was definitely alcoholic and probably the best thing I’d ever tasted.
“Mmm…what is it?” I asked her, as I stole another sip. It tasted like a Caribbean vacation in a glass.
“Malibu coconut rum and pineapple juice. My favorite. I was hanging out at Banana Cabana with everybody and just needed to get away, so I decided to take a walk on the beach. It always helps clear my head.”
“How’re you holding up?” I asked cautiously.
“The best I can I guess,” She took a long sip; “They came and took all of Nicolet’s stuff. That was really hard. But, I hid a bunch of it so I could keep a part of her. I know somebody else will have to move in, but I’m hoping they’ll wait a couple of days. I don’t know if I can handle that yet. Her absence is unbearable, but having someone else in her room, her bathroom….” She looked so devastated, I wished there was something I could do to make her feel better.
“If you ever want to stay with us, just let me know. You’re always welcome.”
“I might take you up on that. It’s just so quiet at home since….” she sighed. “I just don’t understand how this could have happened. She wouldn’t have killed herself. I know she wouldn’t have.” The sadness in her face gave me new motivation to figure it out. If for no other reason than to give Kira closure. Nicolet didn’t kill herself. She was murdered. And I was going to prove it.
“What if she didn’t?” She looked up at me, startled by my question, “Is there anyone you can think of that would want to hurt her for any reason?”
She shook her head fiercely, “Definitely not, everybody liked Nicolet. She didn’t have any enemies.”
“Was she acting weird or anything?” I tried to dig a little deeper.
“Not really….she was always going on and on about some sort of conspiracy theory stuff, but I was used to that with her being a history major and all.”
“What kind of conspiracy?”
“I’m not really sure to be honest, she never really explained it. But I’d see her reading books and writing things down in that notebook of hers. I tried to find it yesterday to see if there may be something in there to tell me why she did what she did, but they had taken it with the rest of her stuff.”
I remembered the piece of paper she gave Willow and wondered if there was more meaning behind the mystery words than we thought. If she was into conspiracy theories, maybe she was killed because she was getting too close to the truth. I needed to get my hands on that notebook.
“Do you know what they would have done with her stuff? Maybe we can find the notebook?”
“I’m not sure, but if I had to guess, I’d say they sent it back to her family in Savannah.” She glanced at me worried, “You don’t need to worry yourself about this, Stasia. You’ve got enough on your plate as it is. You need to concentrate on your classes and making a home here at Lorelei. If there was some sort of foul play, I’m sure the authorities will pick up on it and investigate it.” She changed the subject back to me, “So tell me how things are going with you! How do you like your roommates?”
“Oh they’re wonderful, Kira. You couldn’t have put me with three better girls.”
“I had a feeling you’d like them. Any guys caught your attention, yet? I bet their knocking your door down…” she grinned at me.
“I’ve seen a couple cute ones, but…” I decided to keep Finn a secret and go with the old cliche, “I’m keeping my options open.”
“Uh huh, I know how it is. You don’t have to explain it to me,” she nudged my arm.
“No really! I haven’t met anybody yet!”
She just smirked at me. “So what about abilities? Do you have any questions, yet? I feel so bad that we haven’t gotten to sit down and talk yet. When things calm down we will.” I knew she was eager to help me, but Isadora and Priscilla’s conversation about questioning her kept repeating in my mind. I didn’t want Kira getting hurt. Or worse, killed.
“Nothing specific, no.” Her face showed her disappointment, so I asked one question that seemed safe enough. “I’d really like to know what my trace means so I can figure out who I’m descended from.”
“Well I’ve been doing some research on that because it’s obviously rare and I knew you would eventually begin to wonder. But I couldn’t find a trace like yours documented anywhere. The only thing that I may have figured out is that the trace’s swirls are made up of seaweed.” My mind automatically went to the sea weed reaching for me and surrounding me. I looked down at my trace and ran my finger along the three swirls in the shape of an upside down triangle. It would make sense I had a connection to it. “but that doesn’t tell us anything, except that the Daughter you’re descended from has a connection with seaweed. However that’s pretty common among the Nerieds. What’s interesting about yours is the fact that the seaweed isn’t the whole trace; it simply makes up the design of your trace. It’s only a part of it. I’m not really sure what that means. But I promise I’ll keep trying to find something.” She gave me a supportive smile.
“Do you think it’s because I was gone for so long? Maybe it just morphed in to something new since I was never around any other Tydes?”
“No, that wouldn’t happen. The design of your trace can’t change once it’s there,” Kira said and shook her head.
“Do they just magically show up or are we born with them?”
“It’s beneath the skin at birth, but barely visible until that part of your body is exposed to the particular item you’re connected to. Once that happens, it’s sort of…triggered, and it shows on top of your skin. Usually a child’s parents will expose them and bring their trace out at a young age. So I’m assuming your parents did just that while you were still a baby.” My parents. That was a foreign concept.
“Are we born with our abilities? Willow told me they reach maturity at eighteen, but do we always have them?”
“Yes, but they don’t start to come out until about age fourteen or fifteen. Sometimes it can be younger though, or older. Have any of your abilities started coming out yet?” she asked. Getting the feeling she knew more than I thought she did about my abilities, I decided to give her a little bit of information, hoping that would satisfy her for a while.
“I was able to manipulate water a little bit in my Oceanic Experience class but that’s about it.” I tried not to make it sound like a big deal.
“Well I have a feeling your abilities will start to show themselves very soon, so whenever you want to talk or practice, you know how to find me.” She gave me another supportive smile but remained thoughtful. I felt bad for not confiding in her, but I didn’t feel like I had a choice. If Isadora was grilling her for information, the best thing I could do was not give her any…for her protection and mine. I could only hope I was doing the right thing.
Chapter 19
Later that night, we gathered around the TV watching the Weather Channel while Hurricane Faye churned closer and closer out in the Atlantic. Classes had been cancelled for Monday since the eye was supposed to make landfall mid-morning. The weather was forecasted to go downhill swiftly overnight as Faye approached. According to Carmen, the shield around campus kept the storm surge out, but the full force of the wind and rain would still hit us. The Weather Channel had meteorologists stationed up and down the coast, but not on Bald Head. We’d have a front row seat anyway, so we didn’t need to watch a meteorologist getting blown around on television to know what was going on outside. I had to admit, I was a little bit giddy, having never been through a hurricane before. Dee had called an hour ago worried out of her mind. I couldn’t explain the shield around campus, but I told her there was nothing to worry about, that the school had been here for centuries and we’d be fine. I thought I calmed her down, but I was still expecting several more hysterical calls tomorrow.
“What about this one?” Phoebe skipped out of her room. She’d been trying on dresses all night, parading around the living room for our opinions. Ian had, in fact, asked her to the Ball and after spending the entire day with him, she announced she was no longer creeped out by him. Finn still hasn’t asked me and I wasn’t real optimistic that he was planning to. Especially since he’d never been to one. But maybe that’s because he had never
