Waveborn

39

                  

"I'm so glad you're back," Jen said. "I thought maybe we could have a girls' night. Watch movies and play cards and that sort of thing."

The knot behind Cass's navel loosened slightly; there were too many people she was worried about and she couldn't be with them all. She wished Jen would leave for a week, fly back to Argentina to check on things there or decide to take a vacation. Anything that would get her away from Rodger's Island and Selena....

Jen's eyes crinkled, watching her. "What's wrong?"

Cass's mouth opened and shut. She could just...suggest that Jen take the whaler to Anacortes, or even all the way to Seattle. If Jen left, she'd be safe, but Jen wouldn't leave, not unless Cass forced her.

Cass swallowed. If she tried to force Jen to do anything, she'd be just like Selena—but she couldn't tell Jen the truth and she couldn't keep both her and Jason safe at the same time. She didn't see any other options. The next time Selena tried to hurt someone, they might not be as lucky as Reis had been.

"Cass?"

"It's just...." Cass scrambled for words. "The other girl in the band, Evie, she invited me to spend the night with her. I told her you were leaving—"

Jen's brow furrowed. "Leaving?"

Cass closed her eyes and reached for the feeling she'd named Voice, the three-stranded cord that twined mind, body, and throat into one. She started to sing, letting her physical voice resonate and fill her. This had to work. She willed it to work. "You're leaving, going to the mainland to...to see Peter, to make sure he's okay. And to ask him about his results. You have to talk to him."

Jen stilled.

The words whirlpooled away, taking Cass's breath with them.

"Are you sure you're okay with this? I'm more than happy for you to come with me, but I know how important this concert is for you."

It took a moment to follow Jen's words, to realize that she was speaking as if they'd already had the conversation.

"It's fine," Cass said. The words sounded hollow. "You could use some time off."

"Right." Jen stood in the open space between table and bench, looking lost. "I guess I should go, then. Good luck tomorrow." She grabbed the key to the whaler, opened the hatch, and climbed out.

A moment later, Cass watched her motor out into the dark beyond the harbor. Her stomach knotted: Jen still had a lot of water to cross, where she'd be vulnerable, but hopefully by the time Selena realized Jen had left there would be nothing she could do about it.

When she finally reached Jason's house, the windows still glowed with light and the faint sound of a television buzzed through the screens. Cass bet that Selena wouldn't come while people were still moving. Selena liked to move in the dark, when no one could see her until after she had them under her spell. The thought made Cass's jaw clench so tight it hurt.

She made her way down the cliff and sat again on the bottom step. Images unspooled behind her eyes—the scratched glass on her pillow, Reis hurtling toward the rocks, Jason blinking at her, hurt bright in his eyes as he tried to figure out which memories were true and which were lies—and they left her shaking with fresh waves of anger so intense they made her head ache. Selena called humans killers, but she didn't hesitate to hurt everyone important to Cass, no matter if they were innocent, to get her own way.

She hoped Selena did come. She wanted to punch her in the jaw.

#

The three of them spun in dizzying circles, hand in hand, barefoot on the sand. Her mother sang a children's rhyme, the words faint but familiar. Cass strained to make them out: