The Rising

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  "You got a new trident," Liam remarks. "It’s smaller."

  "It’s stronger," replies Serena.

  They stand at her tree—both are on the ground, one inside the yellow flowers and one outside.

  Serena has already retrieved her bow and arrow set, which remained untouched.

  Liam nods to the trident. "You know how to use it?"

  Serena spins it once in her hand. "I'm learning."

  She spent the better half from one high tide to the next training with Kai. By the time they were through, they were both breathing hard, sweaty, and exhausted—just in time for Serena to make it to The Dry to scout for traps and fix her wolfsbane protection before Liam's appearance.

  Up above, two squirrels scamper across the canopy, causing dead leaves to flutter down as the sky makes the transition from dark to light.

  Serena moves into position, balancing the trident in the palm of her hand and holding it steady just above her shoulder. She leans back, then twists forward and releases. The trident sails through the sky. It catches a leaf mid-air, spearing it through the center and pinning it to a dead tree.

  Before the trident stops quivering, Serena runs to retrieve it. She pulls, applying pressure at the most effective angle like Kai taught her. The weapon pops loose.

  Serena looks at Liam.

  "You're a fast study," he says.

  Serena starts to smile, until she realizes how far out of the wolfsbane circle she has come. Gripping her trident tight, she moves toward it, giving Liam a wide berth.

  He stands stark still, watching her the whole way. "You still don't trust me?" he says once she is back in her field of fatal flowers. "Even after last night?"

  "A girl can still be cautious, can't she?"

  He grunts. "Okay, Serena Moon-Shadow. What do I have to do to prove myself to you?"

  "For starters, you can tell me about your capes."

  He frowns. "Why are the capes so important to you?"

  "It wasn't," she shrugs, "until you refused to answer the question."

  "Well, where do you think I keep the cape?" he asks.

  Serena toys with a tip of her trident. "I think it is your wolf skin, and you wouldn't be able to transform without it."

  Liam throws his head back in laughter. "What, like a selkie?" His laugh moves into deep guffaws, and for a moment, Serena thinks he is choking.

  She crosses her arms, surprised he has even heard of the mythical creature. Seals that can transform into humans and back again, as long as they have their pelts, have been the center of many Undine calfling stories.

  Finally, Liam's laughter dies down to a snicker. He unties the string at his neck, then those down his body that hold the cape closed. "You need to get your head out of The Deep, Werewolf Liaison."

  "What are you—" Serena cuts her own sentence off with a gasp. She turns her back, just as the cape goes sailing over her head. It settles into a pile of material amidst the flowers. "Liam?"

  "Just turn around, Serena." There is still a twinge of laughter in his voice.

  "No."

  "Do it, and you'll get your answer." There is a shuffle of feet.

  Serena sees movement out of the corner of her eye, and turns away again. "No way. And this doesn't count as answering your question."

  "Oh, come on."

  Refusing to play, she holds her hands up on either side of her eyes, shielding herself from the sight of his nude Ungainly body. How would I ever report this progression to the king? Is it even progression?

  Suddenly, the forest goes quiet.

  "Liam?"

  There is no answer.

  "Hey, wolf-boy!" she yells out, dropping her hands to her sides.

  Only the crickets respond, their chirping as steady as the tide. She turns, gritting her teeth, ready to shout his name again. Instead, she meets his steady gaze. And he is fully clothed.

  "You jerk!"

  He laughs again. He is doing that entirely too much tonight. She kicks out and a plume of yellow flowers puff out toward him. A sharp sting from the flowers pierces her toe.

  "Hey now." He puts his hands out, jumping back in case any of them should make it that far. "That was not cool."

  "Why are you dressed tonight?" Serena puts her hand on her hip, hoping he hasn't noticed she is sticking her toe into the dirt—her feet aren't scaled and she worries she might have touched the poisonous center of the flower.

  "I came straight from work, didn't have time to romp around as a wolf. But I thought I'd put on the cape anyway—you know, to keep up appearances." Liam keeps his gaze level with hers. "We hide capes throughout the forest. Any wolf is free to use them when needed; transformation can rip our clothes to shreds."

  Serena picks up the discarded cape with the end of her trident. She brings it close to her nose and sniffs. It is covered in wolf scent. Recoiling, she thrusts the cape away from her. It dangles from the ends of her trident. A peace offering.

  He shakes his head. "Can't take it now. It’s covered in wolfsbane."

  "A souvenir for me, then." She retracts it, then folds and drapes it over the quiver on her back, careful not to impede a quick withdrawal of arrows, if need be.

  "Now it is your turn for an answer," Liam says. "Are Undine immune to wolfsbane?"

  Serena freezes, her toes still web-deep in the dirt. She clears her throat, retracting her foot from the ground.

  I suppose a little truth won't hurt.

  "A touch of its nectar will not turn us hairy," Serena tells Liam. "But it can be harmful, especially if ingested, or if the nectar makes its way into our bloodstream. The Undine tend to be more sensitive to herbs and flowers than Ungainly." Her eyes shoot to Liam—she should not have said that much.

  Maybe I shouldn't have said any of it.

  He holds up his hands. "Information I will keep to myself."

  He winks at her and she narrows her eyes.

  "At least we’re finally communicating. You ask me another question," Liam says.

  "What did you find out about the conversation we overheard last night?"

  "Oh," he says. "And here I thought we were on a roll. I didn't find out much."

  "No?"

  Liam shakes his head. "Alaric and I haven't been seein' eye to eye lately. He isn't sharin' his plans with anyone, and I couldn't exactly tell him what I saw."

  "Why not?" asks Serena.

  "I'm not supposed to be out here, at least not unless I am on patrol."

  "But you do it anyway?" Serena smiles.

  "Something like that," Liam smiles back. "It's why I come out after my shift at the bowlin' alley ends. The rest of the patrollers have usually grown tired and gone home by then. There is no excitement anymore—you guys have been slackin'."

  Serena turns her face up to the sky, the morning dawn beating against her skin and drying out her scales. "In a few days, the full moon will rise."

  "So it will," says Liam, almost under his breath.

  "Without Undine to call on the wolves for protection, what do you do on those nights?"

  Liam laughs, but it is nervous. He scratches the back of his neck and his cheeks flush.

  "What?" asks Serena.

  "Well, we…we…"

  Serena furrows her eyebrows. What could be so difficult to say?

  "We mate."

  Serena's mouth drops open, then snaps shut. "Oh."

  "What?" says Liam. "It is the same thing you are doin'."

  Serena shakes her head. "Not me."

  "Your kind, anyway."

  Serena folds one arm across her midsection. "Why on the nights of the full moon? Can't you do it anytime? I mean, you have all the… "

  "Parts?" Liam offers.

  "Yes," Serena snaps back. "You have all the parts needed in either form, wolf or Ungainly."

  He smiles. "Yes but we can't reproduce more werewolves unless it occurs under the full moon. Any other time, only humans pop out—and Lord knows there are enough of
those runnin’ around."

  "So, if before—when werewolves were called upon to protect Undine during the full moon— did you even have a chance to do it? I read that werewolves were bound to patrol the beaches from sun down to sun up."

  "That…is one question too many," says Liam.

  Serena narrows her eyes. "Other than the full moon, are there any other tricks or secrets to bearing healthy werewolves?"

  "Two questions too many." Liam crosses his arms.

  Serena feels her toe begin to tingle at the wolfsbane cut. She shifts her weight from one side to another. "Yeah, maybe. Look—I need to go before the sun makes fish fry out of me."

  Liam frowns, finally glancing down at her foot. "Why the rush? You've been in the sun before."

  Serena shrugs, turning. "Seems like I got all the answers I'm going to get out of you. So…" she trails off as she turns away, glancing over her shoulder.

  "Fine." He rolls his eyes.

  Serena stops and turns back around, waiting.

  "We have found that there are certain…bloodlines that lend to more control over the wolf."

  Serena crosses her arms. "More control?"

  "For example, better success at yielding wolves instead of humans—or transforming at will, even without the full moon."

  "So your bloodline is one of them?"

  "It is," Liam says, rolling down the sleeves of his shirt until they touch his wrists. "And it is not somethin' I like to discuss."

  Uninterested in watching him grow angry, Serena looks away. "It's funny, how desperate some of us want to spawn and have little miniatures of ourselves running around," Serena says, voice low.

  "Or swimming around," says Liam, the edge leaving his voice.

  "Or howling," says Serena.

  They are both smiling now, but the moment grows awkward.

  "There is this maiden…" Serena trails off, remembering Cordelia's nursery song.

  Even if no newborns can be found,

  you'll still be the sweetest calfling in town.

  "What?" asks Liam.

  She can't continue with the story. It almost feels like a slight to Cordelia, putting her pain out there to the very creatures that caused it. "Never mind." Serena crosses her arms, glancing to the sky again.

  Liam sighs. "Look, the night of the full moon for werewolves—if that’s what you want to know—is…busy. We no longer spend it chasing mermaids back into the water, especially since you all seem to have given up on it. We have just a few on patrol, that can send out an alarm if need be."

  "So if we wanted to…" Serena trails off, unsure of how to put the question in words.

  "I still wouldn't risk it," Liam grinds the toe of his boot into the ground, making a small divot in the dirt. He glances up at Serena. "Unless…"

  "Unless what?" she narrows her eyes.

  "I could volunteer for patrol alone."

  "Would that work?" Serena asks, still skeptical.

  He nods his head. "Yes, I think I could make it work. Alaric brings in a bunch of—well, let's just say no one wants to miss the full moon events. Only those being punished have to patrol."

  "I know how that goes," Serena mumbles. She looks at Liam. "I'm not sure—it's still too risky."

  "Let me try. Let me prove that not all werewolves are bad." Liam steps forward and tentatively extends his hand to Serena. "The full moon is in three nights. Come back in two, and I'll let you know if the Undine can try it or not."

  Serena stands right up against where the wolfsbane border ends. She forces herself to remain still as his hand comes closer, but her grip tightens around her trident.

  His fingertips brush the scales at her shoulder. They both freeze, sucking in a breath.

  "Is that okay?" he asks, his voice at a whisper.

  Serena's eyes go wide. She presses her lips tight together, then nods. Her toe is now throbbing.

  Liam's entire palm rests on her shoulder. It is cool relief, shielding her scales from the blazing light of the sun. He stares at her arm. The pad of his thumb traces one of the scales.

  Slowly, Serena retracts it.

  He pulls his hand away.

  "It's okay," says Serena.

  He glances at her, then puts his hand back on her shoulder. His lips part, and Serena can almost feel his breath against her face.

  She retracts another scale, a little faster this time. The one after that disappears quickly. Small trickles of blood are left in the wake as each scale sinks into skin. Serena tenses, embarrassed for herself. She isn't sure why such a small amount of blood is humiliating.

  Liam wipes it away with his palm. "Does it hurt?"

  "Only for second," says Serena.

  Finally, all of the scales along her shoulder are gone, and he is touching her, skin to skin.

  "This is weird," says Liam. His hand drops to his side. "Sorry, I didn't mean to say that out loud."

  "It's fine," says Serena, taking a step back and readjusting the quiver straps on her shoulders. "I was just thinking the same thing." She turns, holding her shoulder out of his sight while she re-scales her skin.

  She glances down at her toe. It is swelling. "Okay, I really have to go now."

  "Yeah, yeah," says Liam, looking back into the forest. "I have…things to do, too."

  "Hey," Serena calls out.

  "Yeah?" Liam is quick to turn around, eyebrows up in a hopeful arch.

  "Thank you for the gift, Liam of Clan Werich," Serena glances to the cape stuffed up by her quiver.

  He smiles, then performs a bow worthy of the king's court. "Happy birthday, Serena Moon-Shadow, Werewolf Liaison of the Undine Kingdom."