Elegy by Amanda Hocking
With her hand still buried in Gemma’s hair, she tried to pull Gemma up with her. But Gemma slipped beneath, so Penn’s talon sliced sharply across her neck and chest as she jerked away.
Gemma twisted around, yanking Penn’s arm into an unnatural position. Clumps of her hair and scalp were tearing way, but she’d finally put enough distance between Penn and herself that she could turn and bite Penn’s forearm, sinking her razor teeth in the sensitive part just above the wrist, tearing through the tendons and cracking into bone.
Penn howled and finally released her, and Gemma took off, swimming as fast as she could toward the shore. She didn’t really have a plan for when she got there. She just knew she had to get away from Penn if she wanted to live to see another day.
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She could feel Penn chasing after, but she didn’t look back. She pushed herself onward, letting her arms change back into their human form. The smaller hands worked better to paddle, to help her swim faster, than the long, sticklike fingers.
The water was getting shallower. She could see the first rays of light breaking the surface and shining bright blue to the bottom. The beach wasn’t far off.
And then she felt Penn’s teeth tearing through the flipper of her tail. She glanced back long enough to see that Penn had torn it right off, and a thick stream of blood poured out from the gaping wound where her flippers should be.
Gemma pushed, though much more slowly without the tail; and then she was so close, it was barely deep enough to swim anyway. The rocks at the bottom scraped against her belly, and she pulled herself forward.
As she came out of the water, she was actually crawling up, pulling herself onto land with hands and elbows digging into the sand. Realizing how slowly she was going, she knew she couldn’t outrun Penn, and she was wasting her strength.
Gemma rolled over onto her back, the cold sand sticking to her, and tried to catch her breath. Then Penn’s head appeared over her, the sunrise backlighting her face so it was impossible to read her expression, even when Gemma squinted at her.
Then Penn laughed and rolled away. Gemma pushed herself up, so she could see what was going on. Penn just lay on the beach next to her, with her face fully healed and an odd smile on her face.
The waves were lapping up to their belly buttons, so both of their tails were still in place, submerged in the shallows. Gemma could feel hers tingling and fluttering, but she wasn’t sure if that was because her tail was trying to shift back into a leg or because it was hurrying to regrow its fin.
“Too easy,” Penn said, as Gemma stared down at her in confusion.
“Too easy?”
“You fought harder than I thought you would, I’ll admit that,” Penn said with a sigh. “But that’s not saying much. ”
“Why didn’t you kill me?” Gemma asked.
Penn looked up at her. “Did you want me to?”
“I just don’t understand why you wouldn’t. ” Gemma shook her head in disbelief. “You hate me, and you killed your sisters Aglaope and Ligea, not to mention Lexi. You even killed your own father. ”
Penn narrowed her eyes. “How did you know about Achelous?”
“Lexi told me,” Gemma lied.
There would be no way for Penn to fact-check that, and Lexi had told her that Achelous was dead. She couldn’t tell Penn about Diana, not so much because she didn’t want Penn to kill the goddess, but because in a rage, Penn might take out Lydia and Marcy, too. Her vengeance didn’t always make sense.
“My father was a selfish, narcissistic man whore. ” Penn closed her eyes, apparently satisfied with Gemma’s answer, and she folded her arms behind her head. Her tail flapped languidly through the water. “He deserved what he got. ”
“That still doesn’t explain why you didn’t kill me,” Gemma said.
Penn waited a minute before quietly saying, “I promised Daniel I wouldn’t. ”
Gemma knew that was true, but she was surprised that Penn was actually holding up her end of the bargain. Especially after Gemma had antagonized her.
“Are you in love with him?” Gemma asked.
“Love is a bullshit human emotion. ”
“He doesn’t love you,” Gemma said, and she wasn’t even sure why she did. Maybe in defense of her sister Harper, whom Daniel really did love, or maybe just so Penn would know that she hadn’t won.
“He can’t love me,” Penn corrected her. “But there might be a way around it. If that stupid Alex kid loves you, there has to be a way for me. ”
“You can command someone to do anything except love you, Penn. Alex’s love is real, just like Daniel’s love for Harper. How could he ever love something as awful as you?”
Penn went on, undeterred. “I have my ideas. ”
“Has anyone ever loved you in your whole entire life?”
“You’ve got me all figured out now, don’t you, Gemma? Mommy didn’t love me. Daddy didn’t hug me enough. If only you could just understand me, then I’d give up my life of evil and save the world. ” Penn glared at her and scooted back onto the beach, pulling her tail out of the water.
“It’s all a load of crap, Gemma. Do you know why I’m going after Daniel, why I’m going to have sex with him, and why I’ll eventually tear out his heart?”
“Because you can?” Gemma asked, as Penn’s tail shifted back into her long legs.
She’d been wearing what appeared to be a tight tank top, but when Penn stood up, pulling the wet fabric down past her hips, Gemma realized it was a minidress.
“That’s right. ” Penn flashed a dazzling smile and bent over, so her face was level with the still-sitting Gemma. “And I love it. The one thing in life I still enjoy is the hunt. Chasing down what I want at any cost and getting it. And then just throwing it away once I’ve had my fill. ”
“That’s an empty way to live, Penn. ”
“Oh, fuck off, Gemma. ” Penn rolled her eyes and stood up. “Like I care what you think. You think Alex is a catch. And I don’t care where you went today. It was probably a quilting bee, knowing you and your stupid friends. ”
“You know me, and how much I love quilting,” Gemma muttered.
“Right now, I want Daniel, and he wants me to keep you safe. So I will. But how much longer do you really think I’ll be interested him? Hmm?” Penn waggled her eyebrows. “And then your human shield will be all gone, all chewed up. And I’ll really show you how to behave. ”
Penn turned and walked up the beach, away from the rising sun, and left Gemma alone in the sand to nurse her wounds.
THIRTY-SIX
Accession
After the visit with Diana, Harper was in surprisingly good spirits. It would’ve been much easier and better if she’d just come out and told them how to break the curse, but she’d given them a couple of big clues that hinted to things Harper already suspected.
1. The curse is in the ink.
2. If they killed Penn, then they wouldn’t need to break the curse.
She knew something was up with the ink. She just didn’t know exactly what that meant or how to use it to her advantage. But she was certain that if she studied it more, maybe with the help of Professor Pine and Lydia, they’d be able to come up with something.
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Killing Penn would be easier said than done, but still Harper felt rejuvenated. They were closer to breaking the curse than they had been before, and that was something, at least.
After they’d finally gotten home, Gemma had gone out for a much-needed swim, and Harper had gone to bed. When she woke up, she’d e-mailed teachers and classmates to try to get her homework and notes from the two days of classes she’d missed.
Gemma woke up much later in the day, and when Harper tried to talk to her about ways to kill Penn or destroy the ink, Gemma didn’t seem interested in the conversation at all.
“Don’t you have homework or something?” Gemma asked, after Harper had been grilling her
for a while about why she wasn’t more excited about their latest findings. Gemma had been rooting through the fridge, looking for something to eat, and Harper leaned against the counter, watching her.
“I do, but it’s Labor Day on Monday, so I have a three-day weekend to get everything done. ”
“Then we have three more days to try to figure this all out. ” Gemma settled on a packet of the deli-sliced roast beef that her dad used for his lunches, eating it plain. “Why don’t you relax or study or something right now?”
With that, Gemma turned and walked away, saying she was going over to Alex’s as she went out to the front door.
Harper shook her head and decided to check in with outside help. Lydia had mentioned that Professor Pine was consulting an expert about the scroll. She had his number in her phone, but she’d gotten it from Lydia, not Pine personally, so she felt a bit weird about calling him.
But she quickly got over it. She was stumped, and he might know something.
It seemed to ring forever, but then he finally picked up, his voice sounding tinny and oddly far away.
“Hi, this is Harper Fisher,” she said. “Sorry to call you. I know it’s a bit unorthodox, but I just—”
Pine cut her off with an easy laugh. “No, don’t worry about it. I planned on calling you soon. I’m actually working your, uh, case right now. ”
“Yeah, Lydia Panning told me you were consulting someone. ”
“I’m visiting someone, actually. I’m in Macedonia right now, with the copies you gave me. ”
“What? Macedonia?” Harper asked, which explained the strange sound in their connection.
“Yeah, I have a friend out here who is really great at translating dead languages, and we’re definitely making some headway,” Pine explained.
“Really? That’s fantastic. ”
“I’m flying back on Monday, and I was hoping to have some real concrete answers for you then,” Pine said. “Do you want to come and see me Tuesday?”
Harper glanced over at the calendar hanging next to the fridge, as if seeing it would make Tuesday feel any closer. “There’s no way we could talk sooner?”
“Lydia and I have been going back and forth about some of the translations, and although it doesn’t seem like much, I need the extra few days to hammer out as much as I can,” he said.
“No, I understand,” Harper said, but she decided to press her luck anyway. “Can I ask what you and Lydia are disagreeing about?”
“Just phrasing here and there, like whether the word is ‘cursed’ or ‘granted,’” Pine said, then something occurred to him, because he asked, “Do you know if the sirens are connected to Jason or the Argonauts?”
“Not really. ” She tried to think quickly. “According to mythology, I think the Argonauts sailed past the sirens on their journey, but they put wax in their ears and withstood the song. But Gemma’s never said anything about them, or Thea and Penn talking about them. Why?”
“I knew that Jason and the Argonauts went on a quest for the golden fleece and sailed by the sirens, and like you, I didn’t think they had any real interaction with them,” he said.
“Do you think that Jason and the Argonauts had something to do with the curse?” Harper asked, and she was already scrambling to remember if Lydia had mentioned anything about their being alive or not.
“Not exactly. ” He let out breath through his teeth. “Not at all, actually. I think there might be a mention of ‘golden fleece’ in the scroll, and the most famous connection to the golden fleece is the Argonauts.
“But that’s what Lydia and I are disagreeing on,” Pine said. “She thinks the word might actually be ‘skin,’ and not ‘fleece,’ since back in the day, people sometimes referred to the wool on a ram as his skin. And if it’s ‘golden skin,’ that could just be a reference to the sirens’ beauty. ”
“Are you sure?” Harper asked.
Pine laughed. “No. I’m not sure about any of this. But on this thing, since there’s no other mention of the Argonauts, I think Lydia is probably right. We are making progress, and honestly, in a perfect world, we’d have longer than a weekend to go over this. ”
“Yeah, of course. Sorry. ” Harper pushed her hair off her forehead and nodded. “If you want to wait until Tuesday to talk, that’d be fine. ”
“Great. I should be a bit more sure of things by then,” he said. “So I’ll see—”
“Is there anything about the ink?” Harper asked, interrupting him before he got off the phone.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Does the scroll say anything about the ink it’s written in?”
“Um, not really,” Pine answered slowly. “I’ll be on the lookout for it, though. ”
“I think the ink might be important,” Harper said, not wanting to explain to him about Diana or what she’d said. She didn’t know how much Pine knew about what was happening, but she didn’t want to drag him deeper into the mess than he needed to be.
“If I find anything about the ink before Tuesday, I’ll give you a call, okay?” Pine offered.
“Yeah. That sounds great,” Harper said. “And thanks again. ”
“Are you kidding me?” He laughed. “I live for this stuff. ”
Harper hung up her phone and stared down at the unchanging scroll in front of her. She knew she could sit staring at it for hours, and nothing would come of it. Soon, she found her thoughts wandering back to the one place she’d been trying to keep them from the last two days—Daniel.
Since she’d left his place on Wednesday night, she hadn’t spoken to him. It wasn’t just that she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t even know how she really felt. It hurt, and she was definitely still mad at him … but deep down, she still loved him, and it didn’t feel right leaving things like she had.
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She didn’t know if he’d already slept with Penn or if there was still time to talk him out of it. She didn’t even know if he was still alive, and it was that thought that sent her into motion.
Talking on the phone wouldn’t be enough. She needed to see him, so she took the little speedboat out to his island. The whole time, as the sun shone down on her, and the seawater sprayed over her, Harper tried to practice what she wanted to say, and she kept insisting that she wouldn’t forgive and forget so easily.
But when she knocked on his door, and Daniel finally opened it, all her words and convictions fell away. She was still mad at him, but she missed him so much, it took all her willpower to keep from throwing her arms around him.
He wore his old Led Zeppelin T-shirt with Icarus on it, and the thick lines of his tattoo stretched out past the sleeve as he held the door open. His stubble seemed a bit longer than normal, and the flecks of blue in his hazel eyes stood out like sapphires.
“Hey. I wasn’t expecting you,” Daniel said after the two of them had stood mute, staring at each other for a full minute.
“I know. I thought about calling first but … I didn’t. ”
“Yeah, I can see that. Come on in. ” He stepped back from the door and motioned for her to enter.
When she walked by, she made a deliberate choice to put as much space between the two of them as she could. She walked into the kitchen but stopped before going into the living room. The couch looked comfortable, too easy to sit on, and it would be so easy fall into his arms again, the way she had a hundred times before.
He stayed a step behind her, giving her room, and when she turned around to face him, he had his hands in his back pockets.
“I just want to say that my being here right now doesn’t mean anything,” Harper said.
“Okay?”
“We’re not back together, and I’m still mad at you. ” She said that, but she couldn’t look at him when she did.
“I thought you still would be. ” He paused. “You should be. ”
“I know. And I am. ”
> “So…” He shifted his weight between his feet. “We are broken up then?”
She chewed her lip, unsure of how to answer that. “I don’t know. Maybe. ”
“Okay. ”
“I don’t want you to have sex with Penn,” she blurted out. “The very thought of it makes me physically ill. ” Even saying it made her stomach lurch, and she pressed her hand to it in the hope that would ease the nausea.
“I know. Me, too,” he said, and by the pallor of his skin and the hurt in his eyes, she believed him.
“I know why you’re doing it, and I understand and respect that. And I love it about you that you would be willing to do anything to protect me and my sister. ” She stepped closer to him but stopped short before she got too close. “It means a lot to me, honestly. ”
“I just don’t want to let anything bad happen to you. ” He shrugged helplessly. “I can’t. ”
“The fact that you didn’t tell me or even discuss this with me beforehand…” Tears threatened again, and she blinked them back and pressed on. “That is unforgivable, Daniel. You did something to us, and you didn’t consult me. ”
He lowered his eyes. “I know. I screwed up, Harper. I really did, and I know it. ”
“Are you still planning to sleep with her?” And then, around the thick lump in her throat, she asked, “Have you slept with her?”
“No, I haven’t,” he replied quickly, and shook his head. “Not yet. But the deal’s still in place. ”
“If this was like a one-time thing, and then we’d be free of her forever, I would understand. ” Harper chose her words carefully. “If you could just pay her off by having sex with her once, it might be worth it. But you know as soon as you do, she’s either going to kill you or me or Gemma or make you have sex with her again, or all of the above. ”
He let out a long breath, then lifted his eyes to meet Harper’s. “She’s extended the agreement. ”
And she actually felt her heart drop, like it slipped free from her chest and plummeted into some deep, dark cavern below.
“What do you mean?” Harper asked.
Daniel rubbed the back of his neck and took a moment to answer. “After we have sex—if she likes it—she wants to turn me into a siren. ”
“But…” She shook her head. “You’re a guy. ”
“That’s what I said. But Penn seems to think it’ll be possible. ”
“Is she sure?”
“She thinks she is. ” He nodded. “I don’t know if she’s delusional or insane or what, but she believes that it’ll work. That I could become a siren and join her for the rest of eternity. ”
Harper clasped her hands together, pushing them hard against her stomach, to keep from them trembling. “And you’ve agreed to that?”
“The deal is that she would kill Liv, and I would replace her,” Daniel explained. “We’d leave as soon as I became a siren, and I’d go with Gemma. I’d be able to stay with her and protect her, and we’d be far away from you and everyone in Capri. I would be alive, and everyone I care about would live. ”
Gemma twisted around, yanking Penn’s arm into an unnatural position. Clumps of her hair and scalp were tearing way, but she’d finally put enough distance between Penn and herself that she could turn and bite Penn’s forearm, sinking her razor teeth in the sensitive part just above the wrist, tearing through the tendons and cracking into bone.
Penn howled and finally released her, and Gemma took off, swimming as fast as she could toward the shore. She didn’t really have a plan for when she got there. She just knew she had to get away from Penn if she wanted to live to see another day.
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She could feel Penn chasing after, but she didn’t look back. She pushed herself onward, letting her arms change back into their human form. The smaller hands worked better to paddle, to help her swim faster, than the long, sticklike fingers.
The water was getting shallower. She could see the first rays of light breaking the surface and shining bright blue to the bottom. The beach wasn’t far off.
And then she felt Penn’s teeth tearing through the flipper of her tail. She glanced back long enough to see that Penn had torn it right off, and a thick stream of blood poured out from the gaping wound where her flippers should be.
Gemma pushed, though much more slowly without the tail; and then she was so close, it was barely deep enough to swim anyway. The rocks at the bottom scraped against her belly, and she pulled herself forward.
As she came out of the water, she was actually crawling up, pulling herself onto land with hands and elbows digging into the sand. Realizing how slowly she was going, she knew she couldn’t outrun Penn, and she was wasting her strength.
Gemma rolled over onto her back, the cold sand sticking to her, and tried to catch her breath. Then Penn’s head appeared over her, the sunrise backlighting her face so it was impossible to read her expression, even when Gemma squinted at her.
Then Penn laughed and rolled away. Gemma pushed herself up, so she could see what was going on. Penn just lay on the beach next to her, with her face fully healed and an odd smile on her face.
The waves were lapping up to their belly buttons, so both of their tails were still in place, submerged in the shallows. Gemma could feel hers tingling and fluttering, but she wasn’t sure if that was because her tail was trying to shift back into a leg or because it was hurrying to regrow its fin.
“Too easy,” Penn said, as Gemma stared down at her in confusion.
“Too easy?”
“You fought harder than I thought you would, I’ll admit that,” Penn said with a sigh. “But that’s not saying much. ”
“Why didn’t you kill me?” Gemma asked.
Penn looked up at her. “Did you want me to?”
“I just don’t understand why you wouldn’t. ” Gemma shook her head in disbelief. “You hate me, and you killed your sisters Aglaope and Ligea, not to mention Lexi. You even killed your own father. ”
Penn narrowed her eyes. “How did you know about Achelous?”
“Lexi told me,” Gemma lied.
There would be no way for Penn to fact-check that, and Lexi had told her that Achelous was dead. She couldn’t tell Penn about Diana, not so much because she didn’t want Penn to kill the goddess, but because in a rage, Penn might take out Lydia and Marcy, too. Her vengeance didn’t always make sense.
“My father was a selfish, narcissistic man whore. ” Penn closed her eyes, apparently satisfied with Gemma’s answer, and she folded her arms behind her head. Her tail flapped languidly through the water. “He deserved what he got. ”
“That still doesn’t explain why you didn’t kill me,” Gemma said.
Penn waited a minute before quietly saying, “I promised Daniel I wouldn’t. ”
Gemma knew that was true, but she was surprised that Penn was actually holding up her end of the bargain. Especially after Gemma had antagonized her.
“Are you in love with him?” Gemma asked.
“Love is a bullshit human emotion. ”
“He doesn’t love you,” Gemma said, and she wasn’t even sure why she did. Maybe in defense of her sister Harper, whom Daniel really did love, or maybe just so Penn would know that she hadn’t won.
“He can’t love me,” Penn corrected her. “But there might be a way around it. If that stupid Alex kid loves you, there has to be a way for me. ”
“You can command someone to do anything except love you, Penn. Alex’s love is real, just like Daniel’s love for Harper. How could he ever love something as awful as you?”
Penn went on, undeterred. “I have my ideas. ”
“Has anyone ever loved you in your whole entire life?”
“You’ve got me all figured out now, don’t you, Gemma? Mommy didn’t love me. Daddy didn’t hug me enough. If only you could just understand me, then I’d give up my life of evil and save the world. ” Penn glared at her and scooted back onto the beach, pulling her tail out of the water.
“It’s all a load of crap, Gemma. Do you know why I’m going after Daniel, why I’m going to have sex with him, and why I’ll eventually tear out his heart?”
“Because you can?” Gemma asked, as Penn’s tail shifted back into her long legs.
She’d been wearing what appeared to be a tight tank top, but when Penn stood up, pulling the wet fabric down past her hips, Gemma realized it was a minidress.
“That’s right. ” Penn flashed a dazzling smile and bent over, so her face was level with the still-sitting Gemma. “And I love it. The one thing in life I still enjoy is the hunt. Chasing down what I want at any cost and getting it. And then just throwing it away once I’ve had my fill. ”
“That’s an empty way to live, Penn. ”
“Oh, fuck off, Gemma. ” Penn rolled her eyes and stood up. “Like I care what you think. You think Alex is a catch. And I don’t care where you went today. It was probably a quilting bee, knowing you and your stupid friends. ”
“You know me, and how much I love quilting,” Gemma muttered.
“Right now, I want Daniel, and he wants me to keep you safe. So I will. But how much longer do you really think I’ll be interested him? Hmm?” Penn waggled her eyebrows. “And then your human shield will be all gone, all chewed up. And I’ll really show you how to behave. ”
Penn turned and walked up the beach, away from the rising sun, and left Gemma alone in the sand to nurse her wounds.
THIRTY-SIX
Accession
After the visit with Diana, Harper was in surprisingly good spirits. It would’ve been much easier and better if she’d just come out and told them how to break the curse, but she’d given them a couple of big clues that hinted to things Harper already suspected.
1. The curse is in the ink.
2. If they killed Penn, then they wouldn’t need to break the curse.
She knew something was up with the ink. She just didn’t know exactly what that meant or how to use it to her advantage. But she was certain that if she studied it more, maybe with the help of Professor Pine and Lydia, they’d be able to come up with something.
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Killing Penn would be easier said than done, but still Harper felt rejuvenated. They were closer to breaking the curse than they had been before, and that was something, at least.
After they’d finally gotten home, Gemma had gone out for a much-needed swim, and Harper had gone to bed. When she woke up, she’d e-mailed teachers and classmates to try to get her homework and notes from the two days of classes she’d missed.
Gemma woke up much later in the day, and when Harper tried to talk to her about ways to kill Penn or destroy the ink, Gemma didn’t seem interested in the conversation at all.
“Don’t you have homework or something?” Gemma asked, after Harper had been grilling her
“I do, but it’s Labor Day on Monday, so I have a three-day weekend to get everything done. ”
“Then we have three more days to try to figure this all out. ” Gemma settled on a packet of the deli-sliced roast beef that her dad used for his lunches, eating it plain. “Why don’t you relax or study or something right now?”
With that, Gemma turned and walked away, saying she was going over to Alex’s as she went out to the front door.
Harper shook her head and decided to check in with outside help. Lydia had mentioned that Professor Pine was consulting an expert about the scroll. She had his number in her phone, but she’d gotten it from Lydia, not Pine personally, so she felt a bit weird about calling him.
But she quickly got over it. She was stumped, and he might know something.
It seemed to ring forever, but then he finally picked up, his voice sounding tinny and oddly far away.
“Hi, this is Harper Fisher,” she said. “Sorry to call you. I know it’s a bit unorthodox, but I just—”
Pine cut her off with an easy laugh. “No, don’t worry about it. I planned on calling you soon. I’m actually working your, uh, case right now. ”
“Yeah, Lydia Panning told me you were consulting someone. ”
“I’m visiting someone, actually. I’m in Macedonia right now, with the copies you gave me. ”
“What? Macedonia?” Harper asked, which explained the strange sound in their connection.
“Yeah, I have a friend out here who is really great at translating dead languages, and we’re definitely making some headway,” Pine explained.
“Really? That’s fantastic. ”
“I’m flying back on Monday, and I was hoping to have some real concrete answers for you then,” Pine said. “Do you want to come and see me Tuesday?”
Harper glanced over at the calendar hanging next to the fridge, as if seeing it would make Tuesday feel any closer. “There’s no way we could talk sooner?”
“Lydia and I have been going back and forth about some of the translations, and although it doesn’t seem like much, I need the extra few days to hammer out as much as I can,” he said.
“No, I understand,” Harper said, but she decided to press her luck anyway. “Can I ask what you and Lydia are disagreeing about?”
“Just phrasing here and there, like whether the word is ‘cursed’ or ‘granted,’” Pine said, then something occurred to him, because he asked, “Do you know if the sirens are connected to Jason or the Argonauts?”
“Not really. ” She tried to think quickly. “According to mythology, I think the Argonauts sailed past the sirens on their journey, but they put wax in their ears and withstood the song. But Gemma’s never said anything about them, or Thea and Penn talking about them. Why?”
“I knew that Jason and the Argonauts went on a quest for the golden fleece and sailed by the sirens, and like you, I didn’t think they had any real interaction with them,” he said.
“Do you think that Jason and the Argonauts had something to do with the curse?” Harper asked, and she was already scrambling to remember if Lydia had mentioned anything about their being alive or not.
“Not exactly. ” He let out breath through his teeth. “Not at all, actually. I think there might be a mention of ‘golden fleece’ in the scroll, and the most famous connection to the golden fleece is the Argonauts.
“But that’s what Lydia and I are disagreeing on,” Pine said. “She thinks the word might actually be ‘skin,’ and not ‘fleece,’ since back in the day, people sometimes referred to the wool on a ram as his skin. And if it’s ‘golden skin,’ that could just be a reference to the sirens’ beauty. ”
“Are you sure?” Harper asked.
Pine laughed. “No. I’m not sure about any of this. But on this thing, since there’s no other mention of the Argonauts, I think Lydia is probably right. We are making progress, and honestly, in a perfect world, we’d have longer than a weekend to go over this. ”
“Yeah, of course. Sorry. ” Harper pushed her hair off her forehead and nodded. “If you want to wait until Tuesday to talk, that’d be fine. ”
“Great. I should be a bit more sure of things by then,” he said. “So I’ll see—”
“Is there anything about the ink?” Harper asked, interrupting him before he got off the phone.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Does the scroll say anything about the ink it’s written in?”
“Um, not really,” Pine answered slowly. “I’ll be on the lookout for it, though. ”
“I think the ink might be important,” Harper said, not wanting to explain to him about Diana or what she’d said. She didn’t know how much Pine knew about what was happening, but she didn’t want to drag him deeper into the mess than he needed to be.
“If I find anything about the ink before Tuesday, I’ll give you a call, okay?” Pine offered.
“Yeah. That sounds great,” Harper said. “And thanks again. ”
“Are you kidding me?” He laughed. “I live for this stuff. ”
Harper hung up her phone and stared down at the unchanging scroll in front of her. She knew she could sit staring at it for hours, and nothing would come of it. Soon, she found her thoughts wandering back to the one place she’d been trying to keep them from the last two days—Daniel.
Since she’d left his place on Wednesday night, she hadn’t spoken to him. It wasn’t just that she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t even know how she really felt. It hurt, and she was definitely still mad at him … but deep down, she still loved him, and it didn’t feel right leaving things like she had.
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She didn’t know if he’d already slept with Penn or if there was still time to talk him out of it. She didn’t even know if he was still alive, and it was that thought that sent her into motion.
Talking on the phone wouldn’t be enough. She needed to see him, so she took the little speedboat out to his island. The whole time, as the sun shone down on her, and the seawater sprayed over her, Harper tried to practice what she wanted to say, and she kept insisting that she wouldn’t forgive and forget so easily.
But when she knocked on his door, and Daniel finally opened it, all her words and convictions fell away. She was still mad at him, but she missed him so much, it took all her willpower to keep from throwing her arms around him.
He wore his old Led Zeppelin T-shirt with Icarus on it, and the thick lines of his tattoo stretched out past the sleeve as he held the door open. His stubble seemed a bit longer than normal, and the flecks of blue in his hazel eyes stood out like sapphires.
“Hey. I wasn’t expecting you,” Daniel said after the two of them had stood mute, staring at each other for a full minute.
“I know. I thought about calling first but … I didn’t. ”
“Yeah, I can see that. Come on in. ” He stepped back from the door and motioned for her to enter.
When she walked by, she made a deliberate choice to put as much space between the two of them as she could. She walked into the kitchen but stopped before going into the living room. The couch looked comfortable, too easy to sit on, and it would be so easy fall into his arms again, the way she had a hundred times before.
He stayed a step behind her, giving her room, and when she turned around to face him, he had his hands in his back pockets.
“I just want to say that my being here right now doesn’t mean anything,” Harper said.
“Okay?”
“We’re not back together, and I’m still mad at you. ” She said that, but she couldn’t look at him when she did.
“I thought you still would be. ” He paused. “You should be. ”
“I know. And I am. ”
She chewed her lip, unsure of how to answer that. “I don’t know. Maybe. ”
“Okay. ”
“I don’t want you to have sex with Penn,” she blurted out. “The very thought of it makes me physically ill. ” Even saying it made her stomach lurch, and she pressed her hand to it in the hope that would ease the nausea.
“I know. Me, too,” he said, and by the pallor of his skin and the hurt in his eyes, she believed him.
“I know why you’re doing it, and I understand and respect that. And I love it about you that you would be willing to do anything to protect me and my sister. ” She stepped closer to him but stopped short before she got too close. “It means a lot to me, honestly. ”
“I just don’t want to let anything bad happen to you. ” He shrugged helplessly. “I can’t. ”
“The fact that you didn’t tell me or even discuss this with me beforehand…” Tears threatened again, and she blinked them back and pressed on. “That is unforgivable, Daniel. You did something to us, and you didn’t consult me. ”
He lowered his eyes. “I know. I screwed up, Harper. I really did, and I know it. ”
“Are you still planning to sleep with her?” And then, around the thick lump in her throat, she asked, “Have you slept with her?”
“No, I haven’t,” he replied quickly, and shook his head. “Not yet. But the deal’s still in place. ”
“If this was like a one-time thing, and then we’d be free of her forever, I would understand. ” Harper chose her words carefully. “If you could just pay her off by having sex with her once, it might be worth it. But you know as soon as you do, she’s either going to kill you or me or Gemma or make you have sex with her again, or all of the above. ”
He let out a long breath, then lifted his eyes to meet Harper’s. “She’s extended the agreement. ”
And she actually felt her heart drop, like it slipped free from her chest and plummeted into some deep, dark cavern below.
“What do you mean?” Harper asked.
Daniel rubbed the back of his neck and took a moment to answer. “After we have sex—if she likes it—she wants to turn me into a siren. ”
“But…” She shook her head. “You’re a guy. ”
“That’s what I said. But Penn seems to think it’ll be possible. ”
“Is she sure?”
“She thinks she is. ” He nodded. “I don’t know if she’s delusional or insane or what, but she believes that it’ll work. That I could become a siren and join her for the rest of eternity. ”
Harper clasped her hands together, pushing them hard against her stomach, to keep from them trembling. “And you’ve agreed to that?”
“The deal is that she would kill Liv, and I would replace her,” Daniel explained. “We’d leave as soon as I became a siren, and I’d go with Gemma. I’d be able to stay with her and protect her, and we’d be far away from you and everyone in Capri. I would be alive, and everyone I care about would live. ”