Elegy

TWENTY-NINE Divergence

It was still dark out when the doorbell rang. Gemma trudged down the stairs, cursing under her breath as she went to answer the door.

“Who’s here?” Brian asked as he stumbled out of his bedroom, still half-asleep.

“Not sure. I’m getting it now,” Gemma called up to him.

Whoever it was had stopped ringing the bell and resorted to pounding incessantly on the front door. Gemma opened the door midpound and found Marcy in a weird, owl pajama jumper and acid-wash jean jacket combo.

“Marcy. What the he—”

“Lydia found her,” Marcy said, sounding more excited than Gemma had ever heard her sound before. “She’s found Diana.”

“Marcy’s here?” Brian asked. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” Gemma shouted, and somehow managed to keep from jumping up and down in excitement.

“Hasn’t she ever heard of a phone?” her dad muttered, and she heard the upstairs bathroom door squeak shut as he went inside.

“So Lydia really found the Diana?” Gemma asked Marcy.

“Diana?” Harper echoed from the top of the stairs, and she raced down the stairs to join Gemma in the open doorway.

“When? How?” Gemma asked.

“Just now. Lydia’s been crawling through Audra’s notes and Thalia’s diary, and she knew she was close, so she was staying up all night, and she finally did it.” Marcy broke out in an uncharacteristically broad smile.

“Where is Diana?” Harper asked, sounding out of breath. “She’s alive, right? When can we see her?”

“Yes, she’s alive,” Marcy said, and Harper let out a sigh of relief. “She lives just outside Charleston, West Virginia, and we can see her as soon as we get ready and go.”

“West Virginia?” Gemma wrinkled her nose. “That seems like a strange place for a goddess in hiding to live.”

“Yeah, well it’s strange that jellyfish don’t have eyes, girls have to pee sitting down, and that you’re a mythical creature,” Marcy said. “So let’s not start splitting hairs now about what’s strange.”

“What’s going on?” Brian asked. He came down the stairs and flicked on the overhead light. “You found somebody?”

Gemma turned back to see her dad walking down the stairs. A five o’clock shadow colored his face, and he ran a hand through his sandy hair. He was only wearing a T-shirt and boxers, but he seemed too sleepy to really care that company was seeing him that way.

“Yeah, you remember Diana?” Gemma asked him. “She’s the goddess that helped Thalia out of the muse thing.”

His blue eyes widened as he became more alert. “And she’ll be able to help you?”

Gemma nodded. “We hope so.”

“How far away is Charleston?” Harper asked, then she turned around, scanning the room. “Where’s my laptop?” Then she stopped. “Shit. I think I left it in my car last night.”

As she brushed past Marcy and dashed out into the chilly night, Brian stared after her in confusion.

The jagged scar on Harper’s thigh from the car accident extended long past the hem of Daniel’s shirt, but she didn’t seem to notice even though she was normally very self-conscious about anyone’s seeing it, even Gemma or their dad. But she ran outside to grab her laptop from her car without a second thought.

Harper’s eyes were red and puffy, like she’d been crying all night, and her makeup-smeared raccoon eyes only added to that effect. But what had happened with Daniel last night seemed to be replaced by her new focus on getting to Diana as quickly as possible.

“Wait a second,” Brian said. “Harper’s supposed to be at college. What is she doing here?”

“She came in to see Daniel last night for his birthday, and she’s going back to school in the morning,” Gemma said, since she wasn’t sure how much—if anything—her sister wanted their dad to know about the big fight with Daniel last night. “Well, she was. I’m not sure if she will now.”

Brian scowled, deep lines marring his tanned face. “I told her that she shouldn’t come to town for that. She’s already missing so much school already.”

“Are you talking about me?” Harper asked as she came back inside. “I’ll get my homework. I’ll e-mail teachers, it’ll be fine. But this is too important.”

Harper sat down in the living room chair and opened her computer on her lap. Brian might have lectured her about the importance of actually going to school, but by the intense expression in her eyes, he must’ve known she wasn’t listening right now.

“So where’s Lydia?” Gemma asked, turning her attention back to Marcy. “Is she coming with us?”

“She’s in Sundham still, but yeah, she insisted on coming along. She wants to help ensure that everything goes okay.”

“Are you coming, too?” Gemma asked.

Marcy snorted. “Duh. I’m not missing a chance to meet a goddess. This is pretty much what I’ve been waiting for my whole life.”

“Okay, I got it. Charleston, West Virginia, from Capri.” Harper looked up from the computer screen and tucked her dark hair behind her ears. “It looks like it’s almost a nine-hour drive.”

Gemma grimaced. “That sounds too long.”

“What do you mean?” Harper asked.

“That’s so far away from water. When I go to Sundham, I get really bad headaches, and Sundham’s not even that far from the ocean. The watersong has a crazy pull,” Gemma explained. “Driving for sixteen hours round-trip, we’d be gone for over a day. I’d rather not be that far inland for so long.”

“Are you sure you’ll be able to handle it all?” Harper asked.

“I’ll make myself handle what I need to, but we have to keep this trip as short as possible,” Gemma said. “Besides that, if I’m gone too long, the sirens will notice I’m missing, and we really don’t want that.”

“Are you telling the sirens you’re leaving?” Brian asked her.

“Um…” Gemma thought for a second. “I’ll tell Thea I’m gonna go visit Harper in Sundham. That way, if they see that I’m gone or something, it will seem less suspicious.”

“Is it safe for you to go? With the watersong and the sirens, maybe you should stay behind,” Brian said with a mixture of vulnerability and worry in his expression that tore at Gemma’s heart.

Her dad wanted to tell her not to go, to forbid her, but to do that would only make things worse. As dangerous as he might fear this would be, he understood that this might be Gemma’s last hope at breaking free.

“Dad, I have to go.” She smiled at him and shrugged helplessly. “Diana might be the one who can break the curse. I have to be there.”

“I should come with you,” he said firmly.

“No, you don’t need to. I’ll have Harper, and Lydia is an expert at these things,” Gemma assured him.

“I’ll also be there,” Marcy added.

“See? I’ll be totally fine,” Gemma said, but Brian didn’t look completely convinced.

Truth was, she wasn’t completely convinced either. She really had no idea for sure who Diana was or what they’d be walking into. Gemma was willing to try just about anything by now, but she didn’t want to get her dad more mixed up in all this mess than he absolutely needed to be.

“There’s a flight leaving from Salisbury airport at 6:52,” Harper said. “That’s in … just over two hours, and the airport is a half hour away. We can make it, but only if we hurry.” Without waiting to see if anyone agreed with it, she got up and grabbed the house phone off the cradle. “I’ll call and see if I can get tickets. Dad, let me have your credit card.”

“What?” Brian asked, startled by her abruptness.

“Sorry, Dad.” Harper smiled sheepishly at him and held out her hand. “I’ll pay you back, but any money I have right now is in my savings account, and we kinda need these tickets now.”

“No, don’t worry about it. You do what you need to do.”

While Harper dialed the number for the airport, Brian left to get his wallet.

“I should go get dressed,” Gemma said. “Do I need to bring anything?”

“The scroll, probably,” Marcy suggested, looking down at herself. “I’ll run home and change, ’cause I can’t exactly meet a deity in my PJs, and I’ll be back in like twenty minutes to pick you guys up. I’ll text Lydia and have her meet us at the airport, since that’ll be quicker than going up to Sundham to get her.”

“Sounds good,” Gemma said, just as her dad returned with the credit card for Harper.

“All right. See you all later.” Marcy pushed open the screen door, then looked at Brian and winked. “Nice undies, Mr. Fisher.”