Fire forged, p.8
Fire Forged, page 8
While there were a great many things she would like to add, not a one of them seemed prudent. “I was just finishing here. I’m going to look at the other side of the island.” As soon as the last word left her mouth, Shasta carefully stepped around the two sirens. She kept moving down the beach.
Melissa, likely thinking Shasta couldn’t hear her, continued softly. “No one seems to know where Agatha is. There’s a problem over at the—”
“Hush, and let us be on our way.”
Shasta turned her head just enough to see the two sirens make those incredible leaps, carrying them in the opposite direction from her. The other words were lost in the sound of the waves, gulls, and seals.
For a group of people who were supposed be happy to have her here solving their mysteries, they seemed to be constantly guarding some secrets. The rational part of her wanted to say they were simply cautious. The rest of her, however, wasn’t so easily swayed.
She climbed over a rock, working her way toward where she’d found the boot. Something in this situation didn’t add up. Right now that was one more mystery to add to the list. When she looked up, her eyes caught on a humanoid—male, at that—sitting in the sand. There shouldn’t be any men here, at least not according to the sirens.
Hoping her dream really had been just a dream, Shasta hurried closer. As she neared the shape, it resolved itself into that of the man, but the skin color was off, and his arms were held at rather odd angles. She stepped on top of a rock, and the sun’s glare reflected off the man, making her squint. It wasn’t a person at all. It was a mannequin.
Shasta hopped off the rock, and her feet sank into the sand. Moving carefully, she crossed the short distance to the mannequin. Only a few feet from it, she stopped. It had something approaching a lifelike skin tone, but the shine was pure plastic. From the way the clothing sat on the body, Shasta suspected there might be some padding between the mannequin and the fabric trying to give it a more lifelike appearance. Though she’d never seen needles sticking out of the hands of a mannequin in a clothing store.
Kneeling down, she leaned forward for a closer look. Not only were needles sticking out of the hands, but there were also a few poking out of the shirt. The more she studied the mannequin the more needles she saw. They covered it from head to foot. The metal of the needles was dull, and three of them had thick drops of liquid on the tip. It could have been dew that had yet to evaporate in the morning sun, but even through her shields, Shasta could feel plant extract coating the metal.
She held her hand above the mannequin and pushed her power out of her body, letting it flow along the outside of the needles. She was able to make out a compound in the plant residue that could cause vomiting. However, it wasn’t one she’d encountered before, and these tiny remains of the plant weren’t enough to tell her exactly what she was dealing with.
The wind shifted, and she caught a thin odor of oil. She leaned close and sniffed. The smell was coming from the mannequin. How odd. She’d never noticed them having that strong of an odor.
Pulling her hand back, she reached into her bag, retrieved the camera, and took several pictures. Finally, she leaned in to get a close-up of a few needles. That wouldn’t tell anyone back at the office what plant material was on them, but it would show there had been liquid on the needles.
Shasta settled the camera back in her pack. She had to get the mannequin back up to town if for no other reason than that she didn’t want any of the sirens to touch it before they saw the danger. She pulled a coil of rope out of her bag and contemplated the mannequin. While she could get the rope around it and drag it back to town, some of the needles could break off or fall out.
She needed help, and the only place she was going to get that was in town. As she settled the rope back inside her bag, she looked past the mannequin. It wasn’t far to the rocky shore that had featured so prominently in last night’s dream. Though she couldn’t quite remember what she’d been dreaming.
A throaty rumble of a boat engine cut through the crashing waves. Every few seconds a deep rumble replaced the typical tone. It sounded a lot like Carmen’s boat had when it was cozying up to the dock. How odd. Carmen had made it sound like she wouldn’t be back for at least a week.
Her eyes settled on the mannequin. She really didn’t want to leave it, but if a boat was here, then several of the sirens should be down next to the dock, and she could get help without going all the way up to the town.
With that decided, Shasta turned and headed back to the dock. As she scrambled across the big rock again, she spotted Carmen’s boat motoring toward the dock. One of the seals poked its head up, gave a sharp bark, and then slipped into the water. One by one the rest followed. Out of the corner of her eye she caught other movements. Several sirens were leaping down the path. Good. At least one or two of them should be willing to help her.
Carmen’s boat gently thumped into the dock while Shasta was hurrying down the shore. A distinctly male and very familiar figure stepped out of the cabin, tilted his head back, and breathed in the sea air.
Shasta stopped dead in her tracks. She knew that hair. She knew the line of his body and the tenor of his voice.
As if he could feel her staring at him, he opened his eyes, looked directly at her, and smiled. Her traitorous heart went pitter-patter in her chest.
“Cord! What the hell are you doing here?” Ignoring the lovestruck thump-thump, Shasta glared at him. She’d taken a job more than three thousand miles from home so she could avoid him. He was like a bad penny she couldn’t lose.
A blur of sirens heading for the dock grabbed her attention. They didn’t want any men on the island. Shasta broke into a run. She had to get there before them. She had to convince him to get off the island. He couldn’t be here. He shouldn’t be here. This was her place to forget him. Too bad no one had told him that.
The sirens made one of their grand leaps, drawing even closer to the dock.
The sand seemed to push against Shasta’s feet, propelling her faster. She kept her eyes locked on Cord. He shouldered a pack and hopped off the boat. She was only feet from the dock. The sirens leaped into the air.
The boat backed away from the dock. It pivoted and was headed back out to sea by the time Shasta’s foot hit the first plank. Another foot touched down next to hers.
“Carmen! Carmen, come back!” If Carmen heard, she didn’t answer. Shasta sucked in another breath, not sure if she was going to yell at Cord, the sirens, or Carmen. Another set of feet thumped into the wooden planks behind her. Shasta transferred her gaze from the boat to Cord.
The cocky grin fell from his face. He took a step back, his heel finding nothing but air. He teetered on the edge of the dock. For a moment it looked like he would fall. Then he shifted his weight forward and set his foot more firmly on the dock.
Shasta slowed to a walk, closing the last few feet. She couldn’t tell if the furious pace of her heart was from the run or from the anger welling up from somewhere deep inside her. Before she could think better of it, she pulled her hand back and slapped him.
His head rocked with the force of the blow. He stayed like that for a moment before turning back to her. He dabbed at the corner of his mouth, as if checking to make sure he wasn’t bleeding. He lifted one eyebrow.
“What are you doing here?” Her voice cracked through the air.
Cord looked past her to the sirens piling onto the dock. “You’re my partner. I came to help.”
Someone yanked her arm, spinning her toward them. Demetria snarled at her. “We told your company. No men. Why did you invite him?”
Shasta sucked in a deep breath and held it. Anger wouldn’t help the situation. She needed to be logical, and she needed to stop them from hurting Cord. Though a healthy dose of anger would help her heart remember why she’d come to Sirenum.
“Demetria, it doesn’t look as though she was aware that he would be arriving.” Ligia tugged Demetria’s hand off her arm. The smile she directed at Cord was dazzling, and Shasta hated her just a little bit for it. “Though both ladies asked excellent questions. Why are you here?”
Cord squared his shoulders. “Some people at the company objected to Shasta being sent here without a partner. I’ve been her partner since she started at the company, so I was the obvious, if not necessarily best, choice.”
Shasta snorted. “Michelle didn’t send you. She would know better.”
He looked from Ligia to her. “Perhaps not, but you shouldn’t be here without a partner, and there were no other women available.”
“Irrelevant. This is Sirenum. We do not allow men. This is our place, our sanctuary, and you must leave.” Ligia said it all so sweetly, but with the thread of certainty that sounded as immovable as the ocean itself.
Cord looked over his shoulder at the rapidly retreating boat. “That may be a problem.”
“Then kill him!” a voice cried from the back of the crowd. Shouts of agreement followed.
Her heart gave another persistent thump-thump. It knew exactly where it felt her loyalty should lie. As much as she wanted to ignore the traitorous organ, she couldn’t let them kill him. “While I agree his appearance is unwelcome and he should return to the mainland, I must stress that killing him would jeopardize the agreements you’ve made with our company.”
Ligia held up a hand. Shasta held her breath as the siren examined Cord from head to toe and back again before studying the crowd of sirens. Long seconds later her eyes locked with Shasta’s. “You have broken the contract by having a man come here. He must pay the price.”
Shasta felt the blood drain out of her face and a cold knot of fear settle into her stomach. She’d wanted him to leave her alone. She hadn’t wanted him dead.
Chapter Six
Shasta held Ligia’s gaze. She couldn’t look at Cord, couldn’t risk showing weakness. It took her two tries to force the words out of her throat. “What is the price?”
Ligia cocked her head to the side. “He must endure a song.”
Behind her whispers rippled through the crowd of sirens. The tone was more surprised than angry, though Shasta wasn’t willing to bet on that continuing. One voice rose above the others. “Who shall sing?”
“I will.” Ligia smiled, and there was nothing kind or welcoming about it. It was the look of a predator faced with her favorite prey.
The knot of fear in Shasta’s gut managed to feel heavier. She should look at him, give him some reassurance, but she didn’t have any to share. She’d heard them sing when they weren’t trying to enchant, and it still had been enough to make her forget about Cord.
“I accept my punishment.” The boards creaked under his feet.
Shasta heard a quiet thump. She forced herself to look at him. Cord had dropped to one knee, head bowed, and pack sitting beside him. Her heart, which had gotten her into this mess in the first place, demanded that she do something. Unfortunately, this was out of her hands.
“Brave, if foolhardy,” Ligia mused. For a moment every sound fell away except Ligia’s slow intake of air. It was almost as if the earth stood still, waiting for those first notes. And what notes they were. Her voice soared as the waves crashed into the rocks on each side of the cove, sending drops of water high into the air. The note ended and the cries of the gulls filled the gap. Her voice dropped to a throaty alto, slowly building back to heights that sounded like dancing air brought to life.
Shasta felt the pull. Her fear for Cord abated, and her questions as to why he had come to the island faded away. Distantly she knew she should be focused on Cord, on seeing how well he was withstanding the song, but her head didn’t want to turn.
Ligia inhaled. The break in her song was just enough for Shasta to strengthen her shields and push the siren’s power away from her mind. Gulls lent their voices to fill the gap, and a heavy wave rolled across the beach.
Shasta forced herself to look at Cord. She thought he would be fixated on Ligia, but his eyes were locked on her. His face was filled with a mixture of longing and regret.
As the surf retreated, Ligia resumed her song with a high note that struck Shasta like sunshine after days of clouds. The music wrapped around her, pulling her gaze back to Ligia. For as much as the siren looked lost in her own music, there was something off about the song. Shasta had been more enchanted at dinner the other night, when supposedly they had not been trying to enchant her. So why did this song have less power?
Ligia’s voice rose again to sounds that Shasta was sure no human, elf, or witch could have matched. In a flurry of quick notes, the song ended, punctuated by waves thundering into the rocks, gulls shrieking overhead, and the sharp bark of the seals.
With a shudder, Shasta came back to herself. The sun was high in the sky, creeping from morning to afternoon. Cord was still kneeling, but his head was bowed again, hiding whatever emotions his face might have revealed. Ligia was wearing a friendly smile, but with the surprised whispers coming from the sirens behind her, Shasta wasn’t sure she trusted that look.
Ligia stepped forward and held out her hand. “Welcome to Sirenum.”
Cord raised his head, and his expression was carefully blank. He placed his hand in hers, letting Ligia draw him to his feet. “You have my thanks for the opportunity to prove myself worthy to stay. I will endeavor to be a most welcome, if unexpected, guest.”
“You’ve earned a temporary stay. You must appeal to our anassa, Agatha, for approval to stay more than overnight.” Ligia turned enough to address the sirens on the dock. “I believe you have duties.”
Pelagia, Gaiana, Zosime, Hagne, and several sirens Shasta hadn’t met leaped into the air, headed back to wherever they had been before the commotion had drawn them to the dock. Melissa gave Cord a long look before retreating. In a matter of seconds, only the three of them were left.
“Shasta, I see the two of you have much to discuss. If I were you, I would not delay finding Agatha to get her approval for his stay.” Ligia focused on horizon. She came back to herself with one of her kind smiles. “Though you may wish to work out miscommunications between the two of you before you speak to Agatha.”
“That will be the first thing we do,” Shasta answered before Cord could. “Thank you, Ligia.”
Ligia nodded before turning and making one of those incredible leaps that carried her all the way to land.
Shasta watched her run toward the path up the volcano. She wanted hours or even days to figure out how she felt. Some of her was happy to see him, and the rest simply wanted to know why he couldn’t leave her alone. Since he was standing next to her, she had to ask. “What are you doing here?”
Cord reached out toward her but froze when she leaned away from him. He tucked his hands in his pockets. “You’re my partner. Where else would I be?”
“That’s an evasion. You will give me a real answer.” Shasta bit her lip to keep from saying more. She needed answers more than she needed to yell at him.
“You didn’t answer your phone.” He kept looking over the ocean.
“Maybe it was a hint.”
He sighed. “Your mom said you didn’t want to be my partner anymore. I was reassigned.”
If he was going to be like this, she could have saved herself both the headache and heartache if she’d let Ligia kill him. “I would’ve been told if you were being sent out here. So why are you here? I know you don’t have orders.”
He turned back to her, eyes hot with anger. “I came to tell you I love you. I was wrong. I didn’t need time. I need to stop getting in my own way. I love you, and if you’ll take me, I want to be your man.”
“So you took it upon yourself to travel all the way out here without an invitation, against orders, just to tell me that?” The thread holding her temper snapped. “Well, that’s just grand. I came here to get over you. To find someone who didn’t need more than three weeks to decide if I was still the person they’d always known. I came here to stop loving you. Give me one good reason why any of this nonsense of yours should change my mind!”
“I can’t.” The air whooshed out of him and his shoulders hunched. “Only a fool would come here to a place where men aren’t welcome to confess love and to hope it’s returned. But Shasta, that’s what I’ve been—a fool—since I realized you really weren’t the little girl I met all those years ago. You are a woman fully capable of taking care of yourself. You’re unique, special, and I would be the luckiest elf if you could still love me after the colossal ass I’ve been.”
Shasta gaped at him. “It’s not that easy.” There was more she should say, but how did she put it into words? How could she tell him how much he’d hurt her these past weeks? How could she explain that she didn’t trust him not to change his mind again? How did she tell him that in spite of everything, the thought of telling him no made her chest ache?
“I didn’t expect it to be. Not after…” He turned away and raked a hand through his hair.
As solid as the dock was, she felt like she was standing on quicksand, sinking in a mix of his bizarre actions and the mess of feelings she didn’t know how to interpret. She needed time.
The irony of that thought was not lost on her.
“I can call Carmen. I can be gone early in the morning.” He scrubbed at his face and muttered, “Such a mess.”
Shasta took a few deep breaths of the salty sea air. She’d gone all the way across the country, traveled by plane, smaller plane, car, and boat to an island. All that had gotten her less than forty-eight hours without him. Shasta bit back angry words that wouldn’t serve any useful purpose.
Since she doubted Carmen was going to turn around and pick him up, that left Cord here at least overnight. She eyed him. His pack was plenty large enough to have camping gear. Maybe he had something that would help move the mannequin. That was something practical they could do, and then they’d report to Agatha with information about another attack as well as his arrival. If they could find an actual clue as to who was behind all this, that would help even more. Though other than some misguided loyalty and a rebellious heart, she couldn’t figure out why she cared if Agatha allowed Cord to stay.
