“Natalie.” Catch frowned, and his blinky eye pushed out a tear. He swiped it away. “I’m sorry.”
“Huron was furious. She shouldn’t have been rescuing Catch,” Pepper said. “She shouldn’t have even been in the water. The mermaids could have…” her voice trailed off.
Halen was sorry she had asked. They were obviously close to Natalie. She wondered how they felt about her taking Natalie’s place.
“I feel so lost here,” Halen said suddenly. “I don’t know why no one told me I could do any of this. I feel like my life would have been easier if someone had just been honest with me. Was it this way for Natalie, at first?”
“Natalie was encouraged to explore her magick at a young age,” Pepper said.
“By my fath…Huron?” Halen asked.
“No, Huron kept tabs on her. She was raised by several Tari caretakers. He never got too close her. He spent more time with you,” Pepper said.
“Are you saying you knew about me all along?” She turned to Dax.
Dax twisted a green reed between his fingers and plucked it from the sand. He stuck it between his lips.
Catch answered. “We suspected you existed. There was a rumor that Natalie had a twin sister. She was obsessed with finding out the truth. None of her Tari caretakers would give her answers. When she confronted your dad, he stopped going to the Earth realm. He sent other Tari instead. He never left Elosia again.”
“When was that?” Halen asked. “How old was Natalie when Huron left her?”
“Eight,” Pepper said.
“Nine,” Dax corrected her. He plucked another reed.
Nine. That was her age when her dad had drowned. She thought of the silver tails in the water. And how back in the records chamber he had said she should be thankful that he had saved her. Had the mermaids been coming for her?
“Where do the mermaids stand in all of this?” Halen asked.
“The mermaids are lovesick for Asair,” Catch said. “If I had a little of Asair’s charm I’d have no problem finding a date.”
“Don’t joke like that,” Pepper said.
“What? It’s true. We’ve all seen the scrolls; Asair had it going on. Even a hundred years ago.”
“Okay, he’s right.” Pepper blushed. “He was incredibly beautiful. But that doesn’t excuse the monster he became.”
“He wasn’t always bad?” Halen asked.
“He was always a monster,” Dax said. “He deceived the Tari. They risked their lives, so he could live and in return he turned them into vile creatures. You don’t become that way—you are born evil.”
Pepper cleared her throat as if she was going to add something, but she said nothing.
“Before,” Halen turned her attention to Dax. “You said Asair made some of the Tari drink his blood to swear allegiance to him, and that drinking his blood made them bound to him. I don’t understand. What does that mean—bound to him?”
“Told you—lovesick,” Catch interrupted.
Pepper answered for Dax. “Before his blood fully took effect, some of the infected Tari asked Etlis for help. Etlis is the smallest of the three realms but it is the most mystical. I would so move to Etlis if I could breathe in their atmosphere.”
“All spells, potions, enchantments originated in Etlis,” Catch said.
Halen nodded like she understood, Dax had said something about Etlis being the heartbeat of magick. Her head was just spinning again.
“I’m telling her the story,” Pepper said. “When Asair found out they went to Etlis, he was furious. He banished them to the water and gave them tails. All the portals to Etlis are on land.”
“That’s horrible,” Halen said.
“Yeah, but his blood made them powerful. A little of Asair resides in the mermaids. They can work spells,” Catch said.
“Not as well as Halen,” Dax said.
She glanced toward him. “What do you mean? I couldn’t give you a tail.”
“Ah yeah, you could.” Catch said. “But you would have to be pretty messed up.”
“Like Asair, you mean.” Halen said.
Pepper and Catch both nodded.
Pepper spoke, “He was so powerful that there was no prison between the three realms that could hold him. That’s why the shifters created another dimension.”
“Why not leave him there then?” Halen asked. Dax had said he had been there a hundred years already. A little longer wouldn’t hurt, she reasoned.
“Etlis is weakening. Already we’ve seen a significant rise in heat levels in the Earth realm. It’s affecting the land and the water. As the heat level rises the Earth is trying to fight back, but with the already weakened state from pollution there isn’t much we can do.”
“We’ve had to double the doses of liquibrium to the oceans and seas. We’re trying to help Earth fight back. But I feel like we’re losing.” Catch shook his head. “Already, we haven’t been able to save some rivers. Between the heat and pollution, Earth is not looking good.”
“We fear the fires will expand to Earth sooner than we thought,” Pepper said.
“Can that really happen?” Halen asked.
“Like I said Etlis is a mystical place, it has been able to withstand the flames, until now. Earth however would be consumed within days. We don’t have enough liquibrium to make Earth strong enough for fight like that. It’s too damaged already. Once the fires broke free, there would be nothing left. The toxicity of the waters would thrive with the heat and seep through to Elosia. All three realms would perish.”
“That’s where you come in.” Catch winked or maybe it was just his eye twitching again; Halen wasn’t sure.
“Don’t look at me!” Halen said. “I can’t stop this.” Halen pictured the world in flames and everyone she loved dying. They were speaking of an apocalypse. She couldn’t stop that. “I don’t even know how to make the magick work for me. You’re asking the wrong person to help.”
“We should be looking for Natalie,” Pepper said.
“How many times do I have to tell you—she’s dead!” Catch was fuming both his eyes were now in blink overdrive.
Pepper’s lip quivered. “I suppose she is.” Her shoulders slumped.
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Dax said. “We are running out of time.”
“There has to be another way,” Halen said. “Maybe there is another blue moon siren. If there was Natalie and now me, there must be others?”
“No one that the hunters haven’t killed. You and Natalie were the only two who survived this long.” Dax sighed. “Now there’s only you.”
“Hunters?” The word fell from her lips heavy.
“You’re mad at your mom for keeping secrets, but she saved your life,” Dax said.
“How do you know I’m mad at my mom?”
“I would be.” His eyes softened, no longer challenging, but sympathetic. “I don’t like secrets either, but sometimes the lies are what keep us safe.”
“Or leave us helpless,” Halen said.
“You’re far from helpless.”
She swallowed the lump rising in her throat. “I have to go home and sort all of this out.”
“It’s too dangerous.” Pepper wrung her hands in her lap.
“I have to go home. I have to see my mom. If the hunters never found me before…”
“The hunters can sense your energy. Now that you are aware, you won’t be able to hide,” Pepper said.
“But why would they even care what I do? I’ve done nothing to them.”
“Your fate was sealed long before your birth,” Dax said.
“Surely someone could hunt them back?”
Dax shook his head. “Like the mermaids and Asair, they are immortal.”
“They’re immortal—like vampire immortal?” Halen asked shaking her head.
Dax laughed. “Kind of. Only the venatores are real.”
“Venatores—Roman fighters?” Halen had a class on Roman history. She knew the venatores were like gladiat
ors in the Roman Empire, only instead of fighting men in the Coliseum, they fought animals.
“Yes, the hunters were once Emperor Domitian’s best fighters. During the reign of Domitian a blue moon siren, Livianus, was vying for the emperor’s throne. He is the first recorded blue moon siren. Domitian sent gladiators to fight Livianus, but each time their efforts were thwarted.”
“Livianus was a blue moon siren without a guardian. He tapped into some very dark magick,” Catch interrupted.
Pepper elbowed Catch and Dax continued. “Domitian looked to the school of venatores, the Ludus Matuntinus, for the best fighters. They not only fought lions, elephants and bears in the arena, they hunted animals in the wild for the arena. While hunting they discovered an Etlin boy. They saw him come and go through the portal and they captured him. They used him to cross through the portal to Etlis.”
“Humans can’t pass through to Elosia because they wouldn’t be able to breath in our atmosphere, but an Etlin can take a human to Etlis,” Pepper added.
“Once through the portal, the venatores hunted the young shifters and captured them to fight in their arenas,” Dax said. “Shifters are born in their animal form and stay this way until they are thirteen. They captured the children.”
Pepper wrapped her arms around herself. “It was awful.”
“Disgusting.” Catch stood up and started to pace.
Dax continued. “This is a very dark period of history for Etlis. The Empath of Etlis sealed these scrolls. They are filled with too much suffering. No one can endure the emotions painted within the scrolls.”
“Who would let monsters become immortal?” Halen asked.
“A grieving mother,” Pepper said.
“What—why?” Halen asked.
Dax raised his hand. “Emperor Domitian heard rumors that some venatores were using magick to lure animals. Domitian recruited the eight to kill Livianus: Emil, Gallus, Martinus, Naevius, Otho, Rufus, and the sisters Aurelia and Vita. The venatores did not know magick, but the Etlins did. So they proposed an exchange. In return for a spell to rid them of Livianus, they would return the boy shifter and stop hunting the children of Etlis. The Etlins refused to bargain with the venatores. But there was one Etlin woman, the mother of the boy they had captured, who was willing to strike a deal. In exchange for her son she would give them the power to defeat Livianus. All they had to do was free her son and each give her an ounce of their blood. She defied the council and forged eight arrows of gold, spun with the hunters’ blood.”
“The curse backfired,” Catch interrupted, leaning over Dax’s shoulder.
“What curse?” Halen asked.
“She placed a curse on them,” Dax said. “She gave them the arrows that would kill Livianus, but what the hunters didn’t know was they had exchanged their souls for victory.”
“She made them immortal?” Halen asked.
“Not intentionally. They were supposed to die after killing him. The curse has many intricacies,” Dax said.
“All spells do,” Pepper said. “But a curse—a curse has a life of its own. And this one craves sirens’ souls.”
“What do you mean?” Halen asked hugging herself.
“The hunters need your soul for strength. Each siren they kill increases their vitality. The curse made them immortal, but without the souls of sirens they are nothing more than withered beings. They will continue to feed on siren souls until the curse can be broken in Etlis. Since the curse was born in Etlis, it must die there.”
“They will try to kill me,” Halen said flatly.
“They killed Natalie. At least I believed so at first,” Dax said.
“You’re not sure?” Halen asked.
“I keep thinking she’s alive. I know it’s wrong, but it’s the way she disappeared. She was there one minute and then gone the next.”
Halen thought of her father’s death. How he had been laughing with her, how he had been swimming, and then he was gone. She didn’t even get to say goodbye. “Death is like that,” Halen said.
“I don’t think she’s dead,” he said so quietly, she barely heard him.
“I don’t know if I can do this.” Halen looked to Pepper and then Catch.
Pepper stood, swiping the sand from her legs. “I get it.” She joined Catch who was now sitting on a nearby rock.
She didn’t get it. She didn’t understand at all. Pepper wasn’t the one being asked to do this. Halen’s stomach turned.
“If you keep saying you can’t—you won’t be able to,” Dax said. “You have to flip your thinking around.”
“So what do you think I should do?” she asked, hoping the answer would be to go home and forget everything, but she knew better.
“You need to open the portal and destroy Asair. There isn’t another way. You have to do this.”
He sounded like Huron. You have a duty to fulfill. Ugh, she wanted to scream. This wasn’t as simple as shoving a smile on your face and shifting to a positive attitude. There were huge consequences. “Natalie is dead because of this. Is this what you want? You want me to die too?” Her fist hit the ground and the water from the river rippled.
“You have allies,” Dax said. “You don’t have to do this by yourself.”
“You’re joking right? I don’t want allies. I want to be left alone.” The first thing she would do is go underground. Maybe move back to Chicago or even better, New York. She could get lost in the crowded streets. Hide from the hunters. He was delusional thinking she would take Asair on.
“There might not be another chance. You said there is a guardian in place; find her. Discover your powers. Learn how to use the magick.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why? Are you scared?”
Was he serious? Did he not have feelings? “Yes, I’m scared! What’s wrong with being scared? You make me sound strong. Well, I’m not. You’ve seen how well I handle magick.” Sparks ignited at the tips of her fingers as she almost shouted at him, not giving him a chance to respond. Her voice rang loudly, echoing throughout the cavern. “I’m angry. I’m hurt. I’ve taken an overdose of confused, and you want me to defeat some demon?” She pumped her fist, trying to shake the static energy now flowing under her skin. “Right now I’m my own worst enemy.” She couldn’t hold back any longer. With a flick of her finger, she summoned the river to rise up into a towering wave. She clenched her fist, and the water crashed on the rocks, spraying them with a cold mist. “I’m not what you think I am.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice flat. “I thought maybe you could help us. I thought maybe you had it in you.”
“I’m not looking for a fight. This energy, inside me, is dangerous. It feels so good. I want to be consumed in its flame, but then there is part of me that hates it just as much. I want to strip it from my veins.”
“This is good. You are fighting it within yourself.”
“What if something happens to Tage, my guardian? What if I become unhinged like Asair and can’t control the darkness on my own?”
He placed his hand on her knee and her insides charged with his energy. “I believe in you.” He smiled.
She wanted to tell him she believed too, but instead she got up and brushed the sand and his lingering energy from her skin. “You should find someone else to put your faith in.”
Seventeen
“You should rest.” Dax patted the sand between them.
Halen’s mind was travelling on a high speed roller coaster. “After all you have told me, there’s no way I could sleep. Besides, isn’t this place going to flood?”
Catch and Pepper hadn’t said much since the talk of the hunters. Maybe it was true—the hunters had killed her sister. Sister. She shook the word from her thoughts. Accepting she had a sister would take time.
“We’ve got at least ten hours before the water rises. Get some rest. I’ll keep watch.”
Her back straightened. She suddenly remembered Rania; the head of the council was looking for her. “Mayb
e we should go? What if Rania comes here?”
“Nelia is pretty good at distractions.” He dug his toes under the sand. They were the same opalescent color as his mother’s, like the insides of shells. “Besides, a blue moon siren is going to give the council a lot to talk about.”
“They’re deciding what to do with me,” she said.
“They are.”
“What would you do if you were on the council? You’re going to sit with them one day. What would you do with me?”
The muscles in his neck tightened up to his jaw. “I know what they will do. After what Asair did, the position of Elosia is to exterminate sirens—all sirens. Even though only a blue moon siren has magical abilities. They have zero trust.”
“But you and the rest of the Tari trusted Natalie,” Halen said.
“They were willing to use her—there’s a difference.”
“But you felt differently. Didn’t you?”
“Are you analyzing me?” He smiled.
“It’s only fair. You’ve been watching my every move. You’ve told me so much about your history and what you think I should do, but you haven’t told me anything about you.” She wanted to know why he was even with her in the first place. Was it out of love for Natalie or out of duty to the Tari? She also wanted to know why she had the urge to reach out and touch him every time he was near her. The tingly fingers were far worse now that he was only a foot away from her. Drawing him had been so much simpler.
“I’ll make you a deal.” He jumped to his feet. “You sleep for a bit, and when you wake up you can ask me anything you like.”
“You promised that before.”
“And I’ve filled your head enough. We’ll have time to talk when you wake up.”
“I won’t be able to sleep.”
He was now searching the beach and around the rocks, with a keen eye. “There’s a berry here that will help you fall asleep.” He ruffled back the branches of a fluffy pink bush. It had leaves like fans of bright coral. Underneath the leaves were clusters of lime green berries. They were about the size of gooseberries, with the same white lines running through them.
He picked several and handed them to Catch and Pepper. They smiled up at him and each took some from his hand. He gathered a few more and sat back down.
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