Submerging (Swans Landing) (7 page)

“Something more,” Josh said.

Callum’s gaze drifted to me and I swallowed hard. “Your sister is something more than what she seems, is she not? What did you say your last name was? Mooring?”

I wasn’t sure whether to confirm or deny this, but Josh nodded. “Yes, she has her mother’s family’s name. I have our father’s name. We’re half-siblings.”

Callum took a slow sip from his cup. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed.

“People say these islands are magic,” he said after a moment. “Strange things happen around here. People vanish without a trace. Whole islands appear and disappear within the sea.”

I knew if I let this go on, they’d continue this stupid dance around the truth all day, each trying to outsmart the other. This was stupid. Callum had already heard me sing, and he must have known what the song was.

“Tell us what you know,” I said, crossing my arms.

Now Callum’s bright green eyes flicked to me. “I might, if you ask the right questions.”

“Are you always this irritating, or are we special?” I let out a frustrated sigh, then said, “What do you know about finfolk?”

Now Callum’s smile stretched wide and he had the look of a contented cat about to trap its prey. “Now we can get somewhere.” He pointed at me. “You are as finfolk as they come.” He looked back at Josh. “And I would assume you are as well, though you don’t have a finfolk name.”

“I am,” Josh admitted. “Through my great-grandmother on my father’s side.”

“Do you know what her last name was?”

“Moray,” Josh answered.

I couldn’t hide my surprise at this. I’d known our daddy was finfolk through his grandmother, but I hadn’t known which family she came from since I knew so little about him. The Morays were no longer in Swans Landing. The last of them had left when I was young, unable to deal with the harassment finfolk endured back home.

“I knew some Morays once. Good people.” Callum set his cup on a table and leaned forward. “Aye, Pearl was more than ordinary. Like you, she was finfolk.”

“And so are you,” Josh said.

Callum inclined his head once. “I was, at one time.”

I blinked, not understanding his words. “You
were?
What does that mean? How could you stop being finfolk?”

“Genetically, I am still finfolk,” Callum said. “But I can no longer take the form. I’m banished, an outsider, and therefore I have no right to claim the heritage. I have been...remade.”

“Banished from where?” Josh asked.

My breath got stuck somewhere in my chest when Callum said, “Hether Blether. The vanishing isle.”

We were silent for a long time, each staring at the other but afraid to speak.

“So it does exist,” Josh said at last.

Callum nodded again. “It exists, though not in the way it once did.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, feeling panic rising inside me. I had come all this way and now I was so close. It had to exist.

“What do you hope to find there?” Callum asked, ignoring my question.

I didn’t want to tell him about my mama. He didn’t have a right to hear the sad tale of poor Sailor Mooring, abandoned as a baby.

“We’re looking for answers,” Josh said when I didn’t respond. I shot him a warning look, but he went on, ignoring me. “We need to find out what happened the night our father died, and we think the one person who can tell us might be in Hether Blether.”

I was thankful Josh didn’t mention that the person we were looking for was my mother. Callum tilted his head as he examined us.

“What makes you think this person made it to Hether Blether?” he asked. “It is not easy to find, as you already know. If it was, everyone would know where to look for it.”

“She’s been missing for sixteen years,” I said. “She left to go there, and it’s the only clue we have.”

“There were once thousands of finfolk around Orkney. But when humans started migrating to this part of Europe, some left in search of other land to claim. The finfolk in Orkney sing for lost souls, but no one answers.”

Josh and I exchanged a look.

“We sing,” he said. “In Swans Landing—that’s the island where we live—all of the finfolk there sing on the first night of the new moon each month.”

“I suppose it is a little too far away to hear from here,” Callum said. “Has anyone ever answered your call?”

I shook my head. “No. No one ever comes back.”

“One person did,” Josh said. “Mara.”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t think the song had anything to do with bringing Mara back to Swans Landing.”

Josh shrugged. “Still, she came back.”

I shook my head, disgusted at Josh for finding an excuse to bring up Mara. How far did I have to swim before I could get away from her?

“It is not likely the person you’re looking for made it all the way from the States back to Hether Blether,” Callum said. “That would be an almost impossible journey.”

“We made it this far,” Josh pointed out. “We only need to finish the last part of the journey.”

“It’s the only place we can start looking for her,” I added. “So will you take us there or not?”

Callum’s green eyes turned darker as he looked at me. Muscles along his cheeks twitched and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. I squeezed my fists together in my lap as I stared back at him, refusing to break his gaze.

Finally, he said, “No.”

All of the air seemed to escape my lungs and my body sunk into the couch. “No?” I repeated, unable to believe I had heard him correctly.

“I left the island five years ago,” he said. “I vowed to never return.”

I had the urge to throw something at him. How could he sit there, so calm and uncaring, while he possibly held the secret to my finally reaching my mother after all these years?

Josh, apparently sensing my near tantrum, reached over and put his large hand over my small ones in my lap.

“We need your help,” Josh said. “If you can’t take us there, can you at least tell us where to go?”

“The island vanishes and moves,” Callum said. “The fog hides it and not everyone can see it. It is only visible at certain times, for the briefest moment, and still, there is no guarantee you’ll reach its shores before it’s gone again.”

All of my hope slipped away at Callum’s words. A vanishing, moving island would be impossible to find.

“We have to try,” Josh said. “On our own, if you won’t help us.”

Callum shook his head. “It will be a wasted effort. But if you insist, there is a way to increase your odds of finding it.”

“How?” Josh leaned forward, practically on the edge of his seat.

“There is a key,” Callum said. “Nothing very significant about it, except that the person who holds it at the right moment on the right night in the right sea might find their way to Hether Blether.”

“Then give us the key and we’ll go on our own!” I exclaimed, the words bursting from my mouth.

Callum shrugged. “I don’t have it.”

I leaped from my seat, lunging at Callum, my hands outstretched. I didn’t know what I might have done if I’d reached him, maybe shook him hard until he agreed to take us to the finfolk or else pummeled him with my fists until I felt better. But Josh saved him from whatever fate might have awaited him by grabbing my waist and pulling me backward. We tumbled onto the couch, a tangle of arms and legs, and Josh held me tight against him.

“Sailor,” he growled in my ear. “Calm down.”

“He can help us!” I said, struggling to get away. “He knows where it is, but he’s too stubborn to help. He’s like all the stories say about finfolk, as mean as the old legends.”

“If he doesn’t want to help, he doesn’t have to,” Josh said.

I stopped struggling, slumping against Josh. He didn’t let go, apparently not trusting that all the fight had gone out of me. “It doesn’t matter anyway,” I said. “You’re probably too much of a bastard to be susceptible to pain.”

Callum laughed, which caused Josh to laugh too. Josh finally let me go and pushed me off of him. He stood and then extended a hand to Callum.

“Thank you for your time,” he said. “If you happen to think of anything that might be helpful to us, please let us know.”

Josh gestured for me to follow as he walked toward the door. I shot a dark scowl at Callum, feeling anger surge through me again when he smiled back. It took every ounce of willpower inside me not to throw one of his dusty old lamps at his head on my way out.

Once we were outside, Josh paused and let out a long sigh. I stopped next to him and surveyed the village laid out along the narrow road before us.

“What do we do now?” I asked.

Josh shook his head. “I wish I knew.”

Chapter Nine

Fiona was in the front room folding towels when we returned to the hostel. She greeted us with, “I trust you found Callum?”

“We did, thank you,” Josh said.

“Not that it helped,” I muttered.

“Well, if you’re in the mood for exploring more of the island today, there is a heritage museum nearby,” she said. “Worth looking into if you want to know more about Westray.”

“Thanks,” Josh said. “We’ll take a look later.”

He stomped down the hall to our room, his shoulders slumped under his thick hoodie. I followed him into the room and sat down in the chair in the corner, watching as he reached for his bag and pulled out a notepad he must have bought at the general store yesterday.

He sat down on the bed, propped the notepad on one knee and began writing.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Writing a letter.” He didn’t look up.

I made a face. “There’s this thing called email and text messages now.”

“Still can’t get a signal on my phone,” Josh said.

I stared out the window for a moment. The people of Pierowall never seemed to be in a hurry. They always moved lazily down the street, as if they had no reason to rush things. No one seemed to feel the need to escape.

The sound of Josh’s pen scratching across the paper irritated me.

“Who are you writing to?” I asked.

Josh scowled before bending back over his letter. “None of your business.”

I knew that could only mean he was writing to Mara. Probably some sappy, lovesick letter about how much he missed her and how he dreamed about her every night.

“You shouldn’t waste your time on her,” I said.

Josh ignored me and continued writing.

“She’s probably not even missing you,” I went on. “You’re four thousand miles away, on the other side of the ocean, and she’s in Swans Landing. With Dylan.”

I hated to think about the idea of Dylan and Mara taking comfort in each other, but I knew it was the only logical conclusion to this messed up tangle of hormones. Dylan didn’t want me. He had never, despite the fact that we’d been friends our entire lives, looked at me the way he’d looked at Mara as soon as she stepped foot on the island.

If Josh thought Dylan wouldn’t take advantage of his not being around right now, he was stupid and naive. The island had a way of making people lonely, lonelier than they’d ever felt before. And the longer Josh was gone, the closer Mara would move to Dylan in search of company.

Josh’s nostrils flared as he stared back at me. “Don’t talk to me about Dylan Waverly,” he growled.

I shrugged. “I’m only trying to make you see reality. She’s been in his bed once. How long do you think it will be before she’s there again?”

Before I had time to react, Josh leaped from the bed and across the room, suddenly hovering over me. His face was red, his eyes dark and narrowed. I’d made him angry before, even irritated him as much as possible for the fun of it, but I’d never seen him look at me the way he did now.

“If you know what’s good for you, Sailor Mooring, you’ll shut your mouth about things you have no business being involved in,” he said in a low, raspy voice.

I’d read things on finfolk before, looking up myths and beliefs humans had about them and laughing at how inaccurate some of them were. But as I looked up at Josh’s stony face, something from one of those books flashed across my mind:
Finfolk are extremely territorial.

Right at that moment, Josh was more finfolk than he realized.

I held up my hands. “No need to go all psycho on me.”

Josh stepped back, the fury fading from his face, though his forehead was still crinkled into a scowl. “Don’t mention anything else about Dylan in front of me,” he growled.

Who would have known Josh would be the jealous type? I filed this information away for future use should the need arise.

“Whatever.” I stood and headed for the door.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“Out,” I said.

I was thankful Fiona was no longer in the front lobby as I made my way out of the hostel. I wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone, and she looked like someone who enjoyed talking. I sidestepped an elderly couple walking arm-in-arm down the street, then took a look around, trying to decide where to go.