From this vantage point, they could see the entire bay. Closest to them were the docks where her father worked, large barges pushed up to the pier. Farther out, there were rows and rows of personal boats, some of them huge yachts and some boats even smaller than Daniel’s.
The public beach was full of people. It was a gorgeous day, and a holiday weekend, so it was packed. Red, white, and blue decorations were hung up anywhere there was room along the beach.
Where the soft sand along the coast started giving way to sharp rocks, the crowds disappeared. The rocks led up to a cypress forest, the same forest where Alex and Harper had found the bodies a few weeks ago. A thick belt of trees wound all the way to the cove, which sat almost directly across from the cliff where Gemma and Alex were.
Then, a few miles away from the cove, sitting by itself in the ocean, was Bernie’s Island.
“My dad’s renting out the island to Daniel,” Gemma said.
“Really?” Alex said. “That’s cool. Right?”
Gemma nodded. “Yeah, I think so.” She paused. “I guess Daniel is Harper’s boyfriend now.”
“Wow,” Alex said.
“I know, right?” She smiled. “I think they’re cute together, but I kinda never thought Harper would ever date. You know what I mean?”
“Yeah, I do,” Alex agreed.
“But I’m glad she is,” Gemma said. “It makes me feel better about all of this. Now I know that no matter what happens, she won’t be alone.”
“Gemma.” Alex squeezed her hand. “Don’t talk like that. We’ll find a way to keep you safe.”
“But what if we can’t?” Gemma turned to face him, pulling one knee up to her chest. “Or … what if we shouldn’t?”
“What do you mean?” Alex asked. His dark eyes were full of concern and confusion, and Gemma didn’t know how to answer him.
Seeing the trees where Alex and Harper had found Luke and the other boys reminded her of how horrible Alex had looked afterward. And Gemma didn’t need any reminders about how she’d killed Jason. She was waking up from nightmares about it every night.
She’d been trying so hard to pretend that everything was fine, to forget the horrible things she’d done, the creature she’d become, and just enjoy the moment she was in. With the full moon approaching in a matter of weeks, there was a very real chance that Gemma might not live to see it.
Sitting here with Alex, Gemma found it hard to swallow back her current thoughts. They needed to find a way to kill the sirens, definitely, but only if the sirens came for her. And maybe they never would. Maybe they would just replace her instead, letting her die alone and away from them.
Either the sirens would come for her and they would probably all die in the fight, or she would die before they did. With options like that, Gemma had begun to accept her own death, which was feeling more and more inevitable. She was attempting to make peace with it, and wanted to relish what time she had left with the people she loved.
“Gemma?” Alex put his hand on her knee and leaned toward her. “What’s wrong? What are you thinking?”
There was no way she could look into his eyes. She couldn’t tell him what was really bothering her—that she was a murderer, and the best-case scenario was that she would be dead soon.
Gemma lowered her eyes. “There’s something I should tell you.”
“You can tell me anything,” Alex said.
“I know, and I…” She swallowed hard, and she accidentally looked up at him. That’s what did it. As soon as she looked in his eyes, she lost all her nerve, and she blurted out, “I kissed someone else.”
“What?” Alex’s face twisted in confusion, and his eyes flashed darkly, so Gemma hurried to explain. She didn’t know why she thought confessing that she’d kissed Sawyer would be the way to go. Clearly she’d panicked.
“It was an accident. No, I mean…” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “It wasn’t an accident. I didn’t like him, though. I didn’t want to kiss him. It was … a siren compulsion thing. But almost as soon as I kissed him, I stopped. I didn’t want to hurt you. And I’ll never do it again.”
“It was a siren thing?” Alex asked.
“Yeah,” Gemma said sheepishly. “That sounds like a cop-out. But for, like, five seconds, I wasn’t in control of my body. This weird … urge took over me, and I kissed this guy. But then I took back control of myself, and that was it. It meant nothing. I never would’ve done it if I wasn’t a siren. But I thought I should tell you. And I’ll understand if you hate me.”
“Hate you?” Alex actually laughed at that. “Gemma, I could never hate you.”
“Oh, I’m sure you could.” She forced a smile at him and was surprised to find tears brimming in her eyes. “There are things I could do that would make anyone hate me.”
“No, Gemma, listen to me.” He moved to face her completely, so he had to kneel in front of her, and he took both her hands in his. “There’s nothing you can ever do that would make me stop caring about you.”