Deep Betrayal (Lies Beneath #2) (32 page)

“Well, well, well, Lily Hancock. Aren’t you just full of surprises.”
My instincts were to retreat, but she did not hold the same threat she once had. Maris was visibly weak, while my muscles twitched with pent-up energy.
“Calder will be back soon,”
I said.

“Doesn’t that sound lovely,”
she said, drawing close. I tried not to show my surprise at her appearance. I could count every one of her ribs. Her eyes bulged in sunken sockets. Her pale, milky hair floated sparsely around her face.

“What do you want?”
I asked.
“Where’s Pavati?”

“She’s already left,”
Maris said.
“She couldn’t stay a minute longer now that …”

“So she
did
love Jack after all.”

Maris rolled her eyes.
“She chose him, yes. But she had no choice but to end him once she heard his confession. His mind was too addled. I’d warned her about that when we left last fall, but she never listens. There would be no reasoning with him, and we can’t afford for him to continue to interfere with our hunting schedule. Humans have a way of ruining the best laid plans.”

I didn’t know exactly whom she was referring to, there were so many options at this point. My name was probably at the top of her list. Although, was I still human? How did that work?

“Where did Pavati go?”
I asked.

“She’s hoping to pick up with that blue-eyed boy.”

“Daniel Catron?”

“Is that his name? He’s her Plan B.”

“I’m sure he’ll take it,”
I said, although I couldn’t help
thinking,
Poor boy
. I was pretty sure I knew what Pavati’s intentions were in regard to Daniel, but it was still impossible to imagine him fathering Pavati’s child, let alone parenting it for its first year. Daniel was just a kid. But, then again, it wasn’t like he was going in blind.

Maris laughed condescendingly.
“Of course he’ll ‘take it.’ Pavati’s completely intoxicated on what she absorbed from that Pettit boy. She’ll stagger into Cornucopia, and that blue-eyed boy will scoop her up so fast.… After the deed is done, she’ll head to New Orleans. I’m meeting her there in a few weeks.”

“So you’re leaving, too?”

“Maybe no one believed what Jack Pettit was saying, but the results of his actions have put people on edge around here.”
She pulled her arms through the dark water, drawing herself closer to me.
“There’s no good hunting these days. Tomorrow’s the Fourth of July. There will be a lot of party boats on the St. Croix River. I’ve got a favorite spot just north of the Stillwater lift bridge. Lots to choose from. That should sustain me until I get to the Gulf.”

“Uh-huh.”
I shuddered, trying to picture it. Clouds shifted and let the moonlight shine through, dappling the space between us. For a second, it made Maris almost pretty. Like she used to be.

I wondered when the emotional cravings would start for me, or if they would at all. I couldn’t imagine being miserable as long as Calder was with me. So far I felt nothing but awe and amazement.

“Calder says he didn’t change me. Was it you?”

Maris smirked and said,
“No. You changed by yourself. Strange, that. I would have thought if it was going to happen, it wouldn’t have taken so long. But Calder was ridiculously slow
when he started out.… Still, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mermaid whose transformation skills were so delayed. Must be your diluted genetics. Hmmm. No ring,”
she said, touching my throat.
“I didn’t want to go before I knew my family was all right.”

“All right?”
I sounded like an idiot, but I hoped her assessment meant I wasn’t so delayed to be stuck like this.

Reading my thoughts, she smiled apologetically.
“All I ever wanted was for my family to be together. That’s what’s most important. Our family looks different today than it did a few months ago, but I can be flexible. No one can replace Tallulah, but Mother would want us to be together. You, your sister, your … dad.”
The concept was obviously still difficult for her to grasp.
“Calder, too. Oh, speak of the devil, here he comes.”

Calder’s dark hair streamed behind him as he swam a torpedo’s course toward my side. My anxiety subsided at the sight of him—transformed—his silver-sequined tail bending the water.

“Calder, it’s all right,”
I said, repeating Maris’s assessment.
“She’s just leaving.”

“I’m sure you’re not sorry to see me go,”
Maris said, but he did not react to her goading.
“Oh, that’s right. Lily, you’ll have to translate for us.”

“Ask her why you can’t change back,”
Calder said as he pulled me to his side.

Maris appraised us with mocking eyes.
“You two were made for each other. Slow and sentimental.”

“What did she say?”
Calder asked.

“She says I’ll get faster with practice.”
My blood cooled at the thought of having to practice that torture. Couldn’t I just stay in the lake forever?

“If you want,”
Maris said, reading even the thoughts I didn’t intend for her to hear.
“You’re welcome to join me.”

“Join you?”

“No,”
Calder said in response to my question, and with a flash of his silver tail, he took a defensive position between me and Maris.
“I won’t allow it.”

Maris shrugged and looked past Calder to me.
“I can see you’re curious about the possibilities, Lily Hancock. I’ll be back in the spring. We can see how things are then.”

“What is she saying?”
Calder asked.

I wished it were daylight so I could better read her expression. I said,
“Maris misses her family.”

“I don’t know what she’s playing at,”
Calder said,
“but tell her she doesn’t fool me.”

“Calder misses you, too,”
I said.

Both Calder and Maris twitched, and she leapt into the night air, bending into a back dive. We surfaced just in time for her black tail to slap the water and send a stinging spray into our faces. We watched the telltale signs of her path—the dark shadow, the disturbed current—until she was gone.

There was a moment of silence before I asked, “So what happens next?”

Calder didn’t answer, and I knew he was wondering the same thing. Would I ever regain my legs? Could I avoid the need to hunt? But when I turned to face him, he was taking in every detail of my new body. He smiled a closed-lip smile and said, “Just when I thought you couldn’t get any more beautiful …”

He pulled me against his body and took me under the
waves, our tails entwining, feathery flukes undulating under us. His kisses were deeper, sweeter than ever before. His thoughts resonated in my mind. At first they were a mere vibration, a D string, a sonnet, and then they were a ballad, and the chorus was
“I love you.”

Writing a novel can make you feel a little crazy sometimes. While I was writing
Deep Betrayal
, Lily kept waking me up at night and telling me how things were supposed to go down. I’d say, “Really? Are you sure? Wouldn’t you rather …” This is where I get to thank all those people who told me to shut up and keep out of Lily’s way.

So here’s to you: Nina Badzin, Heather Anastasiu, Kristen Simmons, Deede Smith, Beth Djalali, the Minneapolis Writers Workshop, and Dave Meier for telling me that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference.

Thanks to Jacqueline Flynn, Joëlle Delbourgo, Françoise Bui, Paul Samuelson, Sonia Nash, Random Buzzers, Kathleen Eddy, Holly Weinkauf, Amy Oelkers, Pamela Klinger-Horn, and Rachel Bongart and to YA book reviewers, bookstores, librarians, book clubs, and readers everywhere who love Calder and Lily as much as I do and who forgive them their mistakes.

Thanks to the Apocalypsies for all your support, guidance, Thursday-night chats, and crude jokes.

Special shout-outs to the kids in my life who have provided inspiration along the way, especially: Sammy, Matt, Sophie, Zach, Marie, Kelly, Andreas, and Sam.

Finally, my gratitude to Greg, without whose love I wouldn’t know what to write.