by Amy Bearce
Phoebe hung her head. She’d tried to keep the worst of the panic from Sierra but apparently had failed.
“You don’t see your old friends. You don’t go anywhere except to the ocean. What if I had told you my worries and made your… episodes… worse?”
Sierra’s eyes watered, and Phoebe teared up in response. For once, she wished she wasn’t so quick to cry with others. She wanted to impassively stare down at her sister, but impassive was never a word anyone would use to describe Phoebe Quinn.
“You’ve been really depressed, Phoebe,” Corbin added, patting her hand. His kindness made tears press harder against her eyelids.
“I’m sorry,” Sierra said, “I am, but I’m supposed to protect you, got it?” She hugged Phoebe like she’d never let go.
Part of Phoebe wanted to stay wrapped in those arms forever. Sierra had protected her from their father before he died. Since their mother had died birthing Phoebe, Sierra had taken the place of mother and father both.
But the other part of Phoebe, a newer part, knew those protective arms were an illusion. Something had changed inside her. Clearly, no one could keep her safe forever. And in the meantime, her dear friends were in danger.
“We’ve got to help them!” Phoebe said. “I’ve got to at least warn them! They won’t know a water wraith has risen again, if that’s what I saw. They had no idea what it was when I described it. Tristan dismissed it as a rare strange creature accidentally floundering from the depths. What if the evil sea beast is back, too? What if that was the dark shadow I sensed before I fainted?”
“That’s a giant leap to make. We don’t even know that what you saw is definitely this wraith thing.” Sierra’s jaw was clenched.
Corbin looked at the floor.
“You know.” Phoebe’s voice was soft. “You know, and you don’t want to admit it.”
“That’s not true,” Sierra snapped.
“But you won’t let me go warn them tonight, will you?”
“Tomorrow is soon enough. I’ll go myself, but they won’t be expecting anyone tonight. You don’t need to go back to the sea at all. You’re at risk there!”
Phoebe groaned with frustration. “Sierra! These are my friends. And tomorrow, they could be dead, attacked by the wraith or maybe even the sea beast itself.”
“Or maybe Tristan was right. It could be nothing.”
“Then why won’t you let me go?”
“Because I love you too much to lose you again.”
Silence. Not even Micah broke the heavy tension.
This wasn’t working. Knowing her sister’s deep need for justice, Phoebe tried a new tack.
“When the merfolk were set free, where was repayment for the ship hulls they had fixed? For the fish they had caught during their slavery? They got nothing, except a promise that the oceans beyond the shore would be theirs alone to care for. But now more humans are violating the treaty, not even bothering to try to work with the merfolk. Just taking what they want. Some humans are even deep-sea fishing again. I was told a little seawee died in their nets, and we saw a boat today sneaking around past the coastline. It’s so wrong! And Tristan saved my life, Sierra. Without him, we’d never have even gotten away from Bentwood’s. You know that. I owe him my life! Twice. He saved me again today. Don’t you even care?”
“First of all, we did help his people. We arranged for the treaty, even though the merfolk elders didn’t even want to work with us. And of course I’m thankful for him for today, yes, but if you go to them, you’ll be in great danger, trust me. I don’t believe his actions are worth the possible sacrifice of your own life.”
Phoebe did.
When she was taken to Bentwood’s, Sierra had come to take her sister back, but to reach the dungeon, Sierra needed help. Tristan was the one who brought her across the waters. He was the one who brought them both back to shore. Phoebe would never forget that.
She’d spent long hours with the twins underwater during those first days and weeks after her rescue, letting the beauty of the sea wash away the anguish of the dungeon. During her captivity, the air had been thick with the stench of sweat and blood and death, but the ocean held the healing scents of rich minerals and tangy green growing plants. Even the whiff of decay along the ocean floor held the seeds of life inside it.
In the dungeon, the helpless sobs of the other new recruits slid into her brain like earworms as she tried to sleep and failed. But in the ocean, her ears were filled with the laughter of her friends and the powerful roar of the surf that boomed along the coast even below the water’s surface.
Nothing could ever replace what the merfolk had done for her. She owed them her sanity, if not her very life.
Sierra wrapped her arms around her sister, and buried her face in Phoebe’s hair. Phoebe’s heart melted.
Voice subdued, Sierra said, “I don’t get why you go down there, anyway. Why do you love the ocean so much? It smells like dead fish and is full of slimy seaweed.”
Phoebe shrugged, pretending annoyance she no longer really felt. “Why do you like the forest so much? It’s full of noisy screeching birds, biting insects, and it covers up the sky with all the jabby tree limbs.”
Micah and Corbin laughed.
Leaning back to look at Phoebe, Sierra finally relaxed enough to smile. Phoebe felt the tension run out of her sister’s arms like water. Maybe they’d get through this okay.
Sierra thought for a moment. “I guess I like the smells, the freedom, the beauty. It just feels… right when I’m there.”
“It’s the same for me and the sea. I don’t know… it just feels peaceful there. And now it’s in danger. Don’t you see?”
“No, I don’t see,” Sierra muttered. “I don’t see why you have to risk your life for what could be nothing. I won’t allow it!”
Sierra was asking Phoebe to abandon her closest friends. She struggled out of Sierra’s arms.
“The merfolk are in danger!” Phoebe insisted. At her sister’s continued silence, frustration pushed aside caution. There was one way to prove her point. She’d have to tell them about the skeleton. So much for keeping things from her sister. Her pathetic attempt at hiding the truth was like a giant rope coming completely unwoven, each strand blowing loose and open in the wind for all to see. Sierra would want to lock Phoebe in her room forever. But some things mattered more than her own happiness. The protection of the merfolk was one of them.
hoebe took a deep breath. “Look, I found a merfolk’s skeleton yesterday. It washed up on shore. It had a strange black handprint on the skull and five holes punctured right through the bone.”
She ignored their gasps and hurriedly pressed on. “The elders said it was just an old skeleton that got crushed along the rocks. But what if this wraith grabbed it and sucked it clean? Or worse, what if it was that beast, Baleros? The merfolk have the same stories about him nearly destroying their people centuries ago. Don’t you see? They need to know. You helped set the merfolk free, but we’ve done nothing for them all this time. I can’t help them, but you can. You’ve got the magic in the family. Use it to help them. Please!”
Her voice was sharper than intended. Corbin’s eyebrows lifted to his hairline at her tone. Sierra paled. Only Micah looked on serenely, as he usually did.
“You found a skeleton? A merfolk that had died violently?”
“Last night.”
“And you didn’t tell me right away. Why?” The softness with which the words were spoken did not reduce the audible fury a single bit.
“Why do you think?” Phoebe clenched her fists and took a step closer, glaring at her big sister.
Sierra growled, but Corbin stepped between them. “Let’s all settle down. Let’s have some supper. Then afterward, when we’re calmer, maybe we can focus on the water wraith. Let’s deal with the, uh, other thing later.”
So the group of four sat at the table, an uncomfortable silence filling the air between the clanking of spoons and clunking of mugs. Corbin tried to m
ake conversation. He explained to everyone that Nell, his partner, would be back later tonight. She was visiting her family on the way home. Others chatted a bit about their trip, but it was a slow and painfully awkward conversation. Phoebe didn’t think she could force anything into her stomach, but the yeasty bread melted in her mouth, and the beans offered sustenance she knew she’d need.
Sierra and Micah finished and left the room to unpack (and probably to talk about how to handle Phoebe.) That was fine. It was easier to eat without Sierra’s worried glare beating down on Phoebe like the noonday sun.
Corbin said, “You know she’s only like this because she loves you so much.”
“I know,” she said shortly. “But love can’t smother people, Corbin. It can’t control them.”
“Give her time.”
“The merfolk might not have any time.”
He had nothing to say to that. She knew he agreed with her. Corbin’s love of magical creatures was as strong as hers.
A few minutes later, Sierra and Micah returned. Sierra looked sullen, Micah ever-peaceful.
“Now,” Corbin said, building the fire up. “Let’s discuss this reasonably. Phoebe wants us to tell the merfolk about this danger, and it sounds like she also wishes to somehow help the merfolk in greater measure, beyond setting up the treaties we arranged.”
“You mean the treaties humans are beginning to ignore?” Phoebe said sweetly.
“Well, yes, uh…” Corbin stumbled.
“The merfolk aren’t my calling,” Sierra said between clenched teeth.
“But―” Phoebe began.
“No, I don’t have a connection to them. I just don’t. And if you go to them, you’ll be in danger! What if you’re the next one who gets their head crushed by some giant claw?”
Corbin let out a soft sigh. “Sierra…”
“No, let’s do this. You want to have this talk? Fine. Micah, tell her about her smell.”
Smell? Phoebe, ready to argue, lost her train of thought. Her sister thought she was smelly?
Micah chuckled. “Oh, if only you could see how much like your sister you look like at this moment, young Phoebe! I once told Sierra she had a scent, and she looked as mortified as you. However, this is not a bad thing. Let me explain.
“Every magical creature leaves behind a scent, a magical signature if you will. Humans have their own scent. When I met your sister, she smelled human, but the scent of magic was heavy upon her as well. I knew she was no ordinary human, or even a typical fairy keeper. Her magical scent was far too strong. After I met you, four years ago, I told her you had a similar scent, though unique to you. She smells of the cinnamon honey magic of her charges. You smell of the sea.”
Sierra spoke up. “We didn’t tell you, because I was afraid of getting your hopes up about becoming a keeper. I know you’ve always wanted that, but I didn’t think it would happen. Not without the mark.”
Micah picked up the thread of the conversation smoothly. “Such a thing seemed unlikely to me as well. You showed no signs of magical power. So she kept this from you, in love, to protect you from heartbreak if this magic always remained dormant. Magic does run in you, too, Phoebe. We just don’t know how it might reveal itself. I wasn’t sure it ever would. We agreed to keep silent. It didn’t matter in the long run, if nothing happened.”
“M-m-magic?” Phoebe stammered. She couldn’t quite wrap her mind around what was just said. She had… magic? And Sierra had kept that fact from her, despite knowing it was Phoebe’s deepest wish? No. Sierra remained quiet because she didn’t think Phoebe really had magic, not the kind she could use.
Surely Micah must be wrong about her scent. That was all. Phoebe had never done anything remotely magical that she could remember. Or had she? She thought of the way her singing always drew the little seawees to her. Tingles ran down her spine.
“But today there’s more,” Micah said.
Sierra scowled at the floor, but the worry in her eyes stood out starkly. Anger was always Sierra’s first response to fear.
Phoebe had no words.
Micah continued. “The fragrance has changed since I last saw you. It’s gotten far stronger, as if it’s been activated the same way your sister’s was from her fairy sting. I doubt that many magical creatures would have sensed you before, but there’s no doubt now that there is something awakening inside you, Phoebe. I believe your magic has now been triggered and will grow even stronger.”
Sierra bit off a curse and stood up to stomp around the room. Phoebe felt like she was trying to find her way through a darkened room and could bash herself in the shins at any point.
“I have magic?” she said again, stunned.
Sierra’s eyebrows were drawn heavily above her eyes. Phoebe didn’t understand why. Sure, Sierra’s relationship with Queenie started out rough, but look at how happy they were now!
Micah asked, “Did the water wraith break your skin? Bite or scratch you?”
She looked down at her leg, surprised again to see the mark left by the grasp of the water wraith. “No, it never bit me. It half-drowned me, but it didn’t leave a scratch. The red mark doesn’t even hurt.”
“Well, whatever happened, I suspect it is this event that triggered a change in you. You actually could be the one to help the merfolk fight this wraith. To recognize the dark shadow for whatever threat it poses. You would not be the first in your family to have strange visions related to your charges.” He gave a pointed look at Sierra, softening it with a smile, referencing the strange flickering visions Sierra had experienced when her fairy queen called to her.
She crossed her arms and huffed, looking away.
He continued. “At any rate, you will need to experiment to see what you can do. Magic is something that will take control of you, if you don’t take control of it.”
Sierra glared at him, but he shrugged. “It is the truth, and you know it.”
“No, I don’t. And if it is true, how can she even serve the merfolk while living on land? With us, where she belongs?” Sierra snapped.
Phoebe barely noticed the tense debate. Hope fluttered in her chest. The world coalesced around her, a jumbled grouping of shapes that suddenly snapped into a recognizable image. “So you’re saying I could have a relationship with magical creatures like a keeper, only different? Like with the merfolk, maybe, tying me to the ocean and them to me?”
“Yes, that’s what I mean.”
“Because you said I smell like the sea. But maybe you’re just smelling salt water on me?”
Micah laughed, an open, joyful sound. “No, little sister, I assure you, it’s not that simple. To me, you smell of the sweetness of the sun breaking over the waves for the first time in the morning, of the wildness of the pounding surf upon the cliff walls, of the freshness of the salty air of the coast. I believe you have a magic that binds you to the sea or to something in the sea. It is a part of you.”
He shrugged again. “It is just my poor guess, but I challenge anyone to think of something more logical. Scents do not lie.”
Though she longed to believe him, doubt crawled through her. Images popped in her mind, of the way she cried in the dungeon, the way she waited helplessly to be rescued. And again today, her friends had to save her from drowning, hide her from Donovan. Could she really be strong enough to help anyone else? Could she really be magical? Like her sister? After a lifetime of thinking of herself as ordinary, this new possibility made her head spin.
Phoebe longed to race to the ocean’s edge where she could best think, but she couldn’t do that right now. Instead, she took a deep breath and imagined she was at her favorite spot, on her favorite rock, on her favorite shore. At the thought, it was as though the ocean itself roared through her. She could almost smell the salty air, hear the crashing waves. Something in her settled, deep inside, like a bone snapping into joint. As incredible as Micah’s explanation sounded, maybe he was right. Certainly a faun understood magic better than any human.
She
turned over the concept in her mind and tried it on, like putting on a new coat. What if she was special, unique? She could have a special tie to the merfolk and a connection to Tristan, the first merfolk she had ever cared for, loved as a dear and lifelong friend, maybe more. Joy trembled inside her, a newly turned leaf in spring.
Maybe her dreams were possible.
In that moment, she made up her mind: she’d never be just plain Phoebe again. The merfolk deserved help. Her friends needed her.
Her sister had taken her fate by the shoulders and pushed back. Phoebe could do just as much. Sierra wanted Phoebe to be safe, she understood that. And she loved her sister for it. But staying at this house forever would smother her. She wanted to be strong.
Her sister always swore real magic involved a choice: embrace your calling to fulfill it, or refuse and turn the other way. So Phoebe would choose to believe she had some kind of magic. And she was going to use it to help the merfolk.
hoebe waited until evening to set her plan in motion, hoping Corbin might go home after dinner. One less person to sneak past would be good. But instead, after dishes were washed and put away, Nell finally arrived at the house, adding to the crowd.
At only nineteen, the blonde girl wore her sword with the easy comfort of someone who had made her living with it for years. She was still tall and lean like a hawk but smiled much more now than during the days she worked as an enforcer for Phoebe and Sierra’s father. Ever since fairy queens stung Nell four years ago, she’d never been the same. Now she was prone to speak prophecies about healing the world, which brought her violent career as an enforcer to a sudden end. Her love for peaceful Corbin helped direct that decision, too, Phoebe was sure. Nell frequently traveled with Sierra, Micah, and Corbin, often acting as the voice for whatever mysterious power sought to persuade people to leave the fairies alone and let magic in Aluvia grow.
Nell was used to being the medium for delivering the messages, but that didn’t mean she liked it. She intended to apprentice with Corbin’s parents as a healer, but her travels with the others kept her too busy for the time being. She kept swearing it was a temporary situation. Four years seemed a little more than temporary, but Phoebe held her tongue, knowing Nell’s sore spot about the topic.