“It’s not hers, is it?” Alex asked, watching a red thong tumble from Harper’s grip.
“What’d you find?” Daniel asked. He’d gotten off the boat after them, and he was just coming up behind Harper.
“I think it’s those girls’.” She turned to face him and held the bag out to Daniel, as if he’d know what to do with it. “Those horrible girls have done something to her.”
“You don’t know that.” Daniel tentatively took the bag from her. “Just because somebody else crashed here doesn’t mean that she has anything to do with them.”
“But where is she?” Harper asked, tears filling her eyes. “She’s not here. Where could she be?”
“Gemma!” Alex resorted to yelling her name since he didn’t know what else to do. He stood at the edge of the cove, shouting out at the bay. “Gemma!”
“Maybe we beat her here,” Daniel suggested. “We got here pretty fast, right?”
“Do you think?” Harper stared up at him, her frantic eyes searching his.
“Maybe.” He shrugged. “Or is there anywhere else you can think of that she might go?”
“No, I…” Harper trailed off, her face twisting with confusion, and she tilted her head, listening. He opened his mouth to say something, and she silenced him by putting her hand on his chest. “Do you hear that?”
“What?” Daniel asked, but then he heard it, too.
Very faintly at first, but the wind was carrying music out to the cove. A song unlike anything Harper had ever heard before, but it was one that Alex was all too familiar with.
“It’s Gemma,” Alex breathed.
“What?” Harper asked, but now without the incessant panic that had been gripping her only seconds before. Her entire expression changed, the tension melting away to a bizarre serenity.
“Harper?” Daniel asked. When she started walking toward Alex at the shore of the cove, he put his hand on her arm to stop her. “Harper? Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong.” Her brow furrowed momentarily at that, as if she realized that what she was saying wasn’t quite right, and she turned to Daniel. “Were we looking for something?”
“Yeah. Your sister.” He took both her arms and made her face him. “What the hell is going on with you?”
“She’s calling me,” Alex said to no one in particular, and then he dove into the water, swimming out of the cove.
“Alex!” Daniel yelled. “Alex! What are you doing? We have a boat!” He ran to the shoreline. Alex was furiously swimming away, and Daniel wasn’t about to jump in after him. “Alex! Just get back here in the damn boat!”
“Something’s wrong,” Harper whimpered, and Daniel turned back to see her looking as if she were about to cry.
“No shit, something’s wrong.” He went back over to her, apparently deciding that Alex was a lost cause, at least for the time being. “Do you know why Alex just took off?”
“No.” She ran her hand through her hair and looked up at him. “Gemma is missing, and I can’t…” She shook her head and covered her ears with her hands. “It’s that song, Daniel! It’s trying to make me forget about her, but I won’t!”
“The song?” Daniel certainly could still hear it, but he sounded as if he didn’t know what Harper was talking about.
“Can’t you hear it?” Harper asked, shouting because she’d plugged her ears.
“Yeah, but I’m fine,” he assured her.
“We need to go towards the song!” Harper told him. “That’s where Gemma is!”
Daniel thought about arguing with her, but something really, really bizarre was happening, and they probably didn’t have time to question things anymore. He took Harper’s hand, dragging her over to the boat so they could go after Gemma while they still had a chance.
All the while, the song floated through the air. Come now, weary traveler, I’ll lead you through the waves. Worry not, poor voyager, for my voice is the way.
TWENTY-SIX
True Form
“What are you doing?” Gemma asked, still struggling against her urge to join in the song with Lexi and Thea.
“What needs to be done,” Penn told her. “I’ve tried to reason with you. I’ve given you everything you wanted. And you still won’t see logic. So now I’m going to make you see.”
“I don’t understand.” Gemma glanced through the doorway where the other two sirens sang. “What do you have to make me see? Why can’t you just let me go?”
“Because, Gemma, we only had until this full moon to find a new siren, or we all die. And you might be ready to throw in the towel, but I don’t give up so easy. I didn’t survive the past several millennia just to be finished off by a spoiled little brat.”
“Exactly!” Gemma latched on to a point. “I’m horrid. You don’t want me. Let me go, and pick someone else.”
“I wish it were that simple,” Penn said, and she sounded as if she really meant it. “The potion doesn’t always take. You’re the third girl we’ve tried, and the first that’s turned into a siren.”