Perilous Waters

by Diana Paz

  His brother looked on helplessly. Angie tapped her fingers together and looked back at where David approached. Julia seemed as lost as ever.

  “You guys really are too hilarious,” Kaitlyn finally said, drawing her wet hair over her shoulder and wringing it out with both hands. She would have to go straight to the salon for a blowout, and this skirt was likely ruined. All because Julia had to be a little attention whore and nearly get herself drowned. And these boys of hers! Kaitlyn cast Brian’s retreating form an annoyed glance. Julia was goofy, sometimes a little charming—sometimes—and she had a way of making people laugh. Was that really enough to inspire this much devotion from two perfectly hot guys who could find girls a lot prettier than Julia?

  She crossed her arms in front of her. “Ethan, are you giving me a ride back?”

  Ethan looked from his brother to the group of student government kids. “I should talk to his friends,” he began.

  “It’s okay. I’ll do it,” Julia said, taking a step back in the sand. “It’s my fault all of this happened, anyway.”

  Clearly the direct approach didn’t work on Ethan. Kaitlyn walked up to him and tossed her head a little, moistening her lips as she rubbed her hands along her upper arms. “If she’s taking care of Brian’s friends, do you think you could take care of me? It’s so cold now that I’m all… wet.”

  Julia shifted. Kaitlyn ignored her, keeping her eyes fixed on Ethan’s silver ones.

  “You mean, a ride home?”

  She nodded, using her arms crossed in front of her to push her breasts up higher.

  “Yeah, sure. If Julia handles his friends.” He nodded to Julia. Kaitlyn didn’t miss the way Julia bit her lip as she watched them leave.

  Kaitlyn gave Ethan a half-smile, careful not to let her scarred cheek pull. He was never easy to figure out. Where other guys would have looked her up and down while she rubbed her arms against herself, it was almost as though he didn’t see her.

  His mind was probably on Julia.

  But that wasn’t usually enough. She had been with plenty of guys who were in love with their girlfriends. Guys, by nature, were opportunistic and couldn’t say no when something they wanted was set in front of them. Every time Kaitlyn had thought she found a nice guy to prove her wrong, that guy had turned out to be just like the rest.

  A drop of venom seeped from her heart. Was that why she went after guys with girlfriends? She had thought it was an ego boost. A guy who was willing to risk a relationship over her must mean she was worth it. So sexy, so pretty, so desirable that he would throw away something important to him and hurt some innocent girlfriend just to know what it’s like to have a night with her. Kaitlyn almost laughed. Sex was a tool. If she felt like getting attention, adoration, gifts, money, all she had to do was offer sex. Asshole guys would convince those sweet and trusting girlfriends of theirs that it didn’t mean anything. Girls who were stupid enough to put their faith in a man deserved the heartbreak they got.

  But maybe… maybe… Kaitlyn’s gaze gravitated toward the endless Pacific Ocean. Maybe some part of her wanted to find a guy who would prove her wrong. Maybe if there really were a guy who wouldn’t let her kiss his lips, who wouldn’t take the body she offered, maybe if there really was such a thing as a nice guy who wasn’t really an asshole underneath it all…

  She nearly laughed at herself. Every guy was the same. If her subconscious was secretly looking for a guy who wouldn’t throw away his girlfriend’s trust for the chance to get free sex with a hot girl, she had found him in Angie’s boyfriend. It had been a shock when… even after breaking up David and Angie, he hadn’t been interested in her. She had thought that eliminating Angie from the equation would make David fall right in her lap. But it hadn’t worked out that way. And ever since, Kaitlyn hadn’t seriously tried for another guy. Flirting, yes, but not the open invitation she had given her targeted males before. And definitely not the guys with girlfriends who used to be her favorites.

  It was more than just her hideous scar or the distraction of the magic. David hadn’t given up on Angie. And now here was Ethan, free and clear for the taking, without even so much as an official relationship between him and Julia standing in the way, and it didn’t matter. Not to his heart.

  Kaitlyn realized she was staring at Ethan again, her mind trying to wrap itself around what she had once thought was a very simple puzzle.

  She shook her head, running both hands through her wet, sandy hair in an effort to clear her thoughts. She had liked it better when Ethan was out of the picture. Kaitlyn felt Ethan’s presence like an undercurrent through Julia’s mind. She sensed the girl’s efforts to stop thinking about him, and over the weeks Kaitlyn had felt a compromise occur within Julia’s mind. Her thoughts of Ethan had shifted to a type of sub-thought, allowing her to function without the heaviness that once consumed her. After that, Julia started smiling like she used to, and her eyes sparkled again. As much as Kaitlyn hated to admit it, she was glad about it. She had missed Julia’s silly buoyancy.

  But now Ethan was back, and Julia had that same hesitant, cautious look on her face she used to have when she had tried to reach out to Ethan after their first mission.

  Kaitlyn exhaled a slow, measured breath, but it didn’t do much to rid her of the growing knot of irritation stuck in her ribcage. Julia didn’t need this guy’s brooding, emotional weight to drag her down. The two of them had never even been together. Not really. Why did Julia give a crap about whether or not he was finally talking to her again?

  But the bigger question was, why did Kaitlyn give a crap?

  ~ Chapter 10 ~

  Julia

  Julia looked through her playlist, grateful for the weekend. Yesterday’s attack on the beach had rattled her. They had nearly died. She swallowed tightly, her eyes squeezing shut as heat prickled her nose. What would her mom do if she never came home? What would she do without Angie if something had happened to her?

  A tapping noise made her jump. She took out one of her earbuds and scooted back on her bed as the sound repeated itself.

  Someone was at her window.

  Magic instantly flooded her palms.

  The tapping returned and she huddled into the corner of her bed. Should she call her mom? The police? What if it was just a bird? What if it was a demon? The Scylla had already broken through the nether somehow… what if other creatures had, too?

  Her heart hammered in her chest. She didn’t want to find out. She was alone and she wouldn’t stand a chance against a creature. Neither would her mom.

  The tapping grew louder. She scrambled for her phone, darting for her bedroom door as she found Angie on her contact list and called.

  “Pick up, pick up,” she whispered.

  “Hi! This is Angie. Leave a message!”

  Noooooo!

  With a sinking feeling she called Kaitlyn.

  On the second ring she heard an acidic, “What.”

  “K-Kaitlyn? Something’s tapping at my w-window.”

  There was a moment of silence, and then blatant laughter. “Pathetic. Do you really think a creature is going to tap at your window? If it were one of those demons, you wouldn’t be on the phone with me now. You would be blasting it—or you would be dead.”

  Julia frowned, realizing Kaitlyn was making sense.

  “Bye, freak show,” Kaitlyn said, hanging up.

  Julia glanced down at her phone, feeling silly now. The tapping had grown into definite knocking. Even though she didn’t think a creature would politely knock on her bedroom window, she still let power flood her palms. After a moment she swallowed, pulling back the curtain and jumping as far back as she could, her free hand poised to blast.

  A blond head popped up. A pair of gold-flecked eyes peeked at her from the other side of the glass.

  What the…

  “Brian?”

  He mouthed, Open the window.

  She brushed the curtain completely aside and slid open the window. “You scared the heck out of
me.”

  “Sorry. I deleted your number, so…”

  She pressed her lips together and looked away. “We have a front door, you know.”

  “I thought you’d fake like you’re not home if I knocked on your door. Like you have been for the past three months.”

  Oh yeah. That. She glanced up dejectedly. “Now you know about me and your brother, so you can figure out why making it work with you was just never going to happen.” His breathing increased. She avoided eye contact, grateful for the wall between them as she fought the urge to take a few steps back. “So… what are you doing here?”

  “Something’s wrong.” His gaze flicked away and back again. “Something’s happening to me. From that wound Meliah healed.”

  He held his arm up. Julia couldn’t see anything particularly strange. She let her gaze flick back at him, confused.

  “Look at the skin,” he said, pressing his arm against the window screen. “Take a long look.”

  She leaned forward, peering at his forearm until she saw—

  “Oh wow.” Her eyes lifted to meet his. Even filtered through the screen she could see the faint glimmer of his skin. And something more. “Scales.”

  His hand clenched. “What the hell is happening to me?”

  “I’m the wrong person to ask.”

  “Oh, really? You with your magic and freezing time? Who else am I supposed to ask?”

  “Chill out. I don’t know much about this stuff. I can barely cast a spell without messing up.” She bit her lip and thought for a second. “Let’s find Angie. Wait here.”

  She rushed to her mom’s room. “Mom, I have to go to Angie’s.”

  Her mother frowned. “Ay, mija. It’s after nine o’clock. I’m already in my pajamas and so are you.”

  “I have a ride. And it’s only Angie, who cares about clothes?”

  “Who are you going with?”

  She winced. “Brian.”

  Her mother didn’t hide her surprise. “Are you two…?”

  “No. Definitely not. It’s just…” It’s just that he’s growing scales and he might be turning into some kind of sea demon. “…complicated.”

  Her mother let out a sharp noise from the back of her throat. “You may as well get used to ‘complicated’ when it comes to boys.”

  “Can I go?” She pressed her hands together and mouthed, Please?

  Her mother shrugged in surrender. “Take your phone. Check in or be home by eleven.”

  Julia nodded and snatched up her phone and house keys. At the last second she thought about the seashell the nymph had given her. It had glowed in the ocean, letting her breathe. She stuffed it into her pocket before racing out the door to find Brian.

  “Let’s go,” she said, breathless.

  The night air rarely grew warm so close to the coast, not even in summer. She regretted not bringing a jacket with her, but the car blocked out the breeze, and the drive to Angie’s house would be quick. She tugged at the hem of her pajama shorts, dotted with cherries and squiggles, with the word Fruity scribbled on the right thigh.

  “Which way?” he asked.

  “Down Lexington.” She rattled off the directions to Angie’s, then texted Angie to let her know they were coming, not that it would do any good if she wasn’t paying attention to her phone. Why hadn’t she answered?

  Brian sped up. Her gaze skimmed his arms. The translucent scales shimmered with his movements against the car’s dashboard lights.

  “Is your wound still healed?”

  He glanced down at his leg. “It’s as if I had never been hurt. There isn’t even a scar left, but something isn’t right. Those… black vein things are back on my leg now.”

  She leaned back against her seat, trying to see his leg beneath the dash. If the Scylla venom was taking hold again, Meliah’s healing might not have been enough.

  They pulled into Angie’s driveway and a moment later she was outside. “Sorry. I was watching a movie with my parents and hadn’t checked my phone. What’s happening?”

  Brian held out his arms. “I was hoping you knew.”

  She peered down at him. In the pool of light from her porch, his scales caught a faint glow.

  “Oh my,” she whispered. “I’ve only ever heard of Scylla poison turning humans into creatures, but I’ve never heard of this before.”

  “What do you mean by, ‘this’?”

  “It looks like… the golden scales…”

  The silence that followed grated on Julia’s nerves. “What, Angie. What? Talk about things in ways that make sense.”

  Angie glanced up at Brian. He swallowed noticeably. “I’m becoming a sea creature,” he said flatly. “Like the ones we saw in the ocean.”

  “Maybe. Or, I don’t know,” Angie said. “I-I’ve never heard of a mortal becoming a nymph.”

  “Wait,” Julia said. “Show her your leg.”

  Angie bent down. “The Scylla poison is still there,” she said softly.

  Brian traced the faint black lines. “These weren’t here this morning, but they’re here now and getting darker.” Julia’s lips parted as he hiked up his shirt. “And they’re spreading.”

  A network of dark, curving lines sprawled across his torso.

  “Oh no,” Angie murmured, peering at his back. Julia caught sight of her fingers tapping against her thigh. “It’s as though the Scylla poison is battling to reclaim its hold on you.”

  “So, I’m turning into a monster?”

  Angie’s head tilted as she looked him over. “I think there are books specifically about the nymphs and sea world. Maybe there’s something in them about Scylla poison.”

  They went into the den, where books in strange alphabets lay haphazardly around the room. Julia’s brows lifted. It wasn’t really like Angie to leave things so messy. She must have been busy looking through the books before her parents called her to watch the movie.

  “What have you been looking up?”

  Angie blinked several times. Julia frowned as she recognized the mask that Angie often wore. It settled over her features and hid her emotions so well, Julia had only recently noticed it. Angie was a master at hiding her true feelings from the world. Then again, so was Kaitlyn.

  “Nothing special. Just more research,” Angie said, smiling up at her and offering an enormous book with browned pages and a cover that made a cracking sound when she took it. “Help me look for Scylla information?”

  Julia settled onto a cushion and pulled the heavy book onto her lap. Regular reading gave her a headache. Using magic to read ancient foreign languages made her brain want to jump out of her skull and never return. “Comprehen—”

  “Oh, and here,” Angie added. “Try these, too.”

  Angie handed her four more thick books that were old and musty. Gosh, I hope the answers are all in the first book, she thought, her mood growing murkier. She lowered her lashes for a moment, summoning her magic again. “Comprehend,” she repeated, running her hand across the cover. The mark on her arm glowed softly along with the words on the book. Symbols shifted into legible letters. She felt her brow crease. “Origins.” She glanced up at Angie. “I’ve already read this one.”

  “All of it?”

  Julia almost laughed at that. “This thing is probably five hundred pages long! Not a chance.”

  “How else will we know if we don’t read it?”

  “My magic will run out way before I can finish any of these books. Comprehend only lasts so long for me.”

  Angie returned her attention to the book in front of her. The pages turned quickly as she scanned the book. “Just try.”

  “Okay, okay,” Julia muttered, compelling the magic to form a steady pulse through her mind in an effort to keep Comprehend working. Brian paced the room. Angie turned pages at lightning speed. Julia scanned her own book, skipping over the Guardian stuff and seeing if it mentioned anything about nymphs or Scylla poison.

  “I can’t find anything,” she finally said, shutting her bo
ok. Her eyes burned and her skull throbbed. “I scanned as best as I could, but 500 pages would take me days to read. I’ll start on the next book and see if anything jumps out at me.”

  Angie frowned briefly. “We might need to call Kaitlyn.”

  Julia nodded. “The more eyes the better.”

  “Yes, but, not for research. Reading through an entire library of books might not be the most efficient use of our time, considering what’s going on with Brian.”

  “So… the threads of time?” Julia asked, relieved at the thought of not having to read.

  “Exactly.”

  “Seriously, you guys,” Kaitlyn said, showing up in incredibly tiny black pajama shorts that laced up on either side, and a t-shirt with Your Boyfriend Says Hi written across the chest. “You’re making me feel like a DVR, pressing play on the threads of time whenever you feel like it.”

  “This is important,” Angie said.

  “Yeah, I know,” she said, eyeing Brian with clear irritation. “One of Julia’s boyfriends is in trouble.”

  Julia unclenched her fists, reminding herself not to give a crap about what Kaitlyn said, but Brian glared at her. “I’m sorry the fact that I might be turning into a sea monster is inconveniencing you.”

  Kaitlyn placed her hand on her waist, her head tilting even as her eyes seemed to mock him. “Apology accepted.”

  Julia had never seen Brian’s expression turn so dark before. She almost reached for him, hoping to calm him down before Kaitlyn had the chance to rile him up any worse.

  “Let’s just get started,” Angie said smoothly, but her fingers tapped at the hem of her pajama shorts. “I don’t know how long this will take, Brian. Do you want to sit on the sofa for now?”

  He kept his eyes on Kaitlyn for a moment. Finally he gave a stiff, almost imperceptible shrug, though his expression didn’t lighten as he dropped onto the couch.