Revel (19 page)

“But they didn’t,” I said. “And
it
didn’t. And I’m fine.”

I took a gulp of my ice water to ease the tightness in my throat. Apparently Sean had only invited me here to give me a lecture.

“Yeah, well,” he murmured. “I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.” He reached to take my hand and his thumb brushed over my knuckles. “I
won’t
let anything happen to you. I promise.” He turned my hand over in his. “Wow, you heal up pretty quick, don’t you?” he remarked, staring at my palm. “I can’t even see the mark where we dug out that fishhook.” He smiled. “You’re so
tiny
. Like a little china doll.”

“Yeah,” I said softly, “so I’ve been told.” I withdrew my hand from his, still hurt by his remarks.

Maybe my coming here had set off a chain of events. Bad events. But it wasn’t like I’d deliberately done anything to harm anyone. Sean had no right to make me feel like … like a
monster
.

“What do you want me to do?” I asked quietly.

Sean lifted his head, a look of relief on his face. “For starters, just stay away from the water for a while, okay?” He smiled. “Every time you get wet, it spells trouble.”

I returned the smile uncertainly. When I’d first come to Trespass, his advice would have been unnecessary. Of
course
I
would stay out of the water. Duh. But now … Sean’s request made me feel uncomfortable. The water held an appeal for me that I couldn’t deny. And I knew Sean’s protectiveness was well meant, but he was treating me like some wayward child.

“I’ll try,” I said at last. It was the most I could promise.

Zuzu breezed into the Snug, followed by Reilly. “Sorry we’re late,” said Reilly. He nodded toward Zuzu. “Some kind of hair-care emergency.” He sat down, folded his long arms together and rested his elbows on the table.

“I don’t care what you say, that is not an oxymoron,” Zuzu told him. She eyed my chowder. When I put a protective hand over it, she smiled. Then her eyes widened.

“I love your necklace,” Zuzu said. “Blue’s a really lucky color, you know. You can make a wish.”

“Thanks,” I said, glancing at Sean. He’d told me the same thing when he’d given it to me. But Sean seemed distant and only stared past me, as if he wished he were somewhere else.

Something was going on with Sean. If only he would trust me enough to tell me about it. I cared about him. He did so much to take care of everyone else around here, but in some ways he was like an island himself. Strong, self-sufficient and remote. At least from me.

CHAPTER 14
 

M
y promise to Sean about staying away from the water was harder to keep than I’d thought. I was growing to love the sea.

Every morning the tide made a new beach, washing away whatever had been there before and leaving new treasures. And the water was never the same color twice. Some days the waves were rich indigo blue, sparkling with winks of sunlight; on others, a bleak gray as cold and heartless as stone.

It was a hot summer, and the island’s strange climate made the air even more sticky and humid. I’d asked Reilly about it and he confirmed my suspicion about the volcanic rock I’d seen on the beach. The island was located over a volcano with enough remnant activity to have superheated underground springs. Trespass had its own distinct ecosystem within the
otherwise cold North Atlantic. He’d gone into way more detail than I could remember or understand, but the fact was that here on Trespass and in the waters nearby, we had a variety of plants and animals that were tropical, all year round. Zuzu had countered his scientific explanations, telling me that it was the powers of the First Ones that kept the waters warm and melted the snow and ice in winter.

I wasn’t sure which one to believe, and finally decided that it might be a combination of the two. Perhaps the ancient sea gods had chosen this island for safekeeping of their powers just because of its special qualities. The idea satisfied me somehow. A combination of magic and logic.

The weather was certainly great for flowers—hyacinths and rhododendrons and sea roses grew everywhere—but I always felt wilted.

And my hair. Gah.

Most days it looked like I’d been the victim of some home-perm guerrilla warfare. The best option seemed to be pulling the curls through a baseball cap, the visor of which gave the added benefit of sun protection.

I would sit on the sand and look out at the water. At first just seeing it and feeling the cool breeze was enough to refresh me, to take away the gritty heat of the sun. But every day I ventured a little closer.

One afternoon I just couldn’t take it anymore. It was so hot. I’d collected a handful of sea glass to make a necklace for Zuzu. The pieces were sandy and needed to be rinsed.

Besides, I hadn’t exactly
promised
to stay out of the water, as I recalled. I’d only said I would try. Sean Gunn couldn’t just tell me what to do—that was ridiculous. I would put my feet in to the ankles; there was no harm in that.

The sand scrubbed against the soles of my feet as I stepped in, and cool water wrapped over my skin in ribbons. I let out a long breath and closed my eyes. Bliss.

Scooping water over my arms, I sighed with the sheer pleasure of the coolness. It felt like my skin drank it in, slaking its own thirst. I yanked off my hat and tossed it to the sand, then pressed a handful of water to the back of my neck and let it trickle down my spine.

“I’ve been waiting.”

I turned to see Jax standing in the water and felt my heart begin to beat faster. Or maybe it wasn’t that fast, I was simply conscious of it all of a sudden. Really conscious. Like my beating heart took up all of me.

“Waiting? For what?” I managed to ask, sliding into deeper water. The cooling effect seemed to have disappeared.

Jax strode closer, his powerfully built body sparkling with drops of water in the sunlight. The ugly scars across his torso stood out in painful-looking detail. “You. Why haven’t you come swimming again?”

“The water’s not safe. You told me that.” I looked around. “And this isn’t Lander’s Beach. It’s all about the rules here, right? I’m learning.”

“Rules,” Jax murmured. His eyes shone like crystallized
seawater from some azure depths. “Yes, the rules. But you don’t follow the rules, do you?”

“Apparently you don’t either.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, his square-cut jaw hardening.

“Well, you’re talking to me,” I said. “Isn’t that against the rules? The Accord?”

“I suppose it is,” he said gruffly.

“Why
are
you talking to me?” I wasn’t trying to flirt or be coy. If Jax was here because of some order of the First Ones to keep tabs on me, I wanted to know. And I didn’t think he would try to hide it. He was more brazen than that. More proud.

“I’m not sure,” Jax said, after a moment. “I like the sound of your voice. Even from the first night, when I heard you singing that ridiculous song.”

“Oh, that,” I said, embarrassed.

Jax frowned, inspecting my face. “You look different. Where are your eye lenses?”

Startled, I reached up to touch the bridge my nose. “I must have forgotten them,” I said. “That’s weird.” It wasn’t the first time I’d left the house without noticing their absence. And yet I could see Jax perfectly clearly. What was happening to me?

“Show me what is in your hand.”

I’d almost forgotten what brought me to the water. I lifted my hand and showed him the pieces of sea glass. With the sand washed away, they sparkled in the sunlight. Amber, green and frosty white.

“Why do you pick up those bits of glass?” he asked. “It’s only trash.”

“I think they’re pretty,” I said, letting them tumble softly in my hand. “Like little jewels.”

“Jewels from broken bottles,” he said dismissively.

I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter how something starts. It’s what it becomes. After all, diamonds come from lumps of coal.”

“Would you want some?”

“Lumps of coal?”

“Diamonds.” He looked at me steadily, as if trying to puzzle something out in his mind.

“Uh, no. I’m good. Thanks.” I turned away, heading back to the sand.

“Mikos said I frightened you. Is that true?” Jax’s voice was subtly altered. He sounded awkward. Unsure.

I looked at him and remembered the cool savagery he’d displayed with the knife at his hip. Plus he was a demigod and probably capable of things I couldn’t even imagine. Did that frighten me?

“Yes,” I confessed. “You frightened me.”

“Because I’m ugly,” Jax said. He spoke without heat or resentment. As if he just wanted me to confirm what he already knew.

“No,” I answered swiftly, narrowing my eyes. “Because of what you
did
.”

Jax seemed baffled. “You wanted me to help you free the creature. I thought you would be pleased.”

“You cut off its freaking foot!”

Jax shrugged. “They grow back.”

“What?”

“The Glaukos can regenerate lost limbs if they are severed. I thought you knew this.”

“Oh,” I said, taken aback. “No, I didn’t.” I hesitated. “I’m not sure it makes a difference.”

“I suspect it does to the Glaukos,” Jax said gravely.

The spark of amusement in his eyes made me smile despite myself, and I waded into the water until I stood near him. After all, it wasn’t every day that I got to see a demigod up close. My T-shirt and shorts felt heavy and ungainly as they clung to my body.

“You remind me of a fish,” he said.

“Gee, thanks. You really know how to charm a girl, don’t you?” I walked past him, tugging my hips against the small waves.

“No,” he said gruffly as I passed, “I don’t.”

Jax followed me into deeper water until we faced each other. “There is a blue fish that lives in the coral,” he said. “The female is very small but fiercely protective of its children and home. And its mate. We call it
diabolika
.” His blue eyes roved over my face. “ ‘Small she-devil.’ ”

It sounded suspiciously like the Tasmanian Devil’s wife from Looney Tunes. And not very complimentary. “Does she spin around and gnash her teeth a lot?” I asked.

“No. She’s actually … very beautiful,” Jax said in a low voice.

“Oh,” I managed to say. I had that breathless feeling again, and there was a peculiar sensation in my knees, as if they’d been shot full of novocaine and Jell-O.

The water held me and I let it, sinking into the buoyant embrace until it covered my breasts. I had to close my eyes just for a second to simply feel it as I breathed in the clean scent of the ocean. It felt like heaven.

I opened my eyes to see Jax watching me.

Ugly? Maybe compared to Mikos’s plastic-looking perfection. But Jax was anything but ugly to me; in fact, his face kind of fascinated me. It was … arresting. He seemed young to have a face like that. His broad forehead had two creases that became rolled-up furrows when he frowned. Beneath his proud, battered nose was a mouth of narrow precision, making him look reserved and somehow vulnerable. A dark stubble of beard roughened the raw-boned angle of his jaw.

I swam closer, wondering why I did, yet at the same time understanding it completely. When Jax was around, everything I did was based on impulse, on instinct.

And every instinct was the same.

Closer
.

I couldn’t help but let my eyes drift to his chest and the network of horrendous scars. “How did you get those?”

He glanced down. “There was a time when I cared about something, very much. This was the price I paid for caring.”

“What was it that you cared about?”

“My clan,” he answered. “I once sought to be leader. In part to please my father, Xarras. He’s a brilliant man, but
quiet and reserved, always in the shadows of those louder and more aggressive than himself. But he thought I would be a good leader. He approved of my ideas to change things, to bring progress to our people.” Jax gave me a grim half smile that accentuated the hard contours of his face. “We’ve lived so long by the old customs that we don’t know anything else. And the old ways don’t really fit this world anymore.”

I remembered Xarras from when Mikos brought me before the Council. He did seem quiet, more statesmanlike than Lukus, the clan leader. But Lukus seemed to respect his opinions and listened to his advice. Good thing for me. Otherwise, Lukus might have followed Dona’s idea of feeding me to the crabs. Apparently one of those good old ways Jax was talking about.

“What are you thinking about?”

I looked at him. “I was thinking that your father was right. You
would
be a good leader.”

I would follow you. Anywhere
.

The thought came into my head without warning. I cleared my throat and tried to get my mind back on the subject. “What happened?”

“Someone betrayed me,” said Jax. “Someone, I don’t know who, told the clan leader that I was raising a revolt against him. I was punished for treason.” He looked down at himself. “I was entombed in the Eluvian Trench for three days. So deep and dark that the only life inside it are the ravenous giant squid. Their tentacles cut like razors.”

“But you’re a demigod. Don’t you have miraculous healing powers or something?”