Read Online Waking Storms by Sarah Porter - Free Book Online Page A

beach.
    Luce forced herself to wave, once and then again. The second time he saw her. She could see the sweep of his arm as he beckoned to her, but she stayed where she was, riding the swell of the sea.
    He looked in the direction of the village, toward her again, then toward the encroaching fog. She could almost see the thoughts forming in his head: he could steal a boat, but would he be able to find her in the mist? Luce gathered her voice and let out a long, sweet note, music that sounded like shimmering light, like a gliding wing. It wasn’t the beginning of the death song, but a musical beacon, just loud enough for him to hear. Would he understand?
    Luce was just able to see him stare at her and nod before a swirl of dim blue cloud erased him from her view. She could hear his footsteps grating hard against the stones as he took off running again, and Luce drifted along parallel to the shore. She’d go as close to his village as she dared; she couldn’t make it too hard for him to find her. The long note trembled and coiled in her throat, becoming a hovering lullaby. Luce closed her eyes as she pitched alone in the fog and sang to comfort herself. Anything to soothe the dreadful chill in her heart, to hold off the sense of creeping evil. Her heart raced as she tried to lull it with unearthly music, but even the beauty of her own song wasn’t enough to protect her from the brutality of what she was planning.
    Theres no other way, Luce told herself, letting the thought sway with her song. Theres no choice, but tomorrow ... She finished with an image: floating on her back through Bristol Bay, eyes closed, until the water surged below her and sharp teeth snapped shut around her sides. She stayed suspended in her song and that awful vision for what seemed like a very long time, before she caught the steady beat of oars coming closer. The waves out here were too rough for a small rowboat, and its hull slapped down hard with each passing swell. When she opened her eyes again and looked around, the fog was so thick that the world seemed engulfed in deep blue velvet, and she could barely make out the slightly sharper form of the rowboat first approaching and then gliding past her, the boy’s body tipping forward as he spotted her. His oars thumped as he pulled them in, and Luce swam close enough that they could see each other clearly. The lift and fall of her face wasn’t quite matched to his, so that they stared at each other in a kind of vertiginous dance. Of course, she remembered, his night vision wouldn’t be nearly as good as hers, but the subtle light of her skin would help. She noticed a strange look on his face, awkward and bitter and, she suddenly thought, resigned.
    Did he guess what she was planning? Suddenly her heart doubled its speed, and dizziness rushed through her.
    “Hi,” he said flatly. “Going to talk to me now? Or you can’t be bothered with that?”
    It would be so much better for both of them, Luce thought, if he would only succumb to the death song. Tentatively, she tried it out, letting her voice slide up into the soaring note where it began. It was disturbing to hear that fierce, haunting song sound so choked and shy.
    The boy clenched the edge of the boat and gave a single gasping laugh. Then he poured out the melody in return. Now that he was so close, Luce could actually feel how he seized her song with his voice, bent it, and twisted it back at her. It felt like a physical movement, as if her voice were caught in a hard grip and wrenched. Trying to enchant him was pointless. He could deflect her as long as he had to.
    Luce let the music drop abruptly, and they stared at each other again. She could see the golden brown tint of his eyes even in the blue darkness, see the harsh skepticism on his face. A cloud of dark sparkling flickered around his head. With a human girl that shimmer would have been a sign that she was on the verge of turning into a mermaid herself. But as a boy he couldn’t