Fins Are Forever
Page 37

I picture al the humans who might have been swept away in the tsunami. Quince, Shannen, Brody, and Aunt Rachel, and countless others. Tel in and I and other merfolk living on land might have survived, but only if we avoided the debris wal that would plow over the land like a bul dozer. I never knew she held that much hate in her heart.
Doe shrugs, recovering her unaffected attitude, as if it’s no big deal. A facade. I’m not a violent girl, but I’ve never wanted to slap anyone more.
“Uncle Whelk would never have let that happen,” she replies. Only the quiver of her lower lip betrays her awareness of the situation. The gravity of what she almost did. “He stopped the wave before it got half a mile from Thalassinia.”
“And that makes it okay?” I demand, crossing to her and standing toe to toe. “What if he hadn’t been able to stop it?
What if—”
I can’t finish the thought. It’s too terrible.
“He did,” Doe spits. “I don’t see what the big deal—”
“You don’t see?”
If Quince hadn’t dropped Prithi and thrown himself between me and my cousin at just that moment, I think I might have strangled her.
“Lily,” he says, sounding al calm and not nearly as homicidal as I feel. Doesn’t he know that he and his mom would have been counted among the victims? “This isn’t going to solve the problem.”
“It might,” I snarl.
“No.” He cups my chin and makes me look him in the eyes. “You know it won’t. Your father sent her to you because he thinks you can help her get past this. He wants you to heal her. It’s your duty.”
I slump. Duty. The one word that can change everything.
Al the anger and terror and fire ebb away, because I know Quince is right. Yel ing at Doe is not the solution. There’s enough hate in the room already.
“I don’t know what to do,” I whisper so only Quince can hear. “How do I fix her?”
I can’t change the past. I can’t go back in time and stop the deep-sea fishing boat that caught her parents in a dragnet, shredding their fins and trapping them until a great white came along. The kingdom was in mourning for months. Clearly, Doe blames the entire human race, and al that pain and resentment has been boiling inside her for years.
How can I make her forgive humankind? And realize that not al of them show such disregard for life?
“It wil take time,” he says. “She needs to learn to like and, eventual y, love humans. It wil take only one.” He glances over my shoulder, toward the living room. “Maybe Aunt Rachel.”
An image flashes in my mind, of Brody sitting next to me on the beach, tel ing me he thought Doe was his future.
“Maybe not Aunt Rachel.”
Sure, Brody is furious at Doe right now. So am I. So are we al , I think. But the kind of feelings he confessed don’t just disappear because of one incident, especial y one that happened before they even met. From her reaction when Brody walked out, I don’t think Doe is as indifferent to him as she’d like us to believe. There is strong emotion there on her part, too.
Brody wil come back around. Eventual y. And maybe his feelings, his love, wil transform Doe.
It’s the only way I can imagine.
I nod at Quince, silently tel ing him that my fury has worn off and he doesn’t need to protect Doe anymore. He steps aside and I walk up to her.
“I don’t know if I wil ever forgive you for what you did,” I say quietly, “but I’l try. And I’l also try to teach you that most humans are kind, wel -meaning, and wil ing to help others in need. If they had known your parents were trapped at the bottom of the ocean,” I say, not stopping when she jerks back at the mention of her parents, “they would have done whatever it took to save them.”
She shakes her head as if she doesn’t believe me. That’s fine. I already knew she was going to take convincing.
These are things I can’t just tell her, I have to show her.
Brody has to show her.
“As much as I want to send you to the opposite side of the world right now,” I say, needing her to know how much this hurt, “I’m going to help you instead.”
“How?” she asks, and I can almost believe that she wants me to succeed.
I can almost believe her eyes are glowing with a sheen of tears.
In that instant I realize what I need to do. There is only one way to ensure that Brody forgives her and that she gives him the chance to prove al her past feelings wrong. I just hope they both forgive me in the end.
“The only way I know how,” I answer. Closing my eyes, I say, “I’m going to leave you bonded to Brody.” My eyes blink open at her gasp.
Beneath the hatred and the aloofness and the frigid protection of her emotions, I see something new in her piercing blue eyes. Maybe I notice it only because it’s what I’m looking for, but I almost think I see a spark of… hope.
And that spark gives me al the reassurance I need to believe that Doe can be healed. It just has to happen before her bond with Brody becomes permanent. I could never leave him bonded to someone who hates what he is. That would be too cruel. For them both.
For now, though, it’s our only chance.
Chapter 9
rody doesn’t show to pick Doe up before school Monday Bmorning—not that I expected him to. Neither did she, apparently, since she locks herself in the bathroom and insists she’s too sick to go. But I know the truth—she’s not sick, she’s heartbroken.