Coral & Bone

by Tiffany Daune

  “Where are we?” she asked.

  Tage stayed on the pathway. “The church has been in Daspar’s family for a long time. His parents were Tari—both human.” She pointed to the gate. “See the E scrolled in the iron?” She rose up on her tiptoes. “Up there. And the number three.”

  Her heartbeat quickened. She had seen the symbol once before. Her fingers had brushed the tattoo on Dax’s back when her lips were pressed to his. “What does it mean?” she asked.

  “It symbolizes unity of the three realms. Daspar’s family were some of the first Tari in the Earth realm.”

  Tage stepped beside Halen and knelt down. As she ran her hand along the top of a gravestone, she read the name. “Maria Popsom. Beloved daughter 1882-1899. She was so young.” Tage let out a heavy sigh. “You realize we might die if we do this? Have you thought about that?”

  “That’s all I’ve been thinking about. But I haven’t agreed to do anything.” Halen glanced at the next stone, engraved with the name Pura. Her thoughts flashed to the conversation between Huron and Corinne in the records chamber. Hadn’t Dax’s mother mentioned this name? Something about Daspar consuming her soul? It was a strange conversation, she hadn’t really been focused on their words because she was still in shock her father was alive.

  “Pura was twenty-one,” Halen whispered. “Do you think these are the gravestones of sirens?”

  Tage leapt to her feet. “Let’s get out of here.” As she pushed back the gates, the metal squealed.

  Pura’s gravestone nagged Halen’s thoughts. Tage had mentioned Daspar was a wannabe siren. Had he consumed Pura’s soul to become one? How did one do this? Was this even a possibility? “Tage…?” Halen started, but Tage was already on the other side of the gate.

  “Halen, come on,” Tage called her. “This place is creepy. You need cheery right now.”

  Tage was right. She didn’t need to fill her head with the dead. She ran after her.

  They walked side by side under the shelter of the trees. Even in the winter, Oregon was filled with green needles and leafy ferns. Patches of snow still coated the ground but the night’s rain had washed most of the snow away. Tage walked a few steps ahead. She had covered her tank with a yellow and black-checkered flannel shirt, and on top of this she wore an army-green down coat with a fluffy, faux fur trim hood. The long side of her hair was woven into a braid. Gone was the heavy eyeliner. This natural look suited her—she was pretty, almost earthy, as if she was at home in the forest.

  “Where did you grow up?” Halen blurted out. She had been dying to ask Tage something personal. How could she deny her now that she was her guardian? Maybe if she got to know her better things wouldn’t be so awkward between them?

  “In Washington,” Tage said.

  “Seattle?”

  “On an island.” Tage snapped a twig while passing a tree. “We had a place where the woods met the ocean. My father taught me how to use the elements for spells. Basic magick, really, but you have to practice and have a good teacher. He was amazing with magick.”

  “Which of your parents was Elosian?” Halen asked.

  “My mom,” Tage sighed.

  “Did she ever take you there?”

  “No, but she told me all about it. I always wanted to go with her. I missed her so much when she would go back to Elosia. We only had few hours a day. Elosians can’t breathe on land like us.”

  “Yeah, they mentioned that,” Halen said. She wasn’t sure if she should ask the next question, but she really wanted to know. This was the first time she had had a real conversation with Tage that didn’t involve a lot of eye-rolling. “What happened to your parents?”

  “The hunters killed them because of me. My mom had just surfaced. She was trying to convince my dad to take me Seattle. He wouldn’t go. He thought we were safe on the island. He believed his spells would keep the hunters away. He was wrong.”

  “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know,” Halen said. “Why did your mom want you to go to the city?”

  “It takes a hunter twice as long to track a siren in the city. Wi-Fi is my best friend.” Tage grinned.

  “And your mom thought the hunters were coming for you?”

  “My mom was taking precautions.” Tage knelt down and with the twig, she drew a large triangle in the damp soil. “So many have died for us.” She added a circle in the center, separating the three points of the triangle.

  “What do you mean? Who has died for us?” A lump worked in Halen’s throat, growing like a jawbreaker in reverse. She didn’t want anyone to die for her.

  Tage met her gaze. “Asair is bad news, but together, we can kick his ass. No one else needs to die.” She pointed to the top of the triangle and drew wavy lines through it. “Earth is largest of the realms and contains the most elements needed for spells, though few humans possess this knowledge. Otherwise they would take better care of the realm. The Elosians’ liquibrium helps though.”

  “They mentioned they put the mineral in earth’s waters—strange right?”

  “No, necessary. Without liquibrium there wouldn’t be anything living in the water. Rain would be affected, and then the plants and everything needed to conjure a good spell.”

  “Are there humans who use magick then?” Halen asked.

  “Not many. Most humans with this knowledge are Tari, or have joined the Tari because they have had siren children and seek protection.”

  “And what about the other realms?” Halen thought of Pepper and how she had said she would have loved to live in Etlis, home of all magick.

  Tage moved the stick to the lower left hand corner of the triangle. “You’ve already seen Elosia—the water realm. We can breathe in their atmosphere and earth’s because we’re sirens. We are the only ones who can live in three realms. Well, if the Elosians didn’t hate us so much and Etlis wasn’t…”

  “On fire,” Halen finished her sentence.

  “So you know?”

  “A little. I know Asair sealed Etlis off to the shifters because they wouldn’t share their magick with him.”

  “Most of the shifters escaped to Earth. The only ones left in Etlis are the dragons.”

  “Real dragons?” Halen’s jaw dropped.

  “I know cool—right?” Tage’s eyes sparkled. “You know that gaudy red ring of Daspar’s?”

  Halen nodded. She knew the piece well. It didn’t suit him at all.

  “My parents told me the stone was once a diamond until a dragon breathed on it. The stone is full of magick.”

  “That’s crazy.”

  “I know and it sucks we’ll never see a dragon because of Asair. Do you know after he sealed off Etlis, he started storms on Earth as well? He drowned the entire village where his guardian was born. They say he even strung her dead body up, with her mother from a tree, for everyone to see. And he hanged his own mother next to them.”

  Halen’s breath caught. Her dream. Her hand warmed where she had caught the shoe of the girl hanging from a tree. “I don’t believe it,” Halen said, and though she was referring to the memory of her dream, Tage answered.

  “I’m telling you he was crazy. I feel bad for Lina and Tasar, never able to see their home. At least their families escaped.” Tage spread the stick up to the center of the circle and started to blend it with the other realms.

  “But the fire is spreading,” Halen said. “Etlis cannot contain the flames much longer and once it spreads the fires will destroy Earth and then Elosia.”

  “Soon there won’t be any place to escape to,” Tage said.

  “So Natalie could have broken Asair’s spell because she was a blue moon siren.”

  “She would have had to destroy him.” Tage stood up and kicked the dirt.

  “Do you think I can break Asair’s spell—destroy him?”

  “Do I think you’re ready? No. Do you have it in you? Yes.” Tage smiled. “Look, a blue moon siren is like no other. Magick from all three realms flows through your veins as it does through nature. You are
part of the wind, the soil, the waves and the flames of each realm—you belong to Mother Nature.”

  “That’s why Ezra called me that—Mother Nature?”

  “He’s a doofus. Don’t pay attention to him. He says stupid things all the time.”

  “Why is he even here?”

  “Daspar thinks Natalie contacted him—to find you.”

  “Do you think she did?”

  Tage shrugged. “Natalie’s dead. If she did, she’s gone now. Ezra says he was hired to find you, but he never met the person who contacted him. It was all by e-mail. He was only meant to confirm it was you. He never would have hurt you. I realize that now. He’s not that kind of guy.”

  “He had a knife.”

  “He was scared.”

  “Of what?”

  “What do you think?” Tage nudged her.

  “Me?” Halen shrunk back.

  “I’m telling you. You’ve got so much power within you. We just have to pull it out.”

  “What if I don’t want it out? What if I want to go back to normal?”

  Tage laughed. “You call exploding windshields normal?”

  Halen bit her lip back.

  “Don’t worry, I didn’t tell anyone. Josh had it coming anyway. If you didn’t break his windshield, I would have slit his tires.”

  Halen laughed. “So that’s how the guardian thing works. We take out the bad guys—is that it?”

  “One bad guy. That’s all we need.”

  “Do you think we really have a chance against Asair?”

  Tage wiped the dirt from her hands. “I’ll teach you what I know, but you are going to have to work on resisting your dark side. There are times you will need to go there, but you will also need to learn to fight through the darkness. Mother Nature isn’t always pretty.”

  “Isn’t that your job—aren’t you supposed to find me?”

  “I didn’t say I wouldn’t help. I’m just saying you can’t fully rely on your guard…” She stopped and looked past Halen’s shoulder. “You have to find a balance. A guardian’s role is to find you and encourage you come back when you are listing too far one way or the other.”

  “You mean it’s possible to be too good?”

  “Hey, sunshine and rainbows every day would kill me.” Her lips spread with a mischievous grin.

  “I’ll try to keep the rainbows down to a minimum. I wouldn’t want to see you wearing pink and skipping.”

  “Thanks, and I’ll try to keep you from going totally Goth.”

  They laughed but Halen caught the determination behind Tage’s eyes. Like everyone else, Tage wanted more from her, but she still didn’t get why Tage would risk so much. “So you really want to do this?’ Halen asked. Her tone serious. “You want me to open the portal to Asair even though we could die? Why?”

  “You really want to know what I want?”

  Halen nodded.

  “I want my parents back.”

  “I can’t...”

  “I know you can’t do that. But we can destroy that bastard. The Tari want the fires out. So do I, but for more than one reason. I want the hunters to pay. If we can get back into Etlis the curse can be broken. I want them to die.” Tears welled in Tage’s eyes and Halen didn’t know what to say.

  The clouds rushed overhead. Halen couldn’t imagine she was part of the sky, the clouds, the rain, the sunsets and the storms. Her boot sunk into the sopping soil. She was part of this as well. Right now she didn’t see how any of this was possible, but the girl in front of her was real. Her pain was real. Halen understood loss, and she understood wanting to make others pay for her pain. She grabbed Tage by the shoulder. “I’ll try.”

  Twenty-four

  “Lesson one. Fire control.” Tage clapped her hands and rubbed them together. “Fire is the most basic element. It is the easiest to harness yet the hardest to control. You feel sparks because magick is highly combustible when mixed with air. If you can’t control it, you can end up blowing things up.” Her gaze narrowed and Halen swallowed hard. She knew Tage was referring to the windshield. “You have a lot of water in you too, since you are half Elosian. You will need to be careful near the ocean.”

  Halen thought of the storm she had accidentally summoned to put out the flames in their beach house. She already knew she sucked with water and flames. Halen was beginning to regret telling Tage she would try. Maybe Tage wouldn’t hold her to it. It wasn’t like she had promised or even pinky swore. It was just a simple I’ll try. There was lots of room to back out. She looked to the others surrounding her. Or maybe not.

  Tasar and Lina stood beside her mom and Daspar. Everyone was gathered, waiting to see what she could do. Halen didn’t want an audience. What if she couldn’t perform—or worse, what if she malfunctioned like she had in Elosia? She thought of the records chamber flooding with her emotions, and Catch flying against the wall, and Dax… She had hurt him most of all.

  Ezra stood to the side with a red fire extinguisher in his hands. “I’m ready.”

  “I can put the fire out,” Lina said, sounding more bored than annoyed.

  “Just in case,” he said.

  “Ignore them.” Tage met Halen’s gaze. “It’s very important for you to concentrate on me. I’m going to show you how to start a fire with a simple spell, and then you are going to put it out.”

  Halen knelt next to her while Tage gathered some leaves and twigs in a pile.

  “Why don’t you use a match?” Ezra asked.

  “Because.” Tage focused her hot glare on Ezra. “She needs to learn to put out a spell with magick.”

  “Fire is fire,” Ezra said, shrugging.

  “No, it’s not.” Tage snapped back.

  “Well, I think…”

  “No one cares what you think.”

  Tage continued piling on the dry leaves. There was still time to stop her. Halen glanced at her mom. She stood with her arms crossed over chest. Did she really think this was a good idea? She’d had to rebuild their beach house the last time Halen started a fire and tried to put it out. Her mom nodded and Halen turned back toward Tage.

  Tage’s words nervously rushed over one another. “Now cup your hands over the leaves. You don’t want them to spread too far; otherwise your fire can get out of control.”

  The wind blew around them and Halen inhaled the crisp billowing air. Her mom didn’t care about her. She was like everyone else. She just wanted a show. She wouldn’t disappoint her. Closing her eyes, Halen inhaled the wind, letting it stir with her anger. Halen inhaled again, this time through her mouth, as Tage broke into a low singsong murmur, “Volinium, zerphyrus…” Tage paused. “I’ll write the incantation down, so you can learn the spell properly.”

  Halen didn’t need an incantation. If her emotions were truly connected to nature, this would be easy. She blew out her breath and the pile of leaves ignited with a burst of flames.

  Tage fell back on her butt. “Holy crap!”

  “That’s the way to do it, Mother Nature!” Ezra hoisted the fire extinguisher in the air.

  Halen stared at the pile of crackling leaves. Ezra was cheering but he didn’t know she probably could have set the entire forest in flames.

  “That was fast,” Tage said. She bit her nails two at a time.

  “The mermaids have been in her head unlocking her potential,” Daspar said. “There is no going back now.” The flames flicked up, hopping from one leaf to the next. Daspar walked forward and placed his hand on Halen’s shoulder. “Now put it out.”

  What? She didn’t know how. So far, she only knew how to burn things to a crisp. And she couldn’t summon a storm to put it out. She had to find another way. Think. A fire will die without air. In a rush, she picked up a clump of soil and tossed the dirt over the flames. The fire shot up into the sky like a geyser. She jumped back, screaming.

  “Whoa!” Ezra aimed the fire extinguisher.

  “That won’t work.” Daspar shoved him back. “Go on,” he said to Halen, his voice sof
t at her ear. “Anger breeds fire, so quell it with sorrow. Feel your way through the fire.”

  Halen looked into the greedy flames which had already devoured the leaves and branches but were somehow getting bigger. Sorrow? That should be easy. She’d had plenty of that in her life already.

  She focused on the flames and a new burst of flames rushed up and lit a nearby tree on fire.

  “What are you doing?” Lina shouted. “You want your realm to look like Etlis? Stop this now!”

  “Try harder,” Daspar said almost growling.

  She realized sorrow was a long way away. Losing her dad to the ocean had been her greatest loss, but now that she knew he was alive, her primary emotion was rage. Her fingers flicked with sparks, and with each eruption of flames, the more frustrated she became. “I can’t do it!” The sparks ignited under her skin and she screamed, stomping her foot to the ground. The ground rumbled under foot, bark snapped as the trees cracked. Black smoke coated her vision and all she could see was her bedroom curtains curling with flames. The bedspread, then the carpets, her sketchbook of beautiful butterflies—all of it consumed by fire.

  “Enough!” Lina scooped a handful of soil and she spun with great speed, flinging the soil outward. The soil fell like heavy black snow and the flames died. She clapped her hands, brushing the dirt off. “I’ve seen enough.” Turning on her heel, she grabbed her brother by the arm. No one spoke until they were out of sight.

  Halen slumped down to the ground. She had failed.

  “Don’t worry, Mother Nature, you’ll figure it out.” Ezra patted her back.

  “Stop calling me that!” she screamed. When his hand recoiled, she lowered her voice. “I’m sorry. I’m just so frustrated.” She had started the fire with ease but there was nothing she could do to put it out. Her sorrow was anger, her anger was sorrow—there was no separation between her emotions anymore.