Tempest’s Legacy by Nicole Peeler

clearing my throat at the same time.
    Anyan’s eyes snapped up to meet mine. We stared at each other for an uncomfortable minute before my own gaze dropped to my new purple Converse.
    All day at work I’d rehearsed a very good apology speech. It was elegant, eloquent, and, I now realized, totally inappropriate.
    I forced myself to raise my eyes, stepping forward into the workshop as I did so.
    “I shot the messenger,” was all I said, my voice thick with shame.
    A strange look passed over his face. It appeared mostly composed of relief, but combined with something I couldn’t identify. He gently placed the figurine down at his feet.
    “I’m sorry, Anyan.”
    “I’m sorry, too. Sorry I had to tell you like that. That it happened.”
    “Yeah, but those things weren’t your fault. I was a bitch.”
    He smiled ruefully. “No worries, Jane. I’m used to bitches.”
    It took my tired brain a few seconds to get his joke. When I did, I gave one of my unladylike snorts. Then cringed.
    “How are you holding up?” he asked.
    “I dunno. I’m so tired right now, I’m on autopilot.”
    “You didn’t work today, did you?”
    “It was good. A distraction. Got me away from the house.”
    Anyan frowned. “What are you going to tell your father?”
    I shook my head, tears springing to my eyes. I blinked furiously, feeling my nose start to run. I was on the brink of a major meltdown.
    Suddenly Anyan was standing in front of me, his big hands grasping my elbows. For a second my imagination ran wild. I saw myself burying my face in his abdomen, sobbing long and hard. I imagined Anyan’s hands stroking my hair; Anyan’s hands smoothing down my back. But I wasn’t going to use my grief the way Ryu had, to get something I wanted. Anyan, for all intents and purposes, was virtually a stranger to me, and crying on him wasn’t appropriate.
    “No more weeping on people,” I choked out. “Do you have some Kleenex or something?”
    Anyan cupped my jaw gently, and for a second the look on his face nearly broke me. Until I realized I was about to drip snot on his hand and I sniffled, noisily. Saved by the booger, Anyan withdrew to grab a rag from the top of one of his workbenches.
    “It’s clean,” he said, handing it to me.
    I noisily blew my nose, then held the rag, unsure of what to do with it.
    “You can keep that,” he said, as if reading my mind. I smiled at him tentatively, then he smiled back. I knew I was forgiven, and I was glad. Furthermore, I now felt free to ask everything I should have been asking the night before, instead of freaking out.
    “First of all, I need to know what happened to… to my mother’s body.”
    Anyan nodded. “Of course. She was given back to her people, who laid her to rest in the sea. A traditional selkie burial.”
    I closed my eyes, a sudden pain gripping my heart. I would have appreciated the chance to see her again, to say good-bye… and yet, I knew Anyan had done the right thing. My mother may have loved us, but she’d loved the sea more. The sea was where she belonged. Taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes again to meet Anyan’s.
    “I need to know what happened.”
    The barghest’s open face shuttered as he returned to sit on his bale of hay. He picked up the statue and his sandpaper and went back to work. “We still don’t know that much. Whoever is running this show is careful to stay hidden.”
    “Well,” I said, trying to sound reasonable, “tell me what you do know. How do you think she was captured?”
    “She had to have been taken on land. Your mother was strong, and only another water-elemental could have taken her in the ocean. The Sea Code would have prevented that from happening.”
    “So she was taken on land, then brought to one of these labs. What are they for?”
    “All we’ve found are abandoned labs that have been cleaned out. The few times there’ve been real leads, the labs in question have been… liquidated.”
    Along with my mother
, I