Free Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown Page A

that didn’t belong.
When I struck something long but soft— not a branch, but an arm— I turned her around to face me. Her eyes were closed, her mouth slack. Pallid yellow particles floated in the water that filled her mouth. She was already gone.
I rocketed toward the surface, leaping twelve feet out of the water and landing on the rock better than any trick whale at SeaWorld.
Maris looked over without expression.
Grit from the rock stuck to Lily’s face and bare shoulders.
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    I pressed my lips to hers and blew. Nothing happened. I blew again. And then again. She gagged and choked, then spewed a fountain of water. My silver tail thrashed violently against the rock. Maris stepped over me and threw her jacket over Lily’s face. She didn’t need to see the monster convulsing beside her.
    I rolled onto my back as my heart beat out a syncopated, lurching rhythm. Gritting my teeth while my skin tightened and ripped, I groaned in agony, trembling like an epileptic and sucking blood off my lip, as my tail split and morphed into human legs.
    Maris didn’t watch as I stood up and yanked on my pants. She stood coolly over the girl who was still motionless on the rock.
    “Lily.” I whipped the jacket off her face and shook her. “Are you okay? Oh, man. Lily.”
Her skin was as pale and translucent as her ivory tank top. A red line trickled from a gash on her cheekbone, and her lips, slightly parted, were the color of lilacs. Grains of sand clung to her eyelashes. She could have been a rag doll, flopping around in my shaking hands.
“Lily,” I called again. I rolled her onto her side. Her tank top rode up, exposing the tattoo on the small of her back: five words in elegant black script— No Coward Soul Is Mine.
She gasped, dragging in another ragged breath. “I- I’m o- okay,” she said. Her body shook in spasms.
“You’re not.” I balled up my shirt and scrubbed her arms with it, trying to rub color back into her skin. I didn’t want to touch her directly. Not yet.
“S- sorry,” she said. What was she apologizing for? Was
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she delirious? Had I waited too long? Had she lost some brain cells?
    I kept scrubbing the warmth back into her limbs. I barely noticed Maris stalking away.
“H- h- how?” Her jaw convulsed and her teeth chattered so hard I feared they might shatter. She rolled onto one side.
“Don’t get up,” I said, ignoring the tightening sensation that was still going on inside me.
She sat up and vomited over the edge of the rock. That was just what I needed to calm myself down. I laughed so loud I startled her.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got you,” I said as I lifted Lily from the rock and climbed up the embankment. Cradled in my arms, she dipped her head into my shoulder. It was nearly the same rescue scene I’d planned for her younger sister. The sky darkened like ink spreading through a shirt pocket as the first raindrops hit my bare shoulders. Lily’s face was soft and relaxed. I curled my body around her to shield her from the rain and strummed her cheek with my thumb. I worried over the blue tinge that still lingered around her lips. I took a breath and realized I’d been holding it.
Slowly the house came into view. Jason Hancock was in the yard, helping the Pettit man throw tools into his truck. When Hancock saw me, he pushed off Pettit’s chest and came running. I stole one more look into Lily’s face. If Maris had any idea how I was feeling, she’d be all over my ass like a shark on a seal.
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12
    I MAKE HER NERVOUS
    T wo days later I followed Lily to the Blue Moon Café and sat on the park bench across the street, waiting for her to come out, shoving french fries in my mouth as if they were linked together. I checked my watch. She’d been in there for twenty minutes. My knee bounced up and down. Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go. What are you doing in there? She wasn’t sitting at a table— I could tell that much— but she was taking too long to be ordering coffee to go. I