Waveborn

35

                  

Cass remained at her post until the sky brightened with the first hints of sunrise. Selena didn't return.

She was so tired she could hardly steer her bike, but somehow she managed to make it back to town and the Andiamo, where she swung her bike aboard and stumbled below deck. To her relief, the cabin was dark; she'd been afraid Jen would be waiting up for her. She eased open her cabin door and fell into bed, convinced she'd fall asleep before her head hit the pillow.

But instead of a pillow, her head hit something hard and cold. "Ouch," she whispered. She pushed to sitting. A dark oblong shape lay where her pillow should be. A rock? She lifted it to the faint light from her window and ran her finger along its edge. No, glass. It was a piece of sea glass, edges worn smooth, the biggest piece she'd ever seen. From the shape and size, she guessed it started off life as a beer bottle.

A series of scratches marked one side. When she tilted it toward the light, she could make out...waves? Definitely waves, she decided, which would make the square shape beside them a cliff overlooking the ocean. Another set of angled lines hovered between the waves and the land. A bird? No, the proportions were wrong and the head too big.

A person, she realized. A person falling from the cliff to the waves.

Without thinking, she threw the glass at the far wall as hard as she could, where it thumped loudly but didn't break. Her heart pounded against her ribs; she waited, frozen, for Jen to come investigate. After long minutes when nothing stirred, she scrambled to the foot of her bed and grabbed the glass. The feel of it-the sand-roughened texture-made her skin crawl. She itched to throw it again, which wouldn't do any good. What she really wanted was to destroy the threat it represented.

She still carried it topside and hurled it into the waiting waves.

It was just another threat, she thought. It meant she'd won last night-but as she crept back into her bunk, she hoped that she'd judged correctly and Selena really wouldn't hurt anyone. Because Cass sure as hell wasn't going to back off from Jason.

It seemed only a few minutes until she woke again, this time to the soft clanks of Jen moving in the kitchen. With a groan, Cass pushed her door open; she would have thought she'd sleep through anything short of a tidal wave, and yet here she was, awake. It didn't seem right.

Jen flashed her a grin. "Coffee? I was just making a pot."

Cass blinked, nonplussed. She'd expected a lecture. She rolled back through the previous night's events, and no, she hadn't returned until nearly six in the morning.

"Coffee it is," Jen said, eyebrows raised, "since you're obviously too tired to answer the question. Guess you didn't sleep well?"

"About that," Cass said. She might as well get it over with. "I'm sorry I got back so late."

Jen winked at her. Winked. "Nice try, hon, and it would've worked great except that I checked on you before I hit the sack. You must've been too sound asleep to notice."

The coffee pot rang with the sound of water hitting metal as Jen filled it. "Coming with me again today?"

Maybe this was what a hallucination felt like. "Um, sure," Cass said. "Wait-no, I can't."

Selena had been in her room to deliver her sea glass message. If Jen returned while Selena was there, it would have been simpler for Selena to pretend to be Cass than to erase Jen's memory of her presence. Maybe mind-control took energy. Selena had seemed exhausted when Cass last saw her.

"Cass? Why can't you come?" Jen asked.

Jen's tone had turned impatient and Cass had the feeling she'd asked the question more than once. "We're going to Friday Harbor to pick up supplies for tomorrow. For the concert."