Submerging (Swans Landing) (6 page)

Josh tore up a handful of grass, letting the wind sweep the blades from his open palm. “And if he hadn’t been so obsessed, maybe you wouldn’t have been born.”

I smirked as I clambered to my feet, brushing sand and grass from my jeans. “And that would have made everyone much happier.”

Chapter Seven

Josh was already up when I rolled myself out of my bunk the next morning. He was eating a peanut butter sandwich, which he had eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner the day before.

“Aren't you tired of peanut butter?” I asked.

Josh shrugged. “I eat a lot of peanut butter at home. I'm used to it.”

I bit my lip, feeling guilty for how little I knew about Josh’s home life. He never talked much about life with his mama. The only thing I knew about Silvia Canavan was that she was prone to panic attacks that would make her act crazy and yell things. Especially when she was around finfolk. I assumed she hadn’t always been that way, but for as long as I could remember, she’d been the island lunatic.

I didn’t know what to say or if Josh wanted me to say anything, so I decided not to comment and went into the bathroom to change and pull my hair into a messy bun. When I returned to our room, Josh had finished his sandwich and was brushing crumbs off his pants.

He watched as I grabbed my shoes, which were a pair of sandals. “Where are you going?”

“Out,” I said. “Running.”

“Since when do you run?”

“Since now.” I didn’t meet Josh’s gaze as I buckled the straps around my feet. I wanted to go back to the lighthouse, to see if Callum would be there again. I’d stayed awake most of the night, staring up at the ceiling with an uneasy feeling deep in my stomach. I had been too careless to let Callum hear me, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew a lot more than he was saying. I needed to get a better idea of what that might be before I told Josh about him.

“You’re running in sandals?” Josh asked.

I sighed. “Sandals are all I have. I’ll make do.”

Josh stood. “I’ll come with you.”

“No,” I said quickly. “I mean, I want some time alone.”

Instantly, Josh’s expression darkened. “We shouldn’t go off alone. We don’t know who or what might be here. This isn’t Swans Landing—”

“I know that!” I let out a long breath to calm my irritation. Sometimes Josh treated me like I was a small child. We were only a year apart in age. He wasn’t that much more mature than I was. “I want ten minutes to myself. I’m not used to having someone hovering around all the time. Don’t you remember what it was like to be alone?”

Josh’s jaw twitched, his forehead creased into a frown. “Being alone isn’t always a good thing.” But he sat back down on his bunk and waved a hand. “Go. If you’re not back in an hour, I’m coming after you.”

I hurried away from the hostel and down the road toward the lighthouse. I knew Josh would be true to his word and I’d have only a short time to find Callum. I needed to know what exactly he knew or thought he knew, and then find a way to keep him quiet.

As I approached the cliff where the lighthouse stood watch over the cold ocean, I spotted a lone figure standing in the grass, his back to me. The bright red hair that blew in the wind was unmistakable.

“So do you really come here every day, or were you hoping to see me again?” I asked as I stepped to his side.

Callum’s lips curled into a smile, but he didn’t look at me. “Is that a pickup line?”

“You wish.” I crossed my arms, shivering in the cool morning. “So you heard me sing yesterday.”

He nodded. “Aye, I did. You have a beautiful voice. But then, you should, shouldn’t you? It’s in your genes.”

“You don’t know anything about me,” I said.

“I know your name is Sailor, and that you are a long way from home.”

A cold blast of wind howled over the cliff’s edge. Birds swooped around on the currents as they dove back to their perches along the rock wall under our feet.

“Look,” I said, “I think you’re confused. I’m just a tourist. Whatever it is you think you know, forget about it.”

His green eyes twinkled. “You remind me of my sister.”

“What?” I asked, startled by the unexpected response.

He turned back to the water. “Her name was Pearl, and she really was one. A gem from the ocean.”

He didn’t say anything else and instead, turned and starting walking away from the cliff, back in the direction of the village. I followed after him, hurrying through the tall grass.

“Who are you?” I asked him.

“I told you my name,” Callum said. “What else do you want to know?”

“Are you—” I couldn’t say the word. I couldn’t risk revealing myself if he wasn’t who I thought he might be. I studied him hard, looking for any sign that he might be something other than an ordinary guy.

“Was there something you wanted from me?” Callum asked, stopping suddenly.

I skidded to a stop on the wet grass, only inches from him. My nose was level with his chin and I could see light freckles scattered across his cheeks.

“N-no,” I stammered. “I don’t want anything from you.”

“Then if you don’t mind, I must be going,” Callum said. “Unless you plan to follow along and ask me half-questions all day.”

He started across the field again and I watched him make his way through the grass. Panic seized my stomach, curling it into tight knots. He knew more than he was saying, I was certain. If he told anyone I’d be in huge trouble. Josh would kill me. The humans might even do it themselves if they found out about us.

“Wait!”

Callum stopped and waited as I ran toward him, already feeling breathless.

“Don’t tell anyone about me,” I said.

He raised an eyebrow. “What would I tell?”

I glared at him. “You know what I mean.”

Several seconds of silence passed between us, with only the sound of the wind and ocean in my ears.

“And if I did tell?” Callum asked. “What would you do?”

“I—I’ll—” My brain couldn’t think fast enough to come up with a response. I hadn’t expected him to challenge my threat. “You’ll regret it. So don’t.”

He laughed, his face breaking into a rosy glow. “Aye, I’m certain I would. Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.”

The wind whipped strands loose from my messy bun as I watched Callum disappear beyond a hill. I let out a frustrated sigh. I was done with mysterious Scottish psychos. I pushed all thoughts of Callum Murchadh out of my mind.

I met Josh on the road to the hostel. It had obviously been longer than an hour, judging from the deep scowl on his face.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Josh said. “We need to explore more of the island today.”

“I’m tired,” I whined.

“You weren’t tired a few minutes ago when you decided to go exercise,” Josh said. He looked me up and down. “How was your run anyway? You look remarkably well rested for someone who ran for an hour.”

“It was fine,” I growled, stomping past him.

We left Pierowall and headed along the narrow road away from the village, back in the direction of Rapness Pier where the ferry had dropped us off two days before. Every few steps, Josh would stop to examine random things—a rock, a hill, an abandoned building. He even suspiciously eyed a cow chewing cud near a wooden fence for a while. But we found nothing out of the ordinary. If anything, the vibrations that were so strong closer to the village seemed to fade slightly the farther away we traveled.

“I don’t think there’s anything here,” Josh said a few hours later. We stood near the ruins of an old home, but it was just a home that had once belonged to humans. There was no trace of finfolk anywhere around it.

“There has to be something on this island somewhere,” I said, my gaze scanning over the water a few yards from us. “Don’t you feel something different about this place?”

“I do,” Josh said. “But I don’t know where to go from here. If we could find someone we could talk to.”

My stomach twisted. I had to tell Josh about Callum. It was the only clue we had.

“There’s someone who might know something.”

Josh’s head whipped toward me. “What?”

I told him about meeting Callum, and what he had said.

Josh ran a hand over his short hair. “Great.”

I scowled. “How was I supposed to know some guy would follow me?”

He shook his head. “What’s done is done. But maybe we should go talk to him.”

My heart skipped a panicked beat. “Do you think we can trust him?”

“I don’t know, but he seems like he knows something. He might be able to point us in the right direction.”

Chapter Eight

Finding Callum was easier than we thought it would be. Josh had the idea to ask Fiona at the hostel if she knew him, figuring since it was a small village, there was a good chance she would.

“Aye,” Fiona said, nodding as she sorted through papers at the front desk. “He lives down the way, over the hill. Wee gray house on your left. You can’t miss it.”

We followed the main road through Pierowall, looking for the small gray house Fiona had mentioned. The only problem was, most of the houses were small and gray. There wasn’t much to differentiate one from another.

Luckily, we were saved from having to knock on every door by the sight of Callum sitting on the front stoop of a home near the end of the row. He sat in a weathered rocking chair, holding a cracked brown mug in his hands. My stomach tightened.

“There he is,” I whispered to Josh.

Callum merely nodded a greeting to us as we walked up the cobbled path to his house. He gave me a brief glance before letting his gaze settle on Josh.

“Hello,” Callum said. “Callum Murchadh. Welcome.”

“Josh Canavan,” he answered. “I guess you know my sister, Sailor Mooring.”

Callum’s eyes twitched slightly and his gaze darted toward me.

“What?” I asked.

Callum shook his head. “This is your first time in Orkney?”

“Yes, it is,” Josh answered.

“Here for any reason in particular?”

“Vacationing,” Josh said. “We wanted to explore a bit before we headed off to college.”

He may have been a know-it-all, but Josh was also a good liar.

Callum nodded. “I’ve done a bit of traveling myself these last few years.”

“Find anything interesting?” I asked.

“Maybe,” Callum said, glancing at me again. “How do you like your visit so far?”

“It’s nice,” Josh answered. “The village is...”

“Quaint,” Callum said, smirking over his cup.

Josh’s gaze met mine and he sent me a silent warning not to ask any of the questions on the tip of my tongue. I swallowed hard, my tongue scratching against the roof of my mouth.

“Are you from around here?” Josh asked.

“Around,” Callum said vaguely. “I’ve spent my whole life among these islands.”

I wanted so much to ask if he knew anything about the finfolk, but I couldn’t. It was too dangerous to reveal our secret.

“Care for a cuppa?” Callum asked, gesturing toward his drink.

Josh stuck his hands into the pocket of his hoodie and shook his head. “No, thank you. Actually...we came to ask you a few questions. If you don’t mind.”

Callum raised one eyebrow.

Josh’s gaze darted around the area. There was no one close enough to hear us, but Josh still looked nervous.

“Could we go somewhere private to talk?” he asked at last, turning back to Callum.

Callum scratched his cheek, his eyes locked on us, then nodded as he slowly pushed himself up from his chair. “Come inside.”

Inside, the front room was small and dark. The sun barely made it through the thin curtain over the one window to light the room. The furniture was old and mismatched, a few chairs and side tables scattered almost at random throughout the room, as if they’d been added only as an afterthought and without much care.

Josh and I sat down on an old small couch covered with a ragged afghan. Callum eased himself into a chair across from us, still clutching his mug in his hands.

The room was quiet for a long moment, then Josh said, “Can you tell us about your sister?”

I cast an impatient look at him. He had come here to ask Callum about his family?

Callum looked amused. “What about her?”

“You told Sailor that your sister was a ‘gem from the ocean.’ What exactly do you mean by that?”

The two stared at each other for a long moment, neither speaking or moving. Somewhere within the house, I could hear the tick of a clock, slow and steady.

“She was a beautiful, kind woman,” Callum said at last. “Kinder than she should have been in many cases. Patient and accepting.”

“Anything else?” Josh asked.

“What else do you think there might be?” Callum responded.