“I’m not injured,” Omar said. “The serpent didn’t hurt me.” He turned back to give Ellie a hand, but she was already on the dock and walking away. He shoved his way through the frightened, curious, excited crowd to reach her side. She was talking with three other lifeguards, with her back to him. He wanted to touch her arm but didn’t dare. Instead he spoke firmly. “Ellie?”
She turned, and for an instant he saw her eyes brighten, but then her face went still and she spoke quickly. “Your Highness, I am thankful you’re unharmed. We’re making plans to rescue your friend now.” Then she turned back to her coworkers, who stared at him with eager curiosity.
Omar spent the next several hours repeating the story of his rescue. Again and again, to lifeguards, the resort director, and the staff psychologist, he told everything that had happened (except the details most important to him, of course) and emphasized Ellie’s heroic role.
Later, in private, he would recall every detail of Ellie’s face and voice, and the feel of her—and her lifejacket—in his arms.
Bence was having conniptions by the time Ellie finished her report. At first the supervisor intended to go to the island himself and “drag that bird-brained lord back to the castle,” but everyone on his staff, male and female, declared this a terrible idea.
“We’d then have two siren-crazed men on our hands,” said Kerry Jo, a bubbly blonde lifeguard with a deep tan. “Not a pretty picture.”
“Fine. Then you’ll go, and Ellie and Jeralee. But all of you remember: This guy is breaking rules right and left, interfering with magical creatures. I don’t care if he is a lord; use your magic on him if you have to.” He glared at each of them in turn. “Now I get to go inform Madame Genevieve that we allowed male guests to steal a ski boat and invade the island.”
As Bence stormed away, Jeralee muttered, “Good luck with that,” and flashed Ellie a grin. The magical mechanic was short and strong, with a mop of red-brown hair and a freckled nose, and she’d been Ellie’s best friend since their first summer as interns.
Out on the docks, the three girls prepared for their mission. “What if the sirens won’t give the guy back to us?” Kerry Jo asked. “How do we negotiate? Do we have any authority over them?”
“We’ll manage,” Ellie said, feeling a touch of soothing magic slip past her guard. “We should take two scooters, leaving one of us free to drive the boat back, if it still runs.”
“I’ll get it running,” Jeralee interrupted. “If the propeller is wrecked, I’ll use magic.”
“I met this guy Tor yesterday,” Ellie admitted, “and he seemed harmless enough. He caught some boys fishing and took their gear away. But he wasn’t mean about it, just firm.”
“I think I saw the fish man,” Kerry Jo said. “Tall with buzzed hair?”
“That’s him.”
“I escorted those boys to Madame’s office,” Jeralee said, and grinned. “They told me the weird guy has a pet catfish in the lake. Seriously?”
Ellie kept her opinion to herself. “I’ll do my best to keep Tor under control,” she said. “The sirens stopped calling, so we can hope he’ll be back in his right mind.”
“Yeah, like that’s ever happened,” Kerry Jo grumbled. Her own magic was weak—she used it mainly to keep her hair neat or hide blemishes—but she never seemed envious or resentful. Many of the staff guys cherished unrequited crushes on her while she blithely played the field, but she was also kind-hearted and worked hard.
Jeralee rode on the back of Kerry Jo’s scooter, and it was agreed that Ellie would circle the island alone in search of Tor. She first escorted her friends to the beach, where they could easily see Tor’s footprints on the slope of sand. “Seems so wrong to set foot on the island,” Jeralee commented, “but what else can we do?” Kerry Jo kept her scooter in idle while Jeralee ran ashore.
“The footprints look as if he headed north, or maybe straight across,” Ellie said. “If I find him, I’ll send him back here, so be on the lookout.”
Jeralee was checking the boat’s propeller when Ellie drove off. There was no sign of the fish rescuer on the rocky cliffs at the island’s north end, so she hurried around to the west shore across the island from the beach.
She saw Tor’s colorful life vest first; he was waist-deep in the lagoon. A mermaid with long blue-black hair hovered in the shallows right in front of him. They seemed to be having a conversation, which was odd. But the siren heard Ellie’s scooter, turned to stare with wide dark eyes, then dived back into the lake and was gone. Only after she disappeared did Ellie think of speaking to her.
“Kammy!” Tor called after the siren, his voice strained. “Don’t forget!”
“Stop, Tor!’ Ellie put power into her command, and not the soothing kind.
He stopped, and the light faded from his expression. Ellie immediately felt guilty, but what else could she do? This situation was unlike anything she’d ever heard of.
“Tor, walk to the ski boat, push it into the water, and ride with the lifeguard to the docks. Once you get there, people will tell you what to do next.”
His chin lowered. For a moment Ellie feared he was fighting her, that she might have to use stronger magic to keep him under control. But then his shoulders drooped, and he walked slowly out of the water and up the beach. Ellie climbed off her scooter, hauled it above the water line, and followed him. She had to be certain her control held long enough to get him off the island. The sirens might start singing again at any moment.
But he made it back to the boat without incident. Never once looking at any of the girls, he pushed the ski boat back into the water.
“Thank you,” Kerry Jo said in her cheery way. “We couldn’t budge the thing without you.”
He slightly ducked his head but still didn’t make eye contact. Maybe the siren spell was still on him? Ellie wondered. Her own spell shouldn’t make him depressed. “Climb aboard,” she ordered. “Kerry Jo will drive the boat now.” Again he obeyed without a word or glance. Once seated in the back of the boat, he leaned forward with his head in his hands, his shoulders slumped.
The three girls exchanged looks. “Will you be all right?” Jeralee asked Kerry Jo, who shook back her hair and grinned.
“We’ll be fine, me and Fish Man. You take good care of my scooter.” She started the boat, backed it with expert skill, and carefully threaded her way between the rocks that dotted the small bay. Jeralee followed in her wake.
Ellie looked at the pristine tropical island around her and paused. Despite its beauty, something about the place sent a chill down her spine, as if hidden eyes watched her and disapproved. She deliberately turned and walked up the slope of sun-warmed white sand. A breeze brushed her face, and the nearest palm trees waved ever so slightly. Her steps sped up, and then she was sprinting back to her scooter. It started at her first try, and she gunned the engine. Once out of the lagoon, she glanced back, half expecting to see something watch her departure. The lagoon was peaceful, idyllic. The small beach was empty. Nevertheless, Ellie shuddered. The sirens’ island wasn’t evil, but neither was it friendly.
She drove around the south end of the island, near the flat-topped rock where the sirens usually sat to preen and sing. It was empty. Had Tor’s landing on their island frightened them away? She jetted away across the lake, eager to put distance between herself and the island.
As she approached the docks, she caught a flash of iridescent blue tail in the water. The little siren must have followed the boat carrying Tor. Could the strange magical being truly care for a human man?
Ellie didn’t know what might happen if a siren and a human fell in love, and she had no desire to find out. Maybe the Gamekeeper would know what to do. She needed to ask him the next time he came. She was beginning to think he needed to come soon.