Breaker (Ondine Quartet Book 4) (12 page)

Can you find me now?

I remembered the previous times he’d left something for me. On the bodies of an ondine and her gardinel. By a painting of me. In my car, my dorm room.
 

Each time had been a taunt of how he’d outsmarted me. Whatever the answer was, wherever the next clue was, he’d already given me the answer.

I just hadn’t figured it out yet.

The haiku. It had to be the haiku.

The numbers hang high
 

“Numbers,” I said slowly. Haikus fell into a five-seven-five pattern.

“Is there any street in Merbais that uses the numbers five or seven?” I asked Bernard. “Like a Fifth Street? Or a Seventh Street?”

He shook his head.

“What about an address?” I pressed. “A street number?”

He pulled out his tablet, accessed a map, and input the numbers. His eyes widened at the result.

“Elisa Perimeti’s place.”

“Where?”

Richard was already running down the steps. I was right on his heels.

“Out on the eastern border,” Bernard called out. “She makes custom furniture. A shop called Beginnings at 575 Crimson Road.”

The others tore after me, Richard leading the way. The main street of Merbais narrowed, glints of ice and cold hardening the ground.
 

The gardinel suddenly veered right, off the main street onto a dirt path winding past a sharp crevice of grey rocks.
 

The ocean’s scent strengthened. Wind whipped past us, freezing my fingers to popsicles.
 

Up ahead, moonlight cascaded through the thick cloak of night, illuminating a charming wooden cottage right along the cliff’s edge.
 

A hand painted sign dangled above the porch.

Beginnings Furniture

A start for your new home at the end of the road!

575 Cliff Road

In the moonlight, the cottage’s red paint glowed like crimson blood.

The numbers hang high

Where red towers over sea.

Can you find me now?

Richard abruptly stopped at the front porch and swore.
 

Elisa Perimeti, the store owner, lay prone on the steps, her neck twisted, eyes still bulging with fear. A sharp wooden dowel pinned a sheet of paper to her sternum.

My heart beat faster.

“What the hell?”

Cam leaned over and studied it. Even before he glanced up at me, I knew.

“It’s for you.”

I wrapped my fingers around the dowel and yanked. It emerged from her chest with a soft crunch, bright blood and chunks of flesh clinging to the sharp end.

Dried blood had hardened the edges of the note, the text presented in a stark, typewritten font.

S to S

Finding a path which

No one seeks, she flees for she is

In need of a way to him.

Feats divine shower from
 

Heaven, falling in rivulets down

To the sands of golden warmth

and to scintillating waters, bright with blood.

A sondaleur stands alone in the present as

the pasts and futures beckon, and the

First, read upon her return.

***

The sun began its daily journey over the horizon. Lavender and turquoise rays reached, streaking across the sky toward the clouds.

Frances’ home was perched along a rugged cliff, its white siding, green shutters, and red roof brightly greeting the sunrise.

I walked in and followed the sounds of rambunctious laughter and conversation coming from the end of the hall.

The smell of bacon and eggs wafted through the air and my stomach loudly protested.

Ray sat at the head of the dining table, his leg bouncing up and down. The other nixes were finishing up breakfast and a quick glance told me I needed to move.

“Could’ve left some for me,” I muttered.

I grabbed an empty plate, scooped up the last portion of scrambled eggs, and settled beside Ray.

Will eyed the last piece of bacon left on the platter. I snagged it before it disappeared.
 

A look of sheer contentment drifted across Holden’s face. “You snooze, you lose, Kendra.”

I swallowed. “I wasn’t snoozing. I was working.”

Frances’ home had a decidedly rustic feel with polished honey-wood floors and furniture, woven throw rugs in bright colors, and paintings of the coastline dotting the walls.
 

The door opened and Ian walked in, his eyes sunken and cheeks hollow.

My chest tightened. “How is she?”

“She didn’t want to leave. Healer sedated her. She’ll be out for the next few hours.” He collapsed onto the sofa and looked at Holden. “I ran into Prince Belicoux on the way over. He said he’s arranging for you to leave soon. Found you a place.”

Holden straightened. “Where?”

“Daniel Clavet has a remote cabin north of Haverleau. He’s there on vacation now and said he’d take you in.”

Grady absentmindedly stroked the white scar beneath his left ear. “Who’s Daniel?”

“Human doctor at Lyondale Hospital. He’s cool.” I paused. “You can trust him.”

“And the prince will make sure you have everything,” Ian added.
 

Holden focused on me. “Thanks.”

I nodded.

“The town is just…gone.” Ian sighed. “Tell me you found something.”

I showed him the note and explained the haiku to everyone.

“We found this note because of the syllabic pattern of the previous haiku. There has to be something here that points to what’s next.”

Another attack was no longer a question of if, but when. The clock had been reset and I needed to make a move before it stopped again.

“I don’t see any pattern in this text,” Ian said.

Tara leaned in and studied the verses. “Maybe the solution lies in the location itself. Where the text was found.”

Fortunately, Bernard, in all his hyper-organizational glory, had supplied me with extra copies of photos from the site.

We spread them across the table, seven sets of eyes poring over every detail.
 

The store was typical of Merbais coastal life. The inside was simple, wooden floors and a basic arrangement of unadorned furniture. A few thick blankets covered the sofa, and a threadbare rug of faded blue and red added a hint of color to the empty space in front of an old fireplace.

The furniture, while precisely crafted, was functional, the work of a craftsman rather than an artist. Judging by the lack of personal touches like photographs or other mementoes, Elise lived a quiet life alone.
 

Grady picked up a photo and squinted. “What’s that say? In the frame hanging on the back wall?”

“Looks like a poem.” Will leaned in and read. “On the eve of birth, with night falling across the sky in inky waves, dreams of futures past shine like jewels. I awoke to find myself with hope nestled between sun and moon, even as I stand between water and land.”

“Pretty.”

 
Holden shot me a funny look. “You don’t know it?”

I bristled. “I’m sure you’ll tell me.”

“It’s an ancient ondine folksong. Most mothers sing it to their kids.”

Well, that explained it. Naida Irisavie wasn’t like most mothers.

“Hey look, it’s an acrostic.” Tara’s eyes widened with excitement. “See? The first letter of every line spells out a word.”

Being in a room full of nixes made you feel like your brain was operating at half-speed.

On the eve of birth with
 

Night falling across the sky in inky waves,
 

Dreams of futures past shine like jewels.
 

I awoke to find myself with hope

Nestled between sun and moon,

Even as I stand between water and land.

“Ondine.” I glanced back at the bloodied note. “This one doesn’t spell anything.”
 

Unless FNIFHTAATF was some type of mystical code word.
 

Ian shook his head. “Acrostics can come in different forms. It doesn’t have to be the first letter.”

Ray pointed at the top line. “The key.”
 

S to S

“Isn’t he just addressing me? Shadow to Sondaleur?”
 

“Every puzzle has a key,” Ray insisted.

“He means it’s a formula.” Ian pointed at the page. “What if the ‘to’ meant a ratio? As in S to S or one to one?”

Revulsion crawled under my skin. The Shadow’s words from the Lyondale basement echoed through me.
 

We’re two sides of the same coin.

Holden nodded slowly, his eyes darting across the page. “Since the letters are the same, the ‘to’ is essentially an equal sign.”

Ian’s gaze ran through the note, understanding darkening his eyes. “Shit.”

“Damn,” Holden muttered.

The rest of the nixes also reacted, leaving me the only idiot without a clue.

“Explain for the non-nix,” I said, impatient.

“It means letter placement is equal to line.” Holden’s expression was grim. “The first letter of the first line. Second letter of the second line, third letter of the third line.”

My eyes raced over the note, the words dancing across the page.

The first letter of the first line.

F
.

Second letter of the second line.

O

Third letter.

N

I completed the sequence, fear tightening my throat as the Shadow’s words coalesced into a single word that jumped off the page.
 

Oh, no.

SIX

“We’ve closed the bridge. No one is allowed in or out.”

Only Jeeves could look so calm and collected while wearing a pin-striped gray suit on a sweltering beach. His skin didn’t even shine.

A shirtless demillir in board shorts ran by, tossed me a flirty wink, then pursued an ondine in a pink bikini. She giggled and led him on a playful chase between the four gardinels patrolling the water’s edge.

The selkies scowled.

“They don’t seem too upset about it,” I said dryly.
 

For a community on lockdown, Fontesceau was surprisingly festive. Then again, maybe I was asking too much from a place whose head ondine handled council meetings at the local bar.

After the remote coldness of Merbais, stepping into Florida’s tropical weather was like entering a sauna. Nestled on an island to the west of the Everglades, Fontesceau was a hidden oasis in the Gulf. Cloaking rendered the isle invisible to the human eye.

“Without any real, credible threat, Charlie refuses to evacuate,” Jeeves said. “There’s also the matter of logistics.”

“We have no where to move them.”

He nodded. “It will take time to work out details with the other communities. Haverleau has room for some, not all, and the others are already accommodating those displaced from Merbais.”

“Do we know how many visitors are here right now?”

He shook his head.

I resisted heaving a sigh. “Do I even want to know why?”

“The local council is very lax with paperwork,” Jeeves said dryly. “The gardinel post did track who came in and out, but the records were never organized. I have several people going through the mess now. Making sense of it will take some time.”

Which meant we had no real info on the people currently within the community borders. Problematic if an emergency occurred.
 

“We might need to go door by door and do a head count ourselves.”

“They won’t like that.”

Probably not. But after what we saw in Merbais, I didn’t want to take any chances.

“Something else you should know.” His expression turned wry. “Fontesceau is throwing a welcome party for us tonight.”

Oh, for crying out loud. “Do they realize this is not a social call?”

“Charlie insists it’s protocol.”

After the craggy solitude of Merbais and the sophisticated urban landscape of Rivelleu, Fontesceau was a shock to my system.
 

I’d always pictured it as a fabulous vacation destination, a private island with the feel of an exclusive resort.

Instead, Fontesceau was drunk on its own hedonism, a community on permanent spring break. Shoddy paperwork, unconcerned visitors, and lax governance added to the general air of negligence.
 

Nothing wrong when you needed a place to go for vacation.

Another thing entirely when you were tasked with protecting it.

My head throbbed. The lack of sleep was catching up to me. “I’ll talk to Charlie again later. ”

“We should get a better sense of things over the next day or so.”

“And moving Brigette is out of the question?”

“She refuses to budge.” Jeeves shook his head. “Stubbornness runs in the Genevieve blood.”

If Nexa and Julian were examples, I had a sense of what to expect from Brigette.

The last clairvoyant had definitely piqued my curiosity. It was time to pay her a visit.

“I’ll talk to her. Get her transport ready.”

Fontesceau’s main road wound along the coast, the border of sandy beach so bright and perfect, the white grains appeared like frosting on a cake. A slight breeze ruffled my hair, but did nothing to alleviate the stifling heat.

An array of cafes, small shops, and charming motels brightened the street. Small groups of people milled around, the sunny afternoon carrying their laughter and animated conversations.
 

Within an hour of solving the Shadow’s message, I had Ian and Aubrey sent back to Haverleau along with several Merbais evacuees.
 

I didn’t care if gardinels dragged Aub screaming on to the plane or loaded her on while she was still sedated. I’d deal with the aftermath, but I wasn’t taking any risks with those closest to me.

Our emergency response team had arrived in Fontesceau a few hours later, along with every available chevalier and gardinel. Another group of selkies, including newly inducted Dax and his friends, were also on their way.

Ahead, the paved road climbed up a slight incline, branched off to the right, and curved down the beach to a bridge.