by Melissa Haag
“Come. Sit. Rest yourself, and tell me why you’re here.”
I walked toward the table and the old-fashioned goblet blocking part of a scene that kept drawing my eye.
“I came to talk to you.”
“Me? Why?”
I managed to look up at her.
“You’re an oracle, right?”
She smiled softly and gestured to the table.
I sat with a heavy exhale. Until the moment when I eased the weight off my legs, I hadn’t realized just how tired I was. It felt weird being so exhausted. I would need to remember swimming in hypothermic lakes the next time I felt angry.
“I am an oracle. The only one in Uttira at present,” she said, motioning to the heavy goblet. I picked it up and felt her hand brush over my wet hair.
“You’re so cold. I have another gown if you’d like to change.”
I shook my head and brought the goblet to my lips. The metallic taste of the cup made me hesitate. A heavy feeling gripped my stomach, and I glanced at the fireplace just above the rim of the cup. The flames danced prettily from their source. Bones.
I set the cup down quickly but couldn’t seem to focus on the source of the flames again.
“What’s wrong? Don’t you like wine? I can fetch you some water.”
“No. It’s okay.” I blinked, trying to focus on what was feeding the fire. Had I really seen bones?
A jab of anger hit me right between my eyes. Before I could react, it was gone. I frowned and rubbed my eyes, having a hard time focusing on anything but the flames, themselves, and the table and the feel of her hand on my head.
This wasn’t right. I looked at the walls but could only see a hazy darkness. Something was very wrong.
“Why are you living in the middle of the lake?” I asked.
“We are all meant to be somewhere, Megan. Where would you have me be?”
“In town. In a normal house.”
“Easily accessible? No, my sweet treat. That’s how wars start.”
Sweet treat? I wanted to shiver at the words and decided it was time to start listening to my gut even if my fury temper was quiet. My gut yelled at me not to relax or rest, that I needed to hurry up. That I was taking too much time even though I’d just gotten there.
“So how does this work?” I asked. “My friend told me there’s a price for everything. What’s your price to answer my questions?”
Lucia laughed lightly.
“Your friend sounds very wise. Most people who come here think answering questions is my purpose.”
“Isn’t it?”
“Yes and no. Although I can see glimpses of the future, that’s not the sum of my existence. We should be more than just our purpose, don’t you agree, Megan?”
“I guess.”
“Don’t guess. Know.”
“That’s why I’m here. Because I don’t know.”
“Oh?” she said, her hand stroking over my hair again.
“I need answers. My mom left me, and I need to know why.”
“Let the past stay in the past. Why she left doesn’t matter. Your future is what you seek, is it not?”
“Fine. What do you see in my future?”
“I see you drinking your wine.”
A tingle of frustration raced through me, and I knocked the goblet aside. A hiss resounded near my ear. I turned back to look at Lucia and caught a glimpse of something that wasn’t Lucia. A wide mouth and scaled skin. Her face came back into focus, smiling kindly with golden hair falling prettily around her shoulders.
She touched my hair again, stroking the dried strands.
“What’s your true form, Lucia?”
She jerked slightly.
“True form? What do you mean?”
“We all have true forms, don’t we? That’s why I’m here. I need to know mine. I need to know what I’ll become.”
“Become. You’ll become nothing more than what you are, cod fish,” she said. Her hand left my hair, and she moved toward the fire. “I have some bread warmed, if you’d like.”
She reached for something from the darkness near the pot. As she walked toward me again, her eyes reflected silver, like they’d caught light. But, she had her back to the fire.
Rage ripped through me, so harsh it felt as if I was going to be torn in half. I stood suddenly, knocking over the chair and slammed my hands down on the table before me. The scent of fresh wood smoke teased my nose.
The oracle stopped walking, the form of her face flickering ever so briefly between snake and woman at the same time my rage vanished. We stared at each other for a long moment.
“You are not what you seem,” I said. “And, this place isn’t what it seems.” As I spoke, I looked around the room again. This time, I saw more than I wanted to.
A waist high ledge made of bones ran the circumference of the room. The floor was covered with them as well. They weren’t human, but they weren’t fish either.
“Are you eating mermaids?” I asked, dragging my gaze back to her.
She smiled slightly.
“You’ve already noted that there’s nothing on this island. What did you think I ate?”
“I don’t understand,” I said, frowning.
She laughed.
“Of course you don’t. If you did, you wouldn’t be here.”
Another jolt of anger poked at me only to vanish again.
“What I don’t understand is why I’m not hurting you. Killing is wrong.”
“My sweet fledgling fury, what defines wrong but the rules we are taught?”
My skin warmed with my growing irritation. She was responding to my questions with half answers and vague counter-questions. Although the swim in the lake had worn me down for a bit, my general pissiness was more than ready to bounce back.
The scent of fresh wood smoke grew stronger, and her gaze dipped to her table.
“Stop,” she commanded, rushing forward. “You’ll destroy it.”
Smoke curled up from the table. My hair tickled my cheek as I lifted my hands from the wood and looked down at the scorch marks. The carvings that had been under my palm were gone.
“Hateful, hell bird,” she hissed.
“Lying snake,” I said, looking up at her.
Her gaze narrowed on me.
“I don’t lie.”
“How do you explain these bones?” I asked. “You’re killing people, and I think I even see a few human bones over there.”
“I’ve already answered that. I must eat.”
“And, why am I not angry? Consuming flesh is against the rules. Wicked.”
“Because the past does not exist here. Nor the future. Only the present. And, in the present, I haven’t killed anyone or consumed anything.”
Her words worried me. Not the killing, but about the time. Something was wrong with what had been happening since I’d arrived. My hair had dried while she’d touched it. Only minutes had passed yet my hair, which took a good hour to air dry, was no longer wet. My gut told me again that I needed to hurry up and get my answers then leave.
“What is my true form, and how do I control my rage?” I asked.
She smiled and reached out to touch my hair. I batted her hand away. Now, the touch of her skin against mine sent a shudder of revulsion through me. She felt cold and damp, like the stones.
Impatience stoked the fire growing inside of me.
“Lucia, you have about ten seconds to start giving me some real answers before I get really mad.”
She laughed.
“I’ve done nothing for you to label me wicked, my tidbit.”
I shivered at the words. If she wasn’t doing something wrong, now, she definitely had something wicked planned for me in the future. Since getting angry at her wasn’t working well, I went another route.
I focused on the flames licking me from the inside and thought of Eliana waiting for me and her worry. Then, I thought of Oanen. Of all the times I’d burned him because I didn’t know what I was doing
. Finally, I thought of my mom and all the answers she hadn’t shared.
My anger climbed higher, and I knew the moment the oracle understood the situation. Her silver eyes reflected the orange light glowing from mine.
“If you leave now,” she said, “I’ll give you the answers you seek.”
“No.” I set one of my hands on the table and smiled. “Smells like toasting marshmallows, don’t you think?”
“Hateful hell brat. I’ll answer one now and one when you’re in the boat, rowing away.”
“Fair enough. But, I will turn around and destroy everything on this desolate rock you call home if you go back on your word.”
She nodded and looked pointedly at my hand. I lifted it from the table and arched a brow.
“Come.” She turned and started toward the crack in the rocks. “Your true form is born of—”
She disappeared from view, and I rushed forward, slipping into the passage.
“Born of what?” I asked.
“Born of fire. Keep up. I won’t repeat myself. That is not part of our bargain.”
I hurried, slipping and sliding over the bone littered floor.
“Vague answers aren’t part of the bargain, either. I already know I have fire. I want to know my true form. What will I look like? Am I going to be a snake woman like you? I want specifics.”
She laughed from somewhere ahead, the howl of the wind almost carrying the sound away.
“You are nothing like me. That you are born of fire means you are made from the flames of hell. You are hell’s messenger. You bring the souls of the damned to their final place of unrest.”
“But what will I look like?”
I turned the second bend and could see a dim sliver of light ahead but no Lucia. Another shiver ripped through me as the first gust of cold air rushed into the passage and hit my slightly damp jeans. It wasn’t until I stepped out of the opening, into a wind lashed early twilight, that I understood what had happened.
Time had passed while I’d been in the cave. More time than I’d anticipated. A storm had rolled in, blotting out the light of day and turning the lake into a sea of crashing waves.
Ahead, on the shore, Lucia stood near a boat. I stumbled forward, the wind battering me and whipping the strands of my hair into my face. It hadn’t yet started to rain, but I could feel moisture in the heavy air.
“What will I look like?” I repeated as I neared.
Her gown billowed in the gale winds but her golden hair barely moved.
“You will look much like you do now. Hair flying and eyes burning bright. Only, you will be covered with giant flames.”
That didn’t sound so bad.
“And the rest?”
“In the boat.” She motioned to the vessel the waves were trying their hardest to pull back out into open waters.
I stared at the boat that had carried me most of the way to the isle. The plug was once again in place, and both oars waited for me. My bag, which had held my change of clothes, lay ripped and empty in the bottom of the boat. There was no salt. No weapons. And, the oracle wanted me to head out into storm-tossed waters just before sunset.
Our eyes met, and she smiled slowly.
“In you go, Megan. Once you’re in the water, we’ll both get what we want.”
“You want me dead.” I said it without thinking, but I knew I was right when she smiled wider.
“Stay here with me and never learn the truth, or get in the boat and take your chances with the open waters.”
“Not much of a choice,” I said.
“But it’s still a choice. And one only you can decide.”
Pushing back my hair, I stepped into the boat. It rocked under me then jerked forward. I looked back at Lucia, who was pushing me into the crashing waves.
“The answer,” I yelled over the noise.
“Row, Megan. And, I will keep my word.”
I started rowing, getting drenched quickly with the first wave that hit the bow.
Lucia’s voice carried to me as I put distance between the shore and the boat.
“Controlling your temper is like asking a fish not to swim. You were born to be angry. There is no controlling it. Those who've told you otherwise have been lying to you.”
Adira. The Quills. The Council. They’d all lied to me. Everything I’d been told to do. All the tests. Lies. Why? They were keeping my mark from me based on my inability to control my rage. Did that mean I would never get my mark? That I would be forever trapped in Uttira?
I saw red. And through that color-stamped haze of emotion, I also saw Lucia change. Her beautiful face melted away to reveal the sleek flat head of a snake. Her body elongated, and her arms and legs disappeared.
Suddenly, I understood what she really meant when she said we’d both get what we wanted once I was in the water. She had given me my answer, and now she was going to get what she’d wanted all along. A meal.
I pulled hard on the oars and ignored the icy water hitting my back. Nothing mattered but rowing as fast as I could. My life depended on it.
Nineteen
I watched Lucia slither forward on her belly and enter the foamy surf.
The intent to kill danced in the reflective silver of her eyes. So, why wasn’t I angry? Where the hell was my fury temper?
“Of all the times to conveniently disappear, now isn’t one of them. A make out session with Oanen? Yes. Two minutes from being sushi? No.”
The oracle opened her mouth wide and tested the air with her forked tongue. Then, she ducked under an incoming wave and started in my direction, her body zigzagging smoothly through the turbulent water.
I shivered again and rowed harder, keeping my seat by bracing my feet against the next one. The oars groaned under the strain of my effort to move faster.
“I am not going to be eaten by a twenty-foot snake.” Yet, the waves fought me, reducing the forward thrust of each stroke.
Lucia drew closer.
I lifted the oars out of the water and took one from its holder, ready to use it as a weapon. If beating her with it didn’t work, I’d shove it down her throat.
At the last moment, her head dipped under the water. The boat lurched forward, away from the island with increasing speed. The swells grew bigger, nearly unseating me as the boat powered over them. I set the oar down and gripped the sides of the boat instead, wondering what Lucia was doing. Behind the boat, the island rapidly grew smaller.
Just before it vanished into the dark haze of the horizon, Lucia stopped pushing. I released my hold on the boat and scrambled to pick up the oar once more.
Lucia’s large, wet body flew out of the water and landed in the boat with me. Her tail pinning the oar in place, she opened her mouth. I reacted without thought and punched her in her exposed throat. She jerked back and hissed at me.
“What’s wrong?” I taunted. “Don’t like it when your food fights back?”
She shifted to her human form, white gown in place and weirdly dry. With a hand covering her throat, she scowled at me.
“As much as I desire to discover the taste of young fury, I’m not yet ready for a journey to the underworld. So, I’ll bait my trap like they baited theirs.”
“What?” I asked.
“It was no accident you made it to my island, an island hidden by magic even from the land and air creatures here. You made a mermaid mad by stealing her sweet human, and she thought by sending you to me, I would take care of her problem. Usually, I would be inclined to help if it fills my belly. But, I’m not foolish enough to do anything that might gain the attention of the gods.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “Aren’t they dead or sleeping or something?”
“Or something,” Lucia answered, shifting her attention to the waves around us. She picked up the oar and put it back in its place. When she turned her eyes to me, the pupils were wide and reflective again.
“Row, Megan.”
“Why?”
“As I’ve said, I’m incli
ned to do things that will help fill my belly. I do very much enjoy the taste of mermaid.”
That Lucia wanted to use me as bait to catch another mermaid for dinner was now very clear. But, what would happen to me once she got her mermaid?
I stared at her for a moment, considering my options. Nothing had really changed. I still needed to get back before dark.
Exhaling slowly, I gripped the oars and struggled to make more progress away from the island. The further I got, the warmer I became. I should have felt relief because I was returning back to my version of normal, but there was still so much wrong with my current situation. That I was losing daylight and not gaining much distance didn’t worry me as much as what would happen when I lost sight of the island. There was no sun, and I had no GPS to guide me.
As I rhythmically pulled at the water, the sky lightened briefly. Then, the first snowflake fell.
“Shit,” I swore under my breath.
Lucia’s gaze shifted from the water to the sky, and she smiled.
“Be a good girl and go for a swim,” she said softly.
Before I could tell her to go to hell, she shifted forms again. Her tail lashed out and hit me hard across my back.
There was no stopping my graceless topple from the boat. The freezing water slammed into me face-first. Any heat that I generated was ripped from me just as quickly as it appeared. The choppy waves kept me under and rolled me several times, disorientating me. When I opened my eyes, it took a moment for me to focus in the murk. Churned up by the storm, bits of weed and debris floated here and there in an otherwise still, underwater world.
I kicked hard toward the frothing of motion above me, and my head finally broke through the surface. Gulping a breath, I looked around for the boat and spotted it several yards away. Lucia was nowhere in sight. I shuddered at the thought of her slithering in the water with me as I started toward the boat.
Waves washed over my head as I swam. I tried not to think about Lucia or how cold the water was or how to get back to the shore. Instead, I focused on my current goal. I just needed to get in the boat. Another wave hit me. It knocked me under water and rolled me once.
Again needing to find my way back to the surface, I opened my eyes and almost choked at the face staring back at me. The mermaid smiled. Lightning fast, she snagged my hair and started towing me deeper.