Swans Landing #1 - Surfacing (33 page)

Something twisted in my stomach. “Did she go alone?”

“No,” Miss Gale told me, squeezing my hand. I knew the words she was about to say before she said them and I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping that maybe this was a nightmare and I’d wake up soon.

But it wasn’t.

Miss Gale’s voice was soft when she said, “Josh Canavan went with her.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

I leaned back against Dylan’s shoulder, closing my eyes as I listened to the first notes of the song floating across the water. The night was dark under the March new moon and I could just barely see the small ghost crabs that skittered along the beach nearby.

“Do you think I’ll see my mom again?” I asked, remembering the first time I’d heard the finfolk song from within the trees of the forest behind us. Dylan and I were the only two people on the beach at Pirate’s Cove that night. I had come for the finfolk song, but Lake thought I should ease myself into it and listen for now instead of actually participating out there in the water. Dylan had volunteered to stay behind with me. He’d been quieter than usual in the weeks since Josh and Sailor had left. He missed her and he had confessed once to me that he felt like he’d failed her as a friend by refusing to go with her.

It had been a hard adjustment for both of us. I missed Josh every day, the ache a deep pain inside me that I didn’t like to think about. But Dylan had forgiven me for the secrets I’d kept from him and his friendship made life a bit more bearable.

The crowd was larger than I had expected. Besides Lake, Miss Gale, and Dylan’s parents there were a few other small families that were also finfolk. Most of them were older couples, but a few had young children, elementary school aged. I had been surprised to see how quickly and expertly the kids dove into the water when it was time to start, giggling as they kicked off their clothes and splashed into the waves.

Some of them were half-finfolk like me, and their human parents lingered on the beach beyond Pirate’s Cove to watch and wait for their return.

“You’ll see what you want most,” Dylan reminded me. “So there’s a good chance it could be your mom.”

I wouldn’t be afraid this time, I promised myself. All the secrets were no longer mysteries to me and this was just another part of my life. And with Dylan sitting in the sand at my side, I didn’t think it was possible to be afraid. He squeezed my hand as I leaned closer to him.

The sound of the song swelled louder, a lullaby beckoning our people home. I opened my eyes, preparing myself for the sight of my mom as she had once been.

But the figure walking down the beach toward us was too tall and wide to be my mother, even at her healthiest.

“It’s not my mom,” I murmured, unable to believe what I was seeing.

Dylan turned and he jumped in surprise. “That’s—that’s not from the song. I see him too and I can assure you that Josh Canavan is not what I want most.”

I leaped to my feet, racing across the sand toward a dripping wet Josh, wearing a pair of soaked sweatpants and his hoodie that he must have carried in the ocean with him as he swam. I paused only a few steps from him.

“Are you really here?” I asked. “Or is it the song making me think you are?”

Josh’s smile was a challenge. “Come find out.”

I laughed and slipped across the sand toward him, letting him sweep me up into a tight hug. He was real, he was solid and soaked, but he was real. I squeezed him tight, burying my nose into his shoulder to breathe his scent deep into my lungs.

“You came back?” I asked, pulling back enough to look at him.

Josh smiled sadly. “Only to see you before we head out farther.” He looked over my shoulder to where Dylan still sat, trying not to appear obvious that he was watching us. “How are things?”

“Better,” I said, trying not to let my disappointment show. I traced my fingertips over his jaw, memorizing the lines of his face. “I was afraid I would never see you again.”

Josh brushed my hair back behind one ear. “I won’t be gone forever. But Sailor is my family and she needs me right now. We both need answers about what happened the night my dad died, and right now Coral Mooring is the only clue I have.”

I pressed my ear against his chest, listening to his heartbeat. I didn’t want to let him go. Every part of me screamed to hold on forever. He was mine, he was meant to be here with me.

“Stay,” I whispered, echoing the same words he had once said to me. “Stay with me.”

“I’ll come back,” he promised. “Sooner than you think. This isn’t a good-bye.”

His words were meant to bring me comfort, but we both knew that he couldn’t promise anything. The ocean was full of its own kind of danger.

“Take care of my mom for me, okay?” he asked, his voice tinged with sadness.

“She probably won’t let me get close to her,” I reminded him.

“I know, but try to keep an eye on her while I’m gone.” He kissed the top of my head, hugging me tight. “Take care of yourself, Woodser.” Josh let go and stepped back, his eyes drifting toward the water where somewhere out there the rest of our kind sang a song for him and the others who had left before him.

“I’d better go,” he said. “Sailor is waiting. She didn’t want to come close so Miss Gale couldn’t see her and force her to stay.”

“Where will you go?” I asked.

“There’s a place that my dad once wrote about in his papers,” Josh said. “The old ancestral home of the finfolk. People say the ones that leave return there, if they can find it.”

“Be careful,” I told him. “Watch out for sharks.”

A smile twitched at the corners of his lips. “I will.”

He started to walk away. The breeze whipped my hair around my head and the finfolk song sent a shiver up my spine.

“Hey, you never told me what it is you see on song night,” I called out. “You said it used to be your dad. What is it now?”

He flew across the sand back to me, reaching up to rub a warm hand across my cheek. I closed my eyes, trying to imprint this moment into my memory.

“You,” he whispered. His lips were warm on my forehead, brushing delicately across my skin and sending tingles exploding through my body. I held onto his fingers as tight as I possibly could, afraid to let go.

Finally, he stepped back, smiling at me one last time. Josh walked down the shoreline, pausing for a moment to slip out of his pants in the shadows before marching into the cold, crashing waves.

Dylan still sat in the same place I’d left him, sifting sand between his fingers when I returned.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

I settled down next to him, letting out a long sigh. “I hope so,” I said. “Of course, knowing Sailor Mooring, we haven’t gotten rid of her for good. She’ll probably be back soon to torment me.”

Dylan laughed. “That is what she does best.”

As I leaned back, enjoying the warmth of Dylan’s friendly embrace around my shoulders, a movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I turned and there, along the edge of the trees, Mom disappeared in and out of the shadows. Even from this distance, I could see her smiling and hear her laughter as the song swelled to its final crescendo across the water.

“Good-bye, Mom,” I whispered as she faded away into the night.

About the author:

Most days, Shana Norris still feels like she’s stuck at sixteen, which is probably why she enjoys writing about teens. She always wanted to be a mermaid and fell in love with the Outer Banks during a gray late winter years ago. She lives in a small town in eastern North Carolina with her husband and small zoo of pets, which currently includes two dogs and five cats. Discover other books by Shana Norris at her website
www.shananorris.com
.

Look for the sequel to
Surfacing
coming 2012.

To learn more about Swans Landing and the people living there, please visit
www.shananorris.com
.

Acknowledgments

A huge thank you to my critique partners, who read through the mess of the early draft and gave encouragement and advice. Thank you also to all my writer friends, who cheer me on even when I want to give up.

Thank you to my agent, Stephen Barbara, for everything you do and for supporting me with this book and this self-publishing adventure. And for asking me to rewrite the first chapter a dozen times until it actually had some action! :)

Thank you to my cousin Heather, who was the first person to read this book and the first person to love it.

Thank you to my brothers Mike and Nick, and my sister Ashley, for sitting through all those stories I made you guys listen to when we were kids.

Big thanks and love to all of my family and friends.

And to M.B., with love from M.N.

Table of Contents

Surfacing

Midpoint