Tidal (32 page)

“How do you know one of us wrote them?” Aggie asked reasonably. “These could be from the servants or any of Bastian’s old lovers. They could even be from his wife.”

“No, no, no.” Penn shook her head and knelt on the floor to tear through the letters. “This one. Here.” She held it out for Aggie to read.

“
Your siren song, it calls to me in the night. Even when I am with your sister, I assure you, I am thinking of you
,” Aggie said.

Internally, Thea winced, but she remained motionless. She and Bastian used to slip each other love notes under their bedroom doors. Thea would often carry his in the bodice of her dress so she could take them out and read them over and over again.

But in the process of making love, her dress often came off, and the notes would get lost or left behind. That one she’d apparently left in Bastian’s room after one of their trysts.

“See?” Penn asked, her eyes blazing. “One of you was trying to steal him from me!”

“Penn, even if one of us did sleep with him, and I’m not saying one of us did, I know that I have not,” Aggie said. “That means nothing. Bastian left you. He didn’t run off with one of your sisters. He left us all behind.”

“No.” Penn shook her head and got back up to her feet. “One of you drove him away. One of you was having an affair with him, and you scared him off. You went behind my back, and you chased away the man I love. One of you has to pay.”

“Penn, calm down,” Aggie said. “You don’t want to do anything rash.”

“Which one of you was it?” Penn shouted, ignoring Aggie. In fact, she wasn’t even looking at Aggie. She glared at Thea, and then at Gia.

Thea met her gaze evenly, her heart pounding so loudly in her ears that she heard nothing else. Penn’s eyes flitted over to Gia, who immediately lowered her eyes. She’d done nothing wrong—she simply cowered anytime Penn came at her.

But Penn took that as a sign of guilt.

“It was you!” Penn roared and ran at Gia. “You did this, didn’t you?”

“No, Penn, I would never—” Gia tried to argue with her, but Penn wrapped her hand around Gia’s throat and slammed her back into the wall.

“Penn!” Aggie got to her feet. “Stop it! Put her down!”

“She destroyed my only chance at happiness,” Penn growled. “And now I’m going to destroy her.”

Gia’s blue eyes were wide, and she pulled at Penn’s hand. By then Penn had already begun the transformation into the bird. Her legs were shifting underneath her gown, and she grew taller, with the feet and legs of an emu sticking out below.

Her arms were elongated, and her fingers had hooked talons at the ends. Her silky black hair thinned out as her head bulged and changed shape to adapt to the mouthful of fangs. The wings burst through the back of the dress, flapping as they unfurled and partially blocking Thea’s view.

Gia never changed, though. Her eyes stayed blue the entire time, so none of her shifted into the bird-monster that could’ve protected her.

Thea had many years to think on this day in the future, and she never came up with a satisfactory reason why Gia didn’t. There were only two reasons she could come up with. Perhaps Gia didn’t believe what was really happening. She didn’t think Penn would actually hurt her, so she didn’t want to defend herself and upset Penn more.

Or maybe Gia wanted to die. She’d never really wanted this life or belonged in it in the first place. So maybe she welcomed Penn’s reaction, and that was why she never fought back or betrayed Thea’s confidence.

With one quick motion, Penn reached in and ripped out Gia’s heart. Aggie screamed for her to stop, but it was already too late. Gia opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She just moved her lips soundlessly, like a fish underwater. When Penn began tearing off her head, Thea closed her eyes.

Thea lowered her head, but she still heard the sound—the tearing of flesh, the cracking of bone, and the wet thud as Gia’s head fell to the floor. Those would be the sounds she’d hear in her nightmares for years to come.

Throughout the whole ordeal, as her sister murdered Gia for a crime that Thea herself had committed, Thea had said absolutely nothing.

THIRTY-FIVE

Determined

The curse of the minotaur and Asterion stuck in Gemma’s head. When he had destroyed the scroll, all the minotaurs had turned to dust. It had been like the curse had never existed.

As soon as they got back from dropping Harper off at college, Gemma knew she had to find the scroll—at any cost. It wasn’t just about her anymore—Alex needed her to do this, too.

She had some time with her dad, who seemed to be taking Harper’s leaving a bit harder than any of them thought he would. They went out for dinner at Pearl’s after they’d gotten back, and Brian had floundered with the conversation. He seemed kinda lost.

After supper, they went home, and Gemma had immediately called Thea. It was in the guise of going for a late-night swim, but she really wanted to find out what the sirens were up to, and see when the best time would be for her to sneak in.

Thea hadn’t been interested, but in between complaining about Lexi and talking about play rehearsal, Thea made a confession—they were going out of town the next day to feed. It had been a while since Thea had eaten, and she was growing restless.

Gemma tried not to think about what that meant, that somebody would have to die to feed the sirens. She knew that they had to eat, and the small comfort she could take from it was that they’d cut down and they were going outside of Capri to find food.

But the sooner she found the scroll, the sooner she could stop the sirens, and then nobody else would ever have to die. And she had finally found her chance.

Gemma woke up Thursday morning with a renewed sense of purpose. She waited around the house for as long as she could. Thea hadn’t told her what time the sirens planned on leaving, but she imagined that Lexi and Penn weren’t exactly morning people, so she waited until early afternoon.

When she finally decided it was late enough, she hopped on her bike and rode down to the library at the center of town. She wore a dress, so she pedaled carefully but quickly.

She’d left without telling Daniel—specifically going against their agreement that she would tell him everything. But he seemed to have something heavy weighing on him, and if this went well, none of them would have to worry about the sirens for much longer. It would be better if she just dealt with this on her own and got as few people involved as possible.

The skies overhead had been darkening all morning, and Gemma felt a few sporadic raindrops as she pedaled. Not that she minded. The air was thick and warm with humidity, and it would be nice if the rain came and cooled things off.

Gemma locked her bike up outside the library, and when she opened the door, it felt like stepping into a refrigerator after being outside. The library was relatively busy, thanks to the combination of stifling heat and the impending storm.

Marcy sat at the desk, her head tilted back as she attempted to balance a pencil on the spot between her top lip and her nose. She was apparently oblivious to the patrons around her and didn’t even notice Gemma until she walked right up to her.

“Hey, Marcy.”

Marcy lost her concentration and the pencil dropped. She shrugged and sat up straighter, and Gemma leaned on the desk.

“Are you here applying for the job?” Marcy asked. “Because we have a vacancy now, and one Fisher sister is probably as good as another.”

“That’s actually not a bad idea,” Gemma said. “Remind me to apply when I have more time.”

“You don’t have time now?” Marcy arched an eyebrow. “Then what are you doing here?”

Gemma smiled at her. “I came to ask you a favor.”

“I’m not buying you booze or cigarettes,” Marcy replied immediately. “Harper would kill me if I did, and they’re both lame habits. If you want to get a tattoo, though, I know a guy who does underage tattoos.”

“How do you know a guy?” Gemma asked, momentarily distracted from her mission. “Do you have a tattoo?”

Marcy stood and lifted up her shirt. She angled herself to the side so Gemma could see the tattoo right above her hipbone. It was of Ursula from
The Little Mermaid
. Her tentacles were twisting over Marcy’s hip, and Ursula smiled broadly with blood-red lips and winked.

“You have a Disney character?” Gemma asked in shock.

“She’s a sea witch, and she’s badass, okay?” Marcy pulled her shirt down, then sat back in the chair. “Hey, are there such things as sea witches?”

Gemma shook her head. “I’m pretty sure there aren’t.”

“Lame.” Marcy scowled in disappointment. “It would’ve been sweet if you could just make a deal with a sea witch. I mean, you’d give up your voice to stop being a siren?”

“I would. But I don’t think that’s going to be an option.”

“Life would be so much simpler if it worked out like a cartoon,” Marcy said, her monotone sounding wistful for a moment.

“It certainly would,” Gemma agreed. “Back to the favor I wanted to ask you.”

Marcy narrowed her eyes at Gemma. “You can ask, but I reserve the right to say no.”

“Obviously. It’s not a huge one, though,” Gemma said. “I just need a ride up to the sirens’ house.”

“Up on the cliff?”

“Yeah, my car isn’t working, and I just wanted to go up there real quick before the sirens get back,” Gemma explained. “It’s a short car ride, but the bike ride up the hill would take too long.”

“Where are the sirens?” Marcy asked.

“I don’t know for sure,” Gemma said. “Thea said they were going out of town to eat, and she didn’t think they’d be back in time for play rehearsal tonight. I wanted to have as much time up there as I could, and I wanted to be able to get out of there really fast.”

“Understood. When would you wanna go?”

“The sooner the better.”

“So I’d have to leave work?” Marcy asked.

“I could wait until—”

“Hey, if I have to go, then I have to go,” Marcy cut her off and got up. She grabbed her car keys out of a drawer. As she walked around the desk, she called back over her shoulder to the office, “Edie, I’m heading out! I have to help a friend! It’s life-or-death!”

“When will you be back?” Edie asked and came out of her office in time to see Marcy and Gemma departing out the front door. “Marcy?”

In the short time that Gemma had spent inside the library, it had already dropped ten degrees outside. It still wasn’t really raining, but the wind had picked up, and Gemma was even more grateful that Marcy was driving her. Riding uphill on her bike, against the wind, would’ve taken forever.

Even in Marcy’s Gremlin it was still almost a fifteen-minute drive through town and up the winding road through the pines. Gemma directed Marcy to park a little ways down from the house, closer to the overlook where Gemma had taken Alex before.

“Thanks, Marcy,” Gemma said and unbuckled her seatbelt. “I don’t know how long I’ll be gone, and if you get tired of waiting, you can bail.”

“I’m not gonna bail.” Marcy scoffed. “I should go with you up to the house.”

“I don’t know.” Gemma shook her head. “I don’t know when the sirens are coming back, and if they find us both there, they will probably be awfully pissed.”

“Then maybe I could be a lookout or something,” Marcy suggested. “You don’t know when they’re coming back, so I could warn you.” Gemma bit her lip, debating, so Marcy pushed on.

“Come on, Gemma. Harper will kill me if I let something happen to you. You can at least let me watch the door. That’s what Fred and Thelma always leave Shaggy and Scooby to do, and if it’s good enough for Shaggy, it’s good enough for me. That’s my life’s motto.”

Gemma smirked at that. “Okay. But if you see a siren, stay out of the way, especially if it’s Penn or Lexi.”

“Agreed,” Marcy said. “My mama didn’t raise any fools and she didn’t raise any heroes.”

Marcy and Gemma got out of the car and snuck through the densely wooded area that separated the overlook from the sirens’ house. The wind was blowing through the trees, stirring up pine needles and making a howling sound through the branches.

The house was centered in the middle of a small clearing right at the edge of the cliff. The driveway was empty, so presumably the sirens had already left for the day. Just to be on the safe side, when Gemma went up to the door, she knocked and rang the doorbell. When nobody answered, she decided the coast was clear.

The door was unlocked, but Gemma hadn’t expected any different. Penn didn’t think anybody would dare to steal from her, and even if they did, she didn’t care that much since none of the stuff was really hers anyway. She could replace it all with little or no effort.

Gemma left Marcy waiting outside with instructions that if any of the sirens showed up, she was supposed to ring the doorbell and then take off into the trees. Gemma would hear the doorbell, then sneak out the back door. That was the plan, anyway.

After doing a quick once-over on the main floor, Gemma went upstairs to the loft, which was where she’d thought they’d hide it anyway. Assuming they even had it hidden here.

The second level was one massive room, having been designed as the master suite, but Penn, Lexi, and Thea all appeared to share the space. Two king beds fit easily in the room, with a twin bed shoved off to the side. Based on the small pile of hot pink panties sitting on the smaller bed, Gemma guessed that one was Lexi’s.

Skylights in the ceiling let Gemma see the dark clouds swirling above. They were nearly black now, and she flicked on the closet light. She didn’t want to turn on the main bedroom light in case the sirens came home. They’d be able to see that from the driveway.

The walk-in closet was large and overflowing with clothes. On hangers, in drawers, in piles on the floor. It had been customized with plenty of drawers and storage, which meant that Gemma had a lot to sort through.

The sirens had an endless supply of shoes. Stilettos, wedges, boots, flats in every style and color. She started taking out shoes and rifling through drawers, hoping to find a false bottom or some kind of hidden compartment.