Fantasy Life (50 page)

And then Emily got the sense that Grandma Cassie had some kind of plan, something to hold off the selkies at least till Emily talked to Great-Grandma Athena.

“How do we find you again?” Emily asked, realizing that she might know how to get back but not how to return to the middle of the sea.

“Take my hand again,” Grandma Cassie said. “I’ll leave a pathway open for you. But hurry. I’m already tired.”

Emily leaned over and kissed Grandma Cassie, and Grandma Cassie smiled at her, which warmed Emily right up and made her forget all the bad stuff that she’d felt earlier.

Then Emily slid along the path they’d already made and headed back to Cliffside House, hoping she would get there in time.

Cliffside House

Emily’s eyes opened, startling Lyssa. Emily let go of Cassie’s hand. It fell to the floor, palm up, fingers bent, as if losing Emily’s grip meant that the hand had been abandoned.

Athena looked panicked, but not as panicked as Lyssa felt. Her mother was still gone. Her head had fallen forward on her chest, and her breathing was shallow.

Cassie’s body was here, but her mind was clearly elsewhere.

“Mommy!” Emily said. “Mommy, Grandma sent me back.”

“What’s she doing?” Athena said, and Lyssa caught the fear. Was Cassie fighting with Roseluna? Or just giving up? Either seemed likely.

“She wanted me to tell you that there’s forty of them. They’re going to do what Grandpa did.”

“Forty of what, child?” Athena said. “And which grandfather?”

But Lyssa already knew. “Forty selkies. They’re going to let themselves bleed to death. Into the ocean.”

“Holy Jesus,” Athena said. “They could destroy half the continent. Why in God’s name would they do that?”

“I have no idea,” Lyssa said, “and I don’t think it’s very important right now. Mom wants us to stop them, right?”

Emily nodded. “She says you got to come back with me. She says she’ll hold them off until you do.”

Athena’s look of panic grew worse. “She’s the one with all the mental powers. We have no way of getting wherever she is. I have no idea how to find her.”

“And, Em, honey, I don’t have powers,” Lyssa said, feeling inadequate for the first time. “Not real ones, anyway.”

“I know how to get us there, Mommy. Please.” Emily was talking faster than she ever had. Her body seemed to be moving at twice its usual speed.

Athena looked at Lyssa, who shrugged. If Emily knew, then they had to trust her.

“All right,” Lyssa said. “What do we do?”

“Hold hands,” Emily said.

Lyssa took Athena’s hand, and then she took Emily’s. Her daughter was twice as warm as she should have been, as if she were burning up inside.

“This isn’t going to hurt you, is it?” Lyssa asked.

“Don’t worry about it, Mom,” Emily said, which wasn’t an answer. She looked away from Lyssa, at Cassie’s hand.

Then, slowly, Emily reached for it. And the moment that Emily’s hand touched Cassie’s, Lyssa felt herself whoosh out of her body.

She felt dizzy and giddy for a moment. Then Emily
appeared in front of her, hair and clothing streaming backward as if she were in a strong wind. Her hand remained firmly clasped around Lyssa’s. Her other hand was pointed forward, as if it were pulling them along.

Lyssa’s other hand was being squeezed. She looked backward and saw her grandmother, clinging as hard as she could.

They were traveling over the sea, going a great distance, the sun beating down on them. The horizon seemed farther away than ever.

They were leaving the protection of Cliffside House behind. They were on their own now, the Buckingham women, against a force that Lyssa couldn’t even pretend to understand.

Pacific Ocean
Two Hundred Miles off the Oregon Coast

The selkies didn’t seem to notice her. Cassie hovered several feet away from their circle, uncertain what to do.

Roseluna wasn’t too far from her, standing on the barrier, seemingly leading this group. Cassie could go deep into Roseluna’s mind, as deep as Roseluna had gone into hers, and maybe Cassie could disable her the way she had done Spark Walters, but Cassie wouldn’t be able to do that to all forty of them.

The selkies had a lot of magic. Daray had taught her that. The magic had diminished with time, he said, but he had told her that almost two generations ago. Emily, his granddaughter, was very powerful. Perhaps other selkies had had other half-human children, replenishing the magic.

Cassie was outclassed, and she knew it. She did have the element of surprise, and she wasn’t sure how to use it best.

But she did know that she couldn’t wait very long. She had to act, and act soon, with or without her family.

The selkies all raised their knives above their heads. The blades glistened in the sunlight. Roseluna was speaking, but Cassie couldn’t hear what she was saying. The ocean absorbed the sound, or maybe the barrier did.

Then the selkies looked down simultaneously. The water boiled beneath them.

Cassie moved a little closer, breathing shallowly, hoping no one would notice her. The boiling had gotten worse. Gossamer strings caught the light, filtering their way into the deep. Cassie followed one of them and saw something that surprised her.

The selkies were raising the remains of the
Walter Aggie
off the bottom of the ocean.

Cassie rose up ahead of the ship and floated on the surface again. What were they doing? Surely the storm was enough.

But even as she had that thought, she had the answer. When the storm was over, and the West Coast destroyed, the
Walter Aggie
would be found on the beach—a message to anyone who wanted to see it.

Roseluna had been clear: the selkies hated the way the humans treated the oceans. And the
Walter Aggie
was symbolic of that, at least to the selkies.

Of course, all the humans who understood the symbolism would have died in the storm.

But that probably didn’t matter to Roseluna. All that mattered was the fact that she had delivered the message and somehow changed the destiny of her people.

Cassie glanced over her shoulder, through the pathway that she had left open. She needed help here. Her mother’s strength, her granddaughter’s courage—she needed it all.

Because she didn’t know how to stop the selkies. Even if she
managed it, she would still have to deal with the
Walter Aggie.
Freed from the bottom, it would drift to shore. Right now, its oil was warming, and as long as it would take the ship to sink back to the bottom, that would be a lot of time for the oil to liquefy and spread.

Cassie would give her family a few more minutes. But if they didn’t arrive soon, she would propel herself all the way into Roseluna’s mind and see if she could argue her side of this, maybe even take over Roseluna’s mouth to convince the others that this wasn’t the way to go.

It was a long shot, but Cassie knew it was the only shot she had.

Pacific Ocean
Two Hundred Miles off the Oregon Coast

They saw it long before they got there, the giant back half of the
Walter Aggie
rising out of the ocean. It was black and covered with barnacles and moss, dripping into the sea. It rose up as if it were propelled from underneath, yet somehow they knew that the selkies encircling it were making the difference.

Somehow, as they got closer to Cassie, they blended into one mind—Emily, Lyssa, Athena. They had the same thoughts and yet all of their own. No question, though, that they were looking out the same pair of eyes, and those eyes seemed to belong to Cassie.

Even though Emily pulled them through the pathway that Cassie had created, the driver was Athena. She was already making plans, thinking of strategies, asking questions.

It took Emily and Lyssa a minute to realize that Cassie was
with them, only reporting back in images, not in words. Athena would wonder where all the selkies were, then an image would rise up—thirty in the water, and ten on the barrier that Athena had built with Daray’s father’s help all those years ago.

The only member of Daray’s family in the selkie grouping was Roseluna. No mother, father, or other siblings. No one seemed to know if they had died or if they had gone to safety or if they didn’t agree with the path that Roseluna was leading the selkies on.

All they could tell was that they were coming up on a troupe of forty selkies, armed with knives, an old ship that was coming apart, and an oil slick that would harm this part of the ocean even if the storm never hit.

All right,
Athena sent to them.
Here’s what we do: Emily, Cassie, Lyssa, disarm as many of those creatures as you can. I’m going for the barricade.

No!
Emily thought, and zoomed ahead of them.
Great-Grandma, Grandma, make another barricade. Keep the selkies out of the water. Mommy, talk to them. You’re half like them. Tell them this isn’t right.

Emily,
Lyssa thought, then realized all of them had separated. The link that had made them see as one was broken.

Lyssa faltered in the passageway, her hand no longer holding Emily’s. Emily had zoomed away from her, leaving her and Athena behind.

It’s too soon for her to take over this family,
Athena said.

It doesn’t matter,
Lyssa said.
She’s already done it. And since we only have one shot at whatever we’re going to do, I suggest we follow her instructions.

Instructions from a child,
Athena said. She shook her head, then floated through the passageway, leaving only her thoughts behind.
We’re going to fail after all.

Pacific Ocean
Two Hundred Miles off the Oregon Coast

They didn’t trust her. Not even Mommy trusted her, but not for the same reason. Mommy thought she was too little to know what she was doing. Great-Grandma Athena thought that she was reckless and stupid, and Grandma Cassie—Grandma Cassie was still worried that Emily was going to side with the selkies.

The whole thought made Emily’s eyes burn. Her family didn’t trust her, but they had to. They had to put up with her, had to do it her way because she wasn’t leaving them any choice.

She got, from Grandma Cassie’s mind, how awful all this was going to be, even if it was just the ship, the
Walter Aggie,
sliding back into the sea.

She hoped Great-Grandma Athena was following the plan, because if she wasn’t, then everything would get really bad. Emily couldn’t think about that, though. She only had one chance, and Grandma Cassie had given her the idea the night before.

When Emily’d been asleep (sort of) on the couch, when she’d heard them remembering—if that’s what you wanted to call it—all the stuff that had happened before Mommy was born. They said there were two ways to deal with the part of the ship still filled with oil. And they had tried one.

Now Emily was going to try the other.

Only she didn’t know if it was going to work. She had made Daddy hurt—that fire, that day, had come from inside her, but she didn’t know if she could just make fire happen. And
she didn’t know if she could do it when her body was in Cliffside House and her mind was floating here on the ocean.

But she was going to try.

She zoomed past Grandma Cassie, who was trying to signal her to stop. Emily ignored her. She didn’t want to hear more talking and more arguments.

Emily went all the way to the selkies and past, zooming over Great-Aunt Roseluna, who saw her and looked really scared. Emily liked the really scared part. That meant Great-Aunt Roseluna was going to take her seriously.

Nobody else was.

Then Emily stopped over the ship. It was a lot bigger than she thought it was going to be. It still hung over the water, held in place by thoughts from all the selkies.

They’d lied to Grandma Cassie. They had more powers than anyone knew about. But back then, they didn’t have a lot of numbers. Not many selkies were still alive when they had made their pact with the Buckinghams more than a century ago.

The selkies had spent all this time replenishing their ranks, and because they weren’t being hunted anymore and because nobody believed in them, and nobody knew they still existed, none of their people got killed off. There were lots and lots and lots of selkies, and if this group failed, another would try.

Emily froze in place. Those weren’t her thoughts. That was Great-Aunt Roseluna trying to stop her. Grandma didn’t believe everything Great-Aunt Roseluna sent, so why should Emily?

Emily put the thoughts out of her mind and focused on the ship instead.

The ship, which looked even weirder out of the water than it had in the water. Then, when she had gone with Grandma Cassie, the ship had been all dark and spooky and weird colors because of the black water. Now it was kinda gray and kinda green and had stuff dripping off it and Emily could sense the
black goo inside, and she knew in that moment, that sense of the oil, the useful oil, came from her daddy’s family.

She made herself think about Daddy and his family because she hadn’t very much. She hadn’t thought about how one of her grandpas killed the other, and how Daddy had tried to drown her—what had he known? He’d kept saying she’d be useful. Was he really crazy or was he trying to hurt her the way Grandpa Walters had hurt Grandpa Daray?

Maybe with her magic coming, Daddy got afraid. Maybe he got really afraid.

Emily’s chest hurt, and her stomach hurt, and she knew none of that was real, because her body was in Cliffside House. But she remembered how scared she was under that water and how her lungs had burned and how her eyes were burning even now, because there were tears back there and she would be damned—to say what her mom sometimes said—she would be damned if she let those tears come out.

Instead, she closed her eyes and pushed the burning out of her and sent it into the black goo—the oil that everyone hated and everyone needed, and she sent as much burning in there as she had, even more than she had when Daddy died.