Promises (Book One of The Syrenka Series) (20 page)

“
Aye, lassie. Thank ye for
freein’ me. That was a most uncomfortable ride.” He continued to
brush himself off as his figure emerged from the water and took its
appropriate shape. “Couldn’t ‘elp but overhear, but it seems like
ye’ve got a wee bit of a problem, no?”

I was thankful that I didn’t need to
repeat everything to the sprite. “Yes, and I have a favor to ask
you.” He twirled his hand asking me to continue. “Are you able to
find people? Well, selkies in particular?”

“
The ones that stole the
skin?”

“
Yes. They might be
somewhere on the outskirts of Baltimore. I have to find them.
Brendan won’t survive much longer, and if I know where I’m going,
then I can leave tonight.” I sat down on the toilet and looked up
at Abhainn’s somewhat disturbing fairy face. “Is that even
something that your kind can do?”

He tsked at me and waved his hand.
“Do? That is one of the things we are so good at.” Relief flowed
through my body and for the first time in several days, I thought
that perhaps we could get out of this mess.

“
Okay, so can you do
it?”

“
Aye.”

“
Can you do it
now
?” I asked perhaps a
little too harshly.

“
Aye. But once I leave
here, I will need to find ye again.” I wanted to ask how he was
going to leave and then find his way to Baltimore, but my mind was
too full of odd scenarios and unexpected events today.

“
Well, what if I meet you
at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge? Can you get there?”

“
Aye, ‘n that sounds like a
splendid idea.” He tilted his head up towards the ceiling and
closed his eyes. “I will need a few hours. What time is it
now?”

I peeked out into the living room to
see the bedside clock and Brendan’s dying body next to it. “Just
after one.”

“
Alright then. Meet me at
the east end of the bridge at eight ‘n I will let ye know where to
find yer dogs.”

“
Seals,” I
corrected.

“
Same thing. Now, please
send me away.” I looked at him in confusion and he pointed to the
sink below his feet. “Pull the drain!”

“
Oh, okay.” I stood and
reached towards the metal drain plug behind the faucet. “You’re not
going to stand me up are you?” I asked.

“
Nah. Ye saved me ‘n now I
will help ye. It is the way of our kind.”

“
Thank you, Abhainn,” I
said with all of my feelings at the surface as I pushed down on the
drain. Abhainn tipped his tiny liquid hat towards me and dove into
the water off through the septic system. I was hoping that he would
be able to make it to the bay, because right now, all of my
optimism was resting on his success.

Fifteen

I needed to sleep and eat, and not
necessarily in that order. As the evening approached, I tried to
draft a plan that included finding a way to steal back Brendan’s
skin without getting caught. I didn’t really come up with much.
Since I needed to wait on Abhainn for more information, the most I
could accomplish was trying to convince Daniel to stay with Brendan
while I went out on some secret mission. He was reluctant at first,
not because he didn’t want to do it, but because I told him that he
was not allowed to tell the others. It had been made quite clear
that Kain and Carissa wouldn’t be spending a bunch of extra time
with me, so it shouldn’t have been too difficult to understand why
Daniel would be the only one invited to my room.

“
Why won’t you tell me
where you’re going?” Daniel asked for at least the hundredth time.
“I hope that you’re not thinking about going after those selkies on
your own.”

“
That would be idiotic,” I
replied from the bathroom while trying to discretely pack a small
bag of extra clothes. I didn’t know how long I would be gone, and I
wanted to be prepared in case I had to shift.

Daniel made a small noise that led me
to think he didn’t believe a word that I was saying. It didn’t
really matter though. As long as he didn’t tell the others,
especially Brendan, then maybe I could slip out undetected. I
walked past the two boys on the bed and looked at them. Daniel was
flipping through the channels and sitting on top of the covers with
his ankles crossed while biting his nails. Brendan wasn’t moving
much at all. He hadn’t come out of his sleep for more than a few
minutes at a time, and although I hated to leave him, I knew that
his time was quickly running out. There was no other option at this
point.

“
Okay, I’ll be back in a
little bit.” Daniel looked at me suspiciously and I had to turn my
head towards the floor to hide the guilt and my fear. “Thanks again
for helping, Daniel. You have no idea how much this means to
me.”

“
Just hurry back, alright?”
I smiled at him and quickly left the room. Dusk was upon us
although it seemed that the night had already arrived since the sky
was covered with a layer of thick, dark clouds. I silently walked
to our car seeing no one else in the parking lot. But just as I
unlocked the doors, two mysterious shadows appeared and blocked me
in against the driver’s side.

“
And just where do you
think you’re going?” Carissa asked.

“
I think she’s going to try
to take on an army of selkies alone,” Kain replied.

“
Now why would she do such
a stupid thing?” Carissa continued.

“
Probably because she
thinks that there is no other way to handle this
situation.”

“
Oh for God’s sake. I’m
standing right here!” I snapped. Turning to face them, I leaned
against the side of the car and crossed my arms over my chest.
“There’s nothing you guys can say that will stop me from
going.”

Kain nodded. “We figured as much.” He
suddenly grasped the keys out of my hand and held them above his
head when I tried to grab them back. “You’re not going.”

I attempted to jump and
reach his hand, but he was one step ahead of me. This wasn’t
happening now. I got so angry that I let out a scream of
frustration as I pushed against his chest and forced him to take a
few steps backwards. “I
have
to go. Brendan is dying and this is all my
fault!”

“
No, you misunderstood.
You’re not going alone,” he corrected. I looked back and forth
between the two of them, taking a second to put it
together.

“
No. You guys can’t come.”
Shaking my head, I began to pace along the length of the car. “I
can’t let you do that. It’s too dangerous.”

Kain laughed this time as he pushed
past me and opened the driver’s side door. “You don’t have a
choice.” He slid in behind the wheel and Carissa jumped in the
backseat. I just stood there like a statue in awe of what my
friends were doing for me. They had already risked so much, and now
they were probably risking their lives for a selkie boy they didn’t
even know. Kain started the car and waved me inside with an urgent
look. Stunned and overwhelmed, I climbed in.

“
Where to?” he asked while
backing out of the parking spot.

“
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
And we need to be on the east end by eight.” He just looked at me
but didn’t ask any more questions. In fact, no one said a word. It
took us nearly an hour to get to our destination and almost as long
before anyone asked me why we were meeting at this
location.

“
You flushed Abhainn down
the drain?” Carissa asked in dismay.

“
It’s not like I flushed
him down the toilet. It was the bathroom sink and it was his idea.”
A ball of nerves twisted up in my stomach washing over me in a wave
of panic. I really hoped that the water sprite would be here. He
was the only semblance of hope that I could cling to right
now.

“
Do you think he can find
them?” Kain asked softly.

I turned to look out the window. “I
hope so,” I whispered. We finally made it to the beginning of the
bridge and instead of paying the toll we pulled off the road and
into the visitor’s center parking lot. I jumped out of the car and
ran towards the first pillar, right where the land ended and the
waves fought against their impeding barrier.

I heard Carissa and Kain walk up
behind me, although they chose to stay a few feet away. Maybe they
were giving me privacy, or maybe they were apprehensive about all
of the creatures that we now knew may be waiting under the surface.
“What time is it?” I yelled back to whoever would
answer.

“
Five after eight,” Kain
briskly replied. Great. Abhainn was late and all of the hope I’d
been clinging to started to seep from my bones like melting ice.
Brendan was going to die and it was because I didn’t protect him.
I’d relied on him for so much of everything I do, and the one time
he needed me, I failed.

My shallow breaths were a sign of an
oncoming panic attack, and I tried to control my breathing so I
wouldn’t lose it in front of my friends. Kain began to walk closer
towards me, but I quickly retreated to the water’s edge. He didn’t
need to see me crying.

“
Thought I forgot, eh?” a
raspy, accented voice called to me. Turning my head quickly, I
tried to find the source. “Over here, lassie.” In the darkened
shadows of one bridge piling stood a lean man in a long trench coat
and a bowler’s hat. Using the leg propped up against the side, he
gracefully pushed away from the structure and glided towards
me.

“
Abhainn?” I asked. “How…?”
If I wouldn’t have known any better, I would have passed him off as
a mere human. Albeit, an oddly dressed one.

“
Ye like?” he asked. With
arms spread, he turned in a circle several times, allowing me to
take note of his solid and non-aqueous body. “It’s been a while
since I’ve been able to do this.” He smiled broadly and pulled down
on his jacket.

“
You creatures can do
that?” Carissa tactlessly asked. Abhainn shot her a
glare.

“
I am no more
creature
than ye. And
yes, when we’ve had our fill, the magic is stronger and more
useful.” He waved his hand towards the closing visitor center.
“I’ve spent the last half hour wandering amongst those things. Not
a one suspected I was anything but a curious tourist.”

“
What do you mean by having
your fill?” Kain questioned. I looked up at his face and noticed
suspicion written all over it.

Abhainn’s laugh sent shivers down my
spine. He slowly sauntered over to us, feigning picking something
out of his teeth. With his new body, he was at eye level with Kain
but my friend didn’t give up any ground. I, on the other hand,
unwillingly stepped back at the sudden change in the sprite’s
demeanor. “I think ye know what I’m referring to, laddie.” The two
stood in silence, locked in a bitter stare.

Carissa came up behind the other side
of Kain and slapped Abhainn lightly on the shoulder. “Well, I don’t
know what you are talking about, so would you please enlighten us?”
She was at least attempting to break the tension.

Abhainn took one step away and looked
between Carissa and me several times before he let out a laugh. “Ye
really don’t know, do ye? What are they teaching ye sirens
nowadays? Are we no more than a fairy tale?”

“
Abhainn…” I pleaded. “What
helps strengthen your magic?”

A wicked grin appeared on his face and
for an instance, I thought that I saw his bone structure elongate
slightly before flashing back to the non-threatening human façade.
“Well, lassie. All we need is a good meal to keep the body
strong.”

“
A meal?”

“
He means a human, Eviana.”
Kain turned his head towards me. “He ate a human.”

“
Two actually,” Abhainn
chimed in. I looked at the water sprite with a new sense of disgust
and fear. There were stories about the water fairies and their
desire to consume human flesh, but we were never told that this was
how they survived. Then again, we were told that no more of their
kind existed. I thought back to the naiad in the lake and wondered
how many human hikers she’d consumed over the years.

“
Was that really
necessary?” Carissa asked jokingly, although I could hear the
nerves fluttering amongst her words.

Abhainn rubbed his hands over his
belly and groaned. “I probably could have done without that last
one. He was a bit pudgy ‘n I fear that I may ‘ave over indulged.”
He was enjoying this way too much. “But alas, I needed my strength.
It’s been far too long since I’ve had a decent meal.”

I wanted to ask more about this
lifestyle. Whether it was fascination or just morbid curiosity, I
wanted to know more about him and his kind. But my thoughts were
cut short when Kain asked Abhainn what we really needed to
know.

“
Did you find
them?”

“
Aye.”

“
And….?” I prodded after a
few seconds of silence. Abhainn sighed and began to walk nearer to
the water’s edge. I followed closely behind, with Kain and Carissa
staying back where we’d stopped.

“
There are seven of them
and they are holed up in a dump just outside of the town of Severna
Park.”