Page 25

“It was totally trashed,” Sam ranted as he paced the deck of his boat. “Everything was destroyed. All my books, all my clothes, all my furniture! Who would do that?” Sam spoke forcefully, feeding his outrage rather than the fear. He’d stopped thinking about the fact that he’d seen that shadow. That they’d all been in the house together. “Half those books are from the library. I’m going to have to get a hold of the report and hope the guards find something because otherwise I’m going to be stuck paying for them and I can’t afford that.”

Mary had picked up Oisín from the house with her mom, and Sam had gone to the guard station to make an official report. After he’d stepped out, he’d come to the pier on autopilot and only belatedly remembered that he’d promised Goldilocks he’d come straight back after feeding his dad. His merman was waiting for him, and Sam had driven them out far enough that he could perch on the railing without anyone noticing.

Goldilocks flexed his tail, the finned tip splashing in the waves. “I can provide suitable payment for the ruined books,” he reassured. “And provide a guard for your sire’s property.”

Sam stopped his pacing. “It was my things that were destroyed, not my dad’s. And the house is inland, with no ocean access.”

“I shall hire a guard suited to land.”

Sam thought about that further. “Like the guard with the tail? Jasper?”

“You may have him if you wish.” Goldilocks nodded. “Jasper is skilled with a sword, more so than his siblings.”

Sam wondered what his dad would think if he suddenly had a long-tailed, sword-wielding nurse. The thought was absurd and amusing enough to cut through his black mood. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m staying well clear of that house.” Sam approached Goldilocks, leaning against the railing next to him. “I don’t want my dad left there alone. If someone” – and Sam wondered about how his mouth wanted to say some thing – “that destructive and violent is around, I can’t leave him there. Have I ever told you about him?” Aside from talking about taking care of him, Sam didn’t think so. “He’s unwell. He’s usually pretty coherent, but there are bouts of confusion and fear. He’s happy so long as he’s with the birds in the garden, but taking him out can be tough. He struggles to follow what’s happening. Half the time, I think he just doesn’t have the energy for it. He’ll be able to focus on his surroundings for maybe five, ten minutes, and then the focus is gone, and in another five minutes, he’s terrified because he doesn’t know where he is.”

Goldilocks tilted his head, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Then we shall bring him to Vi’s nest. I will hire suitable nurses to tend to him. There are many houses that would be willing to send companions until we find one that your sire likes.”

Sam snorted.

Goldilocks’s eyes narrowed, and Sam reached out, touching his wrist lightly.

“I’m not laughing at you. It’s a sweet suggestion, but I’m not sure my dad would take suddenly being in another world all that well.”

“If he enjoys birds and gardens,” Goldilocks said, “then I believe he would find Vi’s nest agreeable.”

Sam thought of where they’d had breakfast. The overgrown garden, lush and bursting. The songbirds singing around them. And like a black mark on his brain, an image of his house was thrown up next. His house in disrepair, so bad that Sam knew there had to be mould inside. Damp and disrepair to match the outside. Thing was, aside from the state of his room, Sam couldn’t even remember what the inside looked like. He tried, doing his best to pull up an image of the last time he’d been in there, but there was nothing. A blank void, paired with a headache.

“The nurses never liked that house,” Sam said, unable to think of anything but the black space in his head. “Every single time they’d do one day of work there and then quit. Why have I not been thinking about that? It’s weird. It’s really weird because I know my dad can be difficult, but he’s not that difficult.”

“I will send Jasper to investigate if not to guard. If there is a malevolent presence, he will find it.” Goldilocks set his hand over Sam’s. “And you will bring your sire to me. I will arrange care for him.”

He had a feeling that Jasper ‘finding’ a malevolent presence might end in someone being run through with a sword. But even his hesitation stalled. Because his brain was whispering some thing to him again. It was throwing up the image of his room, destroyed. His bed frame wasn’t something so easily broken, and that frame had been cracked right down the middle. Sam couldn’t have done that even if he tried. He didn’t have the physical strength for it.

“Let me think about it,” Sam said, delaying because he wanted to agree and he knew he shouldn’t.

Goldilocks inclined his head. “We will interview nurses. So you may see that the care your sire will receive will be adequate. And, I agreed to allow you to go and see your sire to tend him this morning. Very nicely. But I insist, Sam.”

Goldilocks caught Sam’s wrist and turned up his palm; bandages concealed the wound. But Sam had to admit the angry red colour of his skin around the cuts this morning had worried him.

“Ghouls are dangerous.” Goldilocks stared hard at the bandages as if he were looking through them. “Even I have been injured by them in the past. Wounds that do not heal. They are the only creatures that can match my kind.”

“There’s no way,” Sam found himself saying. “You could fight a hundred of those worms and not even break a sweat.” He focused his attention on Goldilocks’s hand. The hand that had crushed the worm – the ghoul – was unblemished. Golden skin, beautiful and smooth. Sam traced the unbroken skin with a relieved sigh. His attention wavered, his fingers finding fascination with the delicate webbing between Goldilocks’s fingers. “That thing cut through my skin like tissue paper, and you’re not even scratched.”

“As worms, yes, I can kill countless,” Goldilocks agreed. “But they do not remain in that form forever. Once they feed, they strengthen. And they are sly creatures.”

Sam didn’t like the sound of that one bit. “Are there many here? How common are they? Kids swim in these beaches all summer.”

“They are not common in any waters my kind frequent,” Goldilocks promised. “My kin have lived in the waters on the other side of The Tear for generations, and the ghouls know this. And they know they cannot possibly win against us in our territory. I do not know how one slipped through. Now, we must go,” Goldilocks insisted firmly. “No more delays.”

Goldilocks bent, pressed a quick kiss to Sam’s shoulder, and then slid off the edge of the boat into the water.

“I will pull,” Goldilocks said.

Goldilocks, as he always did, left Sam astounded by his strength. Pulling the boat along like it was nothing. Sam spent so long just watching that he only jarred back to awareness when the mist surrounding The Tear became visible in the distance. “Shoot.” Sam cursed and dug out his phone. He tapped into recent calls and got Mary on the line. “I’m heading out for the day.” He stepped into the cabin to hear her over the sound of the ocean and the wind. “I’m visiting Roan’s place. I’ll be home later today. Or maybe in the morning, I’m not sure. Is everything okay there?”

“He prefers to be called Goldilocks.”

“Are you serious?” Sam groaned.

“You should respect your boyfriend’s choices. Oisín’s perfectly fine. Abby’s here too to help entertain him. Did you hear anything new from the guards?” Mary dropped her teasing tone, and a serious one replaced it.

“Nothing that I haven’t passed along to you.” Sam sighed. “I’m going to think about it for a bit. Maybe I could ask Eric for money for cameras or…I don’t want to do that either. I don’t want him there alone at all. Obviously, it was someone real violent that got into the house and…Mary?” Sam realised belatedly that the call had dropped. He put the phone into a waterproof bag and stashed it in a drawer with a sigh. Hopefully she wouldn’t freak out about the call dropping.

Sam stepped out of the cabin, a lone windsail approaching The Tear catching his eye. The waves rose high and choppy, and the surfboard crested waves, catching airtime, only to crash down at sharp angles that threatened to swallow the nose and send the whole board careening over. Whoever manoeuvred the board and sail was struggling in the choppy waves. Sam squinted, certain the glimpses of copper and pale blue in the water around the figure were Bee and Dew. He could just make out a head of blond hair.

“Is that Laurence?” Sam called.

Goldilocks must not have heard, and they continued on ahead. The waves preceding the boat died down, and a single wave rose from the back to push Sam’s boat forward with steady momentum. He kept his eye on Laurence and watched as the towering waves suddenly levelled out. Laurence threw his body weight to one side, pulled hard on a rope, and his board spun about, changing its course from The Tear to Sam.

Sam pressed his lips hard into a flat line. Sam had dealt with Mary’s quarrelsome personality since a young age and all her many fights that she picked with the entire world. He’d also dealt with Connor at age fifteen, diving into the vast blueness of the Atlantic Ocean with not a care in the world. But never in his entire life had he wanted to smack someone upside the back of the head more.

Goldilocks stopped pulling, letting the boat come to a stop. Sam went to the side that Laurence approached. Laurence visibly struggled to get his vessel to stop as he came in fast, straining hard against a rope connected to the sail. The wind had it, and it would drag him wherever it pleased.

“Bee, grab the board for me!” Laurence called. He released the sail suddenly and jumped off, diving into the water. He resurfaced mere feet from Sam’s boat, and a few strong strokes had him at the side. Sam had the ladder let down by the time Laurence reached it.

Laurence caught the first wrung and climbed out of the ocean, grinning like an adrenaline junkie. “Hi, Sam!” he greeted buoyantly. Behind him, Bee grabbed the abandoned vessel, the sail having fallen into the water, and pulled it toward them.

“You picked wild waves to ride,” Sam said, voice coming out flat. He turned, but he saw no yacht on the horizon. If Connor was nearby, he was going to smack him upside the head for allowing that, but there was nothing in sight.

Laurence noticed him looking, and his grin turned into a more of a coy smile. “No Connor today, just me and the guys.” He jutted his chin to where Dew was circling around Goldilocks. He swam on his side, near the surface, and the tip of his tail stuck up out of the water like a shark’s dorsal fin.

Sam wanted to lecture. The need for it burned low in his core. It wasn’t his place, but Sam couldn’t help himself. “Two oceans meet here. It’s choppy as hell.”

“Yeah…” Laurence winced. “The waves seemed smaller from the yacht. Still…” His smile returned. “That’s why I have Bee and Dew with me. Are you heading through? Mind if I tag along?”

“Those waves are big enough to tip my boat over,” Sam said, ignoring the smile. Rain misted down on them, the warm air flooding through The Tear meeting the cooler Irish breeze and lifting high in a rush that had it shedding moisture.

Laurence’s smile faded. He stood in a shirt and shorts, hair wet and skin covered in droplets of ocean water racing down his limbs in long lines. “I have two mermen with me,” he said, sounding chastised but not repentant.

“What does Connor do with the sails when he gets this far?” Sam asked.

“Ties them.”

“And why does he do that?”

Goldilocks came to the railing, watching them through the gap. A pale face pressed in next to him, watching too. Dew had an amused look to him.

“Because the wind is…” Laurence trailed off.

“Because the wind. ”

Laurence’s bottom lip ended up between his teeth, eyes finding his sail in the water. Bee had joined the other mermen to watch the scolding.

“Even so, I had them with me,” Laurence said, denial in his voice.

“You’d have ended up in the water, in that .” Sam jutted his chin at the towering waves. And as Laurence turned to look, Sam swore the waves got higher. More dangerous. Broke harder and frothed in a violent chaos that nobody with half a brain would want to be stuck neck deep in, mermen to help or not. Sam cut a sideways look at Goldilocks, who raised an innocent eyebrow.

Laurence’s expression changed. When he turned back to Sam, his half smile wobbled. “I’ll admit, that would have been scary.”

Sam believed that the hint of fright in Laurence’s eyes was genuine. “As long as you promise not to wander off alone and get lost, and never try this ever again, you can come along,” Sam bargained. It would be far safer if Sam kept an eye on him.

“Deal.”

Sam leaned over the side, and he and Laurence got his surfboard and sail secured on board before they set off again.