Elegy

“Actually, you can,” Gemma said.

“Not if I want to keep the peace.” He looked at her then, his hazel eyes imploring her to understand. “We both do what we need to do to keep the people we care about safe. Right?”

“Yeah but…” Gemma trailed off. “Does Harper know about this?”

“Does Harper know about all the things you’re up to?” Daniel countered.

Gemma sighed and stared up at the ceiling. Of course Harper didn’t know everything. In fact, Gemma knew about Penn’s interest in Daniel, and she’d specifically chosen not to tell her sister about it. She trusted him not to do anything to hurt Harper, and telling her sister would only make her worry.

But Gemma hadn’t known that Penn was visiting him. That changed things. Gemma kept things from Harper that would only scare her—not things that could actually hurt her.

“So … what’s going on with you and Penn?” Marcy asked.

“Nothing.” Daniel shook his head. “She just has a crush on me or something, and I tolerate it because I don’t want to piss her off.”

“Tolerate it how?” Marcy asked. “With sex?”

“Marcy.” Daniel scoffed, but he lowered his eyes again.

“Daniel,” Gemma said firmly, and moved so he’d have to look at her. “We made a deal, remember? We said we’d tell each other everything, so we could have each other’s backs.”

“No, that wasn’t the deal.” He shook his head. “The deal was that you’d tell me everything so I could have your back. I can handle myself, but really, there’s nothing to handle.” He forced a smile. “Nothing’s going on.”

“But if something is…” Gemma paused, choosing her words carefully. “If something happens. You can tell Harper. She’ll understand.”

“I know,” Daniel said. “I do, and I will, if anything does happen. But right now, I can’t bother her. She’s got way too much on her plate, with school and all the siren stuff.”

“Yeah, and don’t forget her roommate from hell,” Marcy added.

Gemma turned back to Marcy, relieved by a break in the tension. “Oh, you mean Liv?”

“Yeah.” Marcy tilted her head, looking confused. “I thought you said she was nice when you met her.”

“She seemed nice enough,” Daniel agreed. “Kinda forgettable, I guess, since I don’t remember her that well.”

“She’s a siren now, so she’s a bit more memorable,” Gemma said.

“What?” Daniel asked.

“She’s what?” Marcy asked, almost in unison with Daniel.

“How long has she been a siren?” Daniel demanded. “You let Harper live with a siren?”

“No, no.” Gemma shook her head and raised her hands defensively. “Liv hasn’t been a siren that long. A week, tops. But she moved out on Tuesday, and that’s when I found out she was a siren. So I haven’t told Harper.”

“Why wouldn’t you tell Harper?” Daniel asked with mystified anger.

“Because Liv was gone and out of her hair, and I didn’t want to worry Harper about there being another siren,” Gemma hurried to explain. “I thought I’d tell her this weekend, when she’s home, so I can make sure she doesn’t freak out.”

“Well, you should have told her sooner,” Marcy said. “Liv was a total psycho. She like trashed the room and attacked Harper.”

“What?” Gemma asked, and it was her turn to sound shocked. “When?”

“What are you talking about?” Daniel asked.

“I don’t know. I think … Tuesday or something?” Marcy shrugged. “You guys really need to talk to each other. This whole keeping-secrets thing is bullshit.”

“I’m not trying to keep secrets,” Gemma said. “She’s already under so much stress, I just don’t want to add anything on top of it.”

“Why didn’t she tell me about it?” Daniel asked no one in particular.

“Probably for the same reason you haven’t told her about Penn’s visiting you,” Gemma said.

Marcy sat up straighter, and her blank expression seemed to brighten. “I just realized that I’m the only one completely in the loop. I know everything that’s going on around here.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not true,” Daniel said.

“Wanna bet? Try me,” Marcy said.

“Okay.” Daniel thought for a minute before asking, “Where are more papers from Thalia?”

“I don’t know.” Marcy raised one shoulder in a half shrug. “In some secret hidden space.”

“Thanks for illuminating that for us,” Gemma said dryly. “It’s really helpful.”

“No really, what if there’s a secret space that’s not out in the open,” Marcy expounded on her earlier statement. “You bend a candlestick to the side, and a door pops open, or you move a book, and the bookcase twirls around to reveal a hidden chamber. That kinda thing.”

Daniel crossed his arms over his chest. “Since this is a one-bedroom cabin, and not a mansion, and every square foot is accounted for, I don’t think that’s an option.”

“Then try under a loose floorboard or something,” Marcy suggested. “That’s where I hid all my personal items when I still lived at home with my parents.”

“Are there loose floorboards?” Gemma looked up at Daniel.

“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “I guess we’ll look.”

The three of them split up to search for loose floorboards or any kind of “secret” nook they might have missed in the house. Marcy attempted to take Daniel’s bedroom, but he shooed her out and suggested she try the living room.

Gemma went into the bathroom and tried to peel back any loose tiles. She didn’t find anything, but she did manage to break a porcelain tile in half. She was on her hands and knees, looking for any loose boards in the kitchen, when she heard Marcy swear.

“Did you find something?” Gemma asked, and she instantly got to her feet so she could look over the kitchen counter.

“No.” Marcy was kneeling beside the couch and scowling at her fingers. “But I got a splinter trying to pull a board up.”

“I don’t think there’s anything under there.” Daniel sighed. He came out of his bedroom and shook his head sadly. “I haven’t noticed anything loose or creaking, and I think this is a dead end. And you have to be at the theater soon for the play.”

“Dammit.” She’d forgotten, and she dug her cell phone out of her pocket to check the time. “I have at least another ten minutes before I need to leave here. Let’s just keep looking.”

Marcy stood up. “Is there anyplace we haven’t looked?”

“I don’t know.” Daniel glanced around his living room.

“What about that?” Marcy asked. She’d started sucking on her finger, presumably in an attempt to remove the splinter, but she pointed to the fireplace with her free hand.

“What?” Gemma asked.

“In the fireplace.” Marcy took her finger out of her mouth so she’d be easier to understand. “That stone’s a different shade of gray.”

The whole fireplace was done up in large river rocks. Most of them were varying shades of light to medium gray, smoothed and polished to look nice. But one stone near the end of the mantel was a very dark gray with a bluish tone to it.

“Did you replace that stone or something?” Gemma asked Daniel, but she could already feel her heartbeat speeding up.

“No, I didn’t.” He shook his head and walked over to the fireplace, with Gemma right at his heels.

Slowly, almost gingerly, Daniel touched the stone. He started to wiggle it, and at first, nothing happened. Then he started pushing and pulling at it harder until it finally began to budge. As he started to slide the stone out, Gemma held her breath.

“Here.” He handed it to her, then he reached into the dark hole left in the fireplace and began to dig around. “I found something.”