Ella Mae Dixon offered all that and more, and Ezekiel Walker became her protégé.
When the carnage at the plantation was discovered, it was assumed that a slave rebellion was responsible. Slaves who’d fled Ezekiel’s wrath were summarily captured and executed, several of them begging for mercy and blaming things on a “monster” or “devil” that had caused the mayhem.
One even went to so far as to name Ezekiel Indigo as the culprit, but when John Walker Sr. returned to the auction and tracked down Aleta and her mother under the new “ownership” of Virginia Embers, he encountered a stone wall.
He offered twice what Virginia had paid for them to bring the two women back to the smoldering ruins of his plantation to make them pay for what Ezekiel had done, but Virginia refused. When diplomacy failed, he became angry and threatened to take them back by force, if necessary.
“What force might that be, Mr. Walker?” Virginia asked, politely.
The beautiful young girl beside Virginia Embers cocked her head and smiled mischievously at the ruined cotton and rice baron.
When John Walker Sr. attempted to speak, he found himself choking.
“I… I will…” He dropped to one knee in a violent coughing fit, unable to muster another word.
“Oh, dear,” Virginia remarked. “Perhaps you’d best consult a doctor, Mr. Walker. There are several who’ve hung shingles on Broad Street. It’s not far.”
The man managed to make eye contact with the who he assumed to be Virginia’s daughter. She stared directly into his soul. He’d never been so terrified. She was just a slip of a girl, but he got the innate sense that she could destroy him.
Struggling to his feet, he backed down the steps from the Embers porch. Once back on the street, he thought of making a final plea for the Indigo women, but when he opened his mouth, the girl gave him that look again, all the while Virginia Embers stood smiling sweetly at him. He reconsidered.
“Good day, Mr. Walker,” the lady of the house waved. “There’s nothing here for you. Don’t come back. Ever.”
6 Briar
Lukas scooped me up as if I were weightless. I’d only once been out on a boat in the harbor, celebrating a triple digit tip my friend Mara had gotten at work from an old guy who hoped flashing his cash would inspire her to meet him and his little blue pill after work for some extracurricular “fun.”
Instead, she splurged on a wine cruise for the two of us, and we got fall-down drunk on a glorious Charleston evening.
I remember being terrified of falling in the water as I walked from one end of the boat to the other to get to where the hors d’oeuvres were laid out.
Drunkenness aside, the thought of being in the middle of such a relatively vast body of water activated a phobia I never knew I had. Cruises were probably not going to be in my future.
Yet here I was, in what I knew were swirling, powerful currents that signs warned swimmers to avoid at all costs, being carried through the water by someone I’d just met, and I felt as safe as at home in my own bed.
“Look… over there,” Lukas suggested, and not twenty feet away, a pair of dolphins surfaced, sprayed from their blowholes, and disappeared again.
Lukas veered toward them and we joined the pod, several others breaking through waves, near enough for me to reach out and touch. I felt giddy.
“Dolphins are cool but wait until I take you out to where the whales are. Guaranteed to take your breath away.”
Before I could reply, Aleta’s voice filled my mind.
Everything okay, Briar?
“Perfect!” I replied telepathically.
Josephine and Palmer rounded Isle of Palms and joined us, but Palmer noticed that we’d attracted some gawkers on the bridge.
“Deeper water?” Lukas asked his friend, nodding his head out toward the endless Atlantic Ocean.
“No, somebody has probably called the Coast Guard already to report the ‘drowning’ people in the inlet. What do you think, babe, back to the house? Is that cool?”
“Absolutely cool!” Josephine replied. We should order Home Team!”
Finally, somebody was speaking a language I understood perfectly. Home Team BBQ was one of my favorite restaurants in town, although I’d only ever eaten at the West Ashley location. The Sullivans Island crowd was a bit too high-brow for me.
“Yes! Brisket!” I shouted. Lukas and Palmer laughed, then proceeded to race the dolphins around the sound and back to the beach in front of Virginia’s Isle of Palms house. Aleta, Emma, and Fiona had just gotten out of the water and were drying off near Calista.
Truce with Calista. Please? Aleta suggested, directly into my mind.
My anger with her had dissipated, replaced by the butterflies Lukas had placed in my tummy. He and Palmer shimmied on their trunks and walked up onto the sand with Jo and me. Their other two mer-friends had gone off into the deep, to do whatever two fish-people in love do.
For sure, I replied to Aleta.
As our group walked back to the house, I sidled up to Calista. “Sorry about before. I take things too personally sometimes.”
She rolled her eyes and quickened her pace. I looked at Aleta and shrugged. Aleta shrugged back and smiled.
Forty minutes later, we sat at tables near the pool feasting on the spread Fiona had ordered from Home Team that looked like enough to feed an entire football team. I couldn’t believe how much Palmer and Lukas could eat. The fact that they didn’t have any clothes to wear except their swim trunks was a blessing.
At the sink washing our sticky, saucy hands, Emma approached me and bumped her hip into mine with a grin. “Swimming with dolphins with a hunky merman? Somebody’s adjusting quickly to life as a Belle. I wonder what a mer wedding is like…”
“Stop it,” I said, punching my twin playfully on the arm. “It’s not like that at all. We were just having fun.”
“It’s cool,” she assured me. “But evidently there are all sorts of rules regarding them socializing with, you know, people people. Be prepared to have to keep it on the way, way down low if you and Lukas become a thing.”
“I think a thing is a ways off, Em,” I countered. “But a kiss might not be. Is that weird? Would it be like kissing a fish?”
“Josephine doesn’t seem to think so,” Emma said. “She and Palmer barely come up for air once they get going. I think you’ll be fine.”
Fiona snuck up on us. “If you two want to spend the night here, you can. I’m going back to the house with Calista, and Aleta is leaving soon. I’m not sure what Jo’s plans are.”
“Josephine’s plans involve ice cream!” Josephine announced as she reached the top of the stairs and overheard Fiona. I was starting to think that one of the innate Belle superpowers must be the ability to burn tremendous amounts of calories just by being beautiful. In the few days I’d spent with my new sisterhood, the rich, heavy food seemed endless, but nobody seemed the fatter for it.
I knew I didn’t possess that particular talent; for one thing, my looks were nowhere near the class of Calista and Aleta, and waitressing, walking, and Crossfit were the only things that kept my typical cheeseburger and fried diet from going right to my thighs.
If Calista could teach me the “effortless supermodel body” trick, I’d never say another mean word about or to her.
Palmer and Lukas joined us in the kitchen.
“Ladies, thanks so much for lunch and a wonderful afternoon,” Palmer said. “My Dad has a case coming up and I’m supposed to be helping him prepare, so we’re going to head back.”
The kitchen suddenly filled with people, as Aleta appeared. “Do you two want a ride? I’m going back to Frogmore, it wouldn’t be far out of my way.”
“Thanks,” Lukas offered. “But no thanks. We’re going to race back. Well, I’m going to swim back and Palmer’s going to follow me, I should say.”
Lukas’s energy and confidence were infectious.
“In your dreams,” Josephine countered, moving behind Palmer and wrapping h
er arms around his waist and playing his abs like she was strumming a harp. Palmer giggled and squirmed at the tickling.
“It’s okay,” Palmer faux-whispered. “I let him win. His ego bruises easily.”
“My money is on you,” I said to Lukas, leaning into him.
“Smart girl,” he replied with a smile. He locked eyes with me and held it for a heartbeat before hugging me to his bare chest.
Oh my.
“We’ll have to do this again, yeah?” he asked. “But next time we’ll make sure to bring enough guys to go around.”
Aleta and Emma rolled their eyes in unison.
We proceeded to the back, upstairs porch to watch Palmer and Lukas sprint down the beach together and hit the water simultaneously. Within moments, they were gone.
I never got my kiss, but Lukas and I exchanged numbers, and Josephine seemed very excited by the prospect of double dating.
We decided we’d all go back to Virginia’s for the evening, so after Fiona straightened up and we gathered our things, we piled into the Land Rover and bid Isle of Palms adieu. I couldn’t wait to return.
7 Emma
The sun, surf, and barbecue took their toll; by the time we arrived back at the house, exhaustion had set in.
Virginia wasn’t in, having gone to dinner with a friend, and Fiona went home.
Josephine, Briar, and I wound up on my bed, lounging among piles of pillows, rehydrating with Evian.
Briar and Jo compared notes regarding mermen, and I fell into a light sleep. Having a happy Josephine nearby had a tranquilizing effect.
I caught snippets of their conversation, as it pertained to Palmer and Lukas, but when Briar started to press Josephine for details as to how all of this was possible, the supernatural stuff, I sat propped myself up on my elbows in an effort to focus. I still had many questions, not the least of which was how in the world I had my powers.
“It’s all difficult to explain,” Josephine offered. “And there are so many different answers. Lizard people, for example, while both technically shifters, are completely different. They developed independently; their abilities come from totally different places. And then you have the ghost you met today.
“I wish there was a simple explanation that covered all of it, but then you have to also realize I was raised in this world. This life. So what you two might find odd or inexplicable is just regular, everyday life to me.”
Briar cut in. “Okay, then what about me? And Emma. Forget ghosts and witches and werewolves and whatever else. Just explain us. Please?”
Josephine scrunched up her nose. “Maybe we should get Virginia for this…”
“I had a talk with Aleta when I was convalescing on Frogmore Island,” I said. “She mentioned that the trees there held the key to my powers. The huge trees. The live oaks.”
Briar searched my face and Josephine’s for answers. “You mean like Angel Oak?”
“Exactly,” I replied. “Yes. That’s what Aleta said. I never got more of an answer out of her than that.
Josephine furrowed her brow in concentration. “I was hoping Aleta was out there. Sometimes if I think hard enough about her, I can establish a link. But it’s like a phone; the person you’re calling doesn’t always answer.”
“The difference seems to be,” I countered, “that whenever she calls, you’re kinda forced to answer. Or at least to listen.”
“Totally,” Briar agreed. “Thank God she’s on our side.”
Jo nodded but couldn’t mask her concern. “She’s on our side, but Ezekiel isn’t. And he’s every bit as powerful as she is. Along with being grateful for Aleta, thank Virginia and Dr. Ibis for helping to keep us safe from him.
“But since I can’t find Aleta, there’s somebody else who can explain everything better than I can.”
Briar and I looked at each other and we knew, although neither of us wanted to subject ourselves to her, that if anybody could explain us to… us, it would be Calista.
Josephine went off in search of the eldest Belle while I straightened up my room a bit. I didn’t expect that a haphazard pile of pillows and beach clothes strewn across my floor would put her in the right frame of mind to want to talk to us. She’d probably give the room a disgusted once-over, grunt her displeasure, and leave.
Fifteen minutes later, Calista appeared.
She sat down on the divan by my open window. Diva on a divan, I thought, and snickered. Calista looked typically perturbed.
She’d changed into silky purple pajama bottoms, and simple white tank top that looked like it came out of a “3 for $10” package at Walmart, but probably had some designer label on it that made it cost $120, and her hair was put up in a messy bun.
I tried to do the math in my head as to how long it would take and how much money and makeup, to put me in the same category of attractiveness as Calista did at her most dressed-down. I quickly surmised that I didn’t know nearly enough about contouring, layering, and shading to pull it off.
I may be a Belle, but I’m no Hadid or Kardashian.
“Jo tells me you two have questions about… trees?” Calista managed before stifling a yawn. “Do I look like an arborist to the two of you?”
“Cut the crap, Calista,” Briar snarled.
World War Three seemed set to erupt, but Josephine returned with a tray containing the biggest bowl of popcorn I’d ever seen, and an assortment of drinks. Her soothing presence defused everyone.
Briar and I grabbed sodas and filled bowls with popcorn that tasted like it came from a movie theater.
Calista picked up a package of organic blackberries and a mineral water from the tray. Shocking that Briar and I didn’t share Calista’s size zero bod.
“Aleta told me a story about the trees on Frogmore,” I explained. “How they were the source of the Belles’ power. Can you tell us anything else about that? Help us to understand?”
I could feel Josephine’s calming, positive energy flow through the room, touching us, linking us, supporting us emotionally and spiritually. I could only hope Calista wasn’t immune.
Calista chewed her blackberries one at a time. Slowly, purposefully, as if savoring every drop of their flavor. Meanwhile, Briar, Josephine, and I gobbled fistfuls of popcorn and handfuls of M&Ms. The perfect combination of sweet and salty.
I kept waiting for Calista to tell us how disgusting we were, but instead she weaved a tale that not only made some impossible sense of the situation in which my twin and I found ourselves, it also rocked the foundation of everything I thought I knew about history.
“Knowing what you know about me,” Calista began, “where do you think I’m from? Jo, don’t answer. Just the twins.”
“Europe, somewhere, I guess you’d have to be, since you claim to be older than the United States,” I posited. Or, even the discovery of the New World, right?”
Calista nodded and studied the blackberry she held between her flawlessly manicured thumb and forefinger.
“And judging solely by your appearance, you aren’t Asian or African, so based on my amazing powers of deductive reasoning, you’re from somewhere in Europe. Not too far north, you aren’t Nordic. I don’t know, Russia? Eastern Europe somewhere, maybe?”
“That’s where all the models come from, anyway,” Briar added.
“Nothing you’ve said is wrong,” Calista replied, “but your understanding of history and geography is… incomplete.”
I sat up on my bed, shaking off the pillows and comforter. I wanted to be fully awake and alert.
“Just tell them already!” Josephine urged.
Calista gave Josephine the “you’re such a bloody idiot” look we’d all come to recognize as Calista’s calling card. Her default mode was annoyed.
“I was born,” Calista’s pause was so pregnant I thought it might give birth right there on the floor of my room. “In Atlantis.”
8 3000 Years Ago
All dialogue in the following chapter is translated from the original Atlantean diale
ct, which has few modern speakers, and is nearly impossible for 21st century tongues to pronounce properly anyway
“I’m not receiving a response. Or even a signal. On any frequency,” Malek said to his wife, Jacyntha.
“The stones must have become damaged somehow,” she replied.
“I… don’t believe that’s accurate, my love. They seem to be working properly. But I’m not receiving anything at all. See if you can contact any other travelers.”
“At this distance? We may be the only ones presently on this entire landmass. But I’ll try. Here, hold her. She’s just fallen asleep.”
Jacyntha handed the sleeping baby over to Malek before sitting down on the ground and steepling her fingers in front of her chest. She closed her eyes and entered a trance-like state.
Malek rocked the small child in his arms and watched as his wife’s face twisted in concentration and a trickle of blood ran from her right nostril to her top lip.
After three minutes of the exercise, she “awoke” with a start and looked plaintively at her husband.
“There’s nothing,” she reported. “Complete silence.”
“This is troubling,” Malek agreed. “But all we can do is try again later. And tomorrow. Eventually, we’ll reach the Advisory. Or they’ll send someone for us.” “I knew she was too young to bring along,” Jacyntha reminded her husband. “We should have stayed behind.”
“Nonsense,” Malek argued. “I go nowhere without my wife and daughter. Someone was going on this assignment, and if I’d refused, where would they send me next? Back to the ice and snow? No. Absolutely not. My name, my hard work is what allowed me the leeway to bring my family with me. It’s too painful to be away from your beautiful face and this angel in my arms for more than a few moments, much less several months.
“Haven’t you enjoyed the trip, my love?”
“Malek, it isn’t about that. Not at all. And I love you. I couldn’t bear the thought of you being away, either. And getting to travel with you, to assist you in your research, has been more rewarding than I could have ever hoped for. I just worry for her.” Jacyntha reached for the little girl, snoring sweetly in Malek’s arms.
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