Silver Smoke (#1 of Seven Halos Series) (29 page)

Brie yelped—the face had a squashed nose and pink cheeks with long whiskers and a fat chin. On pure instinct, she jetted toward the shore, but the water was thick and it was like trying to sprint through a pool of honey.

"It's me!" the mutant form said. The voice hit Brie like a bucket of cold water. She knew those husky undertones and, slowly, turned her head over her shoulder.

"Rykken?!" She treaded back toward the head to get a better look. Aside from the whiskers, it looked like Rykken. She patted his face, tracing his forehead, his cheeks, his nose, his lips. "What happened to you?" she asked, avoiding the whiskers that sprouted from the skin just above his chin. "I don't understand."

His face was a mixture of sadness and anger. "Pretty disgusting, isn't it?"

She realized how terrible she must sound. "You're the seal?" She waited for him to tell her she was crazy, and this was all a hallucination brought on by the shock of almost drowning.

Instead, Rykken paled, his whiskers disappearing into his face. "Yes. I'm the seal. And you... you have gills?"

"What?"

"You have gills. That's how you were able to breathe underwater."

Brie reached up to her neck and felt 3 large slits on one side. "Oh, no wonder," she said dumbly. She felt her face heating up as she concentrated on removing her gills, forcing the skin on her neck to smooth over.

"Amazing." Rykken reached out to touch her neck, running the back of his two forefingers lightly over the spot the gills had been. His fingers were gray and slippery, but her skin still warmed at his touch.

"Sirena too? When I saw you girls in the ocean... I couldn't believe it. I think I scared you, didn't I?"

Brie noticed a dark gray body mass floating behind Rykken, and something clicked in her mind. "Your body... it's still..." Rykken pulled his hand back from her neck, as if she were all of a sudden contagious. "I guess we both have a lot of explaining to do," Brie said.

"Can you wait for me here, while I head to shore?" Rykken asked. "And close your eyes, even though it's dark. When I change form, I'm not exactly clothed." Now it was his turn to blush.

Brie did as she told, but it was hard to keep her eyes closed. She wondered how Rykken would get out of the water when the bottom half of him was a seal. Did he drag himself along the sandy bottom of the ocean floor?

A minute later, Rykken called out to her. "I left clean clothes for you on the beach." Brie suddenly remembered she was down to her bra and panties. Every inch of her felt warmer than necessary, and she was thankful that Rykken couldn't see her.
It's the same as a swimsuit,
she told herself. And Rykken had seen her in a swimsuit plenty of times.

Brie waded to the shore of a deserted stretch of beach, noting that Rykken faced the opposite direction. She stripped down and pulled on the board shorts Rykken had left her. She inhaled the fresh scent of rain water and coconut on Rykken's shirt as she tugged it over her head. She pulled her arms around her chest to cover herself.

"Where are we?" she asked. Rykken faced her.

"Off the coast of Moloka'i. This volcano—Moanalua—is the largest volcano on any of the islands." He took in her outfit from head to toe. "I figured you'd want something dry to wear, if you weren't dead by the time I reached you. The clothes are probably too big for you, but—"

"They're perfect. Thank you." Brie sat down on the beach, exhausted.

Rykken sat down next to her, leaning back into the sand on the support of his elbows. "I wanted to talk to you after I saw you in the water with Sirena. I came to the beach to look for you, but Clara found me first. She told me about the Hallows, and that you were one of them. She said she's suspected I was one too, for awhile now."

"She didn't tell me." Brie's pulse quickened, stirring irritably. "Not that we ever talk. But she would have told Thessa, and Thessa could have told me. I wish I knew. I've felt so alone this whole time, not having Pilot to confide in."

"Thessa didn't want you to know, I don't think." Rykken sat up, dusting the sand off his arms. "She doesn't want us to train together either. Cora and Clara are going to train me, so I can learn to control my gift."

"Your gift is turning into a seal?" Brie didn't think it was so much of a gift as it was a curse.

"Do you remember the legend Pilot told at the Homecoming bonfire? About the selkies and the shark-men? They were two real families that once resided on Hawaii—Hallows and Nephilim, respectively. Clara thinks I'm a descendant of the Hallow family."

Brie stared at the ocean. "The pendant was for you, wasn't it?" In the distance, where the ocean met the sky, a sliver of color peeked through the night blue, indicating that it was close to morning. "I thought it was for me, or Pilot."

"Yes, it was for me, but I regret ever touching it now." Rykken smoothed the front of his shirt. "It did this to me."

He spoke with regret, but Brie couldn't think of a happier circumstance. She finally had someone to share her world with.

"It's not bad," she said, rolling up her baggy shorts. "Being a Hallow, I mean."

"Not for you," Rykken said, chuckling. "Your body parts don't morph into seal body parts every time you touch too much water. My foster mother... I don't think she'll recover. Clara and Cora are going to pay her a visit, but I'm worried it won't be enough."

"How did you explain it to her?"

"She thinks I'm cursed." Rykken told Brie about the night of the dance—how he stepped into the shower and the bath tub broke under his weight. "When the tub cracked, the water drained away into the living room. My foster mother turned off the shower head, and within a few minutes I was back to normal.

When I fell, I bruised my head, but even that healed quickly. It didn't take long to figure out what made me turn into a seal."

"I'm so sorry," Brie said. "You probably freaked out." She resisted the urge to hug him. Rykken seemed so sad and she wished she could comfort him, but a hug between them was out of the question.

"I did. I was afraid to even brush my teeth." Rykken laughed. "Luckily, I need more water than that to change."

"That's why you quit water polo," Brie said, putting the pieces together.

He looked at her, his cheeks the color of a soft sunburn. "When I saw you under water, swimming without any equipment—I felt hope. That you had a secret and you were surviving." Absentmindedly, he traced the outline of her planted hand in the sand with his index finger. "Sure, it made you act weird, and your family didn't understand what was happening to you and that hurt them. But overall, you were dealing with it."

"You hurt Pilot and Justin when you quit water polo," Brie said. "Pilot kept asking me why you were ignoring him."

"He did?" Rykken looked at Brie curiously. "What did you tell him?"

"Same thing I told Justin—I didn't know."

Rykken scoffed. "Justin hates me right now, but I don't think it has much to do with water polo."

"He doesn't hate you," Brie promised, even though he hadn't told her that. She didn't want Rykken to feel guilty though. "He was upset that you quit, even though he gets to be captain now. His priority is the team."

Rykken was silent, and Brie wondered what was going through his mind. "I didn't have a choice to stay."

"I know," Brie said. She patted his arm. "I guess that's what secrets do—they hurt people."

He looked up, and his eyes were like liquid chocolate she could drink. "Sometimes it's better to hurt someone than lose them completely by telling them the truth." His fingers brushed against the back of her hand. He cringed, his eyes drifting away.

Brie nodded, pulling her hand away from his arm. She was afraid she'd lingered too long and he didn't want her to touch him. "Exactly."

"Brie," he said softly, his voice full of concern. "On the boat... were you—were you trying to commit suicide?"

Brie sat up. "What? No! Why would you think that?"

He leaned back, folding his arms behind his head and laying in the sand. "I didn't just appear. I fell asleep early last night, mostly feeling depressed. The only person I could talk to about my new condition was you, and you were on the boat cruise for a week. I... I dreamt about you though. In my dream, you climbed over the boat railings and jumped off, hitting the ocean with a wicked smack. Then you sunk, not even fighting the water that was pulling you under."

"Sounds about right," Brie admitted, "except for the jumping part. I was being stupid and I fell off the boat." She lowered herself into the sand next to him, resting her head against the palm of her hand and holding her weight on her elbow. "How did you dream about that though?"

Rykken glanced at her nervously. "Dream visions? Does that sound like a Hallow thing? I'm so new to it all, I can barely keep it straight."

Brie frowned. "Maybe, as a gift. But you already have a gift—turning into a seal."

"This dream vision is the first one I've ever had. It was so vivid, I knew it couldn't be just a dream. Anyway, I thought you were dead, for sure, but I got up right away anyway and packed a bag. I took a taxi to the airport and took a red eye here."

"I'm sorry you had to do that."

"Don't be," he said softly. He met her eyes, like he wanted to say more. He didn't though.

Brie looked down, drawing shapes in the few inches of sand between them. "Why didn't you call Sirena or Thessa?"

Rykken laughed, turning sideways to face her. "Because I'm an idiot. Thessa was out of town, and by the time I thought to call Sirena I was already on the plane." He looked at Brie with those deep brown eyes. "I bet Sirena could have gotten to you much faster."

"Maybe. I don't know though, we were pretty far out. How did you even find me?"

"Through sound," Rykken said, smiling. "It's crazy. When I'm underwater, I can make the slightest noise, and the noise bounces back and gives me a picture of the entire ocean, for miles. The detail is incredible. I know the location of everything, right down to the sea cucumbers buried in the sand, or the man-o-wars' floating in formation, stinging everything in their paths. It's a useful skill to have in pitch darkness, since I can't see that well when I'm in seal form."

"That
is
amazing."

"So how did it happen?" Rykken asked. "You falling off the boat. You still haven't said."

Brie felt a lump in her throat. "I slipped," she said.

To Brie's dismay, Rykken didn't even pretend to be fooled by her answer. Brie typically prided herself on her ability to lie persuasively, but she wondered if she was losing her touch.

She let her guard down a little further. "I was testing the limits of my balance, and I went too far."

Rykken didn't seem alarmed. "And why were you doing that?" he asked calmly.

Brie paused for less than a moment before she spilled the entire story about James and the adoption.

As she spoke, she noticed she had his full, undivided attention. His gaze seemed to extend from his eyes to his entire body. It made her nervous, like he was taking in details about her words, her tone, her posture—things she didn't even realize she was doing.

She swallowed, sitting up. The energy building up between them was nearly painful. "Thessa is looking for my blood father right now."

Rykken sat up next to her, dusting the sand off his own back. "Join the club. She's looking for my parents too."

"Thessa hopes my real father will help them figure out more of Milena's secrets." Brie wrapped her arms around herself as she pulled her knees to her chest and laid her head sideways, facing Rykken.

"Are you cold?" he asked. He pulled a towel out of his bag and wrapped it around her, letting his arm linger. She responded to the momentary heat of his body by scooting closer. She could feel the slight pressure changes from the tips on his fingers, even through the towel and her clothing.

"So you know about the Hallows," Brie said, trying to lighten the mood. "What do you think of Thessa? Of all of them?"

"I've always thought there was something unusual about Thessa and the twins. They were so popular, almost immediately when they moved here. Even as freshmen, they had something about them. Clara was funny and witty, and Cora had a quiet, sensitive beauty to her. Thessa was a queen bee. She always seemed so much older than the rest of us, and all the girls looked up to her. All the guys wanted to date her. She kept her distance from me, but she was always watching. Now I know why. She's the person who found me when my parents abandoned me. I was wrapped in a blanket, floating along the Kaukonahua River in a basket, almost drowned in rain water. She took care of me, sort of. She made sure I had money, at least.

The reason I was able to stay with such good foster families is because there was a special fund. Each family received a stipend to care for me. The same is true for my school scholarship. It was rigged so I could still go to a good school."

"Thessa never told me." Brie felt betrayed—hadn't she placed all her trust in the Hallows? Yet, all this time, Thessa and the twins had been keeping secrets from her, just like she'd suspected. "She's never said anything about you to me."

"I don't think she knew for sure about me until now."

Brie wasn't satisfied with his answer. "But she had an inkling, and she left you here, in foster home care."

Rykken shrugged, letting his hand drop from her shoulder. He leaned back. "I guess Thessa couldn't care for me herself; how would she explain to people why she wasn't aging? How would she explain to me why she wasn't aging? She did the best she could under the circumstances, and I'm grateful for that. She said she looked for an explanation of how I ended up in the river for several years, but didn't find one.

And she came back. To watch over me, I suppose."

The sky was orange and strawberry red like a summer popsicle, and the edge of a glowing ball of energy floated slightly above the ocean surface. Brie wanted nothing more than to feel the sun on her skin, which was finally returning to its natural light bronze color from the purple tint it had been earlier. The soft hints of sunlight were faint, but they left Rykken's black hair shiny. Brie wanted to reach out and wind her fingers through it.