Deep Betrayal Page 0,72

letting them know how close we’re getting.”

I inhaled as deeply as I could, filling my lungs to capacity, and we slid noiselessly into the water. Calder swam with me, like a human, for twenty yards before he pushed me away and wriggled out of his bathing suit and kept it clutched in his hand. I swam next to him as he arched and bowed his body, swimming like a dolphin, until he exploded into merman form, the silver tail bright and flashing and reflecting filtered sunlight across my face.

He wrapped his arm around me and we swam at a speed I could not manage on my own. He circled around, coming at Maris and Pavati from behind. They had stopped to consult. I could hear them, or rather, feel their thoughts, which came in flashes like a slide show.

Hunger

Fear

Hunger

Death

The last one was so intense it almost made me gasp with pain. Blank canvas, blank canvas. I squeezed Calder’s hand, and he brought me up for air.

“What is it?”

“We need to stop them,” I said. “Now!”

We dove and raced toward the two figures who were facing each other, their fingers laced together. Calder hadn’t told me to send any other messages, but I couldn’t manage the blank slate anymore. My first thought sprang through the water like a shout.

Stop!

Maris and Pavati pulled away from each other and whirled around to confront us, their faces sunken and gaunt, their mouths gaping, like ghoulish eels. The change in their appearance was horrifying to behold.

Calder held his hands palms up. He kept his eyes locked on his sisters and tilted his head in their direction, as if he wanted me to speak to them. Problem was, he hadn’t told me what to say.

“Um, we’d like to talk,” I said.

“What is this?” Maris asked, her voice echoing in my head as if shouted through a tunnel. “What kind of creature are you?”

Calder pulled me behind him, but I slipped around his other side. “We need to talk. It’s important,” I said.

Maris and Pavati looked back over their shoulders at the churning water and pale, bare legs of my friends.

“Later,” Maris said.

“Talk about what?” Pavati asked.

“It’s important,” I said. “It’s about your safety. All of ours. Are you camping on Oak?”

“Yes,” said Pavati, and Maris shot her a dangerous look. Calder was ignorant to the conversation. He could only read their expressions, and Maris was making him nervous.

“Can we go there? Calder needs to talk to you.”

“Oh, that’s rich.” Maris laughed. “He made his choice. So now he wants us when it’s convenient for him?”

Calder tugged gently at my hand and looked up at the surface, but I was still good for air.

“Please, it’s important. We’re only trying to help.”

“We don’t need your help,” Maris said, and Pavati took two strokes in the direction of my friends.

“The island,” I said. “Now. This is about the survival of your family. Both of ours.”

Maris stared me down, her bony brow shadowing her eyes. Something told me what words to use, and they were the right ones. Maris looked at Pavati and jerked her head in the direction of the island. Pavati gave one more forlorn look at their would-be targets, then followed behind Maris as she swam toward shore.

27

DEAD END

Calder and I sat on the Oak Island beach, around the point from where my friends still swam. We waited for Maris and Pavati to transform, find their clothes, and come talk.

“What’s taking them so long?” I asked. “Jules is going to notice we’re missing.”

“Here comes Maris,” Calder said, pointing north up the beach. She was stumbling toward us like a crazed bull.

“What’s this about?” Maris’s voice was as shrill in the air as it had been in my ears underwater. On land, I could see that it wasn’t only her face that had changed. Her body was thin and angular. She leaned to the left. The ring around her throat was thick and black—more like a collar than its prior ornamentation. “What’s going on with this girl? Why can we hear her?”

“You know who her father is,” Calder said. “She’s inherited certain traits. But that’s not what we’re here about.”

Maris got within ten feet of us, then jerked to a stop. She crept closer as if it were me—and not her—who was to be feared. Her eyes rested warily on the pendant lying warm against my chest. Instinctively, I placed my palm over it.

Maris raised her arm and pointed at me with one scathing finger. “H-how … wh-why