CHAPTER TWELVE

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Adrenaline lends me strength, and I lurch upright and plow through Ethan.

His eyes widen in surprise as I push past him. Then I'm stumbling out onto the beach.

It's raining out here, and it stings my eyes, momentarily blinding me. I blink, trying to see where I am as I sprint away from the cave.

It's gray and cloudy, and rain's pouring down at an angle, being carried by the wind.

We're on a wide, flat beach covered in driftwood and smooth black stones. Hundreds of seagulls cry out near the edge of the ocean, dive bombing the beach. I've never seen so many. The waves crash down, and as they recede, I see what the gulls are after. Fish. Dozens and dozens of fish. Hundreds of them.

All dead.

No time to care. I run a few more yards and whirl around. I'm in a cove... at the bottom of a cliff.

An old metal bridge spans two cliffs, hundreds of feet above me. It's covered in intricate metalwork, art nouveau-style. My heart beats faster, and I shield my eyes and glance in the other direction. There's a white lighthouse to my right, but it's not lit. I know where I am! I'm a few miles north of Port Ashford, in Gilly's Cove.

Ethan has emerged from the cave, and I take off running toward the bridge, my heart in my throat.

I don't get very far.

He's on me in seconds, gripping my arm painfully. I fall to my knees, my heart racing as I flail, beating him off with my free hand.

"Let me go!"

The rain's coming down harder now, blinding us both, but he's not easing up. He's dragging me back into the cave. I grab a handful of wet sand and hurl it into his face. He lets out a yelp, and I'm free.

I scramble to my feet and take off running, ignoring all the pain. I'm sprinting across sand, my hair whipping into my face, rain pelting me.

I gotta get away!

I can see myself, bound and gagged, suffocating in Ethan and Chloe's trunk. On the way to whatever they plan to do to me.

Our top story tonight, police are searching for a Port Ashford woman. Lyric Hart, an orphan and a loner, had been missing for several months before a coworker reported her disappearance to local police.

Mateo Gonzalez was the last person to see her.

"She was real nice," he says, flipping a burger. "A little clumsy but nice. Hopefully, they find her soon."

Deb's standing in front of The Rock, smoking a cigarette. "Late every damn day. Probably just lost track of time."

The reporter shoves the microphone in Keith's face. "How are you and your staff dealing with Lyric's disappearance?"

"We're accepting applications," he says with a scowl.

I sprint faster, faster than I ever knew I could.

I'll be on milk cartons!

Do they do that anymore?

I'll be on one of those unsolved murder shows!

They'll find my remains buried in the woods somewhere. Chloe and Ethan will get away with it all because no one knows where I went last night.

I have to find help!

Desperation rushes through me as I glance up at the cliff, covered in fir trees that are barely hanging on... and at the empty bridge. I've never been down here before, but it looks like a steep, hard climb up a harrowing dirt path to get to that bridge.

What hope do I have of making it all the way to the top, outrunning Ethan and Chloe, in my condition? I'm already slowing, pain shooting through all my limbs.

Ethan tackles me, and we go down hard.

I try to crawl forward, but he's too heavy. He flips me on my back and pins my arms to the sand. His brown eyes are dark with anger, and he says something, but I can't hear him over the wind and rain and my own pounding pulse.

We're right below the storm cloud, and rain is pouring into my eyes, blurring my vision. I swear I can feel the electricity crackling through the air around us, feel the power of the storm overhead. Desperation surges through me, and I kick my legs, trying to get him to let me go.

An electric hum dances through my cells as lightning sparks overhead.

The wind suddenly picks up, blowing so hard that Ethan gets a face full of sand and rain.

I knee him in the groin.

He falls to the side, giving me a brief window to scramble away from him. Then I'm off and running again, pushing through the intense wind and rain.

I glance behind me. Ethan's got one hand on his crotch and is using the other to shield his eyes from the wind, rain, and grains of sand flying through the air.

Around me, the wind has died down to almost nothing.

Ethan's reaching into his jacket for something. What is it?

He pulls out some kind of... stick.

No time to wonder what the hell he's doing with that. I take off sprinting again.

A high-pitched ringing hits my ears and reverberates through every inch of my body. Golden light swirls around me.

What. Is. Happening?

My legs turn back into jellyfish, and I collapse to the ground.

Ethan's there a second later, hauling me up by my arm. "Calm. Down." he says in my ear.

The tone is still ringing in my ears, and I swear the light is off here. Yellowish, when the world around us is gray and full of rain.

"Calm down and come with me," he says.

All my anxiety just... floats away.

All the fear drains out of me, and my shoulders relax.

"Calm down and come with me," he repeats.

I'm going to be calm. And go with him.

Weird. My heart slows. My nausea vanishes. I can only feel my scrapes and bruises and battered muscles a little bit. I don't even have a headache anymore.

I walk with Ethan back into the cave and sit down on a low rock across from Chloe.

She's still on the boulder where we left her, her hands folded neatly in her lap.

She scowls at Ethan. "Was that really necessary? Cerberus agents—"

"Yes," he says through gritted teeth. "It was necessary. She tapped into the storm. I stopped her and cloaked the residue. It was only a blip, a few seconds. They won't see it."

Chloe raises one perfectly-tweezed red brow at me, like she's impressed. "I wish you hadn't done that, but..." She looks back at Ethan. "I will try to take care of the residue before we go."

I look back and forth, from one to the other, kind of curious as to what they're discussing. I 'tapped into the storm'? What does that mean? Maybe these two are like... the FBI or something. But more obscure and top secret. All this talk about agents...

"Lyric?" Chloe offers me a friendly smile. "Are you all good now?"

Yes. Why... yes I am.

I look to my right, where Ethan is leaning against the cave exit, blocking it.

I feel quite good, actually.

So good, I think I'd like to take a nap now.

My eyelids drift blissfully shut.

Chloe snaps her fingers in my face, and my eyelids fly back open.

"You can nap later. For now, I have questions, and I need you to answer them. Quickly."

I smile at her. "Sure thing."

Chloe lets out a breath and exchanges a look with Ethan. "Very good. Now. Can you please tell me exactly what happened last night?"

For some reason, I no longer care at all how crazy I sound. In fact, I don't care about anything at all. And so I quickly recount my bad night. Just the facts, ma'am. I start with how I was invited to the beach and end with how I was nearly eaten by a sea monster. As I run through it all, I feel pleasantly numb. It's like these memories belong to someone else, and that someone else sounds insane.

But whatever.

"My best guess is she was a siren." My voice is light and cheery. "I thought she was gonna eat me, but nope. Here I am, alive and well."

Chloe has listened to all of this with a fixed, neutral expression. "I'm hearing that Amanda lured you into the ocean? You say she was singing a song, and that you felt compelled to climb the Rock and jump into the ocean?"

"Yes. That's right."

"Did you feel your life was in danger?"

"Oh, I know it was in danger."

"And then... you saw a golden web of light, and heard a different song that 'filled you up.' But you realized you had to 'let it go' or it would hurt you?"

"I knew it would kill me. I couldn't hold it anymore, and I knew it was never meant to be held. Not by anyone. It was meant to... flow."

At that, Chloe's blue eyes light up, and she shoots a look at Ethan that could only mean one thing: I told you so. Then she nods at me and reaches over to pat my hand. "It's not your fault."

"What's not my fault?" I ask, perplexed. Of course it's not my fault. Why would it be?

Ethan clears his throat but doesn't say a word.

Chloe pats my hand again. "How were you feeling last night, when Amanda invited you down to the beach?"

I don't know how to answer that. "Um... Fine?"

"Interesting..." Her brow furrows. "When you were working at the restaurant... Were you feeling... uh... depressed, perhaps?"

I blink at her for a few seconds, trying to decide how I felt. But my mind hits a brick wall the second I even try to contemplate it. Feelings. Ugh.

"No." I shake my head resolutely. "I was not depressed. I don't really get depressed."

"Hmm." She looks like she doesn't believe me.

A tiny hint of irritation chafes me. "Why do you ask?"

"When sirens choose their victims, they use their abilities to find people who are feeling... low. Depressed, desperate people tend to be most susceptible to their song. Easy prey."

"Well, I felt fine."

Didn't I?

If Amanda was looking for "low" last night, she should have picked Angry Al. He'd been the "low" one. So this lady's theory doesn't check out, if you ask me. If Amanda wanted the most depressed person in the room, I'm certain it was him.

Something cracks inside me, and a little jolt of energy races through my body.

Why are we talking about sirens like they're real?

Chloe opens her mouth like she's about to say more.

"Wait a second." I raise my finger to stop her. "You're telling me that what I think I saw... was real? A girl from my high school's a mythical monster? Are there others? Jason... is Jason one too? Where were they last night? Did Amanda eat all her friends?"

"We only detected residue from one siren song," Chloe says. "I highly doubt anyone else was on that beach last night. Sirens prefer to hunt alone, and they only target one person at a time."

I slowly nod, narrowing my eyes at her. "So... you 'detected' her song? How? When? I think it's your turn to tell me what you're doing here."

"Yes, we'll get to all that." Chloe waves away my questions. "Thank you for telling us your story. It's just as we suspected."

A little spark of warning reverberates through me. The haze around me lifts, just a little.

Why did I come back inside this cave?

Why did I just say all that out loud?

Why do I feel so calm?

And why am I just accepting what she's saying like it could ever be true?

These two are lunatics!

I have never, in my entire life, spilled so many of my thoughts to anyone before, let alone to two complete strangers. Let alone to two lunatics who have basically kidnapped me and will not let me leave this cave.

These people have done something to me. My eyes dart to the half-empty water bottle Chloe gave me. They drugged me. They had to have.

My heart starts beating faster again as Chloe rifles through her giant blue purse.

I let my hand fall casually into the puddle beside me, feeling around for something sharp. There are plenty of rocks and shells in here. They're lame weapons, but I don't have anything else.

Ethan might be watching me, but he doesn't say anything.

I casually bring a jagged shell to my lap for safekeeping, hiding it. I'll need something sharp to cut my way through the zip ties when these crazies toss me into their trunk.

"You're special." Chloe pulls an envelope from her bag.

"Special?" I try to keep the fear out of my voice and act like I'm still as drugged as they think I am.

If they think I'm compliant, maybe I can make another getaway. But self-doubt is twisting inside my chest, crushing me, at the thought of trying to outrun Ethan and climb that whole cliff.

Chloe breaks into a wide smile, displaying her perfectly straight, super white teeth. "We work for a school. It's a college, of sorts. It's called Atlantis Academy. And it's a place for girls like you."

"Girls with ADHD?" It's out before I can stop myself.

Chloe wrinkles her brow and lets out an awkward laugh. "Umm... No? Girls with magical ability. Like you."

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