Elegy

“How did Thalia the muse die?” Marcy asked.

“I’m not completely sure,” Lydia said. “She was mortal, and it was natural causes.”

“That’s Thalia McAllister!” Harper persisted. “She died falling off a ladder after she’d married Bernie. She probably became mortal for him.”

“Muses have done that,” Lydia said. “Fall in love, get married, become mortal, then die. That’s part of the reason why there aren’t any left.”

“She might have known how to break the curse?” Harper asked, the excitement making her voice high.

“She might have, yes. But that won’t really help now,” Lydia told her sadly.

“Daniel found a bunch of papers and old photographs in Bernie’s house. Bernie had hidden them up in the attic. He didn’t want people to find them. Dad said that Bernie had told him that eventually someone would come looking for him, probably sirens. Dad just thought Bernie was being superstitious and paranoid, but he was right.”

“The destruction of a curse isn’t the kind of thing Thalia would’ve written down, and she wouldn’t have had to,” Lydia explained. “A muse’s memory is practically eidetic.”

“But this is it,” Harper insisted, and got up. “This could be our chance. I have to get home to look through Bernie’s stuff.”

“No, you have to go to your study group.” Marcy tried to stand up, but it was more of a struggle since she was wedged into the dragon chair. Harper took her hand and helped pull her to her feet. “I can go to your house, and me, Gemma, and your dad can go through Bernie’s stuff. If it’s in there, we’ll find it.”

“Fine,” Harper agreed grudgingly. “I trust you. But you have to call me the second you find anything.”

“Harper, I wouldn’t get your hopes too high.” Lydia stood up and looked at Harper gravely. “There might be something useful in her papers, but it’s very unlikely that she’ll have the instructions on how to break something that I’m not even sure can be broken.”

“We have to try, though,” Harper said. “Thank you for everything, Lydia.”

She practically ran out of the shop, and Marcy struggled to keep up with her since Marcy was completely opposed to jogging. As they walked down to the car, Harper slowed enough for Marcy to keep up.

“Oh, my god,” Marcy said. “It’s like Christmas morning.”

“It’s better than Christmas!” Harper shouted, unable to stop herself. “We could be free of those psychotic witches once and for all. Wouldn’t that be amazing?”

“Yeah, it certainly would,” Marcy agreed.

“This might really be it, Marcy.”

Marcy sighed. “It might be, but it’s probably not that simple.”

EIGHT Ransack

“Well, this clearly isn’t working,” Marcy said, as Daniel dangled his legs through the hole in his ceiling.

He’d been crawling around in the narrow attic above his house. The only way in or out of the attic was through a square doorway in the ceiling above his closet, and he slid through it before dropping to the ground.

“Sorry, Gemma,” Daniel said as he brushed dust and cobwebs off his clothes. “There’s nothing up there but mouse poop and a skeleton from a bat, which was actually pretty creepy.”

“Nice,” Marcy said, nodding in approval.

Gemma leaned past Daniel and peered up into the darkness, as if she’d be able to spy something that he hadn’t been able to see with a flashlight.

The whole time Daniel had been searching his attic, Marcy had been sitting on his queen-sized bed. While he was out of sight, she’d taken the liberty of going through his nightstand drawers. Now that he was back, she was absently leafing through the worn copy of The Old Man and the Sea he had on his nightstand.

“Have you even read this?” Marcy asked Daniel, and gestured to the book. “I bet you haven’t even read it. I bet you put it on the nightstand so people would think you’re smart. Do you think Hemingway impresses Harper?”

“No, I think that was my grandfather’s book, and I have read it,” Daniel said. “Twice.”

“I have 101 Ways to Live Longer on my nightstand, so if I die in my sleep, when the paramedics or mortician or whoever come in, they’ll see it, and be all, ‘Well, I guess that book didn’t work,’ and they’ll have a good laugh,” Marcy said. “It’s important to laugh in times like that.”

“Are you sure you didn’t miss anything?” Gemma asked. She was standing on her tiptoes and leaning on the T-shirts Daniel had hanging in his closet.

“I looked in every nook and cranny,” Daniel assured her. “There’s nothing up there.”

Gemma sighed. “There has to be something we missed.”

“Why? Why does there have to be something we missed?” Marcy asked.

“Because.” Gemma stepped out of Daniel’s closet and ran a hand through her hair. “If Thalia was a muse, there just has to be something, and I looked through all her papers last night—”

“I know,” Marcy said, without looking up from Daniel’s book. “I was there. I helped, remember?”

After the visit to Cherry Lane Books, Harper had called Gemma and instructed her to immediately start going through the box of Bernie’s stuff she’d left in her bedroom. Gemma did as she was told, and when Marcy returned from Sundham, she joined Gemma.

They’d spent hours going through the box, making sure to look over and analyze every scrap of paper for any possible clue or hint to Thalia’s true nature. Unfortunately, it all ended up being fairly ordinary.

It seemed to be Bernie’s collection of Thalia’s things, his memories of her, and not any of her actual stuff. Mostly it was photographs, wedding programs, and newspaper clippings about their marriage and about Bernie buying the island and building the cabin. He’d even pressed flowers from her bridal bouquet and a few from her funeral.

Nothing pointed to her being a muse or supernatural at all, and there was definitely nothing about how to break the curse or kill the sirens.

“My point is that there has to be something,” Gemma said.

“You keep saying that, but I don’t get why there has to be anything,” Marcy reiterated.

“Marcy, can you give it a rest with the negative commentary?” Daniel asked.

“I’m not trying to be a bitch. I just really don’t understand,” Marcy said.

“Penn, Lexi, and Thea ransacked this house looking for something.” Gemma turned to Daniel. “You remember that night back in June, when I ran off with the sirens? We came out here because they were out here. They killed Bernie, and they were tearing his house apart.”

“You think they killed Bernie because they were trying to find Thalia’s notes or whatever?” Daniel asked.

“Right. They believed that something was here,” Gemma said. “I think that’s why they came to Capri in the first place. Looking for something in this house. And I’m not saying that it will break the curse, but it’s something they thought was important.”

“Are you sure they haven’t already found it?” Marcy asked, setting Daniel’s book on the bed next to her.

“I don’t think so.” Gemma furrowed her brow, trying to remember that night. “When I got here, they were still going through stuff. I think Thea was digging around in the kitchen. If they’d found what they were looking for, they wouldn’t have still been searching.”

“But they left without it,” Daniel said. “And Penn’s been back to the island a few times, and she hasn’t looked for anything.”

“Penn’s been back?” Gemma asked, and he immediately lowered his eyes and scratched the back of his head. “Like, to visit?”

Daniel shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “It’s not like I can just tell her to get lost.”