The Destiny: A YA Paranormal Academy Romance (Deep Cove Academy Book 1)

by Madison Becker

  Across the room, Kendra shoots me a death glare. I spot an empty seat next to her, which Rayne now happily takes.

  It hits me. I’m stuck at the back of the classroom with Reef for the entire semester.

  He’s silent and still while everyone chats with their buddy. I can’t bring myself to look at him, to meet the eyes that send a fiery spectrum of emotions raging through me. But I don’t need to look at him to know he’s just as thrilled with this arrangement as I am.

  “Alright, where were we?” Professor Halloran claps his hands and I face the front of the room.

  If you can call it that. My eyes are wide as I register that we’re in a cave carved into the cliffside. There’s a huge, glassless window in one section of the rock wall. Halfway across the room, the rock floor gives way and turns into ocean.

  Reef stands and strips off his uniform and I steadfastly avoid looking at his abs. He drapes his wet clothes near the fireplace and then sits, wrapping the towel around himself.

  He catches my eye and smirks. “You’ll warm up quicker if you take off the wet uniform.”

  Only then do I realize that I’m shivering. My teeth clatter together loudly.

  Avoiding his gaze, I take off my uniform and drape it next to his. I feel even colder and more vulnerable in my bikini. I immediately wrap the massive towel around my body and sit at my desk.

  The heat of the fireplace warms my skin. Reef was right. I don’t trust myself to say thank you without blushing furiously, so I keep my focus on Halloran.

  Thankfully, I’m soon lost in the lecture. Turns out, on the first day of Transformation class, we’re not meant to go in the water. The class is about the theory behind the stages of transformation — learned at our desks, instead of below the seas.

  I glance apprehensively at the small waves lapping at the floor. I could stay out of the water for a while.

  “The five stages of basic transformation,” Halloran continues, “are gill formation, feet elongation, leg fusion and tail emergence, heightened senses, and underwater speech. In Transformation 1, you’ll learn to master each of these basic skills. You’ll also learn to deal with the ‘first transformation hangover,’ as I call it. The first one can be exhausting...”

  My jaw drops as Halloran continues with the lecture. Over the course of the semester — just four short months — he wants us to complete a transformation? I’ve barely wrapped my head around the existence of sirens. But now, I’m expected to grow a freaking tail?

  I cast a glance towards Reef, but he looks easygoing as ever, his perfect jaw relaxed.

  Halloran then introduces the first step of transformation — gill formation. “In our human form, the only visible aspects of our sirenity are the gashes behind our ears. When fully formed, the gashes are about an inch long. They stretch and flare into gills during transformation in the water.”

  My hand flies to my ear and I try to imagine the gashes turning into gills. Like a fish. I only have one full gash on my right side. Behind my left ear, the tiny nick barely cuts the skin. A knot forms in my stomach as I notice that everyone else in class has two full gashes.

  Reef chuckles beside me and I shift further away from him, annoyed. I do my best to ignore him and the damp heat rising off his body. I’m still horribly embarrassed that he rescued me. I could’ve saved myself. Probably.

  “Now, for your first transformation exercise,” Halloran says grandly and my stomach twists further. “You’ll learn to channel your breath. Practice a deep inhale and exhale through your mouth, followed by an inhale and exhale through your nose. On your third inhale, imagine your exhale being forced through your gills.”

  I freeze with my hands next to the cuts behind my ears. It’s weird enough to think of them as gills, but this task seems near impossible. Panicked, I look around the class. The siren-born kids look cool and calm and the human-borns seem as skeptical as I feel.

  “Put your fingers over your gills to see if you can feel it.” Halloran strides around the classroom. “Will the air to exit through your gills, push it there! Don’t give it the chance to stay in your lungs. Excellent work, Miss Walton.”

  I feel ridiculous. After ten minutes of huffing and puffing, nothing is happening for me. Everyone is getting it at varying intervals. I’m annoyed when Reef gets his almost right away.

  “Do you want some help?” Reef asks, shooting me an unreadable look.

  Not from you. Instead, I mutter, “No thanks. You’ve helped enough.”

  He doesn’t bother responding.

  The human-born students find this task more exciting than the siren-born kids. Dennis cups his hands under his ears in disbelief, his eyes widening with every breath. James, in his element, has mastered exhaling through his gills and is now trying to inhale. Flo’s face is creased in concentration, but a look of relief crosses her face when she feels her breath.

  “Ooh, I did it!” Casey squeals. “So weird, it was all warm.”

  “Well done, Miss Rodriguez.” Halloran beams.

  I poke the skin next to the gash and try to exhale through it. I channel all of my energy into forcing my breath out of my body. But it’s not working, the gash just pulses as usual.

  “If you can’t feel it, bring yourself back to your trial.” Halloran says and I meet his eyes. He seems to be speaking directly to me. “Remember the water and channel how you felt that night—push your breath like you pushed towards your Destiny.”

  I slump in my seat, more discouraged than ever. I guess I’m failing this trial too.

  Class wraps up and everybody has felt something—some amount of breath enters their body into their lungs and leaves through their gills. Everybody except me.

  “Not to worry, Miss Murphy,” Halloran booms, like he wants everyone to hear. “It’ll come.”

  I squirm at the idea that I’m doing the worst out of everyone in the class. This is not my usual look. I always studied hard back home to get good grades, but at Deep Cove, studying, alone, is not enough to help me transform. I can’t seem to get anything right here.

  I need to see Professor Nerida as soon as possible. I need to know what I’m doing here, and what my failed trial means.

  21

  I hover outside of Professor Nerida’s classroom, bouncing from foot to foot. She’s engaged in a lecture with an upper semester class, but I’ll wait all day to see her if I have to. I need help, and she’s the only person who might have the answers I’m looking for.

  The door to the classroom opens and students file out silently. I wait, holding my breath, while the upper semester kids disappear down the hallway. Soon after, Professor Nerida exits the room.

  “Miss Murphy.” She towers in front of me. “I was wondering when you would come to see me.”

  I nod and clear my throat. It’s Friday already. “Sorry, Professor. It’s been so busy, I couldn’t come sooner.”

  “No problem. Deep Cove can be a big adjustment, especially for our human-born sirens.” She glides softly, but purposefully, down the hallway. “How are you enjoying school so far?”

  I give her a vague answer but anxiety gnaws at me. In truth, my experience at Deep Cove is confusing and unsettled.

  We walk to the other end of the castle and arrive at a large wooden door in the middle of a grand hallway. Nerida takes a long, black key from her pocket and opens the door. We enter a small, fluorescent-lit room and I take in my surroundings. Nerida’s office is impeccably clean, yet sparse.

  She sits at her desk and motions for me to sit across from her. I pull up the lone chair next to the door and arrange myself on the hard-backed metal seat. I lean back, trying to appear casual.

  Nerida assesses me, her milky eyes boring into mine. It’s like she can see what I’m thinking, like she knows everything about me with just a glance.

  “You know, Maya.” She uses my given name for the first time since the morning on the boat. “You remind me a lot of your father.”

  My heart stops in my chest and my blood ru
ns cold. What did she just say?

  I try to keep my voice calm. “You know my father?”

  “I knew him.” Nerida corrects me with a smile, mistaking my shock for enthusiasm. “Many years ago, we were both students at Deep Cove. He was always getting in trouble, sneaking off to the lighthouse at all hours of the night. We were friends, but lost touch after school. From what I know, he turned out to be a very good man.”

  I stare at her blankly. It’s hard to breathe, the weight of her words presses down on me. This is the first concrete information I’ve heard about my dad. Even my mom doesn’t talk about him this candidly.

  Nerida straightens a pencil lying on the surface of her desk. “You have his drive, his determination.”

  “I wouldn’t know. I never met him,” I manage, my voice breathless.

  Nerida’s expression is horrified. “I’m so sorry.”

  I instantly feel bad — she was just trying to be nice. She doesn’t know my deadbeat dad the way that I know him.

  “You couldn’t have known.” I force a smile, and then change the subject. “Professor, can you tell me what happened during my trial?”

  She clasps her hands. “In truth, I’ve never heard of such a thing, but there must be a reason why you failed your trial. The main thing is that we need to keep you safe and work out exactly what happened. Destinies are a strange and mysterious part of our world, but they’re central to it.”

  I nod, trying to understand. My mind is spinning. “What do you mean? Keep me safe from what?”

  Nerida meets my eyes and her face suddenly turns serious. “Can you keep a secret, Maya?”

  A lump forms in my throat. “Yes?”

  “There are forces at work here, dark forces.” Her voice is low and her eyes glance towards the closed door. “The fact that you experienced drowning during your trial makes me think that you might be in danger. I believe that there is something more at play, and the only way to keep you safe is to understand what it all means.”

  Chills run up my spine and I feel nauseous. What Nerida doesn’t know is that, during my trial, I saw an extension of the nightmare I’ve been having for months. She’s already going out of her way to help me, I don’t want to give her another thing to worry about.

  “How do you propose we do that?” My voice is faint and distant.

  Nerida furrows her brow. “During your trial, you said that you saw a necklace you couldn’t reach. Can you draw what you saw?”

  She slides a piece of paper across the desk, and sets the pencil on it. I shift in the uncomfortable chair and press the pencil to the paper. After nights of seeing it in my dreams, the necklace’s unique design is perfectly inscripted to my memory.

  Nerida holds up my finished drawing and her eyes gleam for a moment. But she meets my stare calmly. “Thank you. This is very interesting. Unfortunately, I’m not sure why you saw this necklace at your trial, and not one belonging to a siren Destiny.”

  So much for finding answers.

  “I’ve had quite a challenging week, as you can imagine,” Nerida sighs, tracing the drawing of the necklace. “I’m unsure how to proceed from here. I’ve even debated telling Headmaster Muir about your failed trial.”

  My heart stops. Nerida knew my dad, she grew up with him. There’s clearly a lot I don’t know or understand about him and this world of sirens. I’m not ready to be sent home yet. Besides, what happens to sirens who are rejected back into the human world? I can’t imagine anything good comes of it.

  “However,” she continues, “I want to help you. I believe that there’s a reason you failed the trial. I’ll keep your secret and you must promise never to speak of this to anyone, or we could both be in trouble. Am I making myself clear?”

  Her eyes pierce through me and I nod. Despite the threat of danger, I’m relieved to know that I have Professor Nerida on my side.

  “Good.” She places her hands on her desk, one over the other. “As you know, the siren Destiny lies within so I can’t help you with your search, but I suspect that your Destiny is strongly tied to this necklace. You need to find it.”

  22

  I wake up sobbing and racked with guilt early the next morning. Sunshine pours through the dorm windows and the light pulls me from the darkness of the nightmares. They’re steadily getting worse, evolving each night.

  I blink my eyes against the bright light, remembering the heart-breaking choice I had to make in the dream — save Reef Fenner or grab the necklace. The vision of Reef’s desperate eyes pleading with me is burned into my mind. The necklace pulses nearby, our only escape. And then, the crunch of the mast as it falls towards us.

  The worst part is that I’m frozen and unable to choose. Why?

  “Maya, let’s go,” says a whisper from the direction of the bathroom.

  I uncurl myself from a fetal position and wipe my face. I pop my head above the blankets. “Where?”

  “The beach, it’s Saturday.” Casey stares at me with a funny look on her face. “Remember?”

  Clearly, Casey isn’t experiencing the same nightly horrors.

  “Get out of bed, slowpoke. Didn’t you set an alarm?” Casey throws a swimsuit at me.

  I venture a smile. The beach will be a nice distraction. It’s a novelty after sixteen years in landlocked Ohio.

  Casey and I walk to the Dining Hall for breakfast. We load up on pancakes, bacon and coffee before sitting at our usual table by the window. I need the energy after another restless night. Not to mention that the talk with Professor Nerida weighs heavily on my mind. How can I find a necklace that I’m not sure even exists? It could easily just be a figment of my crazy nightmares.

  “Landwalkers!” TJ whoops. He steps over the bench seat and sits next to Casey, his tray hitting our table with a thud. I almost choke on my yogurt.

  “What’s up, fish boy?” Casey smirks.

  “Can’t a guy say hey to his biggest fans?” TJ jokes and Casey punches him.

  Marlowe, Dean and Beau appear and sit at the table. Reef isn’t with them and, to my annoyance, my heart drops. I can’t waste time thinking about Reef.

  “What are you guys up to today?” Marlowe bites into his breakfast sandwich.

  He really is handsome. And nice. Why can’t I be drawn to him instead? From the moment I laid eyes on Reef a week ago, I haven’t given a single thought to another boy — despite the fact that we’re surrounded by the best-looking group of guys imaginable.

  Casey grins. “Tanning on the beach and taking it easy.”

  “What do you ladies say to a surf lesson?” TJ raises his eyebrows up and down comically.

  I gulp audibly and the group looks at me.

  Beau smiles. “First time?”

  “Yeah.” I shrug. “I’m not super coordinated, especially not in the water.”

  “You’re a siren, watersports are in your blood,” Dean says.

  “Plus, you jumped into the worst current ever earlier this week.” TJ sounds impressed. “That was gnarly.”

  “Reef pulled me out,” I remind him.

  “But you had no fear.” TJ whistles. “First ingredient for a good surfer.”

  “Where is Reef, anyway?” I ask lightly.

  It’s strange to see his friends without him. The five of them are always together and spend their time surfing and hogging the video games console in the common room.

  “Why?” A voice sneers behind me. “You think he’s interested or something, Landwalker?”

  My face turns fifteen shades of red. I whip around to see Kendra flanked by Rayne and Brooke.

  “More interested than he’d ever be in you, trout-face.” Casey retorts.

  Kendra’s mouth drops open and, for a moment, she does look like a trout. She hastily rearranges her expression and shoots me a death glare. She flips her hair over her shoulder and stomps off with her minions in tow. If she didn’t hate me before, she definitely does now.

  Meanwhile, the boys lose it, almost falling off their chairs.

/>   TJ gasps for air. “Brilliant, Rodriguez, wait until I tell Fenner that one.”

  “Tell Fenner what?” A familiar, silky voice makes my skin tingle. Reef drops into the seat next to me. His hair is damp and he smells like soap and clean laundry.

  Marlowe laughs. “Casey is coming up with excellent nicknames for your charming ex-girlfriend.”

  Oh. Kendra is Reef’s ex-girlfriend. She must still be into him, given the murderous looks she sends my way. Not that I could ever compete with a girl like that. Especially seeing as Reef seems to dislike me as much as she does.

  I smile bitterly at my empty yogurt cup. I’ve been here a week and I’ve apparently made two enemies without trying.

  I shake my head and force the thought from my mind. I don’t want to think about Kendra, or Reef, or the fact that my body is hyper aware of his presence next to me. On top of the stress of the nightmares and the talk with Professor Nerida, my mind is spinning. There’s only one thing that can keep me distracted.

  “TJ,” I sigh. “Let’s do it. Teach us how to surf.”

  He pumps his arm. “Ladies, get ready for the ride of your life!”

  The distraction proves to be effective. Casey, TJ, Marlowe and I walk to the beach together, and I laugh the entire way as they tell us ridiculous stories of their surfing antics. Beau, Dean and Reef have gone ahead to grab the gear.

  My sides hurt from laughing and my smile hurts my cheeks. I’ve only hung out with these guys for a week, but it’s as if I’ve known them my entire life. They’re like family.

  We approach the beach and I thank my lucky stars that the waves are small and gentle. I dip a toe into the water and it’s not as cold as I feared.

  Reef paddles out to darker waters, apparently not interested in our lesson. There are bigger waves off the shore and I watch him as he effortlessly slices through the water. It’s like an art, a dance, to watch him surf. I can barely tear my eyes away.

  “You ready, Maya?” TJ laughs and I return to the moment.