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“I’ll try it, whatever it is. But how will I know what to do?” I asked, stepping near the water.
“Because you already do it by nature. Now it’s just a matter of matching the water to the vision it reflects. And making sure it stays that way.”
With a few gestures of her hand, she summoned up a bit of water, and up it streamed, like a grand ribbon twirling and twisting as she willed it. It coiled around her from bottom to top, and then snaked over to McKenzie, where it spread itself out thin like a veil and completely encompassed her body. Mere seconds later, an image began to form on the outside of the water cocoon. Broken glimpses of Serena formed like pieces of a shattered mirror, her reflection taking over whatever faint vision of McKenzie remained. As the water swirled gently, it closed in, attaching itself to McKenzie like a body-conforming shield. And on the outside, she was no longer McKenzie.
But then the façade vanished, the water falling into droplets like someone wrung out a soaked towel. And McKenzie was McKenzie again. “You must do that, and keep it like that.” Serena said.
“Okay,” I held out my hands, a bit nervous to try this new magic skill. But it couldn’t be any more challenging than forming an image out of watercolors.
And it wasn’t at all. My hands and mind knew what to do. I pulled the water back up, encompassing McKenzie in it once more as I formed each detail to reflect Serena. After a few slips, I realized half the challenge was positioning each water molecule just right in the light, to keep it reflecting the image I demanded—the image of Serena.
Aside from a small height difference, two identical Serena’s stood before us, McKenzie only distinguishable by the slight glimmer of sunlight on water that sometimes rippled across her body.
“What just happened?” McKenzie spun around, attempting to see behind her own back as she craned her neck around. Her voice was the only thing about her unchanged.
“You look like me, now.” Serena stepped back and looked her up and down as if admiring her work.
“Just don’t talk and we should be good.” Noah laughed.
We all stared in absolute amazement as the two Serenas, and I glanced over at the real one. “I can’t believe that’s possible.”
“Just a bit of telling the water what to reflect and dispersing it out in all the right places.” Serena winked. “Not so different than painting.” I didn’t even ask how she knew about that. I assumed as the Mother of Sirens she probably had the scoop on all of us.
I smiled softly. Then my focus shifted as Milo’s voice called to me through my thoughts.
We’ve anchored. And we’re scoping out the area. You were right. These tunnels are a mess. Don’t face Bastian without us near, if you can. Give us one more hour. We don’t want to leave you to do this alone.
Will do. I replied, looking back out at the friends surrounding me, and pulling in a deep breath. By the time we made it back down to the tunnels beneath the club and found Bastian’s lair, it would be more than an hour. And saving my mom couldn’t wait much longer.
“Okay people…” I said boldly. “It’s almost time.” Everyone huddled in closer as my heart pounded so loud, I figured they could hear it. “Are we ready to make a deal with the devil?”
45
Crosswinds
Milo
We’d left the boat moored as close as we could to the shore. Now we were climbing along the rocky cliff side of the coast where the old stone fort stood. We scaled the sides, looking in each crevice in the rocks for any sign of secret passageway. But nothing stood out as a hidden tunnel system entrance, and the setting sun only made it harder to see.
“Dammit, you gave them an hour. It’s been way longer than that now,” Bellamy grumbled behind me as we scaled the coastline.
“I couldn’t ask her to keep waiting. You know she wouldn’t have listened anyway,” I snapped. “Calm down. If we don’t keep our heads we’ll never find this thing.”
Bellamy hesitated. “I swear to god if something happens to Serena...I can’t believe I let her go on without me. Why the hell did I let her go on without me?”
I whipped around. “If you hadn’t, Bastian would’ve already been here waiting to snatch her up. You’re protecting her. Don’t forget that.”
“If he wanted to kill her, why didn’t he take her at the Fountain? I just don’t get it.” Bellamy scanned the area of the cliff we’d searched ten times over now, looking for this hidden entrance that eluded us.
I truly wondered the same, but the least I could do was to try putting Bellamy at ease about it. Little good wondering about it would do us here and now. “Maybe he can’t kill her that easily. Maybe he couldn’t truly fight us all at once to get to her. Maybe it’s not as simple as we think. Whatever the reason, this is the only chance we have to end him for good.”
Bellamy agreed with a grunt, his foot slipping and kicking a loose piece of rocks into the water below. My eyes followed the rocks, and I watched the waves at the foot of the cliff for a moment. I noticed a subtle suction of the water when the waves pulled back, different from the rest around it. “Look there!” I pointed. “The water’s getting sucked down somewhere.”
“That could be it. I’ll check it out.” Bellamy didn’t hesitate a single second before sliding into the water below.
“Hurry,” I said, “We don’t have much light left.”
He dove under, all of him disappearing beneath the waves except the hand holding onto the rock by the area where the water suctioned. Even though I wasn’t the one underwater, I held my breath, eager to see if we’d found the tunnel.
