Ripples (DROPLETS Trilogy Book 2) (7 page)

     “No, what?”

     “Just no,” I said and glared back at him.

     “Why? He was only human, why risk yourself for him?”

     I stood up suddenly, my chair grinding against the floor, and stared down at the large merman. His shiny gold hair flickered as he lifted his head to look at me.

     “Ask your master, and see if he’ll tell you.” I challenged and the words hung in the air.

     “He wouldn’t tell me.” He growled and I wondered why Morven would hide this from him. Why not let him know who Patrick was?

     “I guess we’re at an impasse then.” I said, my voice flat.

     He raised an eyebrow in response and stood without making a noise. I watched him stride to the door and waited for him to look back, but he disappeared into the dark night as though he had never been here. The door closed with finality and I stood there stunned.

     I pinched my arm to make sure that I was awake. Maybe this was another nightmare I had to overcome. But as I walked up the stairs to my bedroom, I knew it was real. The Patrick in my beach dream was gone. His voice silenced forever and replaced by the monster that I saw tonight. Morven had completed his work.

     With a shuddering sob, I fell into my bed and curled up on my side. I couldn’t even cry, my tears were past being shed. Instead I let the fear and guilt pull me into the depths of their embrace.

     Patrick was worse than dead.

The next morning I woke up feeling as though I’d been run over by a train. Everything was sore and I groaned as I opened my eyes to the bright sunlight streaming in through my window. I had forgotten to shut my blinds last night.

    
Last night
, I paused for a moment and the memory of what happened filled my mind with a crashing rush.
Zale
, I thought, and took a deep breath hoping to relieve my mind, but the weight was stronger than anticipated. I knew this was something I wouldn’t be able to put behind me.

     Looking at the clock, I was surprised by how late it was. I would have to eat breakfast quickly to get to Darrow’s Catch on time. Throwing the covers back, I dashed to the bathroom and took a hurried shower, not even bothering to dry off. By the time I picked up my clothes, my skin was only a sticky damp. I threw my wavy hair into a bun and headed for the stairs.

     “I was wondering when you would finally get up,” Dad teased as I made my way toward the kitchen. The brightly colored walls made me squint for a moment.

     “Yeah,” I yawned and walked to the pantry to grab some cereal. My breakfast prepared, I sat down across from Dad. I couldn’t help but think of the large person who had sat in the same chair not long ago. A lump formed in my throat and I attempted to eat around it.

     “I’m glad you’re finally getting some sleep.” Dad said, and took a sip of his coffee. I smiled weakly, my lips tight. Silence fell between us as I kept my eyes focused on the cinnamon squares in my bowl.

     “Sweetie,” he sighed, “I’m worried about you. Ever since you got back, I haven’t felt that you are truly here.”

     I let that sink in for a moment. Even after all my trying to be normal, I had failed. 

     “I’m kind of not,” I answered. “I’ve just, well, there was a lot of stuff that happened, and I sort of relive it every night.”

     Dad sighed heavily, “It’s that Morven guy, isn’t it?” I almost smiled, only my father would refer to him in such a way.

     “Not really him, but something he did,” I explained and he nodded his head as though he understood. I ducked my head hoping that he was done asking questions.

     I finished my cereal and got up to put the bowl and spoon in the dishwasher.

     “What time are you leaving for work?” Dad’s tone was disapproving, but he didn’t know how much of a relief it was to have the distraction.

     “In a bit. I’m going to go brush my teeth and then I’ll leave.”

     “Okay,” he said and paused. “Lissie?” 

     “Yeah?” I was almost to the stairs and turned back to look at him.

     “Don’t take this the wrong way, but did you lose someone? Someone you cared for?”
So perceptive.

     I sighed, how was I supposed to explain Patrick to him? He wasn’t someone I just cared about; that was too simple a word. It was so much more than that. It was the way he had treated me as an equal and yet held me when I was scared. It was the moments when we had spent time talking about trivial things, each moment like small pieces of colored glass that when joined together created something more beautiful than I ever could have dreamed of. But none of that mattered now, because he was gone. His former self was destroyed and all that remained was memories.

     “Something like that,” I said, my voice filled with sadness and longing.

     “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said, looking down at his coffee. “But I want you to know we love you.”

     A pang hit the shattered remains of my heart and I nodded my head. “I love you too.” I said, “I just don’t know if I’ll ever readjust to life back here, but I’m trying.”

     “I’ll hold you to that,” he said and smiled. Before he could say more, I darted up the stairs and began the process of distracting myself for the rest of the day. My shift at the restaurant would help, and in the manner of a warrior heading into battle, I put up defenses to forget last night’s events. 

_______________

“Don’t you look tired?”
Don’t I always?
It seemed that was all anyone ever said to me.

      I had just entered the house after a long night of work. Unfortunately, the job did not have its usual effect on me. All throughout my shift, thoughts of Patrick and Zale had clouded my mind to the point of making me forgetful. The same questions of how and why and when just continued to swirl through my mind without relief. More than once I had brought the food to the wrong table and near the end of the evening charged a family double the amount they owed. I wanted to feel guilty, but shrugged it off. I hoped they saw the bags under my eyes and wrote if off as exhaustion.

     “Yeah, it was a long walk back to say the least,” I told Sean and yawned widely.

     “You could borrow my truck if you want, I hardly ever use it.” It was so strange that the twins both had their own trucks. In some way, they had grown up and really become adults while I’d been gone. 

     “Thanks, but I think I’ll survive.” I grinned and made my way to the kitchen counter. Jillian always covered a plate of food for me and left it there.

     “You probably shouldn’t work so much if it’s tiring you out.” Derek materialized beside his twin coming out of the adjoining living room. I tried not to notice how he stood in the exact spot Zale had the night before when I first saw his face.  

     “It’s not the work that has me tired.” I said while I punched in the time on the microwave.

     “Yeah, Dad mentioned you were having trouble sleeping,” he said. I shrugged, and pulled my steaming hot plate from the microwave and made my way to the dinner table.
Apparently, my life is an open book.

     My brothers talked to me while I ate and I was sure to keep the conversation away from my past. Somehow I could sense the twins knew I was steering away from questions and they obliged, by telling stories of their own. When my dinner was done I excused myself and went upstairs, dreading what would come when my exhausted body slipped out of consciousness.

     I awoke slowly; something had pulled my sluggish mind out of its shrouded darkness. Blinking quickly, I rubbed a hand over my face and tried to figure out what had woken me. Slowly, my attention was drawn to a tapping sound clinking off the closed window pane. As soon as I acknowledged the sound, the tapping turned into knocking and fear spiked in my chest when I noticed a figure lurking outside the window.

     A cry for help gathered in my throat, but I didn’t utter a sound. I was unable to move, frozen with terror when as my eyes adjusted to the darkness I was able to make out the human form. The figure was slim and long hair rippled in the night wind. I could see the rigid shoulders, and long legs crouched on the roof outside my window. Suddenly, recognition filled me.
Kryssa.

     I jumped out of bed and ran to the window and it opened easily beneath my fingers. A cold blast of air shot through the gap and into my room. It didn’t bother me, but I hoped Kryssa would hurry. Jillian would be angry if the house got any colder, she had grown up in the south and hated the winters here.

     “Thanks,” she said as she climbed through, “I thought you weren’t going to wake up.”

     I slammed the window shut and turned around to look at my friend. Clad in the typical dark garb of a Lathmorian soldier, she stood powerful and looked out of place in my simple bedroom. Not even thinking, I ran to hug her, she smelled of the ocean. 

     “It’s good to see you,” I said and warmth pressed on the darkness which reigned inside me.

     “Me too,” she said and stepped back after I had hugged her. “You look exhausted.” Her eyes roved over me and I shrank underneath her concern.

     “I’ve been better.” I said, feeling the weight of what I knew crash over me again.

     I walked over to the bed and motioned for her to join me. We sat with our legs crossed, me at one end and her at the other. She gazed around my room, looking at all my stuff, and pursed her lips.

     “Nice room,” she said and bobbed her head.

     “Not as nice as yours,” I half-smiled. She continued to look around and I realized this might be the first time she had seen a human’s bedroom.
At least in this century. 

     “Your closet is so small,” she said, her voice betraying her feelings on the matter. “How’s the family? I can’t remember how many siblings you said you had, but if I remember—”     

     “Why are you here?” I butted in. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to see you, but…” I trailed off.

     She heaved a large sigh and her brow furrowed. “Some things have changed.” I knew she meant tactics in the war between the Lathmorians and the Hyven.

     “How so?” I asked, “Do the others know you’re here?”

     “Yes, everyone who cares about you does. But Voon and his idiotic croonies don’t know. They’d only say that we were giving advice to the enemy. Actually Tunder, Shaylee, Elik, and I are the only ones who know.” I nodded and waited patiently for her to continue.

     “You know how we thought Morven had forgotten about you?” She said; my muscles tensed at the mention of his name. “Well, we think Tunder was wrong about that. See there’s this new soldier Morven has.” She made a disgruntled noise. “I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you how we found out and maybe you’ll understand better.”

     “Okay,” I said, even though dread for what was coming began to form a pit in my stomach.

     “The war has escalated,” she said calmly, “In the past two weeks there have been parties of Hyven soldiers paroling the oceans which have attacked us.  More than anything, there’s been lots of confrontation. Nothing as bad as death, but the infirmary is getting rather crowded.” I nodded, silently urging her to continue. I had spent some time in the infirmary myself after my rescue from Hyvar. 

     “Last week a group of Lathmorian mermaids were out patrolling. They shouldn’t have gone so far, and that’s their fault, but still, they were attacked by Hyven soldiers and three of them were killed. The only one to survive, barely made it back due to the gashes taken out of her arms and fins.

     “She told us what happened as soon as she arrived,” here Kryssa paused and pursed her lips. “Apparently, there is a new Hyven leader.” My eyebrows went up. “Well, he’s not the leader, but more like right hand man. We’ve always known this to be Bolrock, but it wasn’t him.”

     This was getting dangerously close to what I suspected, but I didn’t want to know the truth. Kryssa continued.

     “The mermaid who was attacked knew what Bolrock looked like and she said that this was a different merman. It was dark, so she never saw his face, but she said he was unlike any merman she’d ever seen. He was faster and quicker than the other mermen, and relentless. The other Hyven held him back from killing all the mermaids, because the plan was to leave a few alive to tell the tale, but he wanted to murder them all.” Kryssa shivered in the darkness. “Sorry, you didn’t hear her tell the story. It was terrible.”

     I sat there horrified; I knew who she was talking about. I’d seen the gaze of the warrior, the hardness in his eyes was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. It sent chills over my body just thinking about it now.

     “Tunder sent out a group of Lathmorian soldiers in response and they captured one of the Hyven soldiers. They got him to talk and we found out Morven isn’t done with you.” She let the words hang in the air, and I accepted them easily.

     Somehow I had always known he would come back for me. Ever since seeing what he had created, seeing the proof of his power before my very eyes the night before, I had suspected something like this. Morven wasn’t finished with me. It had been too easy for me to leave the merfolk world behind. All day I had wrestled with the notion of whether or not this was part of Morven’s plan, and in the end I knew it was true. Somewhere, Morven was gloating about what he had done to Patrick, and for the time being lay in wait before he could get to me. It was the calm before the storm.

     “The Hyven soldier asked to see you.” She pressed on. “When Tunder refused, the merman gave him a message. His last words were a warning, you had to be prepared. And he said,” she quoted the man in a deep voice, “‘Zale will find her.’”

     Kryssa shivered again with fear in her eyes and the room fell silent. Her words were weighted with great meaning, but for some reason I wasn’t worried. I knew that I should be, but there was something about the way this warrior was when I saw him last night. I knew he was capable of great power, and I’d seen the hardness of his gaze, but I remembered the way I felt when he said he wouldn’t kill me. Emotionally, he had torn my heart apart which was worse than any physical pain, but it was the way he had shown up and left that made me feel safe. If Morven had wanted me, wouldn’t Zale have taken me with him last night?

     “Don’t you understand?” Kryssa pulled me from my thoughts and shook my shoulder. “Zale is the new merman Morven has created. He’s his warrior just like Pat—” She trailed off leaving me to fill in the blanks.

     “I get it,” I said, dully.

     “You have to understand this warrior is a monster,” she said.