Page 36 of Midnightsong
As if she spoke him into existence, the seaflute vibrated and Kaden’s voice came through. “Angie? Are you there?”
“I just tried calling you.” Angie rested two fingers on the seaflute as though she could touch him, as though he was right here in front of her. Lulu awoke at the sound of Kaden’s voice and sat upright, staring at it. “Hey. Say hi to Uncle Kaden.”
Lulu didn’t blink.
“Tell her I say hi!” Kaden’s voice came through her seaflute, clear and crisp, as if he were beside her. With dainty steps, the cat stepped out of Angie’s lap and walked back to her hiding place in the closet and fell asleep, shaped like a black-and-white loaf with ears and a tail. Under her breath, Angie muttered, “And this is why I have cat hair all over my clothes.” The last time she tried to lock Lulu out of her closet, her cat cried and yowled all night until she could get back in, and Angie wasn’t about to begrudge her feeling safe.
“I take it she didn’t return the greeting?” Kaden asked.
“She hasn’t seen you enough. It takes her a minute to warm up to someone new.”
“I’m afraid she’ll destroy my tail the next time she sees me.”
“She might,” Angie said with a small laugh. “She thinks it’s a fish. Oh wait. It is a fishtail.”
Kaden’s chuckle was jovial. “Did you just get back from the aquarium?”
“I did.” Angie licked her lips and everything she wanted to say to him tumbled out at once. “I—I miss you. I have so much going on between my job and school, and trying to find who’s responsible for your mother’s death. I’ve hit a dead end. I know you’ve been going through a lot, too, and I feel bad I can’t be there to support you.”
Kaden’s tone softened. “I keep thinking about the humans that were responsible. I feel stuck and can’t do anything.”
“I tried. I have to think of what to do next, but I’ve called dive shops all over Alaska, and I’m left with nothing.” Angie raked a hand through her hair. She didn’t know what to do next.
“Perhaps you can talk to any witnesses who were there that night? If you could even find one of the divers and get them to talk.”
“Yeah, I’ll ask Bàba who was on duty that night and maybe someone saw something that Stefan missed.” Angie pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to Bàba, asking him the same. “How’s it going with your uncle?”
“I’ve been trying to talk some sense into him, but he—I feel like he deflects me at every turn. He tells me he values my input, but he doesn’t show it. And we have reports of missing mer, mostly sentinels and sentries.”
“Missing mer?” Angie’s breath hitched. “How many?”
“About eight.”
The number rang in Angie’s head. There were six mermaids and mermen in the news, and Dr. Williams had two. “I’ve seen reports of six merfolk shipped off to facilities around here. My professor has a mermaid and merman, and one of those mermaids...” She took a shaky breath. “is in the aquarium where I work. I tried to talk my boss into releasing her. Looked like a shark attacked her?”
“I’m not surprised. We’ve had a minimal number of attacks, but from what I heard from Aunt Cassia, they’re having issues with sharks looking for merfolk, as well. Possibly from human activity and fishing and sharks having less food for themselves.”
“Damn it.” Angie went to pour herself a glass of water, stretching out her legs. She was right, and the notion saddened her.
“If my uncle gets ahold of this,” Kaden grumbled. “It might push him to increase his efforts to retaliate.” A pause. “But he appointed me his high advisor and we’re having a council meeting two tidesdays from now. I have to speak up. We can’t have another war.”
Angie’s heart swelled with pride. “You have my full support.”
Angie didn’t hear back from Bàba until the next afternoon, when he sent a text update on the missing divers around Creston. As she opened the message, her heart nearly stopped.
Bàba: Hi Beibei. We found the missing divers—dead in a shallower area of the sea surrounded by armed mer. Search party and divers overwhelmed the mer in a surprise attack and killed some and captured others. I want to say five total. All were sold. I believe at least two or three were sold somewhere by you. I will get you the names of the staff that night.
Angie shuddered, reading his text over and over until the words became fuzzy blurs. It explained where these research labs, fisheries, and SMOSA were getting mer.
She thought of the missing divers, consternation rising. The air in her apartment stifled her, even with her windows cracked open, and she dialed Bàba’s number. It went straight to voicemail without a ring, so she tried their house phone. It rang and rang, and after Angie counted ten rings, she hung up. He wasn’t at the docks or at home.
Where was he? Was he okay?
Mia would still be at work.
Sighing with frustration, she grabbed her jacket, purse, phone, and keys, and left the apartment. She needed a change of scenery and slid into her car, turning on the GPS to her destination: a state park ten miles north of Shoreline. Angie packed her books and notebooks, should the urge to study strike her.
The beach wasn’t as quiet as she would have liked with smatterings of families and groups of teenagers and kids playing. Angie counted fifteen people in her vicinity and there was enough space between the groups so that she could find a spot in an isolated corner.
