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“Seatbelt,” Mike’s eyes flicked sideways to Skye, as if he couldn’t look at her properly.
She huddled in the front seat beside him, like some childhood flashback, knowing she was in disgrace. She fumbled the old-fashioned non-retracting seatbelt into place with one hand, the other trying not to spill the coffee, fitting the safety latch into place second try. Not much was going right tonight, she thought miserably. This was the first time she could remember not wanting coffee.
The tense silence didn’t last long. Mike wasn’t one for sulking. “So. You got your memory back.” It was an accusation.
“Yes. I have.”
“Planning on sharing any of that with me?”
“Didn’t Rowena –”
“It’s not about the fact of knowing,” he cut in. “It’s you leaving me out of the loop.” He stared ahead through the windscreen. “All right,” he began again. “You get your memory back, and okay, you need to catch up with Morgan. I get it. And for you I guess Hunter’s important, not that I’m thrilled about it, but I get that too. But I don’t even rate a ‘hey Mike, I might be remembering stuff, just stepping out to see everybody but you’ note? You couldn’t even wait for me to get home? Anything could have happened to you, and I was just sitting there in the kitchen in happy ignorance. I thought you were upstairs, sleeping off your headache. Have I missed anything out?”
Skye’s face burned and she looked away. Yet again she’d been oblivious to the feelings of people who cared about her. “I’m really sorry, Uncle Mike.” She dared a peek at him and saw his frown soften.
“Just ‘Mike’,” he muttered, sighing. It sounded like air being let out of tyres. “So... Memory back?”
“Yeah.” Her abduction by Thea. Water filling her lungs, washing Mike and everyone else she cared about from her mind. Finding Hunter’s submerged city Lithus, helping him escape his cell. Dream-days of liquid light. Jarrod. Ethan nearly drowning...
“Good. That’s good.” Mike’s eyes caught hers before looking straight ahead.
No questions? After that whole scene at the cafe just now?
Mike cleared his throat. “Have you seen Ethan?”
She blinked. “Ethan? Not since this afternoon before I went upstairs. Why?”
“I saw him when I picked up pizza.”
Pizza. She was a horrible person. “Mike, I’m – I’m really sorry about this afternoon – and the pizza. You’re right, I didn’t even leave you a note...”
“No, you didn’t.” He shrugged, done with that subject. “Ethan left just before I did. You didn’t see him come back before you left for...wherever? You didn’t go through Daniel’s papers before you went out?”
“No. And no.” She bit her lip. Mike in major ‘Uncle’ mode: super weird, and worse for being justified, if a little confusing right this second. “Sorry. I realised I had to see Hunter. It was really important. I was very...preoccupied. But no, Ethan didn’t come back. Why all the interest in him?”
“It looks like someone took some papers of your dad’s.”
“It does? Bizarre.”
“I don’t know if bizarre covers it. When I saw Ethan on my way back home, he was showing something that looked mighty like Daniel’s papers to Liam Noble.”
Liam Noble? “But why would he want...?” Liam with the drowned girlfriend. Showing him Daniel’s research about... Ethan’s silence in the van after she’d seen Hunter standing in the tide this morning returned to her. His warning that some things from the sea were bad. And Liam Noble: the way he’d held her too close at the café opening, asking about her mother, breathing stories of undead sea spirits into her ear, spirits who stole the living and who had called her mother back to them.
Once again, Mike’s eyes met hers. Mike, always seeing more than she expected. But doing a pretty good impression of someone not seeing it. Or trying not to. Did he believe any of what he’d heard? She swallowed, bracing for the obvious questions. They didn’t come. Mike reached for the stereo and rock music filled the car.
Soon the car ascended the steep road and swung into Mike’s driveway, crunching over gravel. Skye climbed out feeling stiff and old, like she’d been in the back seat for years. Tension was so much fun.
Mike looked a little more cheerful, but she couldn’t feel the same. They clomped up the wooden steps in silence, the veranda sensor light coming on, and Mike unlocked the door. Skye was met by a familiar delicious smell.
“Leftovers,” Mike announced.
Skye suddenly realised she was ravenous. Putting the coffee from Morgan down, she lifted the box lid. The pizza was intact. “Pretty impressive leftovers: you didn’t have any?”
“I’d just got in with it when Rowena called to say that you were already there,” he shot her a look and she shifted guiltily.
“Sorry Skye, not trying to be a jerk. This is just...strange behaviour.” He opened the cupboard and got out plates.
“Whose?”
He looked at her for a moment, rather wild-eyed and shook his head in endearing bewilderment, “Every-damn-body’s.”
She began to grin, and reluctantly he did too, shaking his head. “Geez. This place, right?”
“Bloody Bannimor,” she agreed, getting juice from the fridge.
“Not that I would really know anymore, I guess. Absentee uncle and all.” Mike lifted a tinfoiled package from a carry bag Rowena had hastily handed him as they’d left. He unwrapped a few fresh rolls, and lifted out a tub of assorted salads, and a plastic container of what looked like soup.
“Here,” Skye took it from him. He raised his eyebrows.
“Hey. Don’t diss the culinary genius,” she threw back. “I know how to turn on an element as much at the next guy.” When the gas failed to ignite, Mike had to be the next guy, firing the reluctant gas hob after a few goes.
“You’re welcome,” he teased.
Skye tipped the soup into a pot and found a wooden spoon to stir it with. “So,” she said, munching cold pizza to stave off the growl in her stomach, “you don’t really agree with Dad about being, you know, grounded?”
When Mike didn’t answer she turned to look at him, and the tension returned full force.
“Like I said Skye-bear, I don’t want to be a jerk, but this is all way over my head. I have to go with your dad on this one. I mean, Hunter seems like an okay guy, but Daniel was – well, he was losing it right? I mean, psych ward losing it.” His face puckered with worry. “I thought he was getting better, putting this stuff behind him. And I’ve gotta say Skye: I was really disappointed the way you were playing along.”
Skye swallowed.
“Did you really think that humouring his crazy ideas was the best way to handle it?”
Skye searched Mike’s face. Did he mean that? Or was he struggling to be in denial as much as Rowena was. “Mike...”
He got up abruptly. “Hey, whatever. It’s between you and Daniel, I guess. But for my two cents worth, less is more when it comes to the weirdness of Bannimor. Daniel’s a damaged man, and I don’t want to see him permanently institutionalised. I mean – Skye – what you said to him back there. About your mum?” he shook his head, this time in sorrowful disappointment verging on disgust, and Skye felt like she had swallowed a bucket of stones.
“Mike, I –” she broke off. What could she say that wouldn’t make it any worse?
“Sorry Skye. Like I said, I don’t want to get in between this. My advice? Go easy on your dad, and go way easy on the spooky Bannimor stuff. Like, waaay easy. And yeah...you’re grounded. At least until I get to talk it over with Rowena. She’s got the mum thing down, and she has a better idea of what’s going on I think,” the look he shot her was sharp, seeing things he wasn’t acknowledging, and Skye looked away, her appetite gone.
Echoing her feelings, Mike grabbed his jacket from the back of a chair, “Actually, I’ll grab a bite back there if I’m hungry later on. This will be good tomorrow, so whatever you don’t eat, just put in the fridge and we can demolish it for dinner tomorrow, okay? Enjoy, and I’ll see you later.” He hesitated. “You get what grounded means, right? No going out, no Hunter here?” Skye nodded woodenly. His expression softened.
“Skye?” She met her uncle’s eyes. “Your dad loves you. And so do I. Nothing you can say will change that. Okay?” He smiled reassuringly, and headed out through the front door.
His footsteps clumped back down the steps and the car door slammed. Skye’s throat was thick with anger and hurt. She didn’t know which she felt more, or who to blame for either. How could she possibly stay here when Hunter was out there? The car crunched quietly out of the driveway and she heard the engine fade.
She turned off the soup, and sat down, staring blankly at the table. Mike had left so abruptly. And really, grounded? Should she take any notice? Then she remembered his worried look and her father’s horror at her revelation about her mother and her eyes welled. The void inside her gaped telling her Hunter was moving further away. Did Jarrod have him? Claustrophobia ratcheted through her midriff, the sheer helplessness of her situation choking her.
Then she went still, swallowing a hiccupping sob. Familiar soft footsteps climbed the wooden steps outside. Morgan! She knew it before she had crossed to the door and wrenched it open. Feeling life and hope were returning, she ran the last few steps to meet Morgan at the edge of the veranda and they hugged each other fiercely.
“Does Mike know you’re here?” Skye asked as they drew apart.
“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” Morgan replied airily. “Is that mum’s tomato soup I smell? And...pizza?”
“Hungry?” Skye grinned, her own appetite returning with the relief of having her best friend there. Morgan, her rock. She threw her arm around Morgan’s shoulder, and Morgan laughed. They jostled through the door side by side, grinning.
“I missed you too Skye-bear. Feed me. I’m starved.”
Morgan got the gas hob going again, and Skye insisted on stirring the soup until it was steaming. In a few minutes they were chewing pizza and dipping rolls into the spicy thick tomato soup.
“You have totally come to spring me, right?” Skye joked around her mouthful.
“Yes.”
Skye’s eyebrows rose. “You have?” She stared at Morgan’s suddenly serious face.
“Eat, then talk,” Morgan ordered. “But eat fast, I’m not sure how long Mum can keep Mike there.”
They both ate fast, and in less than ten minutes they had cleared the uneaten food and dirty dishes, and Skye led the way upstairs to her bedroom. She jumped onto her bed, crossing her legs. Morgan hesitated, then despite the empty house, closed the door before beginning and stood awkwardly in front of Skye.
“Are you okay?” Skye asked, worried.
“Um...” Morgan took a breath that seemed to mask a nervous pause. “Hey, back at the cafe...you know...before your dad arrived?”
“Yeah?”
“You were...uh... Weren’t you telling me something,” Morgan looked strained. “Something about...jerks?”
“Oh... Yes...” Skye braced herself as Morgan took another deep breath.
“Well, speaking of... I...I saw Jarrod.”
“You what? When?”
Morgan sat on the end of Skye’s bed, looking embarrassed and vulnerable. “Today. When you were at school. Hunter turning up like that, it was such a shock. It brought everything back. I was just so...confused. I didn’t know how I felt about Jarrod, or how I didn’t feel, how I was supposed to feel – I was a mess. I hate him. But...”
“Go on,” Skye quietly prompted.
“So...I went to find him. At the rocks where I used to talk with him.”
“You did?” Skye breathed, heart pounding with a return of the terror she’d felt losing Morgan to Jarrod. “How could you? I don’t mean...I mean – what if he took you away again?” as the words left her mouth, she saw for a fleeting instant on Morgan’s face that that exact idea was part of what had taken her to the water’s edge. Shocked as she was, she understood.
The magic and splendour of the ocean world, the entrancing beauty and seductive mystery of the Nemaro. Being sought out, chosen, taken into their world; whatever the reasons, there was magic in that too, even if it was dark. Morgan wasn’t one to give her feelings lightly, however repugnant Jarrod was. And as cold-hearted as he was, it hadn’t all been one-sided. Morgan wasn’t the only one affected by their meeting. Skye hesitated. Was this really smart?
How could she tell Morgan this without making her feel even worse? But she could see how hurt Morgan was, and had to trust her instincts. “Mags, at the cafe, when I started to tell you something about jerks?”
Morgan nodded, her expression hungry.
“First off – full and frank disclosure: you know he’s a jerk, right?” Morgan nodded again. “And you get that when I was there, in Lithus, he was basically doing jerk stuff. Being – you know –”
“Let me guess – a jerk?” Morgan tried to joke.
“Pretty much. Only, when he did his jerky thing looking into my mind, I turned it around on him. I pushed back. I saw...you.”
“Me?” Morgan flushed, “How do you mean?”
“He showed me images of you to make sure I really had lost my memory. I totally had. But he was so confused. I could feel that he had...feelings for the girl he was showing me. For you. He did have feelings for you.” Some of the hurt and humiliation in Morgan’s eyes eased. “Not the way we have feelings,” Skye warned, “he really is a total jerk, Mags.” She felt relief when Morgan actually smiled weakly.
“What kind of feelings then?”
“You took him by surprise.” Skye sifted the kaleidoscopic memories of when Jarrod had entered her mind and she had pushed back into his. “He was...he was captivated by you. By your strength and your warmth. Even though he didn’t understand your heart, he saw your love for your mum, and for me, and other people you care about. It hurt him that you didn’t feel anything like that for him.”
“Really? He was hurt?”
“Yeah. Serves him right,” Skye said more forcefully than she meant to, and Morgan grinned, looking more like herself than she had for ages. Then her serious expression returned.
“So...does that mean I don’t really have...feelings for him? I really need to know.”
“I only saw a glimpse of what he saw back then. But, we’re human, right? We can feel love and hate and everything in between all at the same time. Maybe you feel a bit of all of that? Doesn’t mean he has any power over you, or that he put any of it there. I think what you feel is just what you feel.”
“You do? You don’t think I’m...kind of possessed? Like, feeling what I do because he made it that way? I’ve been going out of my mind trying to figure this out without you.” The wobble in her voice broke Skye’s heart.
“No, I don’t.” Skye shook her head. “He really was hurt that your true self had no warmth for him.”
Morgan opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again, looking conflicted.
“It’s okay,” Skye reassured, “you can feel a bunch of different stuff. You’re a strong, independent woman. You’re allowed to be complicated.” She was rewarded by a watery laugh as Morgan flung her arms around her in another hug.
“This is why I need you, Skye-bear.”
When Morgan pulled away, she looked much better. Skye knew she’d done right to tell her what she’d seen in Jarrod’s dark mind. “Are you going to be all right?”
Morgan nodded, “’Course. I’m a strong, independent woman, aren’t I? I just might have to persuade Mum that leaving Bannimor and setting up Bliss someplace else is the best thing in the world.”
“Morgan! You wouldn’t really leave here, would you?”
“I don’t want to. But how can I stay? How could I ever swim here again without wondering if I’ll see him? Dreading that I will. Hoping that I do. How can I ever swim in the sea again?”
Stunned, Skye stared at her, unable to comprehend Bannimor without her and Rowena. They were Bannimor. How much more was she and the people she loved going to lose to Hunter’s clan?
“But I need you.”
“I’m not going right now. There’s way too much going on.” Her eyes met Skye’s with purpose, “Which is why I’m here... I think Jarrod is going to do something against the village.”
