Lullaby (27 page)

Her eyes changed, shifting from their usual bright blue to an eerie green, and they grew larger, almost too large for her face. Her teeth became more pointed. Several rows sprang out from behind the others and protruded jaggedly from her still-human lips. The last thing to change was her arms, growing longer and sprouting taloned fingers.

Lexi had begun shifting into the bird form, but she stopped changing mid-shift. The whole beast was probably a bit cumbersome for being in public, but even this smaller shift would make her stronger. Gemma had felt it when she’d been fighting with Sawyer. Just the little change had enabled her to break away from him.

Alex charged at Lexi while Gemma ran over and grabbed a heavy rope that had been left on the dock. When Alex ran at Lexi, she knocked him back, but that was what Gemma had wanted. He lay on the dock, and while Lexi hunched over him, Gemma ran and jumped on her back. She wrapped the rope around Lexi’s neck, choking her, and wrapped her legs around the siren’s waist to get a better grip.

Lexi squawked and tried to buck Gemma off, but that only made her hang on tighter. Alex kicked Lexi in the stomach, and she fell to her knees. She reached back behind her head and grabbed Gemma’s hair.

She yanked on it hard enough to make Gemma scream, but Gemma refused to let go of the rope. Alex kicked Lexi in the face, probably afraid that if he punched her, he might accidentally rip his hand off on her incisors.

“Will you stop screwing around?” Penn snapped, and all three of them turned to see her standing on the dock with her hands on her hips. Thea was right beside her.

Lexi squawked again, trying to speak but unable to, since Gemma had the rope so tight around her neck.

“Gemma, let go of her,” Penn said wearily. “If you don’t, I’ll come over there and rip your boyfriend’s head off. It’s as simple as that. I’m sick of fighting, so do as I say, or I’ll kill you all.”

Reluctantly, Gemma let go of the rope and got off Lexi. As soon as she did, Lexi turned to her like she meant to attack in some way, but Penn hissed at her.

“Lexi,” Penn commanded. “I said I was sick of all this fighting, and I meant it. Clean yourself up and get off the ground.”

“Sorry,” Lexi said awkwardly through her mouthful of teeth.

The fireworks were finishing up, and they ended on a noisy, rapid-fire note, with lights exploding every second in the sky. Lexi shifted back to her normal self and stood up. Gemma and Alex had gotten to their feet, and they stood together, holding on to each other.

“That’s so obnoxious,” Penn said as the display finally finished and the crowd on the beach erupted in applause. “Humans are so stupid.”

“They are,” Lexi agreed, and took her spot on the other side of Penn.

“So what was going on here?” Penn motioned to the blood all over the dock. “Whose is that?”

“That’s Sawyer’s,” Lexi said, then she made a pouty face. “He was going to leave us, so I killed him.”

“Lexi.” Penn sounded genuinely irritated, then shook her head. “Fine. Whatever. Great. I’m sick of all of this.”

“If you just let me go, you can be rid of all of this,” Gemma said.

“I can’t let you go,” Penn snapped. “Why won’t you get that through your thick skull? If you want to be free of this curse, I’ll be more than happy to set you free, but I’ll have to kill you. Is that what you want? Do you want to die?”

“Penn,” Thea said, gently interjecting. “It was so hard to find a replacement for Aggie. It’ll be just as hard to replace Gemma. Don’t do anything hasty.”

“I’m not being hasty!” Penn shouted.

“Wait,” Gemma said. “You guys were wrong.”

“Seriously?” Penn raised an eyebrow. “This is how you plan to plead for your life? Telling me I’m the one that’s wrong?”

“No, I’m saying that you were wrong about something, so you might be wrong about other things,” Gemma said. “There might be a way to break the curse.”

“Do you know what that is?” Thea asked.

“No, but…” She took a deep breath. “Alex loves me.”

“Boys lie, you’re an idiot, blah blah blah,” Penn said, waving her hand.

“No, he’s really in love with me! Ask him!” Gemma motioned to Alex, and he took out his earplugs. “Alex, tell them how you feel about me.”

“That I love you?” Alex asked, confused.

Penn rolled her eyes. “Oh, my god. Just for that, I’m going to kill you both. I was only going to kill you, Gemma, but because you wasted my time, I’m taking him out, too.”

“No, Penn, wait!” Thea held up her hand to silence Penn.

“What now?” Penn groaned.

“Alex,” Thea said, and walked over to him.

“Don’t hurt him,” Gemma said, making her voice as firm as she could.

“I’m not going to hurt him,” Thea told Gemma, but her eyes were on him. She stared at him directly in his eyes, then sang, “
Alex, tell me the truth. Do you love her?
”

His pupils dilated and mouth slacked, and for a second Alex didn’t say anything. Gemma waited with bated breath until finally he spoke.

“Yes,” he said, his voice sounding dreamy. “I’m in love with Gemma.”

“That doesn’t prove anything,” Lexi said.

“Yes, it does!” Gemma insisted. “He loves me, and you said that wasn’t possible.”

Thea swallowed hard and lowered her eyes. Her expression had become pained, but Gemma couldn’t read it exactly.

“Thea, this doesn’t change anything,” Penn said, trying too hard to sound calm and reassuring.

“This changes everything,” Thea said, then turned back to face Penn. “We’ve believed something for thousands of years, and it’s not true. What else are we wrong about?”

“Maybe it’s a fluke.” Penn shrugged. “But we can figure it out later. I still think we should kill Gemma. She’s more trouble than she’s worth.”

“No, I don’t think so.” Thea shook her head. “We should keep her alive.”

“She’ll just keep running away!” Penn gestured to Alex. “Her being in love is all the more reason that we should kill them!”

“Then we stay,” Thea said.

“What?” Lexi asked, appalled. “We can’t stay here. This town sucks.”

“Just for a while,” Thea said. “Until we figure out what’s going on.”

Penn sighed and seemed to think it over.

“We can’t!” Lexi insisted. “We wouldn’t be able to feed whenever we wanted. We’d have to use discretion so the humans wouldn’t chase us out of town with pitchforks and torches. That means we might have to go, like, weeks without eating.”

“That’s true,” Penn agreed. “But there’s something really weird going on with the boys in this town.”

“What do you mean?” Thea asked.

Penn just shook her head in response. “Fine. We’ll stay. And Gemma can live.
For now
.”

Lexi groaned loudly, and Gemma tried not to let out a sigh of relief.

“But you will do as I say.” Penn stepped around Thea and walked right up to Gemma. “None of this running off shit or doing what you want. I’ll let you stay here, live with that hideous sister of yours, and run around with this idiot boy. But if you disobey me, if you act out against me or the other sirens, I will not hesitate to kill you all. Do you understand me?”

“I do.” Gemma nodded.

“Do you?” Penn asked. “Because I don’t think you do. We made a similar deal before, and you broke it. In fact, I should be tearing out lover boy’s heart right now just to punish you.”

“Penn, please, I’ll do what you say,” Gemma insisted in a hurried breath. “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”

“I know you won’t do it again,” Penn said. “Because I’ve given you more chances than I’ve given anyone else. And you screw up one more time,
one more time
, and I will destroy everyone you care about. I’ll kill everyone in this entire bullshit town if I have to.”

Gemma swallowed hard. “I understand.”

“Gemma!” Harper shouted as she raced down the embankment toward the docks. “Gemma!”

“I really don’t want to deal with them again,” Penn said, and turned back to Lexi and Thea. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Gladly,” Lexi said, and dove into the water.

“Wait,” Gemma said, stopping Penn before she followed Lexi. “What do you want me to do?”

“Go home, play house with your little friends,” Penn said. “I’ll find somewhere to live, and when I want you, I’ll come get you.”

Before Harper and Daniel reached them on the dock, Penn and Thea dove into the water, disappearing in the waves. They swam out as far and as fast as they could, and Gemma knew they had to be careful to avoid being spotted by people who were in all the boats in the bay.

“So we’re just gonna stay here and let Gemma do what she wants?” Lexi asked Penn, once they’d gotten far enough away from the docks that they could speak. Thea was swimming on ahead of them, but Lexi had slowed to talk to Penn.

“No, of course not,” Penn said. “We find a replacement first, then we kill her. And we need to find out what the hell is going on with the boys in this town. There’s something strange about this place, and I want to find out what it is, so I can rub it in Demeter’s face.”

THIRTY-FOUR

Tomorrow

Gemma knew what she had to do. After everything that had happened tonight, she had no other option. While Gemma had told Harper what she planned to do, she couldn’t tell if Harper approved or not. In the end, it didn’t matter. Gemma had made up her mind.

Once the sirens had gone, Gemma had explained to Harper why the sirens had spared her and let her stay in Capri. That had actually been relatively easy compared to explaining to Brian what she’d been up to when they got back home. She lied and told her dad that she’d just snuck out to watch the fireworks with Alex, but that still left him pretty pissed off.

Brian stayed up really late that night, maybe because he was so angry, but the second Gemma was certain he was asleep, she snuck outside. She’d made sure to tell Harper what she was doing before she left, so Harper wouldn’t freak out when she saw Gemma’s bedroom empty.

As she crept across the yard and climbed up the trellis to Alex’s window, Gemma could almost feel Harper watching her from her bedroom window. That was the condition. Harper would let Gemma sneak out to talk to Alex without telling their dad as long as Harper could see her the entire time.

Crouching on the roof outside his darkened bedroom window, Gemma knocked sharply on the glass. After the night they’d had, he was probably sound asleep, and she wanted to be sure she woke him.

The light in the room flipped on, casting a glow through the curtains. She knocked on the glass again, and a few seconds later, Alex pushed back the curtains. As soon as he saw her, he hurried and opened the window.

“What are you doing here?” Alex asked. His hair was standing up all over from sleep, and he wore only his boxers, revealing his well-muscled chest. “Do you want to come in?”

“No, I can’t.” She shook her head and tried to fight back the tears that were already brimming in her eyes. “I just stopped by for a sec.”

“What’s wrong?” Alex leaned out the window and put his hand on her arm. “What’s going on? Did something happen?”

“No. I just … I needed to see you.”

“How come?”

“I love you,” she whispered, and before he could respond, she leaned forward and kissed him.

She wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly to her. When she finished kissing him, he kept hugging her, and she rested her head on his shoulder, sniffing back tears.

“Gemma, what’s going on?” Alex asked.

“
Alex
,” Gemma sang softly into his ear. “
Alex. You will do as I say
.” She took a deep breath, letting her song take effect on him. “You’re breaking up with me. You don’t want to go out with me anymore. You don’t want to be around me. You don’t care about my safety. You don’t…” She paused. “You don’t love me anymore.”

“Gemma?” He sounded confused. His arms had felt strong and firm around her, but they loosened now, letting her go.

“Do you understand me?
Alex?
” She pulled away from him and looked him in the eyes. “Are you my boyfriend?”

His face scrunched up, and his dark eyes looked pained underneath the haze of the spell. Then finally he shook his head. “No. We broke up.”

“That’s right.” She nodded.

“What are you doing here?” Alex asked. “Why did you come over?”

“I didn’t.” She wiped her eyes. “This is all a dream, and when you wake up, you’ll only remember that you don’t want to be with me.”

Gemma couldn’t handle it anymore, so she turned and climbed down his roof. Alex was still standing at his open window, staring out at her, and she told him to shut it and go back to bed. Before she could see if he’d really done it, she raced back to her house and to her own room.

Convincing Alex that he didn’t love her anymore might not play out well with the sirens. Even though Thea had seen it and believed it was true, they might be pissed that they couldn’t experiment with him. And if Penn was pissed, she might take it out on him or Gemma or Harper.

But she didn’t know what else to do. They’d almost killed him tonight—
again
. And after seeing what Lexi had done to Sawyer, Gemma knew it was only a matter of time before the same fate befell Alex if he stayed involved with a siren. Especially considering what she’d done to Jason.

Penn might punish her or Alex over this, that was true. But if he didn’t break up with her and get away from her, then he would definitely end up dead.

Besides, there were still plenty of puzzles for the sirens to obsess over. Harper had told Gemma that Daniel wouldn’t fall under their spell. Penn thought there was something strange going on in Capri in general. They didn’t need Alex in order to figure out what was happening.

Gemma had considered doing the same thing to Harper that she’d just done to Alex, convincing her that she didn’t care about Gemma anymore, and then Gemma could leave with the sirens.

But it would be better if the sirens stayed here. Penn had agreed to behave. They would slow down their feedings, so their staying in Capri would help save lives.

Not only that, but it sounded like Thea would be looking into the curse more. Since a human had fallen in love with Gemma, the sirens obviously had been misled about the curse’s terms. Maybe Thea could find a way to break the curse. Or, at the very least, free Gemma.