Revel

by Maurissa Guibord

  “Sean.” I gently moved his hands away. “Are you okay?”

  “I feel great,” Sean whispered. “I’ve just been wanting to do this, before it’s too late.”

  He pulled me close and kissed me. His mouth was warm and hungry and it felt like every muscle in his body was coiled like a spring. I could feel the pounding of his heart against my own chest.

  I pushed him away from me, breathing hard. “Sean, hold on a minute.”

  He straightened up. He didn’t look flustered or put off by my resistance and still held my shoulders in a warm, loose grip. He let his hands slide down my arms before releasing me. “Sorry. Guess I just wanted a taste of what I can’t have anymore.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Revel,” said Sean, his voice low and rough. “I saw how Jax looked at you. And how you looked at him. So now I know where I stand. It makes things easier.”

  Lightning flashed, illuminating his face. The outline of his jaw looked hard and the skin was taut over his cheekbones. There was something wrong. He didn’t look sick exactly. Just … changed. As if he’d aged years since I saw him last.

  “Sean, what’s happened to you?” I whispered.

  Thunder rumbled through the house and shook the embroidery frames on the walls. Sean didn’t answer, only turned and strode away. I heard him call Buddy to him and the back door slam as he went back out, into the storm.

  CHAPTER 27

  Another week passed and I didn’t hear anything more from Sean. I didn’t know what was going on with him, and I was too embarrassed by what had happened to go searching him out. Maybe his strange behavior had just been a reaction to finding out about my Aitros side. But I hoped we could be friends again.

  To be honest, I had a hard time keeping my mind on anything except the changes I was going through. So many strange, impossible things were happening.

  For example, I was wearing a two-piece.

  I regarded myself in the mirror. The bikini had belonged to Mom, who’d apparently been more daring than I thought. I’d found it in a trunk with some of her other old clothes in Gran’s attic. The skimpy suit of white eyelet fabric with tiny black flowers was a lot more revealing than I was used to. But if I swam in anything that covered my gills, it felt like I was breathing through a mask.

  And I had to swim.

  At this point even if someone had told me that the Aitros changes would go away if I stayed out of the water, I wouldn’t have done it. I couldn’t have. I needed to be in the water for at least an hour every day, longer if I could. I felt tired and restless without it.

  I think I looked good too. My body was getting stronger with the swimming. Lithe, toned muscles had appeared in my arms and legs and belly. I stood straighter and held myself taller. Unfortunately, I hadn’t grown taller, at least not that I could tell.

  But the first time I stepped from the water and saw the webbing between my fingers, I did freak out.

  The pearly membranes of tissue were almost see-through. And they were between my toes too. They definitely helped with the swimming, and after I was out of the water for a while, the webbing retracted. So it wasn’t so bad. But the thing I feared the most didn’t seem to be happening. Not yet. I hadn’t developed a fin when I went into the water.

  Wouldn’t that be special.

  “Come on,” Jax said, waving me to join him. He’d been wanting to take me out to see the reef. It would be the farthest I’d swum so far.

  I tugged off my T-shirt and dropped it to the sand, then unbuttoned my shorts and slipped them down. When I stepped out of the shorts and used my toe to kick them onto the blanket, I glanced over at Jax. His raised hand dropped slowly into the water and he stared at me with those relentlessly blue eyes as I ambled to the water.

  “What is that?” he asked me, his voice sounding strained.

  “It’s a bathing suit. I can’t wear the other one anymore because of these.” I passed a hand over my gills.

  He opened his mouth and closed it again. Nodded.

  Ever since Revel, when he’d learned that I had Aitros blood in my veins and this strange power in my voice, Jax had been different. He was diligent about helping me learn my way around the waters of Trespass, and seemed to enjoy being with me. In fact, when we were together, he never left my side and was as protective as a mother hen with a chick.

  But we hadn’t spoken about my voice or what happened that night. And Jax hadn’t kissed me again or even touched me. Even though sometimes I thought he wanted to. I stepped into the surf. The water sliding over my skin felt like a caress, but rather than thrill me, it only made me yearn more for his touch.

  A rising wave lifted me and I felt the answering joyful surge in my belly. I arched down and kicked, slicing deep beneath the water. I came up beside Jax.

  “Tell me about sirens,” I said.

  I’d never seen Jax look unsure or hesitant about anything, but he did now. His brow furrowed and his eyebrows pulled together, making his expression look at once fearsome and, strangely enough, worried. “I thought we were going to swim.”

  “We will. After you tell me about sirens. Gran says that I can’t run away from this thing, that I need to learn how to use it.”

  “You’ve never heard of them?” Jax asked, searching my face.

  I shrugged. “From what I recall, they’re girls with big busts and long hair that used to sit on rocks and sing to sailors, luring them to shore and making them wreck their boats.”

  Jax rolled his eyes. “As usual, the Landers have twisted the tale beyond any sense.” He frowned and stirred the water between us absently with his hand, creating a small whirlpool. “I can’t tell you very much, because a siren is a rare thing among our race. There hasn’t been one in these waters since the days of my forefathers. Two hundred, perhaps three hundred years.” Jax glanced up at me, his mouth curved in a faint smile. “It’s no wonder Mikos doesn’t have a clue what you did to him. He still seems to think you had some hidden device or trick to injure him so.”

  He swept the miniature whirlpool away with a careless gesture. “Simply put, a siren is a female demigod of the sea but with the power of her will in her voice.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Just this,” said Jax. “With the power of her voice, a siren can move the minds and the hearts of men. She can persuade armies to battle or bring peaceful resolution to a violent conflict. The most powerful sirens can also kill with their voices.” He looked at me steadily. “As you did.”

  Jax reached out and took my hand in his tanned and sinewy one. The simple touch between us felt electric to me, but his expression was unreadable.

  “A siren is the most deadly weapon an Aitros clan can possess,” he said in a measured voice.

  A weapon? As unbelievable as it was, I had killed with my voice. I’d seen the Icer’s head explode. And I’d hurt Mikos enough to disarm him and escape. But I didn’t even know exactly what I’d done to make those things happen.

  I wasn’t so much of a weapon. More like a loose cannon.

  “But why are there so few sirens?”

  Jax was looking down at my hand and closed it gently inside his own. “Probably because they don’t live very long. The stories say that sirens were often killed as children, or even infants.”

  “You’re not serious.” I pulled my hand back.

  “You think I would joke about that?” His gaze shot to mine.

  “No. I don’t know,” I said in a small voice, sinking down in the water. I realized that this had become a protective posture for me. I felt safer when I was enclosed like this, wrapped in water. “I just need time to understand what’s happening to me.”

  “That’s why I told you not to tell anyone,” he said. “I warned you on the night of Revel. I don’t think anyone in the clan should know. Not yet.”

  I frowned, trying to remember his words that night. “I think I might’ve been passing out then.”

  “Oh.”

  �
�But I haven’t told anyone. Only Gran knows.”

  Jax nodded. “According to the stories, a siren is considered too dangerous to be allowed to live unless she can be controlled. In ancient times the ones that managed to reach adulthood sometimes acted as independent assassins. Mercenaries of the gods.”

  I shook my head, unwilling to listen to any more.

  Jax came closer to me. I could feel the heat radiating from his sun-warmed skin, and I wanted to curl myself inside the safety of his arms. But something in his eyes held me back. He’d put some kind of a distance between us.

  “I don’t want this,” I said. “I never wanted any of this. I just wanted a place. A home.”

  Jax nodded. “Many Landers come to islands looking for a safe haven from the storm.”

  I nodded, my lips trembling despite my efforts to hold myself together. “Yes.”

  “There is a problem, Diabolica,” Jax whispered. His gaze fell to my mouth and lingered there, his eyes doing what I wished his lips would. “You are the storm.”

  CHAPTER 28

  We swam to the reef. I needed the water after hearing what Jax knew of sirens. Incredible powers. Short life span.

  Still, the newly discovered thrill of being in the ocean ran down my spine as cool water rushed over me, tugging at my hair. Did Jax feel this way when he swam? Maybe he was so used to it he didn’t notice anymore. I felt connected to the water, not just in it. Like my nerve endings didn’t stop at the surface of my skin but reached out into the water, sensing the salty minerals dissolved in it, the pressure of the depth and the thrumming vibrations of little fish.

  I was learning to swim as the Aitros did. They used not just their bodies, but the water itself. There were currents everywhere, like miniature aquatic jet streams, and if I angled my body the right way, I found myself carried along, lifted and propelled.

  Jax shot past me, spiraling through the water. The iridescent dorsal fin curled around him like a brilliant banner, and I smiled. He could be such a show-off. He always stayed close, but he wanted to lead. Whatever it was, I decided, whether he was being overprotective or just plain male, I wasn’t going to let him get away with it.

  I kicked and felt the cool rush of a fast channel of water sweep over me. I surged forward until Jax and I swam side by side. Glancing over, I saw the answering smile and the gleam in his eye. I couldn’t remember ever feeling as happy as I was like this, swimming beside Jax. It was like a combination of joy and adrenaline bubbling inside me.

  It was so beautiful here, a new world to discover. And beneath the water, I could see better than ever before. The water must have acted like some kind of superpowered lens, or maybe it was just being part Aitros, but when I was swimming, my vision was 20/20. Or whatever was better than that. Every rock, every ripple of sand, stood out in clear, sharp detail.

  I spotted waving tendrils of bright green sea grass fluttering near a column of coral and thought we must be getting close to the reef. I swam down to it and wove my fingers through the delicate strands of undulating grass. It was lovely.

  “We call it kettle grass.”

  I whipped my head up and let out a startled gasp. Bubbles frothed up around my face.

  Jax was yards away, watching me with that same amused, sardonic expression he so often wore. But I’d heard him speak. Underwater.

  “Yes, you can hear me in your head. It’s another ability that was left to us by the gods. We can communicate with each other.”

  It was exactly as if he stood next to me, talking.

  “Can you read my mind?” I asked, thinking the question to him.

  I noticed that I’d kicked against the water, increasing the distance between us. The idea of Jax knowing all my innermost thoughts made me uneasy. On oh so many levels. I stared at him.

  God, I don’t want to have to start wrapping my head in tinfoil.

  “As attractive as that sounds, it’s not necessary,” came his reply, complete with sarcasm. “I can sense your mood, but to read an individual thought there has to be an intention, you have to want to tell me something. It’s like talking, except in our heads. I can’t really hear anything you don’t want me to.”

  “Hmm. That’s almost comforting,” I told him. “I’m not sure I like the idea of you being in my head. Even if it is by invitation only.”

  “Why?” He swam closer. “Have you been entertaining fantasies about me?”

  “Not at all.” I hoped my telepathic lying skills were better than my normal ones. “And don’t try to plant any either,” I added with what I hoped was a mental glare, in addition to the one on my face.

  “A pity.”

  I smiled. I enjoyed this flirtatious bickering between us. But somehow I got the feeling that he was using it to stay away from anything deeper, more serious.

  “The reef is a little farther ahead. Are you tired?”

  “No. Let’s keep going.”

  I still didn’t have the same stamina and speed in the water as the other First Ones. Jax told me that it would take a little time. As he put it, I still had “Lander dust clinging to my toes.”

  A bright flash of pink caught my eye as a tiny fish darted by. I’d looked up the names and pictures in one of Gran’s nature books, and now I knew some of the ones I saw, like the yellow tang that glowed placidly against the coral and the busy parrotfish that pecked at the food hidden within. They didn’t seem afraid of me. If I got very close and tried to touch one of them, they’d usually just sidle away. Many of the fish and corals around Trespass weren’t usually found in northern waters. They were warm-water species. It was another example of how the strange climate of the island had created sort of an underwater greenhouse.

  Ahead I could make out the faint outline of the reef—a huge, irregular formation of coral. From a distance, the pale, twisted shapes of the coral vaguely resembled a line of people, heads upturned, arms reaching.

  I churned water with my legs to stop as I saw the reef through the wavering shafts of sunlight from above. A sickening fear gripped me.

  The reef didn’t resemble people. It was people.

  Reaching up toward the surface as if yearning to touch sunlight stood the stony, frozen forms of men encased in coral.

  The Hundred Hands.

  “Don’t be afraid,” said Jax. I heard his voice in my head, as clearly as if he were talking to me in a quiet room:

  “When the first Landers arrived here, it was in a storm. Some say one raised by Poseidon himself. Their ship sank and these men drowned. The stone coral around Trespass absorbed them, entrapped them. Now they guard the island, along with the Glaukos. Here you see the one hundred able hands aboard that first ship. The Hundred Hands.”

  “Are they alive?” I asked.

  “No. They are cursed.”

  Skull-like faces were still visible, their features blurred beneath the crust of barnacle-covered coral. Clumps of soft-fingered anemones clung to their arms. Bright fish darted in and out of their hollowed eyes.

  A shark skimmed by the top of the reef, and one of the stony hands gripped closed.

  I jerked back, startled. “They can move.”

  “There’s no need to be afraid. They’re only mobile enough to prevent unwelcome visitors from swimming through. If someone or something is unlucky enough to be caught in their grip for too long, it becomes part of the reef as well.”

  He extended his hand to me. “Come deeper.”

  I took Jax’s hand and turned away, leaving the reef of trapped seamen behind, though I wouldn’t be able to forget so easily.

  We dove straight down. We were still inside the protective ring of the reef, but Jax led me down into a dark depression. The layers of grassy rocks passed by in shadowy waves of emerald green.

  “This is the Hollow. You might find it interesting. The wreckage from the boat of those Landers drifted into this chasm.”

  “The Dover?”

  “Yes, I believe that was the name.”

  The water became cooler.
The coral disappeared, giving way to massive dark boulders. I could feel the pressure of the depths around me, but it wasn’t unpleasant. It was exciting.

  Jax slowed and looked at me, as if to make sure I was okay. His long, muscled form dappled with the shifting shadows of water.

  As we paused in our descent I noticed something bright glimmering in a dark niche beside me. Without thinking, I reached for it. Instantly, a sharp pain jabbed my finger, and I let out a yelp.

  “What is it?” Jax pulled me to him so quickly that the momentum spun us together and we drifted away from the rocks, bodies entwined.

  I clung to him for a moment longer than I needed to. Okay. Maybe a couple of moments.

  “I’m fine,” I said as I disentangled myself. “Something bit me.”

  “Let me see.” Jax took my hand and examined it. It seemed strange to see that dark head bent in such an absorbed study of my finger. For one so fierce, he could be surprisingly tender. It was nothing. Only a tiny curl of blood rose from the tip of my finger, dissolving instantly. But I enjoyed watching the way Jax’s dark hair rippled in the water and the strongly molded curve of his shoulders. “There are moray eels in some of these crevices,” he said. “Very irritable creatures. It doesn’t seem to have caused much damage.” He released me and swam back to the spot. He peered through the narrow opening.

  “But this is something else.” He reached in and withdrew a small item.

  It was a gleaming golden brooch, inlaid with pearls in the shape of a crescent moon.

  “The pin must have stuck you.” He smiled and let it fall into my hand.

  “It’s so beautiful,” I said, rolling the delicately styled piece on my palm. “May I keep it?”

  “Of course. The sea gave it to you. And extracted its price,” he added, taking my hand once more and gently rubbing the pad of my finger. I drifted closer to him.

  I tried not to think of the words that were drumming impatiently in my head. But he must have heard them, because soon our lips were only inches apart.