The Favorite by Kiera Cass Page A

you, none of us did. But you will.”
    Carefully, I got to my feet, shocked to see that I was standing on water. There were still a few people afloat in the distance, flapping at the current like they might be able to save themselves.
    â€œMy mother is there,” I pleaded. Nombeko sighed, her eyes wistful.
    Marilyn wrapped her arm around me, looking toward the wreckage. She whispered in my ear. “You have two choices:you may remain with us or you may join your mother. Join her. Not save her.”
    I stayed silent. Could there be truth to her words? Could I choose to die? If this was real, could I do what she was suggesting?
    â€œYou said you’d give anything to live,” she reminded me. “Please mean it.”
    I saw the hope in her eyes. She didn’t want me to go. Perhaps she’d seen enough death for one day.
    I nodded. I’d stay.
    She pulled me close and breathed into my ear. “Welcome to the sisterhood of sirens.”
    I was whipped underwater, something cold forced into my veins. And, though it frightened me, it hardly hurt at all.

EIGHTY YEARS LATER

TWO
    â€œ W HY? ” SHE ASKED, HER FACE bloated from drowning.
    I held up my hands, warning her not to come any closer. But it was clear she wasn’t afraid of me. She was looking for revenge. And she would get it any way she could.
    â€œWhy?” she demanded again. Seaweed was wrapped around her leg and made a flat, wet sound as it dragged across the floor behind her.
    The words were out of my mouth before I could stop myself. “I had to.”
    She didn’t wince at my voice, just kept advancing. This was it. I would finally have to pay for what I had done.
    â€œI had three children.”
    I backed away, looking for an escape. “I didn’t know! I swear, I didn’t know anything!”
    Finally, she stopped, just inches from me. I waited for her to beat me or strangle me, to find a way to avenge the life taken from her far too soon. But she merely stood there, her head cocked, as she took me in, eyes bulging and skin tinted blue.
    Then she lunged.
    I awoke with a gasp, swinging my arm at the empty air in front of me before I understood.
    A dream. It was only a dream. I placed a hand on my chest, hoping to slow my heart. Instead of finding skin, I pressed my fingers into the back of my scrapbook. I pulled it off, looking at the carefully constructed pages filled with clipped newsarticles. Served me right for working on it before sleeping.
    I had just finished my page on Kerry Straus before falling asleep. She was one of the last people I had needed to find from our most recent sinking. Two more to go, then I’d have information on every one of those lost souls. The Arcatia might be my first complete ship. Looking down at Kerry’s page, I took in the bright eyes from the photo on her memorial website, a shabby thing no doubt created by her widower husband between trying to serve up something more creative than spaghetti for his three motherless children and the endless routine of his day job.
    â€œAt least you had someone,” I told her photo. “At least there was someone to cry for you when you were gone.” I wished I could explain how a full life cut short was better than an empty life that dragged on. I closed the book and set it in my trunk with the others, one for each shipwreck. There were only a handful of people who could possibly understand how I felt, and I wasn’t always sure that they did.
    With a heavy sigh, I made my way to the living room, where Elizabeth’s and Miaka’s voices were louder than I was comfortable with.
    â€œKahlen!” Elizabeth greeted. I tried to be inconspicuous as I checked to make sure all the windows were closed. They knew how important it was that no one could hear us, but they were never as cautious as I would have wanted. “Miaka’s just come up with another idea for her future.”
    I shifted my focus to Miaka.