“If Iincanta human to build me a house, and I saydon’t stop until it’s done,that person would only work until the end of the day, and then wake up the morning after and go on with their life? Do they remember beingincanted?”
“No,” Selena stilled, her bag half-slung on her shoulder, her face serious in a way that made me almost regret asking. “They never remember beingincanted,but if they notice gaps in their memory, they’ll grow suspicious and paranoid."
She sighed. “When you sing to a human, he becomes avacous—an empty shell for you to fill for your own needs. His body is an instrument, a tool for your manipulation. Humans lose time when they’reincanted. They don’t keep their memory. When youincantsomeone, you steal mind and body. You take their ability to think or reason.Incantationis something you will practice, because you will likely need it someday, but it is not a toy to be played with.”
Her shoulder slumped slightly, her bag slipping down an arm. She tugged it back, then faced me with those burning sky-blue eyes. “And yes. You could tell a human to build you a house and not stop until it was finished. That kind of request would overrule the necessity for sleep, so they would stay awake, working for weeks to complete it for you. But there are dangers, for them and for you, which come from claiming someone’s mind and body for an extreme amount of time, and I hope you never do. You may see it in the future—avacousthat has been avacoustoo long.”
She paused to shake her head, the movement barely discernable, and some emotion I couldn’t read flashed across her face. “Their teeth fall out, their skin shrivels. Their hair thinsand they lose the color of their skin. They become a breathing corpse, and when you finally release them, they are lost.”
Selena’s lashes suddenly fluttered, as though she’d snapped out of whatever thoughts claimed her head. Hand on the door, she glanced at me from over her shoulder. “We are Naiad. But never forget you were human-born. It is through your humanity that you separate yourself from those controlled by their own lust for power.”
35
Icouldn’t help but think of what Selena had said when I sang to Pike again. I watched him recede into himself, pupils enlarging as all other expression fell from his face, a wisp of queasiness curling inside me.
Reclining in the Venusian water, I floated as if in a chaise lounge, my tail propped up by its own buoyancy, gently riding the waves. Selena did the same. My eyes landed on my own golden skin, shimmering in Naiad form. I wished I was this bright while human.
“Any questions for me?” she asked, her head resting on the surface, eyes closed. “I usually dominate our discussions. Anything on your mind?”
I shrugged.
There was plenty on my mind. I missed my father. I missed Leihani. Despite my anger, I missed Nori and Olinne, though I rarely let myself think of any of them. Thoughts of Irah always followed, and two months away from the island had done little to untangle the confusion over how to feel about their confessions.
On top of that, the stress of the upcoming solstice and convincing a nation to accept me had left me antsy enough to scurry around the palace, withholding conversation from anyone who approached me. I wasn’t good with people; I didn’t easily make friends. Parties alongside the social elite, conversing and dancing, weren’t merely a foreign concept. They feltalien.
Of course, Kye was never far from my foolish thoughts, creeping in as I studied Selena’s texts like aMihauna-damned shadow through mist, undetectable and sudden, only to fade before I managed to decide how I felt about him being there.
Did you find what you came to Leihani searching for?I asked in my memory. Kye’s eyes darkened as he smiled, but he didn’t answer.
That’s not her. But she’ll work. Give the order.
Floating beside Selena, my fists clenched.
I’d been turning over pieces of my early moments spent with Kye in my mind for some time now. Every clue of his betrayal had been there, and I’d been too stupid to see it. But I saw it all now. I burned with it inside me.
He said he knew I wasn’t a witch.
No. You’re something else entirely.
Thaan had sent him looking in Leihani for someone else, and I was certain that someone was my mother. But he’d found me instead.
I should have let Nahli take him in the shallow waves of Neris Island.
Selena bolted upright in the water, her body rigid with warning. Startled, I followed her gaze and saw it too—a familiar prickle of cold shivers flew down myspiculae aseyes gazed at me from the water.
“Go, Maren.Go,” Selena urged.“Get back to land.” Her voice was low and tight, even though I was already ahead of her. Theeyes were unfriendly, almost angry. Instinct took over, plunging me through the surf towards the red cliffs ahead.
Reaching the water's edge, we scrabbled our way through the beach, the transition to human legs slowing us only until our feet took over, gaining purchase over the shifting sand and racing up to the cliffs. We beat across the surface of our blankets, spread out in our favorite spot with a basket of apples and a couple of books. We grabbed our cloaks as we ran, throwing the material over our shoulders as we hurried through the warm air toward the carriage, parked halfway up the cliffside.
A male Naiad followed close behind us. He, too, wore a cloak around his shoulders, as if he’d anticipated following us onto dry land. The material streamed over his chest, running water trapped in fabric, clasped at the hollow of his neck by a silver brooch I could almost make out in the distance—a labyrinth of tentacled arms and legs, twisting and reaching past the rounded edges like spokes on a wheel. He transitioned seamlessly as he reached the shore, his feet tracking through the sea foam. Halting near the mouth of the water, he faced us, tall and severe.
The only other male Naiad I’d ever seen was Thaan, though I hardly thought of him as Naiad. I couldn't imagine Thaan with a tail, or at home below the waves. He was too fixated on whatever ties he had to the King. He didn’t seem flexible enough for water.
This Naiad was nothing like Thaan. His hair shaved on the sides, his crown a mop of ropey braids tied over the back of his head. The long ends whipped in the wind, a wet tangle ranging in color from dark pitch to pale blond. Lighter than mine, but darker than most of the people of Calder, his skin was like warm sand, smooth and taut over his powerful body. The narrow slit of skin visible under his cloak revealed dark tattoos across his chest—whirls and looping lines, like the waves of a rolling tide. His eyes cut across the beach at us like green daggers, and the small point of his beard extended his chin into a sharp barb.He might’ve been Selena’s age. Like her, he lacked any wrinkles in his skin, though the vestiges of adolescence had long since disappeared.
Behind him, more eyes announced themselves, a circle of Naiads rising from the water. They didn’t enter the beach as he did, but they closed in, their focus trained on Selena and me, faces tight and hostile.
A hundred Naiads under the dark surface of the Juile Sea flashed in my mind. I shuddered.
