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“Jarrod – do something against the village?” Skye felt scared but confused. “Why would you think that?”
“He tried to get me to go with him. Not like that,” Morgan assured. “He just...asked.” Morgan’s face softened in bemusement for a second, then tightened again. “He hinted it wouldn’t be safe to be in the village. Do you have any idea what he might have been getting at? Like, could they send, I don’t know – a tidal wave or something?”
“Maybe,” Skye shivered at the thought. “I don’t know much about them to be honest. The whole of the village would drown if they did, that’s for sure. But maybe they could send something...or someone. Maybe they’re thinking of coming ashore?” Old imagined fears returned in force. “Everything changed when Hunter saved me. Jarrod can cross their boundary. Maybe...maybe they all can? Maybe they’re coming?” the image was horrifying.
“I’ve got a plan,” Morgan said. “I don’t know if I’m right about this, but I got the strong impression that Jarrod and the others were kind of scared of Hunter.”
Skye nodded. “Yes, they are. Hunter has powers the others don’t have. Only problem is, he doesn’t know how to control them.”
“Kind of a problem,” Morgan frowned. “But it’s a start. If they’re scared of what he can do, he could slow them down. Or at least find out exactly what they have planned. Maybe we could evacuate the village?”
“Right, like that would work. Imagine trying to convince this lot that Skye Sebastian thinks they should evacuate because some fictional beings might come and seduce them into drowning.” She didn’t roll her eyes, she was too scared for that, but the idea of explaining to the village was too ludicrous to ever work.
“You’re right,” Morgan rubbed her forehead. “But we have to do something. I know I’m right about Jarrod having some weapon aimed right at us. I think we have to find Hunter, and figure out what’s going on, and try to stop it from happening.”
Morgan’s cellphone rang. “Hey Amber,” Morgan answered the call, surprise in her voice. “What’s up? No, I haven’t. Hang on? I’ll ask her.” Morgan put the phone on speaker, “Amber wants to know if you’ve seen Jasmine or Harvey.”
“Uh...” Skye tried to drag her thoughts away from the macabre to the mundane. “Yeah, I saw them on the beach today.” She leaned forward, raising her voice a little, “After school, after you dropped me off at Bliss, Amber. A few of us went to the beach. We all left at the same time...” she thought back to that afternoon. They’d all left because...
Suddenly the mundane was entirely consumed by thoughts of the Nemaro again. One in particular. And the drugged look of an addict sensing a fix that she’d failed to identify on Harvey’s face. Harvey, who had lingered, staring at the water even while Jasmine tried to persuade him to leave. Her stomach churned. She had the sudden certainty she knew exactly where they were, or at least, who they were with. Or who they’d been with. If they were still alive.
Seeing her face, Morgan instantly tapped the phone off speaker. “Sorry Amber, yeah, we’ll let you know if we hear anything.”
“We have to go look for them,” Skye stood and hurried to the bedroom door, throwing it open.
“Skye, it’s pitch-black outside!” Morgan followed her down the stairs, pocketing her phone.
“No, it’s not,” Skye looked at the dull grey sky outside.
Morgan stared at her. “Yes, Skye, it is. It’s totally dark. Apart from a little moonlight, it is totally dark. Whatever is going on, we are one hundred percent waiting for daylight. Besides, we can’t do a thing without Hunter. How are we supposed to find him?”
Rather than arguing about degrees of nightfall, Skye pressed her hand to her chest. “I never thought I’d be grateful for feeling like part of me is literally missing, but the only time this goes away is when I’m with him. If I don’t find him, he’ll find me.”
“As revoltingly romantic and cliched as that sounds, it is both incredibly disturbing and makes me feel like crying at the same time.” Morgan sighed. “Look, I know exactly what you’re thinking. One of them has our friends. The thought scares me, not just because they’re my friends, but because it already happened to me. Don’t think I don’t get how important finding them and getting them home safe is. But we can’t rush off without a plan, and definitely not without at least talking to Hunter. Maybe it’s all connected? Jarrod took me away with the plan of getting to Hunter.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Skye consented. “Because if I’m right about who took them, she already tried to kill me once, to get Hunter for herself. I think diabolical plans are right up her alley.”
“‘She’?” Morgan pulled a disgusted face.
“Thea takes strong, independent woman to a whole other level. But I hope you’re right, and maybe that’s all this is: a power play? She was banished because of me. She could be trying to get back in with them, maybe use poor Jasmine and Harvey as hostages to get Hunter to go back. It actually makes sense. And if it’s true, at least they’ll be safe.”
“That is bizarrely comforting. How do we live in a world where the thought of our abducted friends being pawns of an ostracised psycho sea-girl is a comfort?”
“Have to agree,” Skye sighed.
Morgan turned away from the dark window and began to open kitchen cupboards. “I feel the pressing need for hot chocolate right now. What are the chances of finding anything like that in this meagre, antipodean-inspired kitchen?”
“Remote,” Skye confirmed, pulling out a chair. Morgan began to assemble ingredients on the bench and fired a hob again. The hiss of gas was soothing, domestic, a throwback to a happy childhood a million years ago. Skye dropped her head into her hands, squeezing her cheeks and forehead between her fingers and thumbs until it hurt, trying to force her thoughts and emotions into a manageable shape.
Emptiness yawed inside like a cavern, jostled by anxious fear for Harvey and Jasmine, not to mention the entire village. And losing another two stolen lives today... What was happening out there under the sea? How many of them were dying because of her? And how many did that leave to come after her? Sensing eyes on the top of her head she looked up to find Morgan watching her. “What?”
“You never did fill me in on those missing days at sea. You had just got your memory back, then your dad arrived and...”
“Oh. Yeah. Dad...” Poor Dad. She closed her eyes for a moment against the memory of his shattered expression. Why did she tell him he killed Mum? Cruel. Not even really true. Not completely.
Morgan turned back to the stove, shut off the gas, and poured out whatever it was she’d made into two mugs. She put one in front of Skye, and stood opposite her holding the other.
The scent of vanilla rose from the steaming mug. She took a sip of sweet hot milk and sighed, feeling like a kid again. For a second.
“Why did it take so long for Hunter to come after you?” Morgan asked, her voice careful. “The way you two feel about each other – the way you’re connected – wouldn’t he have come straight away? It took weeks for him to show up.”
Skye stared at the creamy surface of her drink, trying to gather her thoughts.
“I saw scratches on his chest,” Morgan continued. “They wouldn’t let him leave when he wanted to bring me back. I’m guessing they wouldn’t let him leave to come after you either. You said he didn’t know how to control his power. So, either he suddenly figured out how to, or they let him go. Why would they do that?”
The silence was thick.
“Why is he here, Skye? Why now? And when you came to see me at the café after you got your memory back, why did you say that you were back for now?”
Skye met Morgan’s eyes again. They were wide, blazing. And afraid.
“Mags –”
“If you’re about to tell me that he came to take you away, that is it. I will tell Mike and Mum myself what is going on. I will personally lock that bedroom door upstairs and stand guard outside it before I see you go back to them.”
Skye stared at her friend’s livid face. Answers swirled through her head, too many, too hard to explain. Then the only reason that might mean anything at all to Morgan spilled out. “If I don’t go back, I’ll die.”
Morgan gaped at her. “What are you saying? What does that even mean?” She dragged her chair out and sank into it. “Please tell me that is just you being overdramatic. All ‘I can’t live without him’ and whatnot.”
Skye cleared her tight throat. “Those lives that leave me?” Morgan nodded. “They were keeping Hunter’s clan alive. I can’t explain it, it’s too hard, but pretty much when he saved me from drowning at Ciarlan Cove, he poured all he had, everything he was, into me to keep me alive. And what he had was those lives. He was Keeper. He kept the lives like a...like a bank account or a power generator or something. The Nemaro all drew life force from him. Well...he gave it all to me. And now they’re dying.”
“Isn’t that...a good thing?” Morgan ventured, her face pale.
“I don’t particularly want Hunter to die,” she tried to say lightly, but her voice wobbled.
“Oh, I didn’t think... I’m sorry. I don’t think of him like that. As one of them. Of course I don’t want that either. But I don’t get how that puts you at risk of... Is it because you’re joined?”
“We don’t know for sure that I’ll die,” her voice sounded thin, and she took a fortifying sip of sweet milk. It did not have the same effect as coffee. She breathed in, out. “Basically, I was pretty much dead when Hunter saved me. I’d drowned. It’s those stolen lives sustaining me. So...”
“So, if they run out...”
“Then so will I. We think. How could we possibly know?” Even to her, her voice sounded small and frightened. She tried to look brave and smile, but must have failed miserably because Morgan’s eyes filled with tears.
“What are you going to do? I don’t understand any of this. How does going back to the sea help?”
“Well, when I was there, the lives stopped leaving me. They’d been leaving pretty fast until then. Then while I was breathing water –” she hesitated, distracted by Morgan shaking her head in bemused astonishment. “Yep. Breathing water. Just insanely unbelievable, I know.” she agreed.
“Completely impossibly insanely incredible,” Morgan’s eyes took on the faraway look they’d had the first time Skye had told her about the Nemaro, and a chill ran through her. Could Morgan still be entranced by the fairy tale? How entranced, she wondered. The way Morgan had responded to Jarrod the first time around... With a huge effort she pushed past the fears that wanted to spill out in warnings, and continued, “So, it seemed like while they couldn’t draw the life force directly from me, while I was in the water, it was suspended. Like I was one of them.”
“One of them,” Morgan echoed softly. For a moment she stared at Skye in silence, but Skye thought her mind was someplace else. “Hey!” she snapped her fingers in Morgan’s face and rapped on the table for good measure, and Morgan jumped.
“Don’t you go loopy on me now, Morgan. I need you here, helping me figure this thing out, okay? Jarrod is a jerk. Thea is evil. We have a massive problem here!”
“You’re right. Sorry. Moment of weakness. Okay, I’ll agree not to believe the fantasy as long as you agree not to even think about abandoning me for the ocean until we’ve talked all of this through. Deal?”
“Deal.”
“So does Mike still say you’re grounded?” Morgan made a characteristically swift return to her focused self.
“Yes,” Skye confirmed resentfully. “It’s so stupid. It’s like being grounded by my brother. He’s only six years older than me.”
“Yeah, tough to picture him in ‘dad’ mode,” Morgan grinned. “He is way too cute, and way too ‘rather be surfing’.”
Skye cast her eyes up, “Don’t you start on the cuteness of my almost-closest relative, please. Give me one emotionally traumatic thing to deal with at a time.”
“Would you really find it emotionally traumatic if I liked Mike? Or if he liked me...?”
Skye rubbed her eyes and ran her fingers through her messy hair before stretching her arms out straight in front of her like stop. “Too hard. Next subject please,” she pushed away the memory of the undeniable energy between her best friend and Mike. “End of the world stuff to sort out, remember? Or at least end of the village. Or of me.”
“Right,” Morgan agreed at once, looking solemn. “The grounded question had a purpose. Can we just walk out of here in the morning or...?”
The sound of Mike’s car door slamming made them both look towards the veranda. “Guess we’re about to find out.”
