The Equinox (32 page)

I open the plastic box and my world goes
dark for a second. I fall back into the wall with a loud thud and sink to the
floor.

“Kat,” Johnny calls from a distance but I
can tell he’s heading my way.

Blood pulses through me at a frantic
tempo as I look feverishly around for an escape. I quickly lock the bathroom
door and sink back down into the corner. A tear falls down my left cheek as I
clutch my mom’s gold heart pendant to my chest.

Bang. Bang. Bang. The door rattles with
each pound. Johnny is worried—angry—I really can’t tell. I can
barely make sense of my own thoughts, but I need to think, quick.

Why does Johnny have my heart pendant?
And it suddenly makes sense. All of it. Johnny hated me from the moment he laid
eyes on me. He’s always hated me—until recently. And someone rescued me
that night of the Fourth of July party—someone with a boat. Whoever it
was stole my mom’s pendant from me. The feel of the chain being ripped from my
neck, right before I passed out is so vivid I can almost feel the sensation of
it now.

It was Johnny. This whole time. It was
Johnny who took away my only protection from the Equinox. It was him that could
have killed me that night when my energy was drained to the point of
near-death.

Tears flood my eyes as I search for a way
out, but there is none. Even with my magic, I wouldn’t know how to get out of
here.

“Kat, are you okay? I heard a noise.”

“I’m fine,” I call back but my voice is
barely calm.

I hear silence—it’s loud. There’s a
shuffling of feet by the door.

“Kat, please open the door. I’m worried.”

Are those words real? Has he been playing
me all along? Every kiss—touch—every word of it. Has it all been a
ploy to steal my energy and kill me? If so, then why
didn’t
he kill me that night?

“I’m just—suddenly not feeling
well.”

Again, silence. “Kat,” his voice is a
forced calm. “Just come out here and we can talk about it.”

He knows I found it. I stand up quickly
and wipe my tears.

“Please come out, or I’ll force my way
in.” His tone is heating up with emotion. My senses respond with a surge of
power. It starts in my stomach, then leads into my chest until energy radiates
from every inch of me.

The door shakes before it’s thrown open so
hard it surprises Johnny and even me. He’s pinned in the hallway behind the
open door now. I make my escape, running for the stairs as fast as I can.

It’s not long before I can hear Johnny’s
footsteps behind me. He screams for me to stop and for a moment I want to
listen to him, but I can’t risk it. He’s the Equinox. He’s got to be. It’s the
only explanation that makes sense. Has this been his plan all along? To get me
alone in his boat, make me fall for him, and then—

I reach the living room and spin around
throwing my arms out in front of me, and Johnny is doing the same. My eyes grow
wide in surprise as our powers meet in a collision of sparks. I throw my face
to the side to avoid the harsh glare of light that’s created from our combined
energy. I’m suspended in place—so is he—our powers are our only
connection.

My heart pounds erratically in my chest. If
I had thrown my power on a Normal they wouldn’t be standing still. Johnny is obviously
more powerful than a human. Why couldn’t I see it before?

I let out a silent cry, saddened by Johnny’s
deception.

A green glow catches my eye and I look
down to see my amethyst stone radiating its own energy. I grab it, holding it
tightly to my chest and close my eyes. I say a silent message. My power
responds with a deafening crack as lightning strikes just outside of the boat.
It’s enough of a distraction to pull Johnny’s eyes away from mine and lose his
focus.

With a swift jerk of my hand I bring a
large pan from the kitchen to whack Johnny on his head, bringing him to his
knees.

I throw up my shield of power once more
to block Johnny from attacking, and I know I’ve got him. He’s defenseless in
this moment. I can kill him. I can stop him from hurting anyone else.

His eyes are wide—scared—impressed?
I can’t tell through my fuzzy vision.

“Kat, stop—I’m not going to hurt
you—”

His lack of surprise tells me that he’s
known what I am all along.

I shake my head and hold out the gold pendant.
“You
stole
this from me, Johnny, and
you never told me about it. You have no business holding onto this unless
you’re…” Tears flood my eyes once more distracting me.

“Unless I’m what?”

Johnny is a good actor. His confusion
would convince most people, but not me. It might be painful to admit the truth,
but I know that Johnny is dangerous. There were warning flags from the very
beginning but I chose to ignore them the moment he was nice to me.

I keep my strength up to hold him back
but I can feel myself faltering. “I’m supposed to kill you.” My voice shakes
and I want to kick myself.

Johnny’s eyes flutter wildly and he
shakes his head. “
What?
” His shriek
is more like a growl.

I hold out the pendant so the Equinox’s
engraving faces him. “This is the symbol of the Equinox. I know what you are, and
I know why you stole this from me.”

He is still trying to claw his way
forward but my power is too strong for him to penetrate. At least I can be
confident that I’m stronger than him.

“I didn’t steal that pendant to hurt you!
I took it because I thought
you
were
the Equinox.”

I can’t risk believing him for a second. “Please
don’t follow me, Johnny. Leave this place. Go far away, and don’t come back. Or
I
will
kill you.” I say this with as
much control as I can muster but even as the words come out I want to cry.

I turn away and run as fast as my energy
will take me—so that I’m flying through the night. As soon as I reach the
end of the boat I take a long jump into the water and swim down deep until I
reach the bottom of the bay. Arabella told me once that sea sprinkle isn’t
obvious to the human eye, but I should be able to find some.

It glows a brilliant white color between
the sand and I quickly take a pinch and put it to my mouth before my air runs
out.

Once I can breathe I stay close to the
bottom of the bay and move toward the shore of Island Estates.

I don’t look back until I’m at the shore
and when I do, Johnny’s yacht is gone.

* *
*

Rose, Charlotte, and Arabella walk in
through the front door a few hours later. It’s well past midnight but I haven’t
attempted to sleep. I’m too wound up from the events, and part of me fears that
Johnny—the Equinox—will come for me when I sleep. What a horrible
death that would be.

I’m curled up on the couch in the great
room, wool blanket wrapped tightly around me. My hair has dried but I can still
smell the salt water. The same numbness that consumed me after my mother’s
death has returned. My thoughts run rampant through my brain—so rapidly
that I can’t process them.

Charlotte and Arabella move to either
side of me. Rose stands in front of me—a worried look on her face,
showing her age. I know they’re talking to me but I’m too deep in my own
thoughts to climb my way out and listen.

Someone shakes me. I hear Arabella
scream, “Kat!”

The high pitch that only mermaids can make
wakes me from my darkness. I look at her panicked expression. I feel a prick
behind my eyes and I’m not sure I can stop the tears this time. I open my fist
without saying anything and a gasp escapes all three women.

Arabella snatches the pendant from me and
examines it. “Where did you find this? Were you attacked?”

I shake my head. “No, I ran, then I
swam.”

“That would explain your stringy hair. Who
did you run from?” Rose is demanding which is irritating in this moment.

“From Johnny?” Charlotte asks in a gentle
tone, though there’s a layer of guilt I detect, probably from allowing me to go
out with him on his boat.

“Did you transform?” Arabella asks.

I meet her eyes and nod. “I had to get
away. I found some sea sprinkle at the bottom of the bay and didn’t look back.”

“You didn’t answer my question.” Rose
stomps her foot and I look up at her.

“Johnny had it.” I stare down at the pendant
that Arabella holds now. “He’s the one who ripped it from my neck on the Fourth
of July.”

Arabella hands the pendant back to me.
“Where is Johnny now?” Her expression is panicked.

I shrug. “I told him to leave and never
come back—or I’d kill him.”

“No,” Arabella moans and shakes her head.
“Kat, I know we all assumed that the person who took your pendant was the
Equinox, but Johnny’s not one of them.”

I look up at her, my mouth agape. How
does she know what Johnny is or isn’t? “What are you talking about?” Although
I’m shocked, the relief is overwhelming. I’m finally able to feel a release of
my emotions, but it’s all at once, and suddenly I’m sobbing into my own bucket
of tears. I’m still confused; why would Johnny steal my pendant?

“Do you know where he is, or where he
could have gone?” Arabella asks, ignoring my questions. She’s on her feet and
ready to head for the door.

I shake my head. “He lives at the marina,
but he could be anywhere by now. He mentioned that he used to live up north
along the Gulf.”

Arabella takes off, shouting behind her.
“I’ll be back.” She’s out the door before I can get another word out of her. So
I turn to Charlotte and Rose.

“What is going on? How do you know about
Johnny?”

“First, I want to know why you went on a
boat with him. You told me you had plans today but you never mentioned a
boat
.” Rose asks me, eyes narrowed.

I sigh. “Does it matter? We had plans to
go on his boat.” I lower my eyes. “And then I found my pendant.”

Rose uncharacteristically plops down on
her chair. She can really be dramatic when she wants to be. “When are you going
to learn to not get so wrapped up in boys? You’re only sixteen.”

Charlotte speaks up, surprising me, and
Rose too by the look on her face. “Rose, you know perfectly well how young
girls get wrapped up in boys. Don’t dismiss Kat’s feelings like that.”

I look up at Rose and wipe my eyes. “I
thought I could trust Johnny.”