Beyond the Sea (23 page)

If Jamie hadn’t been so shaken up, she would have praised Melia for using the word ‘democracy’.

“And he can help?”

“Yes. He won’t allow darklings in his area.”

“Darklings?”

“Darklings are what we call anything…anything bad.”

Jamie knew Melia was being elusive. “Ok,” she simply stated. That was enough information to digest for now. She turned on the radio and didn’t speak until they were in the familiarity of downtown San Morado.

“We’re over an hour away. Do you really think she will find me?” Jamie asked. The look Melia gave her told her everything. “Ok, so this spell. What should we do first?”

The first thing Melia did was disinfect the claw marks on Jamie’s ankle. They weren’t deep, but gwyrrds weren’t keen on keeping up with their hygiene. The antiseptic burned, and the tears hurt when Jamie flexed her ankle. This, unfortunately, meant that every step was painful. She hobbled behind Melia, following her down into the basement. Jamie knew there was a large, walk-in safe down there. She always assumed it was full of money, savings bonds, stock market papers, valuable paintings and expensive statues. Normal stuff rich people would keep hidden and safe.

She didn’t expect to find the remnants of Melia’s life as a merrow collecting dust on steel shelves. The items were no doubt valuable. Melia told Jamie that merrows liked to ‘collect’ things. Carefully, Jamie picked up a silver coin. She turned it over a few times, inspecting the markings before putting it back in the large wooden box that housed probably a hundred more coins. Next to it sat an even larger box filled with large, gold coins. The shelf above held dozens of ancient pieces of pottery. There was a handful of jewels, several old swords (and one shiny dagger), a few pieces of clothing, jewelry, silverware and drift wood. A pretty floral patterned vase, its pattern chipping away, was full of shells. Jamie felt a wave of sadness when she thought of what Melia’s life had been reduced to. Everything she found and valued as a merrow had to be hidden away in the family vault.

Jamie picked up an ivory chess piece. A museum would kill to get their hands on this.

“Here it is,” Melia said, pulling an old wooden trunk out from under the shelves. She opened the lid; inside reeked the smell of old books and ocean mixing together. “Since Oceanids don’t live underwater, they make friends with other ‘mythical creatures’. And since the others can’t go underwater to get treasures, they do a lot of trading.”

She set the books on the floor one by one, sorting through the lot until she saw what she was looking for. It was a large, brown, leather bound book. The binding was crackled and the pages had yellowed over time. She sat cross-legged on the floor, flipping through the brittle pages. “This. It says how to make an amulet.” She turned the book to Jamie.

“Uh, it’s not in English,” Jamie pointed out the obvious.

“Of course not.” Melia looked down at the page. “But I can translate.” She leaned close to the page. “The ingredient list isn’t too long.” She looked up at Jamie. “You’ve been reading your books, right?”

By books, Jamie knew Melia meant the spell books she had purchased at Barnes and Noble. She doubted they would come in handy. She nodded, nonetheless.

“I think we can find most of this in the kitchen,” Melia said, her voice hopeful. “We should get started right away.”

The doorbell rang. Both girls jumped. Jamie cast a fearful glance at Melia. Did gwyrrds ring doorbells?
“Peter,” Melia breathed, “Is coming over for dinner.” She closed the book. “Is it six o’clock already?”

“Yea,” Jamie told her, looking at her phone. “Time flies when you’re being hunted.”

“Stay. You can eat with us.”

“Melia, neither Charles nor your parents are here, and you don’t know how to cook. Peter isn’t coming over for
dinner
. Plus, I need to do homework.” Melia gave her a pained look. “And,” Jamie continued, standing up. “I need clothes for tomorrow.”

“You can wear mine, and one day of not doing homework is better than getting your soul sucked out.”

The color drained from Jamie’s face. “What?”

“That-that’s how they feed.”

“Oh.” Jamie suddenly felt like she was sinking. “Lovely.”

“So, you need to stay.” Melia led the way upstairs. Jamie hung back while Melia opened the door for Peter. She watched as Peter greeted his girlfriend with an enthusiastic hug and kiss. “Hang on,” Melia told Peter and scurried off to speak in a hushed voice to Jamie. It seemed they were debating something. He pet Wolfy while he tried not to eavesdrop. He overheard Melia saying something about it ‘not being safe’ and Jamie protesting that she needed ‘magic supplies’. He must have heard wrong.

“Text me when you get home,” Melia instructed. “I’ll be waiting. And if I don’t hear from you, I’m coming over.”

“Yes, Mom,” Jamie attempted to joke when she saw Peter looking at them. “I’ll be careful. I promise.” She smiled, said a quick hello/goodbye to Peter and fished her keys from her pocket and left. Melia put her head in her hands and sighed.

“Melia,” Peter’s voice came from in front of her. “Are you ok?”

She looked up into his beautiful, blue eyes. And everything felt a little better. “I am now.” She wrapped her arms around him. Peter hugged her tightly back, catching a glimpse of the large book that was precariously placed on the edge of the table in the foyer. He eyed it suspiciously before turning his attention back to Melia.

After eating dinner (Melia made frozen pizzas for the first time), Peter suggested they take a dip in the ocean. In fear of darklings, Melia regretfully suggested the pool instead.

“Is it usually this hot?” Melia asked, stepping onto the patio. She noticed the hungry look in Peter’s eyes when she dropped her towel, her body barely covered in a white bikini.

“No,” Peter told her, taking his shirt off. “This whole spring has been hotter than normal.”

“Oh,” Melia sighed, looking at the ocean. Weather changes, darklings…she was so anxious the cool pool water actually felt refreshing. It was better now that the pool was eco-friendly and not full of chlorine. Melia couldn’t stand being submerged in a pool full of chemicals. She dove underwater, sighing, and swam down to the bottom. She forgot how long a human can hold their breath for (one minute…five minutes?) so she quickly popped back up.

She and Peter settled on the steps. Melia extended her legs, allowing the water to carry her weight. Peter put his arm around her.

“I love you, Peter,” she told him.

“I love you too.” He kissed her. Melia turned, putting both arms around his shoulders. Peter easily moved her in the water so that she was sitting in his lap. Emotion flooded Melia’s veins. She was on Peter—kissing him—in the water. She smiled, thinking things might work out after all.

*

Jamie jumped at every little sound. She locked her bedroom door and turned on the TV. Wait, no, she should turn it off. She needed to be able to hear if anyone was trying to break in. No, she shook her head, TV is good. She turned up the volume and drew her blinds. She took off her muddy shorts and hesitated. She really wanted to shower.

The gwyrrd turned into water. Could she…
“No,” Jamie answered her question aloud. “Not possible.” Still, she took the fastest shower ever. She pulled her English book from her backpack. She tapped her pencil nervously on her notebook, not able to concentrate. She turned the TV off and forced herself to write the worst essay she’d ever written. Then she rushed through her math homework and attempted to study for a chemistry quiz. After fifteen minutes of being unable to think about anything but the gwyrrd’s razor sharp teeth, Jamie gave up and closed her book.

It was only seven forty-five. Her mother would be at work until eleven and Jill was God knows where doing God knows what. Jamie refilled her backpack with her school books and packed an overnight bag to bring to Melia’s. Lastly, she scraped up what little magic supplies she had.

A jar of black salt, a sage smudge stick, sandalwood incense, a handful of quartz crystals, white candles, Tarot cards and a tiger’s eye necklace. She put that, along with her magic books, in a duffle bag. Feeling like a bag lady, she hauled her items to her car.

The wind blew. Jamie’s heart skipped a beat. She jumped in her Jeep and slammed the door. Pulse racing, she waited. When nothing happened, she let out a breath and dashed back into the house. Melia hadn’t called her yet. Jamie thought about texting her instead but decided not to at the last minute, not wanting to intrude on the little time Melia was spending with Peter.

Jamie was happy that Melia was happy. She didn’t want to admit it to herself, but she shared the same fear that Nyneve had. She didn’t want to lose Melia to the ocean. She was her best, and presumably only, friend. She had opened up a whole new world to Jamie, and though that world was starting to reveal more darkness than Jamie imagined, she could never thank Melia enough for showing her what she had been missing. Jamie knew Melia didn’t feel whole on land. She never brought it up for fear of hearing something she didn’t want to. She also couldn’t shake the feeling that Melia was just waiting for something to happen before returning to the ocean.

But what? Graduate high school? Go to college? None of those things were important to Melia. Being with Peter seemed to fill Melia’s heart with what it was missing. She didn’t talk about what she missed as much. She didn’t get that faraway look in her eyes when she looked upon the water.

And then Jamie wondered if Melia would ever tell Peter the truth. She wondered what Peter would say, if he’d even believe her. Would he break up with her? Would he tell people? She hoped not but honestly couldn’t be sure. What if their relationship continued, and they got married and had kids? What would they look like? Then Peter would have to know.

Jamie shook her head; she had more important things to be thinking about. But thoughts of the gwyrrd just made Jamie anxious. Instead, she opted to go back to her room and get on her computer. She didn’t log on her Facebook page that often and was surprised to see three friend requests and one message. One was from Rosemary, another from CJ and the last was the most surprising of all.
 
She clicked ‘accept’ on all three but wasn’t as excited as she thought she’d be.

After dealing with mean photo comments and internet drama, Lacey had deleted her account. She said she’d never give in to the popular, social temptation again, but here she was, smiling in her profile picture. Curiously, Jamie clicked through her page, eager to learn about who Lacey had become.

She had lost a good fifty pounds, though she was still not as thin as Jamie. And she had makeup on, another thing she swore she’d never do. Nevertheless, Jamie smiled. Lacey looked happy and it seemed like she had a lot of friends. She browsed through her pictures and read her info. Lacey seemed so normal. There was nothing about adventure seeking or magic hunting.
It’s crazy,
Jamie thought,
how much someone can change.
She clicked back to her own page, looked at her profile picture of her and Melia at the Harry Potter theme park and sighed.

Then someone knocked on the door. Jamie froze. Was it the gwyrrd? Would she even bother knocking? Why didn’t they ring the doorbell? The sun had nearly set. Who would be coming over at this hour? She crawled across the hall into Jill’s room. Slowly, she lifted the mini blinds and peered outside. She held her breath as she waited.

A few seconds later, two men dressed in black suits walked down the driveway, carrying a flyer. Jamie laughed at herself and slumped against the wall. She didn’t like dealing with the church-recruiting type, but they were at least harmless.

Still, she didn’t want to be alone. Figuring she still had an hour before she’d hear from Melia, Jamie forced herself to calmly walk to her car and drive into town. A new coffee shop had recently opened up and she had yet to go there. She regretted it as soon as she walked in to the café. The place was haunted.

It was a residual haunting, but a haunting nonetheless. And she didn’t want to deal with it tonight. Groaning, Jamie mustered up the courage to walk to the counter and order a white chocolate mocha. She sat at a table up front, close to the doors. She pulled an encyclopedia of magical herbs from her bag and began reading.

It wasn’t long before she felt eyes on her. She looked up and jumped, sloshing her hot drink all over the table.

“Go away,” she whispered, unsure if the ghost could hear her. It was the ghost of a middle-aged man. He tipped his head and stared at Jamie, unspeaking. “Leave me alone!”
 
A couple sitting at a table to Jamie’s left looked at her, raising their eyebrows. When the ghost didn’t respond, Jamie looked back down at her book, tears blurring her eyes. She was scared. She was embarrassed. And she had no freaking clue what to do.

She gulped her too hot drink, burning her tongue and throat. She looked past the ghost at the photos hanging on the exposed brick walls. Each depicted a different piece of candy and each was for sale. They were highly priced and poorly done. Jamie bet she could paint one just as well, if not better, and would charge half of what the artist was asking.

With more caution, Jamie took another sip of her drink. She gathered her belongings and scooted past the ghost. She sat in her car until Melia called.

-Chapter 9-

“Is the water boiling?” Melia asked, looking up from the book.