Chapter 74

The gargoyle in the picture had been the clan's patriarch at the time of the struggle, the father of their present ruler. The picture had always given Remy chills - the old ruler had been both beautiful and terrifying. He was a smooth blend of golden and green tones - he'd turned into a jasper gargoyle - with a scaly appearance and a long, draconic snout. His wings poked out above his head, which was topped by a platinum and diamond crown. One talon-tipped hand rested on an arm of the chair and clasped a golden chalice set with large blue-green stones.
"Those are aquamarines," he told Mari. "They represent the power of water. The cup is supposedly imbued with healing magic and was what protected our species from disease."
Mari had gone stock still. She swallowed hard and licked her lips as if her mouth had gone suddenly dry. "Remy? Do you believe in Fate?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. I do believe in Lady Helene, though somewhat reluctantly. In January she sent my friend Damien to Philadelphia. The first person he met turned out to be the great-granddaughter of the witch who'd been given the belt for safe-keeping. He married her, brought her home to meet the clan, and Helene recognized her heirloom "necklace" as one of the four artifacts." He snorted and shook his head. "Glad that one was his job, though. The belt's magic is the power of Earth - in other words fertility. They're already expecting." Remy wasn't sure he was ready to help save his race by finding an artifact. He knew for a fact he wasn't ready to be a father.
"That's nice." Her words were barely a whisper and her face had gone white with shock. "Remy, I know this cup."
He felt the parade of emotion that flashed through his mind. Disbelief, suspicion, but under them all, a deep acceptance as he surrendered to the inevitable. "Of course you do. That is why Helene sent me to you. And I owe Damien fifty dollars."
"Huh?" He could see she didn't follow that logic leap.
Remy shook his head. "We made a bet, when I passed through Philadelphia on my way here. He told me that the first woman I met would be the key to finding the chalice. I told him he was insane. But unless you count the elderly Agnes at the motel desk, the first woman I met here, cherie, was you."
She bit her lower lip, worrying with her small white teeth at the same spot she'd bitten while doctoring his arm the night before. "I don't believe in Destiny. At least I don't want to. I've spent my whole life trying to prove that life is what you make it, not something you just let happen to you."
She drew a deep breath. "When I was little, I thought my life was just like everybody else's. We lived outside Miami in a pretty house, me, my mother and my father. But five years was all my mother could take. She said selkies weren't meant to live on land and we weren't meant to be monogamous. So one night she just took me to the beach, stashed our IDs and a bunch of money in a waterproof plastic bag, and in we went. I never saw my father again."
"I'm sorry, sweetness..." He had no idea what to say.
She shrugged. "It isn't your fault. We went to Mexico for a while, then up to Maine. One time one of her lovers even flew us to Greece, and we spent a year or two on the Mediterranean. Not with him, of course. She didn't stay with anyone for more than six months. My little sister never even met her father."
"My mother claims that she lives the way she does because it's what selkies are born to do. But I wanted something different. I wanted that reality I remember from when I was little, with friends and bratty neighbors and birthday parties."
"That sounds like a reasonable dream," he said gently. "And from what I've seen, you've been able to make it happen."
"Maybe. But when I left, both my mom and sister laughed at me. They told me I'd never make it on land, that my nature as a selkie was too strong. They kept insisting that eventually I'd give in and go back to the sea."
"And how long have you been here? It takes a long time to get through a Bachelor's and graduate school."
"Eight years," she admitted.
"And have you ever wanted to give it up and go back to your old life?"
A wry grin flitted across her lips. "Every time I had to struggle with an exam. But never seriously."
"There you go then. You were right. They were wrong."
"Thanks, Remy." She took a deep breath then squared her shoulders. "When I first came to Atlantic City, I needed money to get myself established. In seal form, I'd found some old shipwrecks. I took some things from them, some antiques - though they had to be small enough to in my mouth. Then I sold them to buy food, rent my apartment and pay my first semester's tuition. There was enough to support me until I started getting paychecks."
"Clever. Was the cup one of the artifacts?"
"Not one of the first." She heaved another sigh. "Last Christmas, my sister came to visit. She said she was pregnant and she said she wanted to stay on land during the pregnancy. I loved having her with me but my apartment is very tiny. So I gave her the money to get her own place. Somehow, she got my account number and emptied my bank account. Then she took off, and I haven't seen her since."
"I'm so sorry, cherie. You have far too big a heart, I'm afraid."
"Anyway, tuition was due, so I went back to one of the shipwrecks and found a few more things. One of them was that cup. The long stem of the goblet made it easy to carry in my teeth."
"And when was this?" An idea was forming in his brain.
"The beginning of January."
"That's when Lady Helene had the first vision. Maybe the magic was suppressed by the cup being buried under the sea. Once you recovered the cup, the magic was able to call to her, to let the clan know it could be found." If that was the case, Mari had already given his clan a priceless gift.