Through Fire & Sea

by Nicole Luiken

  Holly let it go, but guilt plagued her. She knew that Nimue wasn’t wandering the streets in a fog of madness. After wrestling with her conscience for hours, she decided she couldn’t let things go on as they were. It was cruel not to tell Ryan the truth. And dangerous.

  If Qeturah showed up on their doorstep, Ryan would welcome her with open arms—and likely receive a dagger in the back.

  She had to tell him the truth about his mother—even if the thought of his reaction made her sick to her stomach.

  …

  Dissonance scraped her nerves as Holly pulled Leah through the full-length mirror in one of the guest bedrooms.

  “What—” Ryan staggered back a step.

  Holly watched him with concern. Not wanting to be accused of being crazy again, she’d only said that she had something to show him. Maybe she ought to have prepared him more. His skin paled with shock, his eyes too wide.

  “This is my otherself, Leah,” Holly said, but she didn’t know if he heard her.

  “What’s. Going. On?” he demanded. His gaze didn’t leave Leah for a second.

  Holly kept it simple. “All that mirror stuff your mom believed in? It’s real.”

  Ryan blinked. “But—” He looked at Leah again, obviously swallowing a protest. “Okay,” he said cautiously. His gaze flickered between Holly and Leah, then settled on Leah. Holly would’ve felt hurt except Ryan took her hand. He saw Leah as a threat. Of course. Nimue would have warned him not to trust mirror people. “Why is she here?”

  “To help me explain.” Holly took a deep breath and started with the incident that led to her falling off the yacht, the bowls of water, the firewasp, and her time in limbo at the play.

  Then it was Leah’s turn. She briefly explained how Qeturah had lied to her, that she’d thought she was helping Ryan’s otherself when she forced Nimue to look into a mirror—and how it had all gone wrong. How Gideon had died and his death had shattered Fire World. “Holly and I have been trying to keep Qeturah from repeating the same pattern here on your world.”

  The dissonance had grown while they spoke, and Leah’s nose began to bleed. “I need to go back to my world.” Leah gazed at Ryan with wistful sadness, as if hoping for a farewell kiss, but his grip tightened on Holly’s hand. Holly felt both glad and petty that Ryan so clearly preferred her.

  Ryan didn’t relax until Leah vanished, and then the two of them sat there in silence. Holly felt drained and Ryan looked…numb. Heartbroken.

  “Are you sorry I told you about Nimue?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “No. This is…not better, but I needed to know.” A pause. “God, I can’t believe she’s been dead all this time. How could I not have noticed?” Guilt laced his voice.

  “You did notice,” Holly defended him. “You just chalked the changes up to her medication. How could you have guessed the truth?”

  “Gee, I don’t know, maybe because my mom started warning me about my reflection when I was five?” He ran his fingers through his hair.

  “Are you mad at me?” Her throat ached.

  “I don’t know. You tried to tell me. I—I need some time to process all this, okay?”

  Biting her lip, Holly let him leave. The next two hours were nerve-racking. It took all her self-control not to knock on his door.

  She didn’t see him again until dinner. During the meal he was quiet. Afterward he didn’t seem to want to talk about it, so Holly let it be.

  …

  A week later, Holly suddenly realized that she was scheduled to fly out in three days. She quietly called the airline, but Ryan caught her hanging up the phone.

  “Don’t go.” The words trembled on the edge of being an order in his siren voice.

  “I canceled my flight,” Holly said quickly.

  “Good, but I meant don’t go back to Vancouver Island at all,” he said starkly. “Move here. I’m set to film another Eden episode next week, and I have to find another agent and decide on my next project—and I don’t think I can do it without you.”

  Holly’s heart melted. She felt a twinge thinking about her mom, but Ryan needed her, and she’d be leaving for college in a year anyhow. “Of course I’ll stay.”

  He closed his eyes in relief. “I need to talk to my father today. Come with me?”

  Her heart warmed. “Sure.” She’d missed the last beach excursion due to Leah’s interference. Her curiosity kicked in. “Uh, what are you going to talk to him about?”

  “I just want to get his promise that if Qeturah offs me, he won’t drown L.A.”

  Holly paled. “Good idea.”

  But when their cab neared Santa Monica an hour later, a police barricade turned back all traffic. “Sorry, the beaches are closed today,” a Hispanic patrol officer told their driver.

  Ryan powered down his window. “Why? Was there another tsunami?”

  Holly’s stomach clenched. In retrospect, staying away from the ocean for so long seemed like a mistake.

  But the officer looked startled. “No. Some environmentalist group dumped garbage on the beach above the high tide line.” Frown lines bracketed his mouth. “Crazies.”

  Holly and Ryan exchanged glances.

  They directed the cabbie to drive them farther up the coast to a beach in Malibu. Along the way, Ryan did an internet search on his Blackberry. He shared several disturbing articles with Holly. Four days ago, a fleet of fishing boats in the Atlantic had all pulled up nets full of garbage. Two days ago, a rogue wave had slimed the deck of a tanker with oil, prompting the discovery that they had a leak. So far no one seemed to have connected the events to the “strangely localized tsunami” that had hit Marina del Rey.

  Holly silently pointed out a more hopeful mention of a dolphin saving a little boy, but Ryan’s tension didn’t ease.

  When they arrived, he insisted she remain on the beach while he swam into the blue surf. “In case he’s decided humans are the enemy,” Ryan said grimly.

  Holly didn’t like it, but she stayed on the wet sand, pacing and thinking hard. Nobody knew it yet, but the world had changed.

  When Ryan returned, he collapsed on the towel she’d spread out. “I think I got through to him that most humans are trying to fix the problem, but I’m not sure how much patience he’s going to have with legislation.”

  Holly squeezed his bicep.

  He shuddered. “This is so bad. It’s my fault he’s awake,” he whispered into her hair.

  “It’s Qeturah’s doing,” Holly said firmly. “Besides, the melting ice caps probably would’ve woken him sooner or later.”

  “Is there any way to put him back to sleep?” Ryan’s face showed lines of strain.

  “I doubt it. And the world needs a wake-up call.”

  “A wake-up call is one thing. This could be war. One I’m not sure humanity would win. Or if I even want us to.” He looked at a plastic bag half buried in the sand with loathing.

  “Then it’s a good thing we have a liaison,” Holly said bracingly. “You.”

  His mouth twisted. “Yet another celebrity with a cause? How much impact can one person really have?”

  Holly had an answer ready. “You can temper your father’s wrath—and you can help him target the true offenders. The information can flow both ways—if he notices someone polluting, you can sic the media on them.”

  Ryan’s anxiety eased; he smiled. “That could work. Thanks.” He gave her a sweet kiss then pulled her to her feet. “Come on, I want to introduce you.”

  Holly’s stomach fluttered, but she followed Ryan out into the chest-deep surf.

  “Ready?” He reached for her hand.

  “Ready.”

  “Father, this is Holly.”

  “Hello,” Holly said uncertainly.

  The water eddied around her, a wordless acknowledgment.

  “Um, you should be proud of your son. He’s a really good person.”

  The ocean warmed, as if pleased, but he still didn’t speak. Remembering that awesome voice, Holl
y was okay with that.

  “He likes you.” Ryan whistled, and suddenly the ocean came alive with shiny gray bodies. Holly caught her breath as a pod of graceful bottlenose dolphins swam and leaped about. They playfully nudged Holly until she splashed back.

  Ryan changed to his merman form, and he and the dolphins bodysurfed from one end of the beach to the other before the pod raced off.

  “Thank you.” Exhilarated, Holly kissed Ryan as they walked out of the waves. “That was beautiful.”

  Ryan rested his hands on her hips. “No. You’re beautiful,” he said in his velvet voice. “My mom—” He cleared his throat. “With my mom it was always a secret. Something I had to hide, something shameful. But with you I can be both human and merman.”

  Holly looped her arms around his neck and tipped her head back. “Always.”

  …

  Once again, Leah stood alone in the Mirrorhall. She’d been keeping a vigil over Holly and Ryan, but Qeturah had left them alone so far, probably waiting to see what the awakened Ocean Lord would do.

  Which meant she was working her schemes elsewhere.

  Leah studied the Four Worlds mirror as if it could tell her Qeturah’s destination. She rejected the True World. Even if Qeturah found a way around the ban, she would save it for last, to return in triumph.

  Not Fire. Not Water. That left Air and Stone. Gold or glass?

  Qeturah hadn’t sent Leah to smooth the way on either—but she had sent Sabra on a mission to Stone. Leah’s heartbeat quickened.

  Gold it was.

  Before Leah Called, she bowed her head and remembered Gideon: his kindness, the heat of his kisses, his beautiful diamond eyes, his protectiveness and dragon strength. Her soul mate.

  Grief still drove her, but it was no longer the wild animal that had made her so ruthless in her dealings with Holly. She felt stronger, her fury harnessed to her will.

  She would save Gideon’s otherselves in his memory, but she swore to remember they were her otherselves’ soul mates and not hers to love.

  No one could replace Gideon in her heart.

  …

  Deep in Thunderhead’s magma chamber, the dragon floated, a black speck in a sea of orange.

  His scales remained impervious to the incredible heat, but soon even Thunderhead’s cradle of molten rock wouldn’t be enough to keep the last spark of life alive. Thunderhead let his temper cool; the level of magma in the cavern dropped, and the body of his son descended with it.

  Thunderhead would send his son to his own mother, the Goddess in her Lake of Fire. She would wake Gideon.

  For the Volcano Lord’s offspring had not just two names and natures, but three:

  Man.

  Dragon.

  Phoenix.

  The End

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  Acknowledgments

  Thanks to all the members of my writers’ group for commenting on various chapters and drafts of this manuscript: Aaron Humphrey, Ann Marston, Barbara Galler-Smith, Barb Geiger, Cheyne Allen, Jennifer Kennedy, Karen Glessing, Mari Bergen, Rachelle Foss. With special thanks to Sue McFadzen for persuading me not to permanently kill a certain character.

  About the Author

  Nicole Luiken wrote her first book at age thirteen and never stopped.

  She is the author of nine published books for young adults, including Violet Eyes and its sequels, Silver Eyes and Angel Eyes, Frost, Unlocking the Doors, The Catalyst, Escape to the Overworld, Dreamfire, and the sequel, Dreamline. She also has an adult thriller, Running on Instinct, under the name N. M. Luiken, and a fantasy romance series, Gate to Kandrith and Soul of Kandrith.

  Nicole lives with her family in Edmonton, AB. It is physically impossible for her to go more than three days in a row without writing. Visit her website at www.nicoleluiken.com or like her Facebook fan page for updates on her novels.

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