by Brooke Moss
“Hi, Hayden,” I called, motioning for him to come into the living room. “Have you met Saxon?”
Hayden adjusted his baseball cap over his blond hair and approached the rest of us. He jerked his chin in Saxon’s direction. “Um, no. Hey, man. What’s up?”
Saxon offered him an amiable smile. “Not much.”
Evey looked at my chair sitting twenty feet away. “So…whatcha up to?”
Saxon and I both spoke at the same time. “Talking.”
Hayden stifled a laugh. Evey widened her eyes in my direction as she reached for the thermostat and turned it up. “Geez, it’s freezing in here. How can you sit there in a tank top, Luna?” Her gaze bounced between the two of us a few times. “So…are you two going out now or what?”
The furnace kicked into gear with a gurgle, and a blast of warm air puffed into the room. My mother had a habit of cranking the heat as low as it could go while we were all at work and school. It was her way of living green in our archaic, energy-sucking house on the hill.
“I…well…I…” This time it was my turn to blush. That was the question of the hour. The day. Maybe even the week. What were Saxon and I to each other? I knew the secret about where he came from and what he actually was, and we’d now shared the most amazing kiss in the history of kissing. Part of me wanted to pass Saxon a note that said: Do you like me? Check yes or no. But the other part of me wanted to channel my inner brat, and say: Who cares if you like me. Screw it, and screw you too!
Neither was a good idea.
“We’re together, yes.” Saxon said, without hesitating. My chest swelled when his aquamarine eyes locked on mine and one corner of his mouth turned upward.
Evey’s blonde eyebrows shot up on her forehead. “Do Mom and Dad know?”
I shook my head. “No. I mean, not yet.”
“If you’re dating someone, you have to tell them.” She punctuated her sentence by pushing up her glasses, then folding her arms across her chest.
Saxon knelt beside me and touched my arm. “I would love to meet your parents. Well, I’ve already met your father, but it would be nice to meet your mom.”
The skin beneath his touch warmed, and for a split second I was embarrassed by his affection. I hadn’t been touched by a boy in front of Evey since before my accident. She’d walked into the movie theater with some friends once when I was sitting in the back row making out with him and proceeded to announce it to my parents over meatloaf later that night. Needless to say, I’d been grounded.
Nodding, I looked down at my fingers and wondered how I was going to break the news to my dad that I was dating the one boy he’d told me to stay away from. Oh, and to top things off, he was also part fish.
“Why will they freak out?” Hayden asked.
Evey turned to him and teetered in her spot. Her crush on Hayden McClendon was contributing to her already prevalent awkwardness, which meant she would undoubtedly fall over before this visit was over. “My parents are a bit protective.”
“Of me, not you,” I reminded her.
Evey sighed. “I know.”
Hayden’s eyes widened, and I could have sworn a light bulb turned on above his head. “Oh, right. Because of the…” He nodded at the wheelchair in the next room.
“Argh. Yes. Because of the chair.” I could still feel my heart beating in my lips and wished more than anything that Evey and Hayden would go back to school so Saxon would kiss me again. “Everyone knows about the chair. Even Saxon, here. You don’t have to tiptoe around the subject with me, Hayden. Our parents are protective of both of us, but…they’re a bit hyperactive when it comes to me. I’m the older sister, but Evey’ll always be the one who gets to experience life first.”
Hayden looked at his watch. “Listen, Evey, we’d better go if we’re gonna make it back before the bell.”
“OK.” She pressed her lips together as she looked from me, to Saxon, then back again. He shifted uncomfortably next to me. “So…for real, Luna. If you’re dating Saxon, you’d better tell Mom and Dad.”
I looked up at Evey and straightened my shoulders. “They’ll know soon. I promise.”
Saxon squeezed my arm. “Does your house have a restroom?” His face had paled, and his lips stretched into a tight line.
“Of course it does. It’s the door right off of the kitchen.” My eyes flicked to the iron heating duct right above our heads, and my throat went dry. “Are you all right?”
He nodded and forced a tense smile at my sister, who was gaping at him like he was crazy. When Saxon headed toward the bathroom door, I noticed a taut vein in his neck.
“Dude. Why wouldn’t our house have a restroom? Is he all right?” Evey whispered.
Concern tugged my mouth downward. “Yeah. He’s just not feeling well, either. That’s…that’s why he isn’t at school.”
She kept her voice low. “Are you sure it wasn’t to come over and make out with his new girlfriend?”
“Shhh!” Pressing a finger to my mouth, I glanced at Hayden. “Thanks for helping Evey today, Hayden. You’re way cooler than your brother.”
That warranted a smile from the younger McClendon brother. “Thanks.”
I offered him a smile. “Hey, can I have just two seconds with my sis? I’ll send her out with plenty of time to sneak back on campus.”
“Sure.” He pulled his keys out of his jean pockets and raised his brows at Evey. “See you in a sec.”
We waited for the backdoor to close behind Hayden, then I grabbed Evey’s hands and yanked her down onto her knees in front of me. “Ev, he’s into you.”
“Stop it. He just gave me a ride.” She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t hide the excited twitch in her lips.
I beamed at her. She was so completely unaware of her beauty. So clueless to the fact that there was a boy out there who might actually be interested in her. “I want you to be happy. Being happy doesn’t feel as good unless you are too.”
My heart skittered in my chest. My words were true. I was happy. Really happy for the first time in longer than I could remember. And it wasn’t just because a boy liked me. Good grief, I wasn’t that pathetic.
I was a part of something so much bigger than the tiny bubble I rolled around in everyday. The gravity of Saxon’s very existence was bigger than our house at Moon’s Bay. Bigger than the halls at Sandpoint High. Bigger than the entire lake and the communities that surrounded it. He was living, breathing, kissing proof that mythological beings do, in fact, exist. And I was the only human who knew about it. Me. The pissy girl who tried to roll over people’s toes in the hallway with her wheelchair.
We heard the water turn on inside of the bathroom.
“Why are we talking about me?” She hissed. “You need to see if he’s OK and then get him out of here before Mom comes to check on you.”
I wrinkled up my nose. “Good point.”
Evey eyeballed the white bathroom door. “I heard Dad telling Mom that you weren’t allowed to see Saxon.”
Stubbornness coursed through my veins, and my jaw locked into place. “I’m eighteen. I can date anyone I want.”
Evey considered this. “Yeah, but they’re not going to warm up to the idea very easily if they find out you’re making out with him in the house while they’re gone.”
“Good point.” Nodding, I gestured at my chair. “Can you shove that my way?”
“Sure.” She pulled it my way, then watched as I used my arms and hips to hoist myself into the seat. “You’re getting pretty good at that. You hardly even need me anymore.”
“I’ll always need you, Ev.” I tugged my hoodie on.
“You know, you might want to be smarter about things like that.” She folded her arms across her chest, and gave the bathroom door another glance. The water still ran.
My head jerked backward. “What does that mean?”
Evey put a hand on one of my arm rests and knelt down close to me. “You barely even know this guy. We’ve caught him walking around in the woods and stripping naked. H
e never takes any books home from school, and Dad says he doesn’t really have any plans for after high school.”
“Wait, you don’t understand—”
“No, listen.” She gave me a stern glare. “You can’t just let him come into our house when nobody else is home. Not before you really know him. Your chair was clear in the kitchen. What if he tried to hurt you?”
Anger swelled inside of me, and my skin suddenly felt too tight. Sure, she was just looking out for me, but I was so sick of being treated like an imbecile. For two years my parents had practically swaddled me in bubble wrap, and now my sister was going to join in? Besides, she had Saxon so wrong. He was the opposite of dangerous. I actually felt safer with him around. Safe from what? I didn’t know. But I had a nagging suspicion I would find out eventually.
I leaned forward in my seat so that my elbows rested on my knees, my face just a few inches from Evey’s. “Listen to me. He is not dangerous. Not at all.” I spoke deliberately. He would never hurt me.”
She shook her head. “You don’t know that. He could, like, attack you while you’re stuck somewhere, and—”
The water turned off in the bathroom, so I put my damp palm over Evey’s mouth. “Stop,” I hissed. “He is not a threat. If he were going to hurt me, he would have already. He’s already had the chance.” Her green eyes widened behind her glasses, and I went on. “Do you trust me?”
She nodded behind my hand, her eyes the size of golf balls as the bathroom lock flipped open.
I took a breath to ease my temper. “Good. Then listen to me. There are much worse things to worry about than Saxon. He’s not what we should fear. Do you understand me?”
“Are you two all right?” Saxon came into the living room with water droplets glistening on his face and neck. His hair had been wet down again and was dripping onto his shoulders.
I dropped my hand and rolled toward him. “We’re fine. Girl talk and all that. Evey has a crush on Hayden, but she’s too chicken to ask him out.”
“Luna!” Evey growled.
I reached for Saxon’s hand. “Are you feeling all right? Is it too warm in here?”
A self-conscious glance was thrown Evey’s way. “Yes. But I’m fine now.”
“Too warm?” Evey scrambled onto her feet just as a horn honked outside. “What’s wrong?”
I spun my chair around. “Nothing. Listen, we’ll finish this talk later.”
“All right. I’ll see you after practice.” She looked up at Saxon. “Um…see ya.”
“Bye.” Saxon watched as Evey let herself through the backdoor and then bent down to press a kiss against my forehead. “I should go. Can you walk me home?”
I gave him a strange look. “Um…no. Can I roll you home?”
He chuckled. “Sorry. So you’ll roll me home?”
I shrugged. “It’s how I roll.”
“I don’t understand half the things you say.” He ran a hand through my hair, and let it come to rest at the back of my neck.
“I don’t want you to go.” I tugged on the hem of his shirt. “Our time together always come in such small doses. Why do you have to leave?”
“Because your sister is right.” He bore his gaze into mine. “If your mother comes home and finds us alone together, she’ll get the wrong idea.”
I grimaced. “Oh, you heard that?”
He nodded. Just once. “I did.”
“I’m sorry, she was just—”
He tangled his fingers with mine, and my skin fired underneath my hoodie. “She was being a good sister. That’s how it should be.” Releasing my hand, he scooped the garbage bag off of the counter. He moved toward the door and opened it, and the cool April air danced its way into the kitchen. “Come on.”
I followed Saxon out the door and down the ramp, pointing down toward our weathered old dock. The uneven wood gave hellacious splinters, but it had come with the house. And much like the boathouse, my dad hadn’t gotten around to repairing it yet. “The boathouse is down there, by the dock. You can store your stuff in there and use our dock if you want.”
He bowed his head at me. “I don’t deserve your kindness.”
I reached for his hand. Once I’d caught it, I tugged, bringing him down so we could see eye to eye. “No, Sax, I don’t deserve your kindness.”
I pressed my lips to his again. Invisible electrical sparks shot from where our mouths united, down my neck and arms, right to the tips of my fingers. In one moment, all of the air in my lungs disappeared and I was drowning in our kiss. Swirling closer and closer to losing consciousness, but I didn’t care. All that mattered was that we’d found solace in each other. Both of us from different things, but peace nonetheless.
Saxon was the first to pull back, his breath catching in the back of his throat. We watched each other for a few beats. “Do you ever go down to the dock?”
“In the summertime, when we swim.” Shuddering, I looked down the slope toward the dark water. Swimming this summer was going to be very different.
“Does your chair go down that path?”
I glared down at the dock. The boardwalk that led down the hill was bumpy and had a few slats of wood missing. It wasn’t impossible to navigate my way down to the dock, but it took so much effort that it was easier just to wait for someone to help me. Yet another one of my father’s projects he’d not yet finished. But I wasn’t stupid. I knew that the boardwalk was the one project that my mother didn’t nag him about because it deterred me from going down to the water by myself. Just another way my parents’ overprotective tendencies made me want to scream.
He didn’t wait for an answer. He must have read the expression on my face because he took hold of the handles on my chair and proceeded to push me down the hill. I braced my hands on the armrests as we bounced past the rough spots and skidded to a stop at the end of the wet dock.
He knelt before me and ran his knuckles down the side of my face. “I know you hate having help. But if you want to go somewhere, I don’t understand why you should be limited.”
Locking my wheels, I grinned despite myself. “It’s like you read my mind.” I froze. “Wait, can you do that?”
He pulled his lips back, and I could see a sliver of his white teeth. “No. Will you be able to get yourself back up the hill after I leave?”
Nodding, I tossed my hair over my shoulder, enjoying the air blowing off the choppy waves. “Yeah. It’s difficult, but not impossible.”
“You aren’t lying to me, are you?” He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t want to leave you stranded.”
“I’m not stranded, I promise.” I tousled his hair playfully, and my stomach flip-flopped when he turned his face into the palm of my hand. “I sneak down here all the time. My parents just don’t know. Otherwise they’d freak.”
He leaned in and pressed a long kiss against my temple. “I’ll see you soon.”
I drew in his scent and begged my mind to memorize it. I wanted to be able to recall that aroma as I lay in bed at night or sat in class at school. My throat tightened, and I cleared it vigorously. “Would it be cheesy for me to say that I’ll miss you? Because I will.”
His crooked smile made my heart speed up. “I’ll miss you too.”
And with that he stood up and took the bag into the boathouse. I listened to the soft ruffle of clothing and then the noisy crackle of the plastic, and all of the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Closing my eyes, I turned my face up toward the hazy sky. The sun was trying to filter through the clouds, but spring just wasn’t ready to take over yet. I imagined the bitterly cold water. How did Saxon manage to tolerate being chilled with such ease?
A splash sounded on the other side of the boathouse, and I popped my eyes open. There, just below the surface, was the longest fin I’d ever laid eyes on. I couldn’t see his upper body. He was moving too fast and heading straight down. His tail was ridged with muscle and made of thousands of metallic green, gray, and blue scales reflecting light in every direction. It moved up and d
own with such force that the water at the surface slapped against the dock, making it rock up and down. With just two flicks of the massive tail fins, Saxon was swallowed by the black water, and the only hint he’d even been there was the colors I still saw like tracers.
“Luna!” The scream was bloodcurdling, and my shoulders jerked in response.
Cringing, I slapped my hand on my forehead and turned in my seat. I was busted. Big time busted. There stood my mother, still in her Deep Lake apron, gaping at me from the back porch.
“Uh…hi, Mom.”
Chapter Nine
The hand wrapped itself around my wrist and pulled me down, down, down. No matter how hard I pulled back, the grip didn’t loosen. When I opened my mouth to scream, bubbles danced up to the surface and frigid lake water filled my mouth and nose. The light at the surface flickered dimly as I sank lower, and the fingers around my arm were relentless when my bones snapped and my muscles tore under its grip. The sound of my arm breaking was muted. Reduced by the weight of the water to a quiet tap.
The lights below came into focus, and I saw who pulled me down. Swaying waves of blonde hair danced around a face covered in greenish skin…
Thrashing, I woke with a start. My sweat-soaked sheets tangled around the useless ends of my legs, and all my pillows were strewn across the floor beside my bed. Craning my neck to look at my clock, the bright red numbers stung my eyes as I strained to read the time.
Tap, tap, tap.
I gasped and sat bolt upright, scrambling to release my hands from the damp grasp of the sheet. Once freed, I felt both of my wrists to make sure that they were still intact. They were, thank God.
A shadow passed by the glass behind my curtains. My skin grew cold, and fear filled my stomach like a bucket of ice. In the hours since Saxon dove into the lake and disappeared, I’d wondered several times if that freaky Isolde would ever consider following me to my house. Sure, Saxon had said it was against the rules, but if he broke them to walk around, maybe she did too. If she hated me as much as she’d appeared to the other day, what would keep her from trying to bust her way into my bedroom at night?