Promises (Book One of The Syrenka Series) (23 page)

There were a thousand
things that I wanted to say to him at that moment. Like
it’s none of your business
or
he is my soul mate and that it
doesn’t matter what kind of shifters we were
. But what I said instead surprised even me.

“
You’ve done this before,
haven’t you?” Something about his slumped shoulders and faraway
thoughts led me to believe that he had walked a day in my shoes. He
had loved a mermaid once.

This time his laugh was forced and the
smile seemed to cause him pain. “Very perceptive.” He looked at me.
“I am impressed.” I blushed at his praise and broke the eye
contact. “Yes, I have personal experience with a situation not
unlike your own and believe me when I tell you that it just won’t
work out.”

“
Brendan and I are
different,” I stated.

“
No, you’re
not.”

“
Yes, we are,” I foolishly
argued. “I left my home to be with him. I gave up my
responsibilities and my clan because I couldn’t bear the thought of
living without him. We have grown up together, know each other’s
deepest secrets, and want nothing more than to be with each other.”
Julian chuckled again and looked at me with sympathy contorting his
face. “What’s so funny?”

“
Young love.” He let go of
his knees to stretch out his legs. Crossing one over the other at
the ankles, he leaned back and gazed upward like he was watching
the stars. “Brendan is a good kid, but he will leave you one day.
It is his duty and he will not be able to ignore the call.” He was
referring to the fact that all selkies had to mate with a human in
order to prolong their line. Brendan had told me that he didn’t
want that for himself and I had always believed him.

“
He won’t do that,” I
countered. Again, Julian glanced my way in pity.

“
He will, Eviana. It may
not be now, or five years from now. But one day the call will be
too much for him. It is the bane of our existence. He won’t be able
to fight his nature forever.”

I was momentarily speechless. Here was
Julian, an older and supposedly wiser selkie telling me that my
boyfriend, the only person in this world I wanted to spend the rest
of my life with, would someday leave me to impregnate another
female. And once that was done, he would stick around until the
birth, stealing the child and raising it on his own as they all do.
Could I handle that? Could I help him raise another women’s child?
Would I be able to get past that betrayal?

“
And it would seem as
though you have obligations of your own,” Julian continued,
bringing me back to the present.

“
Huh?” I so cleverly
replied. Julian smiled.

“
You are the next in line
amongst the Dumahl Clan. I am sure that this entails much
responsibility in your future.” I couldn’t help but
laugh.

“
Well, I guess that you
haven’t heard then. I’ve been shunned. No leadership in my future.”
I watched Julian’s face to see if this was news to him. It stayed
annoyingly blank.

“
That is interesting, but I
don’t believe that it will stop your advancement.”

“
What are you talking
about?” I felt like I’ve asked that question a zillion times in the
past few days.

“
You will be a leader,
Eviana. There is no denying it. In fact, your powers are already
increasing. You cannot be with Brendan.”

“
My powers?”

“
Yes. Your ability to
control humans and other shifters?” He looked at my stunned
expression and chuckled. “Did they teach you anything?”

I had to join him in laughter. “No,
they don’t as I’ve so grudgingly learned the last few days.” The
first I’d really heard about this mind control stuff was when we
met Jeremiah Williams, and I certainly didn’t like what I’d
discovered.

“
But you know about mermaid
abilities?” he prodded.

“
Yes,” I said, even if I
didn’t fully understand everything. “And I know that they are not
supposed to appear until we take leadership. I don’t know why that
is, exactly, but that’s what happens.”

“
Well, I will tell you that
it has nothing to do with leadership.” He pointed towards my heart.
“It’s in there. You are either born with it or not. And you,
Eviana, are strong.”

He was the first person to ever call
me strong. Strong-willed, strong-minded, sure. But not strong in a
powerful and useful way. For an instant, I let my mind absorb that
compliment to its fullest. If only my mother and father knew that.
If only my bratty sister knew what I could supposedly do with my
mind, then maybe she would have some respect for me. Or maybe I
could force her to.

I thought about Kain and his position
now. Would he be able to forgive me if he knew what I could do? I
could help him if he needed me and together we would rule our
families with strength and power. I could actually become what I
was meant to be.

And then I thought about Brendan. He
had been warned about mermaids as a child. And now it seemed as
though the danger for him was more real than ever. I sighed and
shook my head then picked up a small pebble and tossed it into the
water as far as I could. It barely made it halfway, but the ripples
distracted me from my reality for a while.

“
What is it?” Julian asked
with sincere interest.

“
I was just thinking about
something Brendan told me. He said before his father left him that
he had warned him to stay away from mermaids.” I turned to look at
Julian. “Apparently he was right.” I tried to smile at the irony of
it all, but I could barely muster a grin.

“
He told you that?” Julian
questioned.

“
Yes. I think he found it
amusing considering that we had already met by then.”

“
Hmm.” He didn’t say
anything else for a while. I tossed another pebble into the
annoyingly calm waters and was surprised when Julian followed my
lead. It seemed to be calming for the both of us. Suddenly, I had a
thought.

“
Can I control you?” That
earned me a full out laugh this time.

“
You’re not that good,
Eviana.”

“
But I think that I did
something at the bridge. I think that maybe I controlled some of
your selkies.”

“
They aren’t my selkies,”
he was quick to correct me. “And, yes, I think that your abilities
manifested when you were afraid. But it wasn’t enough. Not yet.”
Instead of being fearful of me, he almost seemed…proud. Like he was
going to enjoy the day when I would have enough power and control
to act as puppet master to all other creatures. “Put your robe
on.”

“
Why?”

“
Because they are waiting
for us.” Julian stood and walked away from me. “Your legs should be
good by now.”

I wanted to throw a pebble at him for
noticing my weakness before. But my legs were in fact healed and
pain-free, so I stood and wrapped the soft silken robe around my
naked body. I noticed that my head wasn’t hurting nearly as bad,
thanks to my change. Doing a quick assessment of all my injuries, I
realized that I felt pretty good considering the
situation.

Julian was quickly disappearing into
the darkness, leaving me alone with the steadily dripping water. I
called after him.

“
Where did they take
Brendan?” My feet were slipping on the damp rocks and I tried not
to look too uncoordinated as I hustled after Julian.

“
He’s with the others,” his
voice echoed off of the barren walls.

“
I want to see him,” I
demanded.

“
I’m sure that you do.” It
seemed as though our little bonding session was over and it was
back to business for the both of us now. I continued to ask, poke,
and prod for more information, but it appeared that Julian was
finished speaking to me. He didn’t seem like an evil minion, but he
refused to answer my questions about why he had kidnapped
us.

When I finally gave up, I realized
that we must have walked nearly half a mile deeper into this
never-ending cave. At some point, the rocky ledges had given way to
a carved pathway. The walls of the tunnel had been carved out to
allow for more elaborate torches and high ceilings. It was as
though we were in a castle, with the stone walls and damp interior.
But this castle was hidden somewhere far underground. Someplace
where no one could find it. Or us.

There was a door up ahead and to the
left. It was the first one I had seen and it was made of stone.
Impressed, I had to look at it a little bit closer. The thing must
have weighed and ton and it was unclear to me how the hinges were
set.

“
What’s in there?” I
asked.

Julian stopped in front of the door
and began to pull it open. “It’s where we’re going.” I leaned out
past him to look further down the tunnel. It didn’t seem to have an
end in sight, so perhaps this doorway would take us to our
destination after all. Julian tugged until the door was opened and
waved me inside. “After you.”

Not wanting to appear scared, I
discretely leaned my head in to see if I could tell what was
waiting for me. It appeared to be another large room, hollowed out
of the massive rock mountain. More torches lit the area and I could
see several bunk beds on one side with a small stone table on the
other. And sitting around it were all of my friends. Everyone
except for Brendan.

“
Where is he?” I demanded
again.

“
He is safe for now. It
will all depend on you.” I was tired of his cryptic words and
hidden agenda.

“
I don’t know what you’re
talking about!”

“
You will. Now, please join
your friends. I will be back shortly.” With that, he quickly moved
behind my back and shoved me inside.

I fell to my knees and as the giant
stone door banged shut, Daniel rushed to my side. The change must
have helped to heal most of his injuries too, although I could see
that his right eye was still a little bit swollen. “Are you okay?”
He asked.

I nodded my head and pushed up to my
feet. We moved to the far side of the room where Kain and Carissa
were sitting side by side on a stone bench. My heart dropped a bit
when I saw her curled up against him, practically sitting in his
lap. Kain’s left arm was draped over her shoulder and his head
rested against the top of hers. He made no attempt to acknowledge
my presence and that hurt more than anything else.

Daniel and I sat down across from them
on an identical bench. We were all wearing silk robes with Carissa
and me in short ones and Daniel and Kain in the version similar to
what Julian was wearing. No one spoke. Although the silence was
beyond uncomfortable, I certainly didn’t know what to say. This was
all my fault and I would rather suffer in silence than have my
friends yell at me.

“
So now what do we do?”
Daniel finally asked. I didn’t raise my head to see that he was
looking at me and not Kain. Why I was suddenly the one in charge
completely dumbfounded me. Wasn’t it apparent that I was incapable
of such responsibilities?

“
Do you know what they
might want?” Carissa looked up at Kain and asked. He just
shrugged.

“
I have no idea, although I
think that we should come up with some kind of plan to get out of
here.”

“
Does anyone know where we
are?” asked Daniel.

“
In a cave,” Carissa
replied dead pan.

“
I’m guessing we’re in
Virginia,” Kain said, ignoring her response. “I’ve heard about
these systems of underwater caverns, but I don’t think very many
humans have been able to explore them before.” We all sat there and
thought about that for a while until Daniel interrupted the silence
again.

“
So how do we get
out?”

“
I don’t know,” Kain
sighed.

“
I have an idea,” I said,
suddenly feeling hopeful again.

Eighteen

“
That’s your plan!” Carissa
exclaimed. “Just control them all and waltz out of here.” She was
standing now and pacing back and forth between Kain and the table.
One hand was on her slender hip and the other was running furiously
through her hair.

“
Carissa…” he pleaded,
reaching for her arm. She jerked away from him and turned so that
she could face us both.

“
No! This is absurd! First
we drive across the entire country to help out someone who did
nothing but break your heart, then we get kidnapped trying to stop
her from getting killed, and now you want me to follow her insane
idea that she can just mesmerize them all and set us free? Why do
you continue to be so blind, Kain?”

“
I’m not blind, Carissa.
Not anymore.” Something squeezed my heart with those bitter words.
Tears began to blur my vision, but I pushed them away, determined
not to let them get the best of me. Kain stood and pointed to me
while speaking to Carissa. “She has a plan and she can do
it.”

Shocked, I had to ask. “I can?” He
turned to face me.

“
Yes. I saw you at the
bridge. You took control of those selkies and stopped them from
beating me to death.” He walked towards Carissa and grabbed both of
her hands in his. “You didn’t see it, but she has the power. And
right now we don’t have a better plan.”