“I’m not stupid. This is just a trick so I’ll leave Hancock unprotected. I suppose you wouldn’t mind if I went inside to check on—”
“Look at me, Cal.”
She pulled closer, and I could see her face again. My heart lurched with sympathy. For her. For myself. I couldn’t tell. I couldn’t even tell if the thought originated with me. My head felt light and detached. My legs swayed with indecision. Pavati stretched her arms toward me, and I could see only truth and panic in her eyes.
“She really took her?” I asked.
Pavati leaned north, begging me to follow.
“How do I know you won’t attack Hancock?” I said.
“Maris and I got into a fight.” She rose just enough so I could see the long red gouges across her neck and shoulders. “She knows I’ve had a soft spot for that little girl. This is Maris’s way of punishing me for saying she was wrong to shun you. Please. I promise no one will touch the father,” she said, her voice more even and calmer than it had been before. “Besides, I’m going with you. She’s taken the child to Basswood, and it’s too cold for her to be out there. For all I know, she’s already dead.”
A scream ripped across the water from my sisters’ campsite to my ears. Pavati’s eyes flashed, and the horror on her face was real. “Are we too late?” she asked.
I tore off my clothes and ran into the lake, leaving Lily alone in the hammock.
Once transformed, I searched Pavati’s mind for some sign of deceit. Though her thoughts were scattered and clipped, I could find no contradiction in them. My only choice was to cling to her unbreakable promise—No one will touch the father—and hope we weren’t too late.
I shot through the water, whipping my tail until it all but blurred. Pavati followed, mere inches behind, her body bending and arching, plowing through the waves as Sophie’s cries pierced the water.
My mind tried to tease out the possible terms of a truce, or even an exchange. What compromise could we reach? What did I have to offer her? How could I convince Maris to spare the child? It would go against her nature to release her claim on the Hancock family entirely. But hadn’t I defied nature? Could that same peace be possible for them? And where was Tallulah in this? How could Maris possibly explain Tallulah to me?
As I approached the beach, I was thankful not to hear Maris’s thoughts, which meant she was still on land. Presumably Sophie was with her. Alive. I turned to confer with Pavati, but she had surfaced. I followed her up, and my face hit the air just as she said, “Here he is, Maris. Give the child to me now.”
From behind me, Maris said, “Gladly. She’s more trouble than she’s worth,” and then, “Tallulah, you’re up.”
I turned just in time to see Maris raise a rock high above her head and bring it crashing down on my skull.
37
THE REPLAY
When I regained consciousness, I was trapped in a ghost net six feet underwater, my wrists bound, facedown in the sand. Pavati and Tallulah were gone, but I could sense Maris floating nearby, watching me. I turned my head as much as the ancient fishing net would allow.
“There, there,” Maris said with mock concern. “How’s your head, little brother?”
My eye throbbed and, as far as I could tell, my nose hadn’t always bent to the right. I torqued my body to get a better look at her. “What the hell is wrong with you, Maris? Where’s Sophie?”
She raised her eyebrows, surprised by my question. Her hair floated in a white halo around her head. “Seriously? That’s what you want to know? Pavati took her home. No harm done.”
I twisted and jerked, howling with unrestrained fury and searching for any breach in the net. “Just like that?” I asked through clenched teeth. And then I remembered Pavati hours earlier, promising me no one would touch Hancock, telling me Maris had agreed to take a daughter instead. The truth sank in, and I went still. No one would touch Jason Hancock, and Sophie was safe. But Maris had accepted a daughter as the father’s substitute, and I’d been played for a fool.
Worse, I had no idea how long I’d been unconscious, and no idea whether I had any time left to undo my folly. I worked to rebuff Maris’s telepathic replay of the time I’d lost. My efforts were in vain; she was too persistent. Maris burrowed her way into my brain like a parasitic worm until I could see Lily’s face as clearly as if she stood in front of me. Now I would hear every devastating detail. This was Maris’s intended punishment for me: to watch remotely and bear silent witness to Lily’s destruction—and with Lily’s, my own.
“See what you’ve missed,” Maris said. “Watch.”
With that word, Maris filled my head with everything I’d missed while I’d lain unconscious. She turned my mind into a movie screen, upon which she projected terrifying images and all-too-familiar voices I did not want to hear:
Tallulah swam back and forth along the shoreline. Distant thunder roused Lily from her sleep in the hammock. Sitting up, she looked around. Disoriented.
“Calder,” Lily whispered. She rolled out of the hammock and tiptoed closer to the water.
From the confines of the net, I yelled, “Stay back!” But it was like yelling at a movie actor. The scene had already been filmed. How long ago I still didn’t know. There was nothing I could do to change the past. Maris’s mesmerizing projections continued, and I could not look away:
Lily didn’t notice the pale, fervent face, the golden hair shadowed by the overhanging trees. She bit her lip and took a few cautious steps.
“Calder,” she whispered again—more confused this time. “Calder, are you out there?”
Still no response. She wrapped the wool blanket tighter around her body. Her face contorted with worry as she stepped onto the dock. When she reached the end, she searched across the lake toward Basswood.
Maris inspected the ends of her hair, then looked up as I tried to yell my way out of the trappings. “Fitting punishment, don’t you think?” she asked, her voice a syrupy sweetness. “Who knew Tallulah could be so devious when scorned?”
I refused to believe it, but I was convinced as Maris remembered Tallulah moving in on her prey.
Lily gasped. “Geez, Calder, you scared me.”
“Not Calder. Tallulah.”
Retreating, Lily tripped over the edge of the blanket.
Tallulah smiled and held out her arms. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
“Another trick!” I cried out.
The eerie vibrations of Maris’s laughter gouged deep tracks in the sand. “Wait,” she said, “this is a good part.”
“What do you want?” Lily’s voice came out cold and thin. “Where is he?”
“He left,” Tallulah said, comparatively warm and velvety. “He was only using you. You must have seen that in his eyes. No? The flicker of deceit?”
Lily shook her head.
“Don’t believe her!” I continued to yell. I hated that my agony was entertaining Maris, but I could not contain my pleas.
“Although I can see why he dragged things out,” Tallulah said. “You are quite pretty. I hadn’t really noticed before. Calder does like pretty things. For a while.”
I watched, spellbound, as Lily readjusted the blanket, pulling it high and tight under her chin. The wind blew her hair in wild tendrils, making her look simultaneously romantic and tragic.
“Oh, that was a nice touch, don’t you think?” Maris asked. “What she did there with the blanket. Did you see that?”
“But life isn’t always pretty, now, is it?” Tallulah said. “We can’t forget the past. It’s not in our nature.”
Lily took another step back, and hope rekindled in my shriveled heart.
“Stay,” Tallulah said. Hypnotic. Lily stopped. Her shoulders twitched, as if she wanted to run but her feet were locked in place.
“I’m here to warn you,” Tallulah went on, “but, as I said, I’m not here to hurt you.”
“Warn me?”
“I’m sure Calder’s told you we’ve been hunting your father. Do you really think
after all this time, now that we have him in our sights, now that his scent is in our mouths, that we would just walk away? You look like a smart girl. A brave girl. How do you think this is going to end? Surely you can see it.”
“Please,” Lily said. “Please leave us alone.”
Maris nudged me with her foot, and I rolled like a log onto my side. “Hear how she begs there?” She almost laughed. “A family trait, I see.”
Lily clenched her teeth. “Calder didn’t lie to me. He told me everything.”
A clap of thunder nearly drowned out Tallulah’s next words: “Then you know what’s been promised us.”
Lily’s voice was little more than a whisper. “My mom is sick. We need my dad. It’s not his fault.”
Maris and Tallulah answered her in unison. Maris’s “No” was angry, but Tallulah said “No” as if she was considering Lily’s argument.
“You’re right. It’s not his fault. Calder said something about that once—that your father wasn’t the debtor, merely the collateral. But you see, in the end, it’s a distinction without a difference. In the end, we must take him.”
“Collateral?” Lily’s eyes scanned the water as if the solution lay somewhere under the waves.
“Stop looking for him,” Tallulah said, her velvety voice giving way to hatred.
“What about me?” Lily asked.
“What about you?” Tallulah’s lips twitched.
Maris chuckled, then muttered to herself while fear wormed its way into my stomach, twisting and curling.
“Would you take me?” Lily asked. “In my dad’s place.”
A slow smile spread across Tallulah’s face. “You’re a smart girl. Just come to the end of the dock, and I promise you, we will release our claim on your father. Calder must have told you we cannot break a promise. You can trust me on that.”
“Not here. Not where my parents might see.”
Tallulah’s face turned stony, and the water roiled as her tail thrashed behind her.
“There’s a rock just a little farther north,” Lily said. “It juts into the lake about ten feet above the surface.”
“I know it.”
“I’ll be there.”
“I won’t wait long, Lily Hancock.”
“I won’t be long.”
“We’ll see about that,” Tallulah said, sounding bored now. “In my experience, Hancocks aren’t known for keeping their promises.”
“This time it’s different,” said Lily. A forked line of lightning split the sky like a broken dish.
“No!” I cried as Lily’s promise echoed in Maris’s memory. But I knew my plea would go unanswered, and nausea rippled through my belly.
38
SACRIFICE
Less than an hour after I found myself trapped in the net, the first raindrops pelted the surface. Maris’s replay was over. While she and I waited for the story to continue in real time, across the cold channel, Tallulah waited for Lily to come to the cliff. Even from this distance, I could sense Tallulah’s patience waning.
Maris swam closer to me. She circled the net twice and coiled her body close to mine, twirling one finger in my hair. I had long since given up trying to free my hands and had switched to using my teeth on the mesh of knotted ropes. “Be patient,” Maris said, sounding maternal and soothing. “No need to expend so much energy. This will all be over soon.” She rested her hand on one of the stakes that held the net firmly to the sand.
For a second I thought she meant to free me, and my body slumped with exhaustion. “Why, Maris? Just tell me why.”
“Two birds,” she said, circling me again until we were face to face. “One stone. I need to end the Hancock chapter in my life, and Tallulah—for some unknown reason—wants you in hers. We take out the girl, both missions are accomplished. Now, I’m sorry to leave you like this.” She clicked her tongue with pity. “I can see you must be very uncomfortable. But I’m afraid I must go. On the off chance the girl is good for her promise, she will be arriving soon. Tallulah will need to surface, and I want to make sure you don’t miss any details. Stay tuned, little brother. It’s sure to be a cliffhanger.” She laughed at her own sick joke and slipped away like the snake she was.
If I had ever hoped to convince Maris to let me go, that hope, along with the hope of saving Lily, had vanished. Straining against the bindings, I dislodged one of the stakes, but several more kept me anchored to the sand. There was no time. Maris was nearing the cliff, and through her mind’s eye I could see Lily emerge from the pine trees. Maris’s hatred distorted Lily’s face, making her almost unrecognizable, but I knew it was her because she had changed into her Lady of Shalott dress. The poetic irony was too much for me to bear.
“Lily, no!” I cried as Maris panned the scene from prey to predator. Tallulah’s eyes burned with fervor, the object of her desire so close now.
To my revulsion, Maris yelled, “Action!”
Hesitating just a second beside a paper birch, Lily draped her hand gently around its trunk and negotiated her first steps down the eroding embankment to the rock. She seemed to know Tallulah was there, but she didn’t look for her. Instead, her eyes scanned the great expanse of water between herself and Basswood. My pain worsened when I realized she was searching for me. If she thought I was going to rescue her, I would betray those hopes. Even if I could get free, I had to assume Maris would attack.
Lily pinched her lips together and looked up at the sky. The rain came down harder, soaking through her dress and plastering her hair to her face. There were no sailboats on the lake. She knew no one would see her go in. Still, she walked with controlled, steady steps across the rock. Only once did her bare feet turn on the uneven surface. Within seconds she reached the end and curled her toes around the edge of the cliff. Tallulah nodded approvingly and swam closer.
“Very dramatic,” Tallulah said. “It’s fitting. I thought you might simply wade in.”
“I thought of that,” Lily said, still staring over Tallulah’s head. “I thought about wading out like the Passamaquoddy Indian girls. But …”
I finished her thought. Leaping from the rock appealed to her poetic side. And something more: she hoped I’d know where to look for her.
“Calder won’t save you,” Tallulah said.
“Won’t or can’t?”
“I don’t see the difference.”
For the first time, Lily looked down and glared at Tallulah. I had never seen such ferocity in Lily’s eyes, and for a moment I wondered if Tallulah had met her match. But then Lily’s equilibrium faltered, and she swayed. She caught herself from falling and stiffened her legs against any doubt she might have about jumping. A second later, I could see her mind go blank. She was no longer thinking of jumping off the cliff, or of anything she was leaving behind. The muscles in her jaw flexed.
“Time’s up, Calder,” Maris said from where she watched, her voice a combination of incredulity and mirth.
I strained against the mesh and did not shrink from the knots that tore my flesh. Thrashing and contorting, I wrestled with the net, which jerked upward and sliced my skin, scattering scales into the water like a shower of silver coins.
“Don’t do this!” I raged.
“I don’t have a choice,” Lily replied, although it must have been in response to her own thoughts.
“No, you don’t,” Tallulah said. “Not really.”
“You do,” I whispered. “You always have a choice.”
“Come to me,” Tallulah said, her voice a seduction.
“If I do, that will save my dad?” Lily asked.
“I promise,” said Tallulah.
“And Calder will be free?”
“If he still wishes.”
With a gasp, Lily stepped off the edge—as easily as stepping through a doorway. Her hair streamed skyward as her body plunged. Her arms drew up alongside her ears, her toes pointed. She hit the water like an arrow, and the black water consumed her.
Tallulah dove, and now I watched L
ily from my two sisters’ perspectives. Feathery particles floated like an underwater solar system as Maris lurked in the weeds and Tallulah counted out the seconds for Lily to run out of air. The bleakness of Tallulah’s mind shrouded my heart. Like never before, I felt how low she’d fallen—how far my rejection had depleted her emotional tank. Tallulah was on empty, and Lily promised to fill her beyond measure.
None of us had ever witnessed a martyr’s death before. Lily projected colors I’d never seen. Mesmerizing. Glorious. Unearthly. They intoxicated me, enraptured Tallulah, and lured Maris out of her hiding place. Tallulah sensed Maris encroaching on her prey, and she unleashed a feral snarl. “Stay away!” she screamed. “The girl is mine to finish.”
A hissing sound rattled through Maris’s chest. Tallulah bared her teeth and lunged for Lily, sleek and quick like the oily snakes of legend. Together, they rocketed to the surface, and Lily gasped for air before Tallulah flipped and dragged her down again into a death spiral.
“Are you watching, Calder?” Maris seethed as she slunk back into the weeds, her mind writhing with jealousy as Tallulah clutched the glowing Lily to her chest. “This is what happens when you betray your family.”
Another second passed, and Lily was as good as dead. Maris’s imagination flashed ahead to what she assumed would be my and Tallulah’s affectionate reunion. Maris had no intention of sticking around to witness that. With Lily’s sacrifice complete, there was no reason for her to stay. Besides, watching Tallulah had triggered her appetite. Maris took off in search of Pavati.
The vibrations of Maris’s retreat found me where I lay imprisoned, but I couldn’t be bothered with her final thoughts. My mind was focused on Tallulah and the precious life between her hands. Heat flooded my body as Tallulah’s mind whirled into a crazed obsession, overflowing with the thrill of the kill. She tightened her grip on Lily’s chest as she prepared to absorb that vibrant rainbow of martyrdom.
“You are nothing,” Tallulah said, though Lily could not hear her thoughts. “Meaningless. Unworthy.”