Deep Betrayal

his other side. “We need to talk. It’s important,” I said.
    Maris and Pavati looked back over their shoulders at the churning water and pale, bare legs of my friends.
    “Later,” Maris said.
    “Talk about what?” Pavati asked.
    “It’s important,” I said. “It’s about your safety. All of ours. Are you camping on Oak?”
    “Yes,” said Pavati, and Maris shot her a dangerous look. Calder was ignorant to the conversation. He could only read their expressions, and Maris was making him nervous.
    “Can we go there? Calder needs to talk to you.”
    “Oh, that’s rich.” Maris laughed. “He made his choice. So now he wants us when it’s convenient for him?”
    Calder tugged gently at my hand and looked up at the surface, but I was still good for air.
    “Please, it’s important. We’re only trying to help.”
    “We don’t need your help,” Maris said, and Pavati took two strokes in the direction of my friends.
    “The island,” I said. “Now. This is about the survival of your family. Both of ours.”
    Maris stared me down, her bony brow shadowing hereyes. Something told me what words to use, and they were the right ones. Maris looked at Pavati and jerked her head in the direction of the island. Pavati gave one more forlorn look at their would-be targets, then followed behind Maris as she swam toward shore.

27
DEAD END
    C alder and I sat on the Oak Island beach, around the point from where my friends still swam. We waited for Maris and Pavati to transform, find their clothes, and come talk.
    “What’s taking them so long?” I asked. “Jules is going to notice we’re missing.”
    “Here comes Maris,” Calder said, pointing north up the beach. She was stumbling toward us like a crazed bull.
    “What’s this about?” Maris’s voice was as shrill in the air as it had been in my ears underwater. On land, I could see that it wasn’t only her face that had changed. Her body wasthin and angular. She leaned to the left. The ring around her throat was thick and black—more like a collar than its prior ornamentation. “What’s going on with this girl? Why can we hear her?”
    “You know who her father is,” Calder said. “She’s inherited certain traits. But that’s not what we’re here about.”
    Maris got within ten feet of us, then jerked to a stop. She crept closer as if it were me—and not her—who was to be feared. Her eyes rested warily on the pendant lying warm against my chest. Instinctively, I placed my palm over it.
    Maris raised her arm and pointed at me with one scathing finger. “H-how … wh-why is she wearing Mother’s pendant? She has no right to it. Give it back. Give it back!”
    Their mother’s? Calder squared his shoulders but didn’t answer. Had he known all along? I looked sideways at him, but he didn’t look at me. Why hadn’t he told me? I hoped he wouldn’t make me give it back. I squeezed the beach glass in my fist, and it gave me courage.
    “We have more important things to discuss,” Calder said.
    Maris did not force the issue but kept her eyes riveted on me, watching warily, as if she expected me to make a sudden move. “I suppose you’re here to say you’ve changed your mind and you’re coming back?” Maris asked Calder.
    Calder was losing patience. “Don’t toy with me. You know what this is about. You and Pavati are getting out of hand. You’ve been hunting recklessly. You need an intervention.”
    “It’s not me!” Maris screamed, dispatching a flock of grackles from the pine trees. They scattered in a cacophony of squawks and chortles.
    Calder threw his hands into the air, his eyes flashing ina way I’d never seen. “So that’s it? You deny it? You realize you’re going to get caught, don’t you? You’re going to end up betraying the whole community of merpeople.”
    Maris snapped her head to glare at him. “I betray nothing,” she said.
    “At the rate you’re going, how long do you think it’ll be before rip currents and hypothermia aren’t good enough explanations for people? There can only be so many accidents . You’ve let four get away. They’ve talked to the police. News reporters. Now there are two bodies in the morgue. That’s six in the last two weeks.”
    “So you’ve proven you can count.”
    “That’s it?” Calder stormed at her. “That’s all you can say? Jack Pettit is telling everyone and anyone who will listen that there are mermaids in the lake, mermaids attacking kayakers, mermaids