“She’s here for you?” Key asks.
“Yes,” I say.
Key looks at me, confused. “You said you were meeting the boy….”
“I was,” I say. “But also her.”
Key looks hurt at the lie. She dips under the water for a moment, reemerges looking relieved to have wet her face again. She licks the salt from her lips. “You didn’t have to lie to us. Any of us.”
“I did. Or I’d have ended up exiled like Molly.”
“Molly wanted to be exiled. She didn’t want to be one of us. Maybe you don’t, either.”
“That’s not true,” I say. “Not true at all. I love being with our sisters. It’s just Naida…”
“That’s your name? Who you used to be?” Key asks. I nod. Key considers this for a moment, then looks toward Celia. “You want to go back. You should go to her.”
“No. She’s angry with me, too. I’ve ruined everything. I guess it doesn’t matter though,” I say, stomach tightening. “I’ll be gone soon enough.”
“Not if you get a soul.”
“But I won’t. He… he doesn’t love me. And even if he did…” I feel warm water against my face—tears, not the ocean….
“He might not. But…” Key lifts my chin with her fingers, then points to the shore, “she came here for you.”
“What do you mean?”
“That’s closer to mortal love than we’ve seen in a long time, since before we came here. Even if she’s angry, why come all this way if she doesn’t care?”
I stare.
I turn, look to the shore. Celia is still calling my name, her voice cracking from straining. She’s here for me. Here in a hurricane, here after I lied to her, after I lied about Jude.
You can have her soul.
“No!” I snap aloud, to Key, to myself, to Naida. I look back at Key, shake my head. “No. No, I won’t.”
“It’s the only way out,” Key says, eyes widening, like I must not understand.
“No,” I say, whisper. Close my eyes, try to drown out the voice inside me, the voice that sounds like Naida clawing to get out, desperate, longing to live again. No. No.
“Lo, the storm will be here soon. I don’t want you to die. You have to—”
“I’d rather die,” I say, but my voice shakes. I’m afraid to look at the shore again. Afraid if I see Celia, something will change my mind.
“You can be human again. Don’t throw this away,” Key says, grabbing my shoulders. “Please, Lo. It’s too late for the rest of us, but you have a choice—”
“This isn’t a choice. It’s murder,” I hiss. I wince as I hear Naida’s name bounce across the waves again.
My name is Naida Kelly. I have an older sister. We lived in a house surrounded by trees. My feet didn’t bleed when I walked on land, and my skin wasn’t milky-blue. I was a normal girl.
I duck back into the water, try to breathe slowly. No. My name is Lo. I live in the ocean with dozens of sisters. We were once human, but that’s gone. It’s gone, and it’s never coming back. I can’t take a soul. I won’t take a soul. I can’t…
My name is Naida Kelly.
I close my eyes. Fight it. Fight, fight… Naida’s voice grows louder, louder, till she’s screaming in my head.
My name is Naida Kelly, and I want to live again.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Naida
My sister did whatever she could to save me.
I have to do the same.
Whatever it takes.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Celia
The wind is picking up—it isn’t supposed to be the worst hurricane I’ve ever seen, but it’s still to the point where I know I shouldn’t be on the beach. Yet I slink through the fence by the calliope, run through the now-empty park. It’s frightening, so empty, lifeless…. I hurry to the pier, to the path down by the ocean. The waves are already dangerously choppy, white sea foam everywhere. The storm is close, so close…. I squint, put a hand to my forehead, try to see—
Yes. There she is. Her head, her eyes just above the water, disappearing with each wave.
“Naida!”
She doesn’t move, looks away from me, like she’s speaking with the waves. “Naida!” I try again. “Lo! Please!”
Nothing. Naida—Lo—dips underwater, vanishes. I cry out in anger, grip my hands into fists. Naida can’t be gone; Lo can’t have taken her. Not after all we’ve worked through, after all we’ve remembered together…. I turn around, look away from the ocean in frustration.
“Celia!”
I whip my head back toward the waves and sigh so hard that it’s almost hard to catch my breath again. She’s not dead. She’s not dead. Naida is walking toward me, struggling against the thrashing tide. Everything is gray—the horizon, the light, the ocean, even the sand. Naida’s skin is bluer than before, her eyes darker, but it’s still her. She didn’t give up after all. Jude was wrong.
“Jude came to me. He told me you were gone, that Lo…”
“No,” Naida says, smiling. She shakes the water from her hair. “No, I’m all right. I…” She looks away. “I should have told you Lo was meeting with him. I didn’t always remember it. I’m sorry.”
“You should have. He should have,” I say, voice harder than I mean it to be. I shake it off. “Never mind. I was just worried. It’s getting harder for you to remember. I was afraid Lo won and you were gone….” I cringe as the wind whips my hair into my eyes. I need to go, I need to leave, but I’m afraid that if I turn around Naida will vanish again. I can’t let that happen, not after coming this far. I squint, try to open my eyes, looking down to shield myself from the brunt of the gale.
“Your feet,” I say, pointing. “They aren’t bleeding.”
Naida looks down, eyes wide. “You’re right. It hurts but… not like before.”
“Do you think you can leave the beach, then? Maybe it won’t be as bad as last time. Maybe it’s working. You’re remembering,” I say, almost embarrassed by how eager I sound.
Naida looks at me, presses her lips together. “No. That’s not why they stopped bleeding. It’s not because I’m remembering.”