Elegy (A Watersong Novel) (2 page)

Harper sighed and considered leaving, but she knew she’d have to talk to Liv eventually. She might as well get it out of the way now.

“Actually, um, I have been wanting to talk to you,” Harper said, plunging into the conversation.

Liv narrowed her eyes. “About what?”

“Just life.” Harper shrugged and tried to keep her tone casual. “I haven’t really been able to talk to you much, so I thought we could check in with each other.”

“Why? It’s not like we need to be besties or something.” Liv snickered.

“No, but you said that you wanted to be friends, and I thought we could be.”

Liv tilted her head, as if she had no idea what Harper was talking about. “Did I say that?”

“Yeah.” Harper nodded. “You said it a few times, actually.”

“Oh.” Liv sounded utterly bored with the conversation and picked at a loose thread on her pajama pants. “Was that last week? It seems like a lifetime ago.”

Liv turned back around to go through her dresser again. Harper could only gape at her, astounded by the change.

“Did something happen?” Harper asked, as Liv pulled a jean skirt out of a drawer.

“Why? What do you mean?” Liv kept her back to her as she slipped out of the pajama pants and pulled on the skirt.

“I don’t know. You just seem … different.”

When Liv turned back to her, Harper noticed that same darkness in her eyes, like a shadow had been pulled down to mask a new malevolence, and Liv smirked. “So that’s what this is about?”

“What?”

“I’m going out and having fun, and you’re jealous?” Liv stepped toward her, and instinctively Harper tried to take a step back, but she had nowhere to go. The desk was right behind her, so she just straightened up.

“What? No.” Harper shook her head. “I’m glad you’re having fun with college. But I was wondering if you could keep it down when you come in at night.” There was no point in making small talk anymore. “You’ve been waking me up, and I can’t sleep.”

“You don’t even want to be my friend, do you?” Liv kept walking toward her, and all the silk in her voice had been replaced with an icy edge. “You just wanted to tell me to shut up.”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying,” Harper hurried to correct herself. “I think that you’re a really nice girl—”

Liv cut her off with a laugh that sent an unpleasant chill down Harper’s spine. “Oh, I am not a nice girl.”

She was actually shorter than Harper, but it felt like she towered over her. There was something so imposing about her presence that Harper couldn’t explain, and she swallowed back her fear.

It was at that moment, with Liv staring up at her with her wide, cold eyes, that Harper realized Liv was insane. That was the only way to explain Liv’s dramatic and violent mood changes.

“Whatever. I have no idea what you’re talking about, and I need to get to class,” Harper said. “You went from zero to crazy in like three seconds, and I don’t have time for this.”

“I’m not crazy!” Liv shouted in her face, spittle landing on her cheeks. “And I’m not done with you yet.”

“I’ll talk to you later, okay, Liv?” Harper tried to keep her words soothing and even. “I have to go, and if you were smart, you’d get ready and go to class soon. Or else it’s not going to matter if we get along or not because you won’t be here much longer.”

“Was that a threat? Are you threatening me?” Liv demanded.

“No.” Harper leaned over to get her backpack, taking her eyes off Liv for only a second. “If you don’t go to class, you won’t—”

Liv was a flicker of motion in Harper’s peripheral vision, then Harper felt a hand tighten around her throat. Liv slammed Harper back against the wall hard enough to make a mirror fall off and shatter on the floor.

With Liv’s hand clamped around her neck, Harper was pinned to the wall. Liv’s fingers were surprisingly long, and her grip was inescapable. Harper could barely breathe and clawed vainly at Liv’s arm.

“Liv,” Harper croaked out as she continued to struggle.

“Don’t ever mess with me, Harper,” Liv commanded in a low growl. “If you ever threaten or talk down to me again, I will totes destroy you, you dumb bitch.”

She let go of Harper then and stepped back. Harper gasped for breath and rubbed her neck. Her throat burned, and she bent over coughing.

“What the hell, Liv?” Harper asked between coughs. She was still hunched over and looked up at Liv. “I wasn’t threatening you! I was saying that if you want to stay in school, you have to go to class.”

A wide smile spread across Liv’s face. “You’re right. If I want to stay, I’d have to go to class. But I don’t want to stay. And I don’t care what anybody says or thinks. I’m not going to live with a shrew like you any longer than I have to. I’m out of here.”

Liv slipped on her shoes, grabbed her purse, and left the room, humming a tune under her breath as she did. Harper couldn’t place the song, but she was certain she’d heard it before.

TWO

Night Call

It was the same dream she’d been having every night since Lexi had been killed. Gemma was out in the ocean. The water was cold, and the waves crashed around her, crushing her.

It was the night Penn had given Gemma the potion to change her into a siren and then tossed her into the ocean wrapped in Persephone’s shawl. Gemma felt like a fish in a net, trying to claw her way out of it before she drowned.

Then she felt the change happening, the siren monster taking hold somewhere deep inside her, filling her with an angry hunger. But her body didn’t shift. Her legs wouldn’t turn into fins, and she couldn’t fight her way to the surface.

Her wings broke painfully through her back and tore through the fabric, freeing Gemma. But they flapped uselessly underwater, and just when Gemma was certain she would drown, she surfaced. The relief at being able to breathe again was short-lived, though.

The dream then shifted, and instead of the night she’d become a siren, she was now in the rainstorm from last week, treading water in the crashing waves below the cliff outside the sirens’ house.

Lexi’s decapitated head was flying at her, the strings of blond hair flowing out behind it. But Lexi was still alive, her eyes wide and aware of everything, and she screamed at Gemma through the razor-sharp teeth that filled her mouth.

That’s when Gemma would wake up, cold sweat on her brow and gasping for breath. She sat up in her bed, hoping that she’d be able to calm herself down enough to go back to sleep again, but she never did.

It wasn’t that she’d liked Lexi a lot. It was how powerless and trapped Gemma had felt. In that moment, when she had been at the bottom of the cliff while Lexi was fighting with Daniel at the top, she’d never felt so weak or afraid.

Gemma refused to let herself feel that way again. From now on, she had to be in complete control of her siren powers, and not the other way around.

A loud knocking at the front door disrupted her thoughts and made her jump. Gemma grabbed her cell phone from her bedside table, checking to see that it was after midnight, and she didn’t have any missed calls or text messages.

She waited a few seconds to see if the knocking continued, and when it did, she leapt out of bed. Her dad had work in the morning, and she didn’t want to wake him.

“Took you long enough,” Penn said when Gemma opened the door.

“Shh. My dad will hear you.” Gemma glanced back toward the stairs behind her. The lights upstairs were still off, so it was a safe bet that he hadn’t heard anything.

Penn shrugged. “So?”

“So, let’s go outside and talk.” Gemma stepped out into the night, closing the door quietly behind her. It would be easier to just go outside than try to explain common decency and consideration for other people to Penn.

It was a new moon, so aside from the dim stars, the sky was completely black. Gemma hadn’t turned on the outside light, so at first, she could only make out the dark shapes of three girls standing outside her house.

Then she felt a shift in her eyes, and her pupils expanded. The siren senses had kicked in automatically, changing her eyes into ones like an owl’s, so she could see clearly in the darkness.

Penn stood directly in front of her, but Thea and another girl stood a few feet back. The new girl had blond hair and wide eyes, and there was something familiar about her, but Gemma didn’t stare at her long enough to figure out what it was.

The only thing that really mattered was that there was another girl, and what the implications of that were.

“What do you want?” Gemma asked.

“I wanted to introduce you to your new best friend.” Penn stepped to the side, so she could gesture back at the girl behind her.

“Hi.” The girl smiled and waggled her fingers at Gemma, causing Thea to scoff and turn away in disgust.

“Who the hell is that?” Gemma asked Penn.

“Don’t you remember?” The new girl stepped away from Thea and moved closer to Penn, so Gemma would be able to get a better look at her. “I’m Liv. I was your sister’s roommate at college.”

“Until she decided to drop out today and come live with us,” Thea muttered. She stared out into the night, managing to look both bored and irritated in a way that only she could.

That’s why the girl looked familiar. Gemma had only met her briefly last week while helping Harper move into her dorm. Liv had been friendly, but Gemma had had too many other things on her mind to really register her.

Besides that, Liv’s appearance had changed. She hadn’t been unattractive exactly, but she had been rather plain. Now her face was brighter, her hair glossier, and there was a general sultriness to her that hadn’t been there before.

The changes were subtle, but they were unmistakable to Gemma. Liv still maintained some of her doe-eyed naïveté, and Gemma was a little surprised that she hadn’t recognized Liv sooner because of that.

“Why? Why would she drop out?” Gemma asked Penn, without acknowledging Liv yet. “How do you even know each other?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Penn asked, smiling wide. “She’s your new sister.”

Gemma sighed. “Yeah, I figured that.”

“Don’t look so disappointed,” Liv said cheerily. “I’m lots of fun, I promise.”

“She sure is,” Thea said, sarcasm dripping from her husky voice.

Penn cast an annoyed glare at Thea but turned back to Gemma with an overly optimistic smile. “Gemma. Must you always be a Debbie Downer? I mean, come on! This is a good thing. If we hadn’t turned Liv, we’d all be dead in two weeks. Liv just saved your life! You should be thanking her.”

That was true. And while Gemma hated to admit that she felt mildly relieved, she also felt tremendous guilt. Liv was now wrapped up in this horrible mess, too, and if Gemma had broken the damn curse already, nobody else would’ve had to get hurt.

“You never thanked me for saving your life,” Gemma said.

“That’s because you were a total bitch about the whole thing,” Penn reminded her. “Liv
wanted
this.”

“You did?” Gemma asked, speaking to Liv for the first time.

“You didn’t?” Liv sounded flabbergasted. “This is amazing, Gemma! This is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me!”

Gemma held up her hand to silence Liv’s exuberance and glanced back at the house, but no lights had gone on, so they were probably safe.

“Oops, sorry,” Liv said. “I forgot about your dad.”

“See?” Penn pointed to Liv. “That’s the kind of response you should’ve had.”

“Sorry I wasn’t doing jumping jacks like Little Miss Sunshine over there.” Gemma motioned to Liv.

“Apology accepted,” Penn replied.

“So, why are you guys here so late?” Gemma asked.

“We were going to go for a swim, and I thought it would be a great time for you to meet Liv since she’s moving here now,” Penn explained. “Plus, you’re going to have to help show her the ropes.”

“The ropes?” Gemma shook her head. “I barely know them. How am I supposed to show her anything?”

“Penn just means that she wants help babysitting,” Thea said dryly.

“I don’t need a babysitter,” Liv interjected with what Gemma thought was a bitter undercurrent. “You guys already showed me everything this past weekend. I’m good. I’m ready.”

“She might be a
tad
overzealous, and she needs a little reining in sometimes,” Penn said.

“I do not!” Liv shouted indignantly, which Gemma thought to be a completely out-of-place response.

Almost anytime Penn had ever spoken to Gemma, she’d done so either with a condescending sweetness or a bitchy bossiness, but here with Liv, she was speaking reasonably, even kindly. It didn’t seem to warrant Liv’s petulance.

“Well, that all sounds great, but I’m going to pass on the midnight swim,” Gemma said.

“Really?” Penn asked. “Since when have you ever passed that up?”

“Since I’m trying this new honesty thing with my dad,” Gemma said. “I told him I wouldn’t sneak out or run off anymore, so I’m not going to.”

“That sounds lame.” Penn wrinkled her nose in disgust. “You’re lame.”

The outside light flicked on above her, meaning that her dad was awake, and Gemma swore under her breath. A few seconds later, he opened the front door with his new shotgun in hand. He didn’t point it at them, but he wanted to make sure they knew he had it.

No matter how many times Gemma had told him that his gun wouldn’t hurt the sirens, Brian insisted on getting it every chance he got.

He didn’t know how else to protect his daughter from them. He couldn’t have them arrested or tell their parents, he couldn’t fight them because they would tear him apart, he shouldn’t even talk to them because their song would hypnotize him.

So he got a shotgun and glared at them from the doorway.

“All right, well, it was nice chatting with you,” Gemma said as she edged back toward the door. “But that’s my cue to head back in.”

“Lucky,” Thea muttered.

“It was nice to meet you again, Gemma,” Liv said, and leaned forward, like she meant to shake Gemma’s hand.

“Yeah, have fun,” Gemma said, and hastily slid back in the house without touching Liv.