Everyone around him cracks up at his joke. What could this confusing, beautiful, charming and unreadable boy possibly have to ask me? And what does he know that I don’t?
I only know one thing for certain: I have questions for him too.
30
Time ticks by slowly that afternoon. Reef doesn’t turn up for any classes, and my mind constantly wanders to him and his cryptic request. I watch the clock, waiting for the next class, and the next.
Nonetheless, I do my best to focus in Siren Mythology class. Professor Ayers is elaborating on the legends about the origins of sirenity.
“Modern siren mythology teaches that we are descended from the Greek goddess Eurybia, the goddess of mastery of the seas.” Professor Ayers points at an old piece of art depicting the goddess. “Eurybia had power over both the seas themselves, and factors external to them — including the winds and rising of the constellations. Eurybia and her followers formed the basis of what we know today to be our siren Destinies.”
Her voice holds a confidential note of mystique, a tone that normally captivates my attention. But I tune in and out of the lecture, unable to keep my mind from Reef.
Finally, the clock strikes and class is over. I wave at Casey and Flo before bolting to the dorm.
My heart races. I was never one for breaking rules, but a few weeks into my new life at Deep Cove, and any semblance of following rules has gone out the window. I yank off my uniform and pull on cutoff jean shorts and a white tank top. It’s unseasonably warm out, and I’m not going to lie, I want to look good.
I'm brushing my teeth and hair at the same time when Kendra swans into the bathroom, wrapped in a towel.
She raises one eyebrow ironically. “Hot date?”
I have no time for Kendra right now. “I’m meeting Reef — thanks to you, actually.”
Her mouth drops and I smirk before darting out of the bathroom. I grab my bag and a sweater in case it’s cold later, and then run out the door. I jog to the beach, trying to beat the afternoon exodus. Students will be flooding the shore at any moment to take advantage of the beautiful weather.
As Reef instructed, I run the length of the beach and slow to a walk by the sand dunes. I spot the path that winds along the top of the dunes and I stumble in my hurry. I glance backwards, making sure that nobody can see me.
The path travels down the far side of the dunes and into the woods. My nerves escalate with every forbidden step into the forest. Where is he? Is this a trick or something?
Finally, the path opens into a clearing and my heart lurches in my chest. Reef leans casually against a battered black jeep with surfboards stacked on top. He’s wearing a black t-shirt, Hawaiian print shorts, flip flops and a backwards baseball cap — again looking like he’s walked out of a surf magazine. Except that he’s even better looking than any model. He’s wearing his black sunglasses so I can’t see if his eyes are stormy or shining.
As usual, when it comes to Reef, I have no idea what to say or think. My face flushes and I can’t decide what to do with my hands or face or… Shut up, brain!
Reef gives me his half-smile and opens the passenger door. “Hop in.”
“How do you have a Jeep here?” I smile tentatively. “And do you just never go to class now?”
He chuckles and gestures to the passenger seat. “Get in and I’ll tell you.”
I exhale and walk towards him. “We’re going to be in so much trouble if we get caught.”
“What else is new?” He quirks a grin.
I roll my eyes and get into the Jeep while Reef jumps into the driver’s seat. He puts the car into gear and we set off down the road. The windows are down and the wind whips my hair back. I laugh — it feels good to be so free.
“It was Beau and TJ’s idea.” Reef answers my earlier question with a smile. “The Jeep is Beau’s and we use it to get to the best surf spots on the island. Deep Cove has its limitations. When the surf’s good at school, it’s great, but when it’s bad, there’s nothing to be done. The open ocean on the north west coast is where the good surf’s really at.”
He taps his fingers on the steering wheel, a half-smile on his face. He doesn’t look nearly as tense and stressed as he did in the Dining Hall earlier. I can’t look away.
Reef continues with a shrug. “We realized that Deep Cove doesn’t let Intake students have cars on campus, or leave campus without permission. So we had to hide the Jeep.”
“You hid it?”
“The week before the semester started.” He nods with a wicked smile. “We found a good spot by campus, and now, we park the Jeep down the logging road. That way, it's always there for any of us to use when the surf sucks at school, or when we need to get away. It’s surprisingly easy to disappear for an early morning or late evening surf.”
I shake my head and chuckle. “Why am I not surprised? Of course you guys have a secret surf Jeep.”
“It comes in handy other times, too.” He looks at me and I wish I could see his eyes.
“Like now?”
“Yes, like now.” Reef laughs and gazes back towards the road with an adorable smile on his face.
“This is where you went last night,” I mutter, puzzling it together. “You didn’t go back to the dorms after you ran off.”
“I went to visit my grandma in Heron Bay,” he says matter-of-factly.
“Oh.” I’m surprised at how normal an explanation he has for his disappearance.
“She talked some sense into me,” he continues. “I came back to talk to you at lunch today on her suggestion.”
He doesn’t elaborate further. His knuckles are white where they clutch the steering wheel.
I don’t want to push him, so I change the subject. “Where are you taking me?”
The tension is broken and a small grin returns to his face. “I want to show you something.”
We fall into companionable silence as we drive through the dense, beautiful forest. From time to time, his glance slides away from the road and onto me. Butterflies flutter in my stomach as my willpower fails me and I sneak looks back at him.
My heart thumps. I would follow this boy anywhere.
31
Twenty minutes later, the Jeep comes to a halt in front of the most beautiful view. A sparkling, cobalt blue lagoon lies like a sapphire in the midst of a rocky coral reef. On the horizon, the navy ocean glints in the late afternoon sunlight.
I jump out of the car and run to the edge of the lagoon.
“Oh!” I suck in a breath. “It’s stunning.”
Reef stands by my side, looking pleased with my reaction. “It’s one of my favorite spots. Luckily, it happens to be pretty close to school.”
I glance at him and he’s smiling towards the horizon, his tanned face serene and relaxed. I’m blown away. What I feel for him is far past attraction — it’s deeper. I feel connected to him. I’ve never felt this way before. It’s amazing and terrifying and exhilarating all at once.
Like being in freefall.
“I bet you take all the girls here.” I force a joke, trying to keep my tone casual.
He takes off his sunglasses and gives me a funny stare. “Is that what you think? That I’ve taken you to my secret hookup spot?”
I can’t tell if he’s kidding. My heart thumps loudly in my chest.
“How should I know?” I say quietly.
His emerald eyes sparkle as they meet mine. “It’s my first time taking anyone here.”
My whole body warms under his gaze, as though he’s the sun. I look towards the horizon, suddenly breathless.
He sits on a grassy verge and I sit next to him, just out of reach. I hug my legs to my chest and rest my chin on my knees.
“About what happened last night,” Reef leans back on his hands. “There’s one thing you need to know about me.”
He takes a couple of breaths, his brow furrowed. I sit in silence, waiting for him to find the words.
“I never talk about what happened to my mom.
Ever,” he says firmly. “Everyone in Heron Bay knows that she’s gone, but the thing is, nobody knows what happened to her. The official story is that she died in a horrible accident when wreck diving. But I don’t believe that for a second. She was a siren, one of the best swimmers out there.”
He fiddles with a blade of grass and frowns at the turf. I almost wish I could take his hand.
“Last night, I ran off because you scared me.” His beautiful voice drops low. “You freaked me out so badly that I had to get out of there. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. But the symbol on the page, the one from your dreams? Well, it was on a necklace that my mom had. She was wearing it when she went missing.”
I pause, my eyes wide. It can’t be possible. “It had a gold chain, and a pearl in the middle of the symbol?”
He shudders and nods. “That’s the one.”
Shivers run down my spine and my stomach flips. So, the necklace exists. And it belonged to Reef’s mom.
“Did she have a Destiny necklace?” I ask, my voice quiet.
“That’s the weirdest thing about this.” Reef tugs at the blade of grass. “She was a Constellation, like us. Apparently, one night soon after I was born, she took off her Constellation necklace and began wearing that necklace with the symbol instead. She disappeared shortly after and, a week later, the Sirenis Force said she was dead. My dad was a wreck. That’s when I went to live with my grandparents.”
I frown, processing his words. “And you never heard anything more about it?”
He shakes his head. “Nothing. What I don’t understand is how you could be dreaming about her necklace. And I’m in the dream too?”
I nod slowly and an uneasy feeling creeps over my body. This doesn’t make any sense. “Like I said, I saw you in my nightmares way before I met you.”
Reef is completely silent, his face pained.
I venture a small smile, wanting to ease the tension. “For the record, that’s the real reason I looked at you like that during Opening Ceremony. Not because I hated you or thought you were repulsive. But because, when I saw your eyes, I recognized them immediately. They’re straight out of my nightmare.”
Reef shoots me a grin. “I’m not sure ‘nightmare eyes’ is better than ‘repulsive.’”
I chuckle and knock my shoulder against his.
Then, a thought comes to me. “Hang on, you said your mom went missing wreck diving?”
He nods slowly, his eyes cast down. No wonder he looked so pale when I mentioned the shipwreck at lunch earlier.
“Maya, I need to tell you something else,” Reef says quietly, as though to keep the lagoon from hearing. “Last night, when you asked what happened at my trial...”
He trails off into silence and clenches his jaw. Goosebumps rise on my skin. Did something happen at his trial too?
“I lied,” he says.
I raise my eyebrows in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“I saw the smiling, happy people everyone else saw. But I turned away from them.”
I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. “Why did you do that?”
His emerald eyes bore into mine. “Because I saw you.”
32
My mouth drops open and my heart stops. “You saw… me?”
“Yeah, before I knew you existed.” Reef shrugs hopelessly. “In the trial, the smiling people were beckoning me forward, but I felt the strangest, strongest pull. I turned around and you were standing alone. I went after you, even though I had no clue who you were.”
I’m frozen, staring at the horizon. How is it that Reef saw me during his trial too?
“When I saw you at Opening Ceremony, I just about lost my mind.” Reef shakes his head. “After that, I wanted to keep my distance, to try and figure out what was going on. But when you jumped through the hole like a crazy person on the first morning of Transformation, all I could think was that I had to keep you safe and protect you. I was compelled to jump after you, like—”
“A magnetic pull.” I finish for him.
He looks at me sharply. “I must sound crazy.”
“No more insane than me,” I say, hoping to add some humor to the heavy moment.
Luckily it works. Reef smiles his cute half-smile again.
“That’s why Halloran gave me that book.” He picks at the blade of grass again. “He said it might help me figure out why I saw you.”
“Did it?” I ask quietly.
“I couldn’t make sense of it.” Reef says. “That’s why I asked, before, if you knew about a time before siren Destinies. Everyone said they walked towards the happy, smiling people during their trials. But I walked away from them, towards you. It was like I failed it.”
My ears ring and I’m lightheaded. It happened to Reef too? Nerida’s warning flashes through my mind. I know I shouldn't tell anyone about my trial, but Reef could also be an “anomaly.”
I glance at Reef and he’s glaring towards the horizon. He looks deeply troubled, like he’s trying to solve a puzzle. His green eyes meet mine and there’s an understanding, a bond I can’t fight. Somehow, for an inexplicable reason, I trust him.
“You’re not the only one who failed,” I mutter.
His eyebrows shoot up. “What?”
“I didn’t even get my necklace at my trial.” It’s my turn to fiddle with a blade of grass. “I was an anomaly. Professor Nerida gave me my Constellation necklace afterwards.”
I explain to him what happened during my trial on the boat ride to Deep Cove. I tell him about the nightmare, the feeling of drowning, seeing his eyes and the necklace, and then waking up to voices deciding my fate. Destiny did not intervene for me like it did all the other human-born Intakes.
“Something weird is going on.” Reef shakes his head. “We need to talk to Professor Halloran.”
“No!” I look at him in panic. “I promised Professor Nerida I wouldn’t tell anyone.”
Reef looks more confused than ever. “Halloran said the same thing — that I should keep it between us until we figure out why I saw you.”
My blood turns cold. “I don’t think we can trust him, Reef.”
“I don’t know who to trust right now.” He shrugs helplessly.
We fall into a heavy silence and my head spins. Reef and I both failed our trials. Reef didn’t walk towards his Destiny and my Destiny didn’t even find me. Instead, I saw a necklace that belonged to Reef’s mom, potentially at the location she died.
What does it all mean?
“Reef,” I take a deep breath. The question has been nagging at me since we spoke in the cafeteria. “Did Professor Halloran say anything to you about being in danger?”
“Not really.” His face darkens. “But when I woke up after my trial with the necklace in my hand, Halloran’s face turned white. It was like he saw a ghost. I guess most people wake up with the necklaces already around their necks. I told him about seeing a girl — you — and he looked really concerned. Then, he pulled me aside on the first day of Transformation and told me to keep an eye out, but didn’t say for what.”
I nod slowly. “Professor Nerida seems to think I’m in danger. But I haven’t felt unsafe or anything since I got here.”
Reef doesn’t respond and I dare not look at him.
“I think there’s something deeper going on,” Reef says quietly. “What if we keep this trial thing to ourselves until we know who to trust? I mean, you saw me in your dreams before you met me, and I saw you. We were brought together before we knew each other. There’s gotta be a reason. We just have to find out what.”
I know he’s right, but I have a bad feeling that the key to our failed trials lies in my nightmares. I can’t bring myself to think about them right now — they’re too much of an ugly contrast to this perfect place we’re in.
I lift my eyes to look at Reef, fear etched over my face. He reaches out and puts a strong arm around me, pulling me into his chest.
“It’ll be okay, Maya,” he says into my hair a
nd my heart leaps. I find a small amount of comfort in the fact that I’m no longer alone with the weight of my fears. We’re in this together.
His arm wraps around tight me and a warm buzz floods my body. I take a deep breath and try to calm down, convince myself that he’s just being nice. After all, he was the one to say “friends” last night in the lighthouse.
Everything in me wishes he meant otherwise.
33
The next two weeks are a blur of books and documents in the library. Every spare moment I have, I return to the bookshelves, looking for anything that might point me in the right direction. I’ve read every case study, magazine article and textbook I can find on the subject of failed siren trials. I even studied a jewel glossary to see if I could identify the necklace from my dream.
But the search has been fruitless for both me and Reef. His grandma either does not know anything more about the necklace, or else refuses to divulge the information. It seems that there is very little to be found on the subjects.
Lately, however, our search has taken a backseat to the hurricane of midterms. Tomorrow afternoon, we have our last one — Siren Anatomy. It’s bound to be a tough one.
I sit on the floor of the common room surrounded by textbooks. Casey sits beside me with her legs splayed, bent over the flashcards I made for her. They’re scattered haphazardly over the floor, but Casey seems to understand the chaos.
The rain beats aggressively against the window-wall — the stormy weather is perfect for studying. I take a bite of my sandwich and a slug of black coffee.
“Do you think Night Sky will be canceled tonight?” I muse through a mouthful of sandwich. “The weather doesn’t look good for stargazing.”
Casey closes her eyes and sighs. “Siren knows I could use the extra sleep.”
“If only,” James mutters under his breath. He’s sitting to our left and taking notes from his textbook. He’s a really good student, it turns out — not at all what you’d expect from the tough-guy facade he had in his human life.
The Destiny: A YA Paranormal Academy Romance (Deep Cove Academy Book 1) Page 11