place and time that the tide will turn.”

Koraline truly didn’t seem upset with me at all. It felt just like it did when she was my teacher, educating me about my new life as a mermaid. The ease of our conversation didn’t make me feel any less guilty, but at least communication wasn’t awkward between us. I took one of Pango’s cookies and handed another one to Koraline. “I’ve missed hearing your quotes.”

“Tell me more,” Koraline said. “I’m living vicariously through your adventures.”

I finished telling her the story of everything that had happened after the Triple Eighteen. I told her about Rownan and Vienna, and how we couldn’t pass through the gate to Harte, how Rownan trashed Uncle Lloyd’s house, and how, in the middle of all the drama and tension, Uncle Lloyd asked me how she was doing.

“Me?” Koraline’s green eyes widened. “He asked about me?”

“Out of nowhere. I think he was trying to tell me you might be able to help, but without actually meddling. Maybe you know something or someone that can help Rownan?”

“Me? I don’t know any—” She paused, then sucked air through her teeth.

She did know something. A glimmer of hope sparked inside me. “What is it?”

She pressed her palms over her eyelids. Pango and Treygan stared at her with intrigued expressions.

“Koraline?” Treygan scooted closer to her. “Please, if you can think of anything that might help Rownan, you have to tell us. You’re the smartest person I’ve ever met. If anyone can figure this out, it’s you.”

She dropped her hands and half-smiled. “Actually, it’s not me. If there is any way around this dilemma, I don’t have the solution.” She glanced apprehensively at us. “But I know someone who might.”

“Who?” I asked.

She rubbed her forehead. “It’s been sixteen years. Do you realize how minute the chances are that Vienna is still alive? Or worse yet, what if Harte has transformed her into something evil?”

“I know,” Treygan said. “But you didn’t see Rownan. You can’t imagine how this is destroying him.”

I touched her arm. “If there’s any chance of going to Harte, even if it’s to prove that Vienna is gone, then Rownan deserves that chance. He deserves closure.”

“And what about you and Treygan? What if your souls are tainted just by going there? What if you don’t come back?”

“It’s a risk we’re willing to take.”

Pango whimpered and started chewing his nails. “I don’t like where this conversation is heading.”

Koraline crossed her arms, gripping her own shoulders. “More people would be involved this way. More people could get hurt, or in trouble.”

“Trouble?” Treygan asked. “What do you mean?”

Koraline had transformed over the last few minutes. When I arrived, she was the same radiant and confident Koraline I had first met as my teacher, but now she looked like a guilty child caught doing something wrong.

“You’re a White,” she said to me. “What exactly does that mean? Do you have authority over the Violets?”

“Huh?” I had never thought about my status in the mer ranks. I was too busy figuring out how to be accepted by Stheno and Euryale, or master my new abilities, or understand and learn my way around Rathe.

“For example,” Koraline said, “If I had broken a rule, and the Violets wanted me punished, would you be able to overrule them?”

I glanced at Treygan. He looked as confused as me. I looked at Pango, but his focus was on the water in front of him.

“I have no idea,” I admitted. “Why would you be punished?”

“Pango?” Koraline said weakly.

He lifted his gaze to meet hers. After a few moments of silence, he nodded.

She sighed deeply. “I have this friend, a human friend, and he’s a genius when it comes to ocean life and history. He also knows a lot about our kind, and our legends. He could probably help.”

“A human?” I asked. “But I thought we kept our existence a secret.”

“We do,” Treygan said.

“We go to great lengths to keep everything about us top secret,” Pango added. “Sometimes information slips through the cracks. And once humans find out about us, they become obsessed with learning as much as possible. Just like Koraline’s friend did.”

“Is this guy dangerous?” I asked.

“Not at all.”
Koraline grabbed my hand. “He’s one of the kindest souls I’ve ever met.” There was a gleam in her eye. Was she more than just friends with this human? Now wasn’t the time to open that can of worms. “But I could get in trouble for associating with him if the Violets found out.”

“I won’t tell anyone,” I assured her. “You have my word. I won’t ever tell another soul. Your secret is safe with me.”

Koraline nodded, but didn’t look convinced. Behind her, Treygan squinted at me.

“I swear on my life,” I said. “Please, Koraline, if this guy can help, we have to talk to him.”

Her mouth opened, but it took a while for her words to surface. “He works in a bookstore on the mainland. His name is Joel.”

“Will you go with us?” I asked her.

“Me? Hello? In case you haven’t noticed, I’m missing half of my tail.”

“I’ll fly and carry you.”

“What? No. I don’t want Joel seeing me with half a tail. I look like something from a horror movie.”

“You can go in human form.” The words came out without thinking, but the pain that filled Koraline’s eyes slapped me with a heavy realization.

Sadness radiated from everyone, filling the pool. I hadn’t thought about what would happen if she tried transforming and using her legs. Her tail had been eaten by sharks, not her legs.

“In human form I’d require a wheelchair,” she said softly. “Which is why I now prefer to be in the water at all times.”

I couldn’t breathe for a minute. My stomach turned imagining what her legs must look like, and how much she must be suffering behind her strong and optimistic exterior. “Koraline, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize.”

“It’s okay. I wasn’t sure either, until I tried changing. It’s not a pretty sight. And it hurts worse than anything I’ve ever felt.”

I put my hand over my mouth, half in shock and half at a loss for words. Pango slid off his seat and drifted over to her, resting his hand on her tail and silently comforting his sister.

“I’ll take you to him,” Pango said to me. “I know where to find him.”

“You should go now,” Treygan said. “It’s getting late.”

“You’re not coming?” I asked.

He shook his head. “You’ll get there much faster if you fly and carry Pango.”

I wanted Treygan to come too, but I couldn’t carry both of them, and if I didn’t fly the store would probably be closed by the time we got there. I wanted to get past this roadblock as soon as possible. Before Rownan did something crazy or irreversible.

Treygan and Pango stepped out of the pool, so I hugged Koraline and prepared to leave.

“Thank you,” I told her. “Rownan would say the same.”

“Yara?” Koraline wouldn’t look at me. “Tell Joel I’m very sorry.”

“For what?”

She kept her head down, picking at her fingernails. “He’ll know.”

 

Jenna and Keeley braided flowers in my hair while I stacked twigs and leaves to make a new hut for them. Most likely, no one would ever use the building—they preferred being outside or in their water lilies—but constructing something for them made me feel useful. 

Keeley finished singing another one of her made-up songs, then sat on my shoulder and petted my cheek. “Sometimes I wish you could change back and be one of us again.”

“Me too.” I sighed. “Me too.”

“But isn’t it fun to be so big?” Jenna asked. “You’re so strong.” She flew in front of me with her balled fists punching the air. “Nobody can mess with you.”

I gently pressed one of my knuckles to her punching hand. “You two are just as strong as I am.”

“That’s not true,” Keeley argued. “Remember that time you lifted that fallen tree? You saved twelve sprites that day.”

Jenna nodded vigorously. “And that was before they made you a siren! I could never lift a tree by myself.”

“You could if you really needed to,” I assured her. “Something clicks inside when people you love are in danger. You summon strength you didn’t know you were capable of.”

Keeley flexed her biceps and evaluated her pea-sized muscles. “I could do it. If the time came, I bet I could lift a tree.”

Jenna snickered, but I liked seeing Keeley so confident.

“I bet you could lift a tree with each hand,” I told her. 

Her eyes widened, and I could tell she was mentally picturing herself achieving such a feat. She flew in front of me and kissed the tip of my nose. “Don’t be si
lly! No sprite is that strong.”

“If physical strength is equal to emotional strength, you and Jenna could move mountains.”

Jenna and Keeley both laughed so hard they flipped backward.

“Move mountains,” Jenna repeated, still laughing. “How preposterous!” She flew over to a patch of wild flowers and changed each one to varying shades of yellow. “I’d rather decorate the mountains with billions of yellow flowers.”

I picked one and inhaled its lemony scent. I missed having a connection with flowers. I missed being able to color things in beautiful shades of red. “They would be the prettiest mountains in all the worlds.”

“Prettier than Medusa’s,
” Keeley said.

Jenna’s buttercup skin blushed to almost orange. “Shucks, nothing is prettier than Medusa’s creations.”

We all nodded in agreement.

“Well,” I stretched my arms over my head. “I should probably get going.”

“No, come to our dinner party,” Jenna pleaded. “I’m making berry tarts!”

“I can’t. Otabia and Mariza will already be upset that I’ve been gone so long. I have to get back to them.”

When I was with the sprites, I felt more like myself. I could laugh, have fun, and not feel judged by my siren sisters. Otabia and Mariza always urged me to be more seductive, to entrap more men, to steal more memories, and devour more souls. With them it was always take, take, take, and never give. I worried that no matter how hard I tried to please them, I would never live up to the expectations they had for me.

“Come back soon, yes?” Keeley rubbed my eyebrow.

“Of course.”

Jenna kissed my nose. “I’ll save you a tart or two—or twelve.”

“Twelve would make a decent appetizer.” I spread my wings and glanced over my shoulder at my two favorite souls in the world. Jenna and Keeley waved goodbye and blew kisses at me.

I turned my back, wanting so badly to stay with them, but I did what was expected of me and flew to Sybarites Nest.

 

~

 

I still wasn’t used to how large our nest was compared to the
smaller imitation we had built in Earth.

Our real nest sat atop three sky-scraping trees with trunks made of water and huge, hollow branches that I could crawl into. Leaves were everywhere, inside and out, and they could be frosted and on fire all in the same day, but they never died or fell from our trees. The walls of our nest were made of clouds that shifted and adapted to the seasons and our moods. My sisters would hide in the thicker pockets, making them difficult to find, and when we sang or called out for each other the mist would swallow our voices.

I preferred our nest in Earth. It was cozier, and I didn’t have to search multiple rooms to find Otabia or Mariza.

“You’re getting weak,” Mariza said, appearing like a brown shadow from her den.

Otabia flew in above her in a blur of black. “We can feel how drained you are. Prepare to travel to the human realm. You must feed.”

“That’s fine.” I waved my hand dismissively. “But I don’t think it’s a physical drain as much as it is emotional.”

“Feeding will help that too,” Mariza said.

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t you want to know why I’m upset?”

Otabia preened her wings. Tiny black feathers disappeared into the floor of clouds below her. “Because Yara doesn’t
need
you. We already know that. It’s not our problem. However, you’re bringing us down with you, and we can’t allow it.”

Sometimes I hated being connected to two sisters who barely gave a squat about me. “What’s the point of stealing human memories if I have no one to pass them on to? Yara is repulsed by the way we regurgitate.”

Otabia’s tongue flicked away a lingering feather from her ebony lips. “Some siren you turned out to be.”

“It’s so addicting.” Mariza strutted around the room, her hands gliding up and down her body. “The attention, the rush, the ecstasy. Men’s heads snapping up like dogs, zeroing in on you the instant they hear you sing. The way they can’t blink or look away, even as you tell them in delicious detail how you’re going to suck them dry and make them beg for mercy.” She nibbled on her pinky talon, seductively smiling at me. “The way they give themselves over, doing anything we ask, because they think their lust is going to be satisfied.”

I walked over to a window, disinterested in Mariza’s play-by-play. “And then we take what we want and leave them a disheveled mess with a few less memories, a lot of insecurity, and doubting their own sanity. I know. I’ve done it plenty of times.”

Mariza cooed as her wings rustled. The clouds around us buzzed with whispers of an electrical storm. She cackled loud and shrill. “Let’s go! I’m excited just thinking about it.”

Maybe feeding would make me feel better. I used to enjoy being a siren. I used to get off on the hunt almost as much as Mariza. I wasn’t a water sprite anymore. Life wasn’t all innocent fun. Darkness would always be needed to balance out the light, and I was now a member of the dark side.

“Fine,” I conceded. “Let’s go, but we’re only hunting for morally ambiguous men.” My mouth watered. “And I get first pick.”

BOOK: Dangerous Depths (The Sea Monster Memoirs)
2.21Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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