“Are you working on the play because of me?” Gemma asked, looking up at him to watch how he responded. “Did Harper put you up to it?”
“You’re asking if Harper wanted me to babysit you,” Daniel said, stealthily avoiding her question. “She never really used those words.”
“But she did ask you to?” Gemma pressed.
“Actually, no, she didn’t,” he said. “But I knew it would make her feel better if she knew you were safe. And it’s not like I would be happier if something bad happened to you.”
“It’s not like you’d be happier?” Gemma laughed. “Don’t lay the concern on too thick.”
He smirked and ruffled his already disheveled hair. “You know what I mean. You’re a nice kid. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, but I don’t want you getting the wrong idea.”
“There’s no wrong idea to be had, which is nice. You’re one of, like, two guys that I can actually be myself around.” She sighed. “It’s really just you and my dad at this point that aren’t leering at me.”
“As your sister’s boyfriend, I can do double duty as brother-in … boyfriend-in-law?” He cocked his head, trying to come up with the right expression, before shrugging and moving on. “Anyway, if there’s anybody you want me to beat up for you, let me know, and I’m on it.”
“Thank you.” Gemma smiled. “I appreciate the sentiment.”
“I don’t look that strong, but I make up for it by being tall,” Daniel said, and she laughed.
She glanced over at him, and he’d sold himself short. While Daniel was indeed on the tall side, he looked strong, too. He mostly wore button flannel shirts or faded T-shirts—the standard outfits of hipsters and handymen alike—but through that, she could see his thick biceps and broad shoulders. Plus, she’d seen him without his shirt on, and she knew that he was pretty ripped.
“Penn told me she offered you ten grand to put up a fence around her house,” Gemma said.
“That she did.” He scratched on the scruff under his chin. “I turned her down, obviously.”
“Obviously?” She looked up at him. “That’s a lot of money to turn down.”
“It is, but I’m sure it’s blood money,” Daniel said, without looking to Gemma for confirmation. “And it’s probably not in my best interest to spend that much time around Penn. All the guys in her life end up dead.”
“How is it going with that?” Gemma asked.
“With Penn’s somewhat obsessive interest in me?” Daniel asked and exhaled deeply. “It’s all about walking a very fine line of not pissing her off and not leading her on.”
“And you’re not attracted to her?” Gemma asked. “At all?”
“No.” He laughed and looked appalled. “Not in the slightest. Are you attracted to her?”
“No. Why would I be attracted to her?”
“Exactly. You were implying that she was so beautiful that any logic or reason or actual desire I might have would be overridden by her physical appearance,” Daniel said. “Since we’re both immune to her song or whatever supernatural hold it is she has on people, the same would be true for you.”
“That makes sense,” she said finally. “Have you told Harper about Penn’s little crush on you?”
“I’ve downplayed it as much as I can,” Daniel admitted. “She knows some, but not the full extent. She doesn’t need to worry about it.”
“No, I get that. I haven’t told her much, either.” Gemma sighed. “It’s better that way sometimes.”
They rounded the corner of the block, leaving the businesses in the center of town for the residential neighborhoods on the edges. A small brick retaining wall ran next to the sidewalk, and Gemma climbed up, walking on it with her arms out like she was walking a tightrope.
“Since we’re being honest, can I ask you something?” Daniel asked.
“Of course,” she said, but she slowed her steps and glanced over at him.
“The question is a bit weird, and I’m not even sure you’ll know the answer.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and stared down thoughtfully at the sidewalk. “But when we found you, after you’d run away with the sirens, how did Harper know where you were?”
Gemma’s forehead pinched with confusion. “It was because of the newspaper. Weren’t you the one who showed her?”
“No, I know how we found the town,” Daniel said. “We knew the general location. But as soon as we saw that house, she knew you were there.”
“What did she tell you?” Gemma asked.
“Not a lot, actually. I asked her a couple times about it, and she’s always very vague. She won’t say anything more than that she just knew.”
“That’s how, then.” Gemma shrugged. She’d come to the end of the wall, so she jumped down and landed on the sidewalk next to Daniel.
“I didn’t understand before, but now that you put it that way, I get it,” he said dryly.
He’d stopped walking, so she did, too, and she turned to face him.
“Harper told you about the accident, right?” Gemma asked. “The one that happened when we were kids, and how my mom has a brain injury from it?”
“She has mentioned it, yes, but she doesn’t say much about it,” Daniel said.
“In her defense, there really isn’t a whole bunch to tell. Mom was driving Harper to a pizza party, and a drunk driver sideswiped her. It hit the driver’s side, so Mom got the worst of it, but Harper was hurt, too,” Gemma explained.
“Her injury basically amounted to a bad cut on her leg.” Gemma ran her hand six inches up and down her thigh to demonstrate. “She has a gnarly scar now, which is why she never wears short-shorts and hates to put on swimsuits.”
“Okay,” Daniel said, like he was trying to follow what Gemma was saying but did not understand the connection at all.
“Well, anyway, while that was happening, I was at home with my dad,” Gemma said. “We were sitting in the living room, and I was coloring, and I remember just having this overwhelming panic. I don’t even know how else to explain it. I was suddenly just terrified.”
“Like a panic attack?” Daniel asked.
“Something like that.” Gemma nodded. “But then I got this really sharp, intense cramp in my leg.” She motioned to the same spot on her leg that she had for Harper’s scar.
“So you’re saying that you felt it when Harper got hurt?” Daniel asked.
“I know it sounds crazy, but then again, after everything we’ve been through lately…” She trailed off and shrugged. “I don’t know why it happens, and I really can’t explain it. But since I’ve become a siren, I think it’s gotten more intense.”
“How so?” Daniel asked.
“Before, I could only feel it when something really bad happened, like a car crash. But I knew when she was in trouble at the Fourth of July celebration and Penn had found you guys.” She gestured to him. “And she found the house I was staying in.”
“Hmm,” he said after a minute, since there was nothing more he could really say.
They started walking again, but they didn’t talk about anything of substance the rest of the way. They mostly just talked about Tom and how he was a little nuts. A few houses before they’d reached Gemma’s, she stopped short.
“What?” Daniel asked, looking down at her.
“If I tell you something, will you promise not to tell Harper?” Gemma asked.
“What is it?” Daniel asked, his eyebrows crinkling in concern.
“No, you need to promise. Before I tell you anything.”
“Okay.” He glanced toward her house, as if expecting to see Harper lurking about, then turned back to Gemma and nodded. “I promise.”
“I’m not … telling Harper everything.” She chose her words carefully. “And I’d like it if you did the same.”
“What do you mean?” Daniel asked.
“Harper has her whole life ahead of her,” Gemma said. “She has all these great plans for herself, and she has you, and she has … everyt
hing. And there’s a very good chance that no matter what she does to help me, I won’t have a future. At least not one where I’m not a monster.”
“Harper told me that you were making progress,” he said. “I thought you’d found a lead on a way to break the curse.”
“I don’t know if it’s really a lead, but I do know that I don’t have much time left.” She took a deep breath. “The point is that I want Harper to have her future. She needs to go to college, and she won’t if she doesn’t think I’m safe. So I need to pretend that everything is okay, even if it’s not, and I want you to help me.”
“You want me to lie to my girlfriend and put you in danger so she’ll leave?” Daniel summed it up.
Gemma nodded. “It’s in her best interest. She’ll be safer if she’s gone, and she has a much better chance at a happier life.”
Daniel considered this and eyed Gemma. “I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll go along with you and try to shield Harper from the worst of it, on one condition—you tell me everything.”
“Why?” Gemma asked.
“Somebody needs to have your back. I get why you want to protect Harper, but you don’t need to protect me,” Daniel said. “We got a deal?”
“Okay. Deal.”
“Good.” Daniel smiled. “Now you can start by telling me what you meant by not having much time left.”
“It’s…” She looked away from him and was surprised to find tears swimming in her eyes. “Penn thinks she found a replacement.”
“For you?” Daniel asked, and Gemma wiped at her eyes and nodded. “What does that mean?”
“It means she plans to kill me and use my blood to create the potion to make a new siren to take my place.” She smiled to keep the tears from falling. “And if I don’t break the curse soon, I’m dead.”
“Hey, don’t cry.”
He put a hand on her shoulder, almost awkwardly at first, but when she started crying, he wrapped an arm around her and hugged her roughly to him. She wept softly into his chest, giving in to the sadness for a few minutes before she let the embarrassment take over.
“I don’t want to die,” Gemma said, her words muffled into his shirt.
“Good,” Daniel said. “That’s a good start. Now, what do you need to do to live?”
“Get along with Penn, and find the scroll.” She’d stopped crying, so she straightened up and wiped at her eyes. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to blubber like that.”
“No need to apologize. No blubbering occurred,” he assured her with a smile. “I can help you keep Penn happy, at least for a little while. The scroll is the thing Lydia told you guys about yesterday?” Gemma nodded. “Harper told me you didn’t know where it was.”
“I don’t,” she admitted. “I want to check their house, and I need to talk to Thea and see what she knows.”
“Okay. So do that,” Daniel said. “Like, immediately.”
“They’re at home right now,” Gemma said. “I think it’d be better if I checked their house when they’re not there, and I want to do that before I talk to Thea. She said she’d do everything to help me just short of getting herself killed, and if I find the scroll and break the curse, it might kill her. So she would hide it from me.”
Gemma realized what she’d said and swallowed hard. Over the past few weeks she and Thea had become closer, and Gemma even considered her a friend. But to save herself—to break this curse—it could mean that Gemma would have to kill her, or at the very least Thea might otherwise have to die.
“So you think you could get into the house tomorrow?” Daniel asked.
“Maybe. Thea has play rehearsal, and if I skipped it, I could get into the house, assuming that Penn and Lexi aren’t there,” Gemma said.
“Okay, how about this: You go scope out the house. If Penn and Lexi are home, I’ll come up with some kind of distraction,” Daniel said. “I don’t know what yet, but I can come up with some reason to get Penn out, and Lexi tends to follow her around like a puppy. Then you get in and do your search.”
“That sounds like a plan.” Gemma smiled up at him. “Thank you.”
Daniel smiled back. “It’s no problem.”
She started to walk back toward her house, then realized he wasn’t following. “Aren’t you coming over?”
“Nah, I don’t think I should,” Daniel said. “You should go swimming with Harper, and if I come over, she’ll want to hang out with me.”
“Are you sure? I could always go swimming another night.” That was what she said, but she didn’t really mean it.
“No, you go. Have fun. Spend time with your sister. I’ll talk to her later,” Daniel said, taking a step back away from Gemma. “Tell her I say hi, though. And don’t forget to call me if you need me tomorrow.”
Gemma knew she should try harder to stop him—he’d walked her all the way here—but she didn’t. Once he was out of sight, she turned and jogged back to the house, already thinking of arguments to convince Harper to go swimming with her.
THIRTEEN
Vacillation
After Gemma got home from play rehearsal, she all but insisted Harper swim with her. Harper had refused as much as she could, but she knew that Gemma would go without her.
Because of the transformation that happened whenever she hit salt water, Gemma preferred swimming at night when there were fewer witnesses around, and Harper couldn’t fault her for that. So she put on her swimsuit and took Gemma out to the bay.
They went out past the beach, where the soft sand became jagged rocks lining the shore. The paved parking lots for the crowds were replaced by a forest of bald cypress trees. Harper parked on a dirt road as close to the water as she could drive.
Gemma led the way, walking delicately from one rock to another, and Harper was careful to copy her footing so she didn’t stumble or cut her foot on a sharp rock. When they reached the water, Gemma waded out first, and within seconds Harper saw the moonlight glinting off her tail.
She was much faster than Harper, but she waited for her, literally swimming circles around her. Harper never felt as uncoordinated as she did when she swam with Gemma. Her normally elegant strokes seemed more like clumsy dog-paddling compared to the way Gemma glided through the water.
She almost hated to admit it, but there was something awesome about swimming with Gemma when she was a mermaid. The grace and beauty Gemma had was truly stunning.
“Harper, hang on,” Gemma commanded, floating in front of her in the water.
“What?” Harper treaded water next to her.
“Grab my shoulders,” Gemma said, and when Harper hesitated, she goaded her on. “Come. Trust me. Just hang on to my shoulders.”
Gemma turned with her back to Harper, and tentatively Harper gripped her sister’s wet shoulders.
“Now what?” Harper asked.
“Now hold your breath,” Gemma said with a laugh, and then she plunged into the water, dragging Harper down with her as she swam quickly.
Just when Harper was beginning to fear she might drown, Gemma pulled her back up, out of the water and through the air, before they came crashing back down again.
Being with Gemma out in the ocean, seeing her when she was in her element, actually broke Harper’s heart. To know that Gemma had found someplace where she belonged so completely, and that she couldn’t really stay there.
The night may have been magical, but Harper knew that wasn’t all there was to the curse. If it was, she would gladly let Gemma relish it for the rest of her life. But that wasn’t the case.
In the morning, both Harper and Gemma seemed to wake up with a renewed zest to find the scroll. Gemma may have been unable to get into the sirens’ house or get a second alone with Thea yesterday, but she was determined to search today. She wouldn’t tell Harper what it was, but Gemma assured her that she had a plan to get into the house alone.
For her part, Harper had spent most of the day at work looking up anything she could about curses and sirens and ancient scrolls. The Capri
Public Library wasn’t well stocked in books of the occult the way Cherry Lane Books was, so she hadn’t really come up with anything yet.
But she was certain they’d find something soon. They had to. Until they did, though, Harper couldn’t leave for college. She had to see this thing through. But if she didn’t go to college, she’d have to tell her dad about it.
When she came home from work, she cleaned up the house. Harper stared out the kitchen window as she washed the dishes. She was staring at Alex’s house, but her mind was a million miles away. She heard the front door open and close, followed by her dad’s work boots clomping on the floor. A minute later, Brian appeared in the kitchen behind her.
“Hey, sweetie,” Brian said, picking absently through the mail that Harper had left on the kitchen table.
“Hey, Dad.” Harper finished rinsing off the last plate, then shut off the tap and turned around to face him. “How was work?”
“Same old, same old.” He shrugged and opened up a bill. “How was your day?”
“Pretty good, I guess.” She leaned back against the counter and watched him read the bill. He cursed under his breath and shook his head. “Is it bad?”
“Don’t worry about it.” Brian set it down, then looked up at her and smiled. “What were you saying about your day?”
“Nothing really.” She smoothed out her ponytail and smiled at him. “Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?”
“I’m not in grade school, Harper,” he said, bemused. “I don’t need a snack.”
She laughed, but it sounded nervous. “I know.”
“Did you need something?” Brian asked, narrowing his eyes at her. “You look like you need something.”
“Nope.” She shook her head hard. “Uh, no. Um, well, I guess … I was wondering how things were going with Alex.”
He opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of beer before responding. “At the docks, you mean?”
“Yeah, I was just wondering how he was working out,” Harper said, hoping her dad didn’t see through her attempts at small talk. She couldn’t just tell him about her change of plans for the future as soon as he walked in the door.
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