“Here. ” Lydia came into the living room carrying a salt-and-pepper ferret that was at least twice as fat as any ferret should be, and she handed it to Marcy. “He keeps trying to get in the pot. ”
“Bruce loves his chicken. ” Marcy petted him as he tried to nibble on her fingers. “It’s ’cause he’s a member of the weasel family. They’re super into birds. ”
“How are you doing with the whole Kirby thing?” Harper asked, deciding that it might be a good time to bring it up since Marcy was holding Bruce.
“I don’t know. We weren’t dating for very long but…” Tears welled in her eyes, looking even larger through her thick glasses, and she shook her head and sniffled. “What’s done is done. ”
“Did you hear when his funeral is?” Alex asked.
“Not yet. I haven’t talked to his parents or anything, and I don’t want to. ” She held her ferret closer to her, and he sniffed at a lone tear that slid down her cheek. “So I’ll probably just find out when they post it in the obituary. ”
Harper reached over and rubbed her friend’s back, and surprisingly, Marcy let her. Which meant that she actually had to be really upset about all of this.
Lydia came in a few minutes later carrying two bowls of soup. “Here you guys go. ” She handed one to Alex, then handed the other to Marcy, trading it for Bruce. “How is Gemma doing today?”
“Good. She’s pretty tired, so she’s at home sleeping,” Harper said. “She wanted me to send you her best. ”
“I don’t know what that means. ” Marcy shrugged. “So tell her that I send her my awesomest. ”
“So … is she human?” Lydia asked, trying to sound nonchalant. She stood off to the side of the room, petting the ferret.
“Yeah. Penn’s dead,” Harper said. “It was like Diana said. With her dead, the curse is broken. ”
“Well, actually, Diana said, ‘If you tried to kill Penn, then you wouldn’t need to break the curse. ’” It was the overly casual way she said it that unnerved Harper, like she was trying too hard to make it sound like none of this mattered, but she really thought it did.
“Yeah, that’s what I said,” Harper said, nearly snapping at her.
“No, it’s a little different. ” Lydia set Bruce down. “Because I was talking to Pine about the translations, and it doesn’t sound like it matters if you kill Penn or any of the sirens, as long as they’re replaced. ”
“The translation is wrong then,” Harper told her harshly. “Because Gemma said the curse is broken. Tell her, Alex. ”
“It’s over,” Alex agreed, but he sounded confused, like he didn’t completely understand the exchange between Harper and Lydia. “I mean, I asked her directly, and so did Harper, and she says over. And why would she lie?”
“Maybe she doesn’t know,” Marcy suggested.
Lydia shook her head. “She would know. ”
“Exactly. And both she and Thea said they can feel that the curse is broken,” Harper said firmly. “They could both feel their powers waning, and that’s why Gemma is so tired and out of it today. ”
The room lapsed into an awkward silence, so Alex took a bite of soup, and very loudly said, “Mmm. This is really good soup, Lydia. ”
“Thanks. ” She smiled politely.
“My dad had the car towed into town,” Marcy said. “She’s pretty totaled, but I’m optimistic that they might be able to save her. ”
“The Gremlin?” Alex asked. “Wouldn’t it be cheaper to buy a new car than fix her?”
“Lucinda’s not just a car,” Marcy corrected him. “You saw her. She’s magic. And even if I have to work at the library for the next eighty years to pay to get her fixed, it’ll be worth it. Oh, but that reminds me, I should probably call in for Tuesday. ”
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“But today’s only Sunday,” Harper said.
Marcy shrugged and dug in her pocket for her cell phone. “My leg will probably still hurt. ”
FIFTY-FIVE
Favored
He’d taken a long, hot shower for the second time in the past twelve hours, and it finally felt like he was getting rid of the dirt and grime. Daniel hadn’t been that injured fighting Penn, but he’d gotten plenty bloody cleaning things up. Not to mention how gross he’d felt during the minimakeout session/S&M scene he’d had with Penn before Harper had arrived.
He slipped on a T-shirt and a pair of pajama pants, deciding that today called for comfort above anything else. As he walked out of the bathroom, he was still rubbing a small towel through his short hair, and when he lowered it, he saw Gemma.
“Whoa. ” He put a hand to his heart since she’d scared the crap out of him. “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to talk to you. ”
She stood barefoot just inside his doorway, and her sundress was dripping water onto the floor. In fact, all of her was dripping wet, even the golden brown waves of hair that fell down her back.
“How’d you get here?” Daniel asked suspiciously.
“I swam. ”
“Like … mermaid swam?”
She smiled, but it didn’t look convincing. “Before all this, I used to be on the swim team, remember? I swam in the bay all the time. I can do that whether I’m mortal or not. ”
“You didn’t answer my question, though. How did you swim here?”
“With my legs. ” She lifted one and wiggled it, as if to demonstrate.
“Okay. ” He relented and held out his towel to her. “So to what do I owe this pleasure?”
She ran the towel through her hair, squeezing out most of the excess water. When she’d finished, she handed him back the towel, and he set it aside on the kitchen counter.
“Thank you,” she said. “I mean, not just for the towel. You did so much for me. ”
“I didn’t really do that much. ” He shook his head. “I think it was mostly you in that fight last night. ”
“No, I’m not talking about just last night. You gave so much. You were willing to give up everything to protect me, even your life. I know that it was for Harper to protect her, but that still means a lot to me. ”
“It wasn’t just for Harper. ” He looked fondly at her. “Yeah, part of it was, but even if she hadn’t been in the picture, I would’ve done it for you. ”
“I think I knew that. ” She smiled, then laughed a little. “This is gonna sound weird, but I kinda think you’re my best friend. ”
“It’s not that weird. You’re probably my best friend, too,” he realized. “Outside of Harper, I think I talk to you more than anyone else. Except maybe Pearl. ”
“She does have amazing clam chowder,” Gemma said, referring to the owner of the diner that served Daniel’s favorite soup.
“She does,” he admitted. “So maybe she’s my best friend, and you’re like my backup. ”
Gemma smiled at his joke, then went on. “I can’t ever thank you enough for what you did, even if I had all the time in the world. ”
“Can’t help but notice your use of the past tense for ‘had’ there. How much time do you have?”
“The rest of my life,” she said, and she wouldn’t look at him.
“Mmm. ” He leaned back against the counter. “Your being so evasive isn’t really putting me at ease. ”
“I just came out here to tell you that I don’t know how I can thank you. ”
“You don’t need to thank me,” he insisted. “Your being alive and safe is thanks enough. ”
“You were gonna die, Daniel!” Gemma reminded him. “That was huge. You can’t just brush that off. ”
“I wasn’t gonna die. I was gonna be a siren, and I don’t know. That might not have been so bad. ” He smirked. “You and me, we would’ve taken on Penn and maybe ruled the world. ”
She rolled her eyes as she smiled. “Yeah, it would’ve been great. If you don’t mind dining on human flesh. ”
“It’s probably one of those thin
gs that you get used to. ”
All the humor in her expression disappeared, and she lowered her eyes. “I hope not. ”
“Yeah, me, too. ”
“And I know it sounds weird that I came out here to thank you, and now I’m going to ask you a favor. ” She bit her lip and looked up at him nervously.
He arched an eyebrow. “A favor?”
“I want you to promise me that no matter what happens, you’ll be with my sister and take care of her. ”
He waited a beat before shaking his head. “I can’t promise you that. ”
“But you love her!” Gemma insisted.
“That’s why I can’t promise you that. What holds us together needs to be love and mutual respect and desire. I can’t be bound to her by guilt from you. That’s not what’s best for her. ”
Gemma sighed. “Daniel. ”
“I can promise that I will look out for her for as long as I’m alive, even if we’re not together and even if she decides she hates me one day,” he said. “But that’s the best I’ll do. ”
“Thank you. ”
“But why all this worry about your sister for the rest of eternity? Are you planning on not being around to protect her?” Daniel asked.
“No. I just…” She tried to play it off. “I can’t be around her all the time, and I want to know she’s safe. ”
“She’s safe, but I have to be honest. It’s you I’m worried about. ”
Standing in front of him, Gemma was at least a foot smaller than he, and, dripping wet as she was, she looked even smaller. In an objective way, he knew that she was beautiful, but that’s not what he saw when he looked at her.
Her golden eyes had grown harder over recent months, but they still had an innocence and optimism to them, and when she smiled, her expression still had that hint of little girl to it.
In her, he always saw a frightened child, trapped in a situation that they were fighting desperately to change. It was what he’d seen in her eyes that very first time he’d rescued her from the sirens, when she was still human, and Penn had cornered her on the dock next to his boat. And that was why he helped her then, and why he helped her still.
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“I’m fine,” Gemma said, and started backing toward the door. “But I should probably head back. Long swim. ”
“Gemma. ” He stopped her and stepped away from the counter, closer to her. “Did I ever tell you about when my brother died?”
“It was a boat accident, wasn’t it?” she asked.
Daniel nodded. “He got drunk even though I had told him to stop drinking. He took a boat out when I asked him not to. And he crashed when I told him to slow down. ”
“I’m sorry,” she said, sounding unsure of what else to say.
“I can forgive myself for that. He made all those choices to drink and drive a boat, and I’ve learned to accept his choices as best I can. He knew what he was doing, and I tried my hardest to talk him out of it. But he was five years older than me and wasn’t about to let me tell him what to do.
“But the part I can’t forgive myself for, the part that still haunts me, is that I didn’t find him,” he went on. “After the boat crashed, he was lost in the bay, and I went in after him, but I never found him. ” He’d walked up so he was right in front of her, and she stared up at him.
“Why?” she asked.
“Because I should’ve been able to save him, and it might not make sense, but I feel like I didn’t do everything I could. Anything short of staying in that water until I died doesn’t feel like enough. ”
“If he’d died, your dying wouldn’t have brought him back,” Gemma told him.
“I know. Logically, I know,” he admitted. “But that’s not how it feels at night when I’m lying awake. ”
“You can’t blame yourself for his death. ”
“I’ve had plenty of therapy about John’s death, and that’s not why I brought it up. ”
“Then why did you?”
“Because I know that something’s going on with you, and I don’t know what it is,” Daniel said. “But I don’t want to find you dead and know that I didn’t do everything I could to save you. ”
“Daniel, you won’t find me dead, and you’ve done absolutely everything you can. You’ve done so much more than you ever needed to. ”
She stood on her tiptoes so she could lean in and kiss him on the cheek, then she put her arms around him. He hugged her back as she squeezed tighter, and he kissed the top of her head. Then she stepped back, and when she smiled up at him, there were tears in her eyes.
“I love you. I’m not in love with you, but I do care about you,” Gemma said.
“I care about you, too. An awful lot. ”
“I should go, though. ” She stepped toward the door. “But please do me a favor and stop worrying so much. Everything is going to be fine, you’ll see. ” She smiled and her brown eyes twinkled in a way that almost made him believe her.
Then Gemma turned and ran out the door, racing down the path to the bay. He considered going after her so he could see if she did really swim away using her legs, but he thought he already knew the answer.
FIFTY-SIX
Holiday
Since Brian didn’t have work on Monday because of the holiday, he suggested that they spend the day together as a family. Not just because they’d all been through so much lately, but Harper had to go back to Sundham, and Gemma was set to begin her junior year the next day.
Gemma thought it sounded perfect. After her clandestine visit to Daniel’s yesterday, she’d spent the rest of the afternoon with Alex. So it’d be great to spend the day with her family.
It was the last official day of the summer season, and most things were closing early. It also meant that the tourists were heading out. The At Summer’s End Festival had made the past week the busiest of the year, and now, with the crowds dispersing, it made Capri feel almost like a ghost town. But that was definitely a nice thing.
Gemma, Harper, and their dad took a walk down to the beach, grateful not to wade through kids or suntanning ladies or discarded beer cans. They tried skipping pebbles on the water, which didn’t work at all, but at least it was fun to try.
For lunch, they went to Pearl’s Diner, and they talked and laughed about old times. It wasn’t until then—when they were laughing so hard that Harper couldn’t breathe, and Brian’s face was turning red—that Gemma realized how long it had been since she’d seen either of them so happy.
This summer had weighed on them so heavily, but even before that, her sister and her dad had gotten so caught up in trying to take care of everything that they’d almost forgotten to have fun and be happy.
When they went back home, Brian decided to teach them how to play poker, insisting it would be a useful skill for them in later life. Harper took to the game right away, and it didn’t take long before she’d completely wiped both Gemma and Brian out of the pennies they’d been playing with.
By then, it was starting to get late, so Harper went up to pack her bag to return to college. Gemma was sitting in the living room with her dad, watching an old Rocky movie he’d seen a hundred times before, when something slid through the mail slot in the door.
“What the heck is that?” Brian asked. “We don’t get mail on Labor Day. ”
“I’ll get it. ” Gemma held up her hand, stopping him before he got out of his chair, and she went over to retrieve a single slip of paper on the floor.
At first, Gemma thought it was a postcard, except it looked so warped and worn. But as soon as she picked it up, she knew exactly what it was.
It was an old photograph of Gemma, Harper, and their mom, taken shortly before the accident when their mom still lived at home. It had been on her bedside table for years, but when Gemma ran away to join the sirens, she’d taken it with her, which was how it’d gotten so damaged. But she’d forgotten it at Sawyer’s house when sh
e escaped.
Gemma turned it over, and on the back in lovely handwriting, a message had been scrawled.
Found this in a junk drawer with Lexi’s old stuff. Thought you might want it back. Thanks for setting me free. —Thea
“What’s that?” Harper asked as she came down the stairs behind her.
“Thea was just returning something I’d lost. ” Gemma held it up for Harper to see.
“Did you take that with you when you ran away?” Harper asked.
Gemma nodded as her sister handed the picture back. “I accidentally forgot it, and somehow Thea found it again. ”
“That was nice of her to give it back. But I would’ve thought she’d left town by now. ”
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“Me, too,” Gemma agreed.
“Where do you think she’s going?”
Gemma shrugged. “Anywhere she wants. ”
“I should get going now. ” Harper turned toward the living room when she spoke, and Brian muted the TV and got out of his chair.
“Did you get any homework done?” he asked as he walked over to where she and Gemma stood by the front door.
“Some, but I have plenty left to do,” Harper admitted bleakly. “Fortunately, it’s still really early in the semester, so I have time to get my grades up. ”
“So you probably won’t be able to visit for a while,” Brian said.
“For a little bit, I probably shouldn’t,” Harper agreed. “But you know me; I can’t stay away for too long. ”
She faced Gemma and embraced her tightly. They didn’t hug that often, but this time, they were both slow to let go of each other.
“Thanks for coming home to save me,” Gemma whispered.
“What are sisters for?” Harper asked with a small laugh.
“I love you. ”
“I love you, too,” Harper said, and finally released her. She hugged her dad, and he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “’Bye, Dad. ”
He held the front door open for her. “Drive safely, and call me this week to let me know how things are going in school. ”
“Will do. ”
Harper went outside and walked across the lawn to her Sable, parked in the driveway. Gemma almost wanted to follow her out and wait on the steps and watch her go, like she did when she was little, and her mom dropped her off at day care.
But she didn’t. She just let her sister go and closed the door.
FIFTY-SEVEN
Sentiment
The sun was setting as Harper crossed Anthemusa Bay, and the breeze felt wonderful blowing through her hair. As she got closer to Bernie’s Island, she was surprised to see Daniel standing at the end of the dock, waiting for her with his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans.
When Harper pulled the little speedboat up, he tied it off for her, then he took her hand and helped her out.
“You didn’t have to wait for me,” she said.
“I know, but I wanted to. ” Daniel took her book bag from her and slung it over his shoulder.
They went on the dirt path up to the cabin, the air smelling of the creeping charlie and pine. The tall trees kept out most of the sunset, so it was nearly dark as they walked.
“You’re awfully quiet tonight,” she commented, as they reached his house.
“You texted and said you wanted to talk. So I thought I’d let you talk first. ”