Just when Harper was beginning to fear she might drown, Gemma pulled her back up, out of the water and through the air, before they came crashing back down again.
Being with Gemma out in the ocean, seeing her when she was in her element, actually broke Harper’s heart. To know that Gemma had found someplace where she belonged so completely, and that she couldn’t really stay there.
The night may have been magical, but Harper knew that wasn’t all there was to the curse. If it was, she would gladly let Gemma relish it for the rest of her life. But that wasn’t the case.
In the morning, both Harper and Gemma seemed to wake up with a renewed zest to find the scroll. Gemma may have been unable to get into the sirens’ house or get a second alone with Thea yesterday, but she was determined to search today. She wouldn’t tell Harper what it was, but Gemma assured her that she had a plan to get into the house alone.
For her part, Harper had spent most of the day at work looking up anything she could about curses and sirens and ancient scrolls. The Capri Public Library wasn’t well stocked in books of the occult the way Cherry Lane Books was, so she hadn’t really come up with anything yet.
But she was certain they’d find something soon. They had to. Until they did, though, Harper couldn’t leave for college. She had to see this thing through. But if she didn’t go to college, she’d have to tell her dad about it.
When she came home from work, she cleaned up the house. Harper stared out the kitchen window as she washed the dishes. She was staring at Alex’s house, but her mind was a million miles away. She heard the front door open and close, followed by her dad’s work boots clomping on the floor. A minute later, Brian appeared in the kitchen behind her.
“Hey, sweetie,” Brian said, picking absently through the mail that Harper had left on the kitchen table.
“Hey, Dad.” Harper finished rinsing off the last plate, then shut off the tap and turned around to face him. “How was work?”
“Same old, same old.” He shrugged and opened up a bill. “How was your day?”
“Pretty good, I guess.” She leaned back against the counter and watched him read the bill. He cursed under his breath and shook his head. “Is it bad?”
“Don’t worry about it.” Brian set it down, then looked up at her and smiled. “What were you saying about your day?”
“Nothing really.” She smoothed out her ponytail and smiled at him. “Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?”
“I’m not in grade school, Harper,” he said, bemused. “I don’t need a snack.”
She laughed, but it sounded nervous. “I know.”
“Did you need something?” Brian asked, narrowing his eyes at her. “You look like you need something.”
“Nope.” She shook her head hard. “Uh, no. Um, well, I guess … I was wondering how things were going with Alex.”
He opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of beer before responding. “At the docks, you mean?”
“Yeah, I was just wondering how he was working out,” Harper said, hoping her dad didn’t see through her attempts at small talk. She couldn’t just tell him about her change of plans for the future as soon as he walked in the door.
“He’s a good worker.” Brian twisted the cap off his beer and took a long drink. “He doesn’t say much to me. He never really did, but now it’s even less. He was always a quiet kid, and weird. Still is. Just quieter and weirder.”
“He’s not ‘weird,’” Harper said. “He’s just … reserved.”
Brian leaned back against the kitchen table. “Do you know why Gemma and Alex broke up?”
Harper lowered her eyes and shook her head so forcefully her ponytail whipped her in the face. “Nope.”
“I feel like it was something bad,” Brian said. “Something happened between the two of them.”
“Maybe it just, like … I don’t know.” She shook her head again.
He watched her for a moment, then said, “I thought she might tell you.”
“No, it’s teenager stuff.” She shrugged. “You know she’s secretive.”
“Yeah.” He took another drink of his beer. “Did she tell her mom?”
“What?” Harper looked up, surprised to hear Brian even mention Nathalie.
“I don’t know.” He looked away, but not before Harper noticed how pained his blue eyes looked. “She always liked talking to her mom, so I wondered if Gemma still told her things.”
“Um. Yeah,” she said finally, nodding. “Sometimes I think she does. She knows Mom will keep her secrets.”
“Yeah, Nathalie will. Whether she wants to or not.” He took a deep breath, then stepped back from the table. “There’s something I want to talk to you about. Why don’t you have a seat?” He motioned to a chair.
“It’s a have-a-seat kind of talk? What is it?” Harper asked, already panicking.