World of Aluvia 2 (8 page)

hoebe took a deep breath. “Look, I found a merfolk’s skeleton yesterday. It washed up on shore. It had a strange black handprint on the skull and five holes punctured right through the bone.”

She ignored their gasps and hurriedly pressed on. “The elders said it was just an old skeleton that got crushed along the rocks. But what if this wraith grabbed it and sucked it clean? Or worse, what if it was that beast, Baleros? The merfolk have the same stories about him nearly destroying their people centuries ago. Don’t you see?
They need to know.
You helped set the merfolk free, but we’ve done nothing for them all this time. I can’t help them, but you can. You’ve got the magic in the family. Use it to help them. Please!”

Her voice was sharper than intended. Corbin’s eyebrows lifted to his hairline at her tone. Sierra paled. Only Micah looked on serenely, as he usually did.

“You found a
skeleton
? A merfolk that had died violently?”

“Last night.”

“And you didn’t tell me right away. Why?” The softness with which the words were spoken did not reduce the audible fury a single bit.

“Why do you think?” Phoebe clenched her fists and took a step closer, glaring at her big sister.

Sierra growled, but Corbin stepped between them. “Let’s all settle down. Let’s have some supper. Then afterward, when we’re calmer, maybe we can focus on the water wraith. Let’s deal with the, uh, other thing later.”

So the group of four sat at the table, an uncomfortable silence filling the air between the clanking of spoons and clunking of mugs. Corbin tried to make conversation. He explained to everyone that Nell, his partner, would be back later tonight. She was visiting her family on the way home. Others chatted a bit about their trip, but it was a slow and painfully awkward conversation. Phoebe didn’t think she could force anything into her stomach, but the yeasty bread melted in her mouth, and the beans offered sustenance she knew she’d need.

Sierra and Micah finished and left the room to unpack (and probably to talk about how to handle Phoebe.) That was fine. It was easier to eat without Sierra’s worried glare beating down on Phoebe like the noonday sun.

Corbin said, “You know she’s only like this because she loves you so much.”

“I know,” she said shortly. “But love can’t smother people, Corbin. It can’t control them.”

“Give her time.”

“The merfolk might not have any time.”

He had nothing to say to that. She knew he agreed with her. Corbin’s love of magical creatures was as strong as hers.

A few minutes later, Sierra and Micah returned. Sierra looked sullen, Micah ever-peaceful.

“Now,” Corbin said, building the fire up. “Let’s discuss this reasonably. Phoebe wants us to tell the merfolk about this danger, and it sounds like she also wishes to somehow help the merfolk in greater measure, beyond setting up the treaties we arranged.”

“You mean the treaties humans are beginning to ignore?” Phoebe said sweetly.

“Well, yes, uh…” Corbin stumbled.

“The merfolk aren’t my calling,” Sierra said between clenched teeth.

“But―” Phoebe began.

“No, I don’t have a connection to them. I just don’t. And if
you
go to them,
you’ll
be in danger! What if
you’re
the next one who gets their head crushed by some giant claw?”

Corbin let out a soft sigh. “Sierra…”

“No, let’s do this. You want to have this talk? Fine. Micah, tell her about her smell.”

Smell?
Phoebe, ready to argue, lost her train of thought. Her sister thought she was smelly?

Micah chuckled. “Oh, if only you could see how much like your sister you look like at this moment, young Phoebe! I once told Sierra she had a scent, and she looked as mortified as you. However, this is not a bad thing. Let me explain.

“Every magical creature leaves behind a scent, a magical signature if you will. Humans have their own scent. When I met your sister, she smelled human, but the scent of magic was heavy upon her as well. I knew she was no ordinary human, or even a typical fairy keeper. Her magical scent was far too strong. After I met you, four years ago, I told her you had a similar scent, though unique to you. She smells of the cinnamon honey magic of her charges. You smell of the sea.”

Sierra spoke up. “We didn’t tell you, because I was afraid of getting your hopes up about becoming a keeper. I know you’ve always wanted that, but I didn’t think it would happen. Not without the mark.”

Micah picked up the thread of the conversation smoothly. “Such a thing seemed unlikely to me as well. You showed no signs of magical power. So she kept this from you, in love, to protect you from heartbreak if this magic always remained dormant. Magic does run in you, too, Phoebe. We just don’t know how it might reveal itself. I wasn’t sure it ever would. We agreed to keep silent. It didn’t matter in the long run, if nothing happened.”

“M-m-magic?” Phoebe stammered. She couldn’t quite wrap her mind around what was just said. She had…
magic?
And Sierra had kept that fact from her, despite knowing it was Phoebe’s deepest wish? No. Sierra remained quiet because she didn’t think Phoebe really had magic, not the kind she could use.

Surely Micah must be wrong about her scent. That was all. Phoebe had never done anything remotely magical that she could remember. Or had she? She thought of the way her singing always drew the little seawees to her. Tingles ran down her spine.

“But today there’s more,” Micah said.

Sierra scowled at the floor, but the worry in her eyes stood out starkly. Anger was always Sierra’s first response to fear.

Phoebe had no words.

Micah continued. “The fragrance has changed since I last saw you. It’s gotten far stronger, as if it’s been activated the same way your sister’s was from her fairy sting. I doubt that many magical creatures would have sensed you before, but there’s no doubt now that there is something awakening inside you, Phoebe. I believe your magic has now been triggered and will grow even stronger.”

Sierra bit off a curse and stood up to stomp around the room. Phoebe felt like she was trying to find her way through a darkened room and could bash herself in the shins at any point.

“I have
magic
?” she said again, stunned.

Sierra’s eyebrows were drawn heavily above her eyes. Phoebe didn’t understand why. Sure, Sierra’s relationship with Queenie started out rough, but look at how happy they were now!

Micah asked, “Did the water wraith break your skin? Bite or scratch you?”

She looked down at her leg, surprised again to see the mark left by the grasp of the water wraith. “No, it never bit me. It half-drowned me, but it didn’t leave a scratch. The red mark doesn’t even hurt.”

“Well, whatever happened, I suspect it is this event that triggered a change in you.
You
actually could be the one to help the merfolk fight this wraith. To recognize the dark shadow for whatever threat it poses. You would not be the first in your family to have strange visions related to your charges.” He gave a pointed look at Sierra, softening it with a smile, referencing the strange flickering visions Sierra had experienced when her fairy queen called to her.

She crossed her arms and huffed, looking away.

He continued. “At any rate, you will need to experiment to see what you can do. Magic is something that will take control of you, if you don’t take control of it.”

Sierra glared at him, but he shrugged. “It is the truth, and you know it.”

“No, I don’t. And if it is true, how can she even serve the merfolk while living on land? With us, where she belongs?” Sierra snapped.

Phoebe barely noticed the tense debate. Hope fluttered in her chest. The world coalesced around her, a jumbled grouping of shapes that suddenly snapped into a recognizable image. “So you’re saying I could have a relationship with magical creatures like a keeper, only different? Like with the merfolk, maybe, tying me to the ocean and them to me?”

“Yes, that’s what I mean.”

“Because you said I smell like the sea. But maybe you’re just smelling salt water on me?”

Micah laughed, an open, joyful sound. “No, little sister, I assure you, it’s not that simple. To me, you smell of the sweetness of the sun breaking over the waves for the first time in the morning, of the wildness of the pounding surf upon the cliff walls, of the freshness of the salty air of the coast. I believe you have a magic that binds you to the sea or to something in the sea. It is a part of you.”

He shrugged again. “It is just my poor guess, but I challenge anyone to think of something more logical. Scents do not lie.”

Though she longed to believe him, doubt crawled through her. Images popped in her mind, of the way she cried in the dungeon, the way she waited helplessly to be rescued. And again today, her friends had to save her from drowning, hide her from Donovan. Could she really be strong enough to help anyone else? Could she really be
magical
? Like her sister? After a lifetime of thinking of herself as ordinary, this new possibility made her head spin.

Phoebe longed to race to the ocean’s edge where she could best think, but she couldn’t do that right now. Instead, she took a deep breath and imagined she was at her favorite spot, on her favorite rock, on her favorite shore. At the thought, it was as though the ocean itself roared through her. She could almost smell the salty air, hear the crashing waves. Something in her settled, deep inside, like a bone snapping into joint. As incredible as Micah’s explanation sounded, maybe he was right. Certainly a faun understood magic better than any human.

She turned over the concept in her mind and tried it on, like putting on a new coat. What if she
was
special, unique? She could have a special tie to the merfolk and a connection to Tristan, the first merfolk she had ever cared for, loved as a dear and lifelong friend, maybe more. Joy trembled inside her, a newly turned leaf in spring.

Maybe her dreams were possible.

In that moment, she made up her mind: she’d never be just plain Phoebe again. The merfolk deserved help. Her friends needed her.

Her sister had taken her fate by the shoulders and pushed back. Phoebe could do just as much. Sierra wanted Phoebe to be safe, she understood that. And she loved her sister for it. But staying at this house forever would smother her. She wanted to be strong.

Her sister always swore real magic involved a choice: embrace your calling to fulfill it, or refuse and turn the other way. So Phoebe would choose to believe she had some kind of magic. And she was going to use it to help the merfolk.