Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret - Liz Kessler [49]
Aaron shrugged. “Like Morvena says, what is there to lose?”
“OK,” I said, reaching out to take the shell from Morvena. “We’ll do it.”
Aaron and I swam up the well. Looking down, I could see Shona and Morvena staring up at us. “Look after her!” I called down. “Don’t let them hurt her!”
“I promise!” Morvena called back up to me. She reached out to pull Shona toward her and held a protective arm around her.
“I think we can trust her,” Aaron said to me. “After everything she’s told us today, she’s got as much to lose as any of us.”
“I guess so,” I said, tightening my grip on his hand. Holding the shell carefully in my other hand, I gave a sharp flick with my tail.
Moments later, we were through the opening at the top and swimming away from the sirens, away from the caves, away from Shona — taking two things away with us: the shell, and the question I had no idea how to answer.
How would we ever make it release its magic and get Shona out of that place?
I didn’t want to go home. I didn’t really want to set foot in Brightport at all. I’d almost forgotten about the newspaper and everything that had happened before I found the sirens’ caves. It seemed like years ago! But now that we were in town again, it came flooding back.
“I don’t want to see anyone,” I said as we crept out of the sea onto the beach and shook our clothes dry.
“Just stop by your house and let your mom know you’re safe,” Aaron said. “Then come back to my house. We’ll do it there.”
I agreed reluctantly and headed home. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see Mom. I just didn’t want to go up to the pier and along the jetty and all the places between here and home where I could run into someone trying to catch a mermaid who might recognize my face from their newspaper.
“Hurry,” Aaron called. “We haven’t got long.”
Aaron was right. I had to get home as quickly as possible — preferably avoiding any eye contact with anyone along the way — tell Mom everything was fine, put on a big false smile, and hotfoot it back to Aaron’s.
“I’ll be there in five minutes,” I called over my shoulder. And then I ran home.
Mom was sitting on the front deck with Millie and Aaron’s mom. I could see them from the end of the jetty. I was glad to see Aaron’s mom here. At least that meant their cottage would be empty.
“Hi!” I said, all smiles. Mom looked up at me and smiled back so innocently that I could almost believe that the whole morning had been a figment of my imagination.
“Emily darling!” she said, waving me over. “I thought you were going to be at Shona’s all day.”
“Did you?” I asked nervously. “Why did you think that?”
“Mandy came over and passed on your message. It’s nice that you’re friends again, isn’t it?”
“Oh, yes, of course.” I’d forgotten about asking Mandy to cover for me. Had that only been this morning? It felt like a lifetime ago.
“Come and sit down, sweet pea,” she said.
Millie drained her cup. “Just pop in and put the kettle on first,” she said. “I could kill for another cup of Earl Grey.”
I went inside and turned the stove on in a daze. While I was waiting for it to boil, I grabbed some bread and made a sandwich. The morning’s swim had been exhausting and I realized I was starving! How could they be sitting here so calm and casual when people were hunting down mermaids for cash prizes? Or while Shona was trapped in an underground cave with the meanest sirens in the world? It all felt unreal.
“I just wanted to let you know I’m over at Aaron’s if you need me,” I said when I came back out.
“Oh, chicken, aren’t you going to join us for some lunch?” Mom asked, squinting up at me.
“I just had some. See you later, OK?” I tried to sound as though everything was normal. I wasn’t going to start getting into it all with Mom — not after everything else that had been going on with her parents. I turned away before I could see any disappointment in her eyes.
I sauntered casually down the jetty, my cheekbones aching from the false smile and my limbs feeling like a marionette’s, all loose and floppy as I tried to imitate