Elegy (A Watersong Novel) (51 page)

The real kicker at the end of all of this is that Demeter’s curse centered around their love of swimming, but Penn had never even cared for it that much. She’d been smitten with Poseidon, that was all. It had been Thea who loved the water, and, somehow, she loved it still today.

She waded out into the water, relishing the way her legs fluttered for the last time as they turned into a tail. The sky was lightening above her, so she swam out on her back, floating out farther into the ocean.

Her thoughts went back to her sisters, and all the fun they’d had when they were young, before all this madness with Demeter. Penn had claimed that everything had been a horrible struggle. Things were hard, but what Thea remembered most was how much she had loved them all.

She missed them terribly, and though she hoped she would see them again, she doubted she would. With everything she’d seen, Thea wasn’t completely sure she believed that there was a heaven, but even if there was, she most certainly wouldn’t be going there.

As she felt the rays of the sun warming her skin through the water, Thea closed her eyes. The tingling started first in her fingers, and she was relieved that it didn’t hurt. It actually felt good, like a whole new transformation, as her body slowly dissolved into ash.

Soon, there was nothing. The dust was lost in the sea. And Thea was gone.

SIXTY-TWO

Severed

The panic was so intense, Harper sat up straight in bed. She was covered in a cold sweat, and she put a hand to her heart. Something inside her had been severed.

“No,” she whispered.

Daniel, still groggy with sleep, sat up slowly. “What? What’s going on?”

“Something’s wrong. Something’s happened to Gemma.”

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

She pressed her hand more firmly to her chest, as if that would make the feeling change. “I can feel it. Something’s wrong.”

“Call her,” Daniel suggested.

She reached over and grabbed the phone, but Gemma never answered. That was about what she’d expected, though.

Harper dove out of bed and grabbed her jeans off the floor. “I have to go.”

“Go where?” He got out of bed much more slowly than she did, though it was clear he was trying to move fast. “Harper. Wait.”

She folded her arms across her chest, hugging herself as Daniel hurried to put on his jeans and a T-shirt.

“I can’t feel her,” Harper told him plaintively.

“What?”

“It’s like she’s not there anymore.”

Daniel pursed his lips, but he didn’t say anything. Something about that frightened her, that he didn’t try to comfort her or convince her that everything would be okay. Instead, he just picked up the pace, and when they went down the path to his boat, they were both running.

His boat took a minute to start, but this seemed to aggravate Daniel as much as it did Harper. He kicked it and cursed under his breath, then
The Dirty Gull
finally chugged into life.

The ride across the bay had never seemed to take so long. The early-morning sun was blinding as it reflected off the water, but Harper kept her eyes fixed on the shore.

When Daniel docked the boat, she jumped off. She started to run toward the parking lot for her car, but then she stopped and changed her mind.

“This way.” She pointed toward the beach just as Daniel reached her.

“What? Why?”

“We need to go this way,” she insisted, and started jogging down the path to the beach.

“How do you know if you can’t feel her?” Daniel asked as he ran after her.

“There’s something, but it’s not the same.”

On the beach, her feet slipped in the sand, but she didn’t let that slow her down. She could see a lone figure, sitting in the sand far away from them. As she got closer, she started to realize that the figure was Alex, and that he was totally alone, staring out at the waves.

“Alex!” Harper shouted, and by the time she reached him, she was screaming. “
Alex!
Where’s Gemma?” He got to his feet, looking confused, and she grabbed him by his T-shirt. “Where is she?”

“There!” Alex pointed out to the bay, sounding totally baffled by her intensity.

“Where?” Harper asked, but all she needed to do was turn her head.

Gemma was several yards away, in the water. “I’m right here.”

“Oh, my god, Gemma.” Harper ran into the water, not caring if she soaked her clothes, and hugged Gemma, crushing her to her. “I thought you were dead.”

“I’m not dead,” Gemma said, laughing and hugging her back. “I’m just not a siren anymore.”

Harper pulled back to look at her, but she kept her hands on Gemma’s shoulders, as if she would disappear if she let go. “You already weren’t.”

“No, I was before. I lied. But now I’m really not.”

“How do you know?” Harper narrowed her eyes.

“I’m in the ocean, and I have legs.”

The water came up to Gemma’s hips, and she pulled up her dress, revealing her normal legs. No fins, no scales. And then Harper really looked at her and realized that Gemma looked different. Her eyes were still the color of burned honey, but they were less sparkly. She was still beautiful, but she appeared younger—less like a model on a magazine cover and more like a normal, teenage girl.

That explained the feeling of being severed from her sister. There’d always been a strange bond, but when Gemma had become a siren, it grew more intense, which was how she’d been able to find her in Sawyer’s house when she ran off.

But now, without the paranormal element amplifying it, the bond had returned to its normal state, and she could barely feel it.

“How?” Harper asked in disbelief. “What’d you do?”

“We were so close, Harper,” Gemma said with a wide grin. “The blood of the siren, the blood of the mortal, the blood of the sea—that’s how to wash away the curse, and how I became a siren. But we were missing one thing.” She pointed back to where Alex stood on the beach, and Harper noticed the golden shawl shimmering in the sand next to him.

“That’s the golden shawl we found you wrapped in the night after you became a siren,” Harper remembered, then looked back at Gemma as the shawl’s importance dawned on her. “That was the golden fleece that Pine was talking about.”

“What?” Gemma asked, staring at her quizzically.

“The golden fleece,” Harper repeated. “Pine told me that he translated something in the scroll about it, but he thought it had to do with Jason and Argonauts.”

“It was Persephone’s shawl,” Gemma explained. “The sirens had told me that before, and Demeter told us that Persephone had been found in it after she died, wrapped up much the same way I was when you found me on the shore after I became a siren.”

“The whole curse is about Persephone, so Demeter made her a part of the curse as much as she could,” Harper realized. “She made the sirens use Persephone’s golden shawl.”

“Right. To become a siren, I had to drink the blood of the sirens, the mortal, and the sea, and I had to be wrapped in the shawl and tossed in the ocean,” Gemma said. “So to break the curse, I had to reverse it, using the mixture of blood, and I had to be wearing the shawl in the ocean. Do everything like I did before, but just undo it, using the blood to erase the ink on the scroll.”

Harper smiled at her sister. “What are you doing in the water now?”

“I wanted to see what it was like to swim with legs again, and it’s better than I remembered.”

“So now you’re completely sure it’s all over?”

Gemma laughed. “I’m positive.” And just because she could, Harper hugged her sister again.

“You scared the crap out of me, Gemma,” Daniel said as he slogged through the waves to reach them. He put one arm around Harper and the other around Gemma, embracing both of them tightly.

When Alex waded out to join them, Gemma separated from the other two, ran to him, and jumped into his arms. Her legs wrapped around his waist, and he held her as she laughed.

Harper turned and looked up at Daniel. “You know, for the first time I really
feel
like this is over. I thought it was over before, but now I know in a way I didn’t, and it’s like a huge weight has been lifted.”

“It’s really over.” He put his arms around her, pulling her to him. “Now just as long as you don’t get tangled up with a pack of vampires or deranged witches while you’re at college, everything will be wonderful.”

Harper smiled. “So I just have to avoid those things, and everything will be perfect?”

“No, I’m pretty sure that as long as we’re together, we’ve got it made.”

As the waves splashed around them, and her sister laughed in the distance, Daniel bent down and kissed her, and Harper knew that he was absolutely right.

EPILOGUE

April 11

Harper stood on the stepladder, stretching out as she taped up the end of the streamer on the exposed beams of the cabin. Then she climbed down and put her hands on her back, admiring her handiwork.

“The streamers and balloons might be a bit much,” Daniel said from behind her, and she glanced back to see him putting out paper plates and plastic cups on the dining-room table.

She turned back to the room, tilting her head to get a new perspective on the streamers and balloons she had taped up all over Daniel’s cabin. “You think?

“Well, Gemma is turning
seventeen,
not seven,” he said.

“Whatever.” Harper shrugged. “She’ll like it, and I do what I want.”

“Ooh. You’ve gotten such an attitude since you’ve been home from college,” Daniel teased as he walked over to her.

“Where are they?” She ignored him and glanced over at the clock hanging above the fireplace. “They should’ve been here by now.”

“Well, Alex just got home for the weekend,” Daniel said as he slid his arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him.

“I know. We shared a ride back from Sundham,” she reminded him.

“Yeah, but you know, he and Gemma are probably spending quality time together.”

Harper wrinkled her nose. “Gross.”

“Hey, you didn’t think it was gross when we were spending quality time together this morning.”

His other arm encircled her, pulling her close to him, and Harper didn’t resist. She loved it when he held her like that, crushing her to him, as his mouth pressed against hers. A familiar heat radiated through her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck.

Even after all this time, and all the kisses they’d shared, some of them in bed earlier this morning, each time he kissed her, there was still that hint of urgency and desperation, like they’d never really be able to get enough of each other.

Harper would’ve gladly stayed in his arms, kissing him all afternoon, but she heard their guests coming up the walkway on the island.

“They’re here,” she said, and since he looked so thoroughly disappointed at having to let her go, she gave him one more quick kiss on the lips before separating from him.

She was readjusting her shirt when Marcy opened the door to the cabin, carrying a birthday gift. Alex and Gemma came after her, hand in hand.

“Where do you want the gifts?” Marcy asked, but she was already setting hers down on the kitchen counter.

“There is fine,” Daniel said, pointing to where she’d put it.

“So are we having cake or what?” Marcy asked, interrupting them.

“There is a cake,” Harper assured her, and went over to the fridge to pull it out. “I thought we could let people sit down for a minute first.”

“There should never be a holdup on cake,” Marcy insisted.

“Why are you in such a hurry?” Alex asked her. He stood off to the side of the kitchen, leaning against the counter with one arm around Gemma. “Got a hot date tonight?”

Gemma groaned. “No, Alex, don’t even ask.”

“What? Why?” He looked down at her in surprise.

“She’s dating a ghost,” Gemma supplied.

“I am not
dating
anyone,” Marcy said defensively. “I’ve just been talking to Kirby a lot. We’re friends.”

“So do you guys make a lot of pottery together?” Daniel smirked. “You know, like
Ghost
?”

Gemma shot him a look. “Don’t encourage her, Daniel.”

“Shouldn’t Lydia be telling you that this is all dangerous?” Harper was putting seventeen candles in the cake, and she looked across the table at Marcy. “You shouldn’t be messing around with this kind of thing, right?”

Marcy shrugged. “As long as I’m not holding Kirby back from crossing over, Lydia thinks it all seems fine.”

Harper turned back to Gemma and decided to change the subject. With the sirens out of the picture, she wanted to avoid talking about the supernatural as much as possible, and that included Ghost Kirby.

“Speaking of dates, how is Dad doing?” Harper asked.

“Good. He’s seen Sarah twice, and it all seems to be going well,” Gemma said. “I haven’t met her yet, but I told him that he better introduce her soon.”

“Me, too,” Harper said, and hoped that she didn’t sound quite as needy as she felt.

Overall, she’d enjoyed the past eight months being at Sundham University. Now that everything with the monsters was over, and she was able to actually concentrate on school, it was going well, and sometimes, she even had fun.

With Alex’s arrival at Sundham for the spring semester, it had been even nicer. They had two classes together, which helped when it came time to study, and it was great being able to carpool back and forth from Capri. But honestly, Harper was happy to have a friend around, especially one who understood everything that had gone on this past year, and it helped make her slightly less homesick.

Thankfully, Alex and Gemma seemed to be handling their time apart fairly well, and Alex made frequent trips home to see her. Gemma came up to Sundham as often as she could, but since she’d taken up Harper’s old job at the library, it wasn’t as often as she would’ve liked.

Gemma and Alex tried to make the most of their time. Right now, she was sitting on the counter, and Alex was standing next to her with his arm wrapped around her waist. Every time they thought people weren’t looking, Harper would catch them out of the corner of her eye, kissing or whispering in each other’s ear.