Harper called her dad, leaving a message on his cell phone letting him know that she wouldn’t be home that night. She thought about telling him that she was going after Gemma, but if Harper wasn’t successful in finding her, that would only break Brian’s heart more.
They took Harper’s car on the road trip because Daniel didn’t have one and Alex’s car was so small. He sat in the backseat while Harper drove, and Daniel gave him the newspaper to read.
Both Alex and Harper couldn’t believe that they’d missed the article in the first place. Alex especially had been scouring the Internet for clues on Gemma, but he’d gotten bogged down with pointless e-mails. He felt obligated to follow every “lead” he got, but they all led nowhere.
Harper had probably missed it because she’d been out of sorts. After she’d woken up from that dream about Daniel that ended with Gemma saying, “Wake up,” she hadn’t been able to get into any kind of routine. Everything felt off, and she hadn’t done her usual search on the computer for the sirens.
Fortunately, while Harper and Alex had been relying on technology, Daniel had been looking the good old-fashioned way. He’d been going to Pearl’s every morning and buying a copy of each paper she had. And eventually it had paid off.
Unfortunately, the article hadn’t been very specific. The only real information they’d gotten from it was that a body had been found near a restaurant. Daniel had figured out what town it was, but that was still a fairly large area to search.
Harper didn’t even know where the sirens had been living when they were in Capri. She’d heard something once about them staying in a beach house that used to belong to the mayor, but she wasn’t sure if that was true.
Her worst fear wasn’t that they wouldn’t find Gemma. Or that the sirens would try to stop Harper from taking her. She would figure out how to fight them if she needed to. No, her biggest worry was that they would find Gemma, and she wouldn’t want to come back with them.
What would she do then? Gemma was sixteen and had new mythical powers. It wasn’t exactly like Harper could drag her home and force her to stay in her room. If Gemma wouldn’t come back with them on her own … then she wouldn’t come back.
As they drove on, Harper didn’t voice any of these fears, though. Alex probably shared some of her concerns, but he wasn’t talking about them, so she didn’t think she should, either.
Besides that, she had more important things to focus on—like figuring out exactly where they were going. The drive started out okay, but things quickly went downhill.
Before they’d even made it past the state line, they got stuck in traffic for nearly an hour because of an accident ahead of them on the highway.
Daniel tried to keep things upbeat, but Alex and Harper were too nerved up for it to really work. After several failed attempts at making conversation, he settled for tuning the radio to a classic rock station and air-drumming along to “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin.
Once the car got moving again, things went smoothly for a while, and then they were off course again. Harper’s ’96 Sable lacked any kind of GPS, so they were relying on the maps app on Alex’s phone.
It would’ve been a straight shot down the coast, but after getting stuck in traffic, Alex tried to find an alternate route that would get them there more quickly. Unfortunately, it only succeeded in leading them to a dead end, but not until they’d been driving off course for fifty miles.
That led them to stop at a gas station, where Daniel got an atlas and mapped out the route. Harper fumed quietly about the unnecessary detour for a few hours, while Alex sulked.
According to Daniel’s earlier calculations, they should’ve reached Myrtle Beach around midnight. Thanks to all the stops and starts, it was almost twelve and they were still over two hours away.
That was when the length of the trip started wearing on Harper. She would’ve thought that her excitement and nerves would’ve kept her awake, but she’d slept terribly the night before, and the whole situation simply exhausted her.
In the backseat, Alex snored fitfully. He’d nod off, but almost as soon as he did, he seemed to become aware of it and would wake himself up again.
“He should’ve gotten a Red Bull at the gas station,” Daniel said, referring to their pit stop about an hour before.
“What?” Harper blinked. She’d been spacing out and had barely heard him.
“Alex.” He gestured to the backseat, and Harper glanced behind her.
Alex’s chin had fallen to his chest, and he swayed slightly in motion with the car. He snorted loudly, but didn’t wake up this time.
“Yeah, I guess, he’s really out,” Harper said, stifling a yawn, and turned her attention back to the road.
“How are you holding up?” Daniel asked.