“Are you in love with him?” Gemma asked.
“Love is a bullshit human emotion.”
“He doesn’t love you,” Gemma said, and she wasn’t even sure why she did. Maybe in defense of her sister Harper, whom Daniel really did love, or maybe just so Penn would know that she hadn’t won.
“He can’t love me,” Penn corrected her. “But there might be a way around it. If that stupid Alex kid loves you, there has to be a way for me.”
“You can command someone to do anything except love you, Penn. Alex’s love is real, just like Daniel’s love for Harper. How could he ever love something as awful as you?”
Penn went on, undeterred. “I have my ideas.”
“Has anyone ever loved you in your whole entire life?”
“You’ve got me all figured out now, don’t you, Gemma? Mommy didn’t love me. Daddy didn’t hug me enough. If only you could just understand me, then I’d give up my life of evil and save the world.” Penn glared at her and scooted back onto the beach, pulling her tail out of the water.
“It’s all a load of crap, Gemma. Do you know why I’m going after Daniel, why I’m going to have sex with him, and why I’ll eventually tear out his heart?”
“Because you can?” Gemma asked, as Penn’s tail shifted back into her long legs.
She’d been wearing what appeared to be a tight tank top, but when Penn stood up, pulling the wet fabric down past her hips, Gemma realized it was a minidress.
“That’s right.” Penn flashed a dazzling smile and bent over, so her face was level with the still-sitting Gemma. “And I
“That’s an empty way to live, Penn.”
“Oh, fuck off, Gemma.” Penn rolled her eyes and stood up. “Like I care what you think. You think
“You know me, and how much I love quilting,” Gemma muttered.
“Right now, I want Daniel, and he wants me to keep you safe. So I will. But how much longer do you really think I’ll be interested him? Hmm?” Penn waggled her eyebrows. “And then your human shield will be all gone, all chewed up. And I’ll really show you how to behave.”
Penn turned and walked up the beach, away from the rising sun, and left Gemma alone in the sand to nurse her wounds.
THIRTY-SIX
Accession
After the visit with Diana, Harper was in surprisingly good spirits. It would’ve been much easier and better if she’d just come out and told them how to break the curse, but she’d given them a couple of big clues that hinted to things Harper already suspected.
1. The curse is in the ink.
2. If they killed Penn, then they wouldn’t need to break the curse.
She knew something was up with the ink. She just didn’t know exactly what that meant or how to use it to her advantage. But she was certain that if she studied it more, maybe with the help of Professor Pine and Lydia, they’d be able to come up with something.
Killing Penn would be easier said than done, but still Harper felt rejuvenated. They were closer to breaking the curse than they had been before, and that was something, at least.
After they’d finally gotten home, Gemma had gone out for a much-needed swim, and Harper had gone to bed. When she woke up, she’d e-mailed teachers and classmates to try to get her homework and notes from the two days of classes she’d missed.
Gemma woke up much later in the day, and when Harper tried to talk to her about ways to kill Penn or destroy the ink, Gemma didn’t seem interested in the conversation at all.
“Don’t you have homework or something?” Gemma asked, after Harper had been grilling her for a while about why she wasn’t more excited about their latest findings. Gemma had been rooting through the fridge, looking for something to eat, and Harper leaned against the counter, watching her.
“I do, but it’s Labor Day on Monday, so I have a three-day weekend to get everything done.”
“Then we have three more days to try to figure this all out.” Gemma settled on a packet of the deli-sliced roast beef that her dad used for his lunches, eating it plain. “Why don’t you relax or study or something right now?”
With that, Gemma turned and walked away, saying she was going over to Alex’s as she went out to the front door.
Harper shook her head and decided to check in with outside help. Lydia had mentioned that Professor Pine was consulting an expert about the scroll. She had his number in her phone, but she’d gotten it from Lydia, not Pine personally, so she felt a bit weird about calling him.
But she quickly got over it. She was stumped, and he might know something.
It seemed to ring forever, but then he finally picked up, his voice sounding tinny and oddly far away.
“Hi, this is Harper Fisher,” she said. “Sorry to call you. I know it’s a bit unorthodox, but I just—”
Pine cut her off with an easy laugh. “No, don’t worry about it. I planned on calling you soon. I’m actually working your, uh, case right now.”
“Yeah, Lydia Panning told me you were consulting someone.”
“I’m visiting someone, actually. I’m in Macedonia right now, with the copies you gave me.”
“What?
“Yeah, I have a friend out here who is really great at translating dead languages, and we’re definitely making some headway,” Pine explained.
“Really? That’s fantastic.”
“I’m flying back on Monday, and I was hoping to have some real concrete answers for you then,” Pine said. “Do you want to come and see me Tuesday?”
Harper glanced over at the calendar hanging next to the fridge, as if seeing it would make Tuesday feel any closer. “There’s no way we could talk sooner?”
“Lydia and I have been going back and forth about some of the translations, and although it doesn’t seem like much, I need the extra few days to hammer out as much as I can,” he said.
“No, I understand,” Harper said, but she decided to press her luck anyway. “Can I ask what you and Lydia are disagreeing about?”
“Just phrasing here and there, like whether the word is ‘cursed’ or ‘granted,’” Pine said, then something occurred to him, because he asked, “Do you know if the sirens are connected to Jason or the Argonauts?”
“Not really.” She tried to think quickly. “According to mythology, I think the Argonauts sailed past the sirens on their journey, but they put wax in their ears and withstood the song. But Gemma’s never said anything about them, or Thea and Penn talking about them. Why?”
“I knew that Jason and the Argonauts went on a quest for the golden fleece and sailed by the sirens, and like you, I didn’t think they had any real interaction with them,” he said.
“Do you think that Jason and the Argonauts had something to do with the curse?” Harper asked, and she was already scrambling to remember if Lydia had mentioned anything about their being alive or not.
“Not exactly.” He let out breath through his teeth. “Not at all, actually. I think there might be a mention of ‘golden fleece’ in the scroll, and the most famous connection to the golden fleece is the Argonauts.
“But that’s what Lydia and I are disagreeing on,” Pine said. “She thinks the word might actually be ‘skin,’ and not ‘fleece,’ since back in the day, people sometimes referred to the wool on a ram as his skin. And if it’s ‘golden skin,’ that could just be a reference to the sirens’ beauty.”
“Are you sure?” Harper asked.
