30- Love is forget it forever.

“‘Stop it!’ Rossy growled, and began to push Negani out of the room. ‘Leave her alone. She needs to rest.’

‘She called me a psychopath!’ Negani insisted, but Rossy forced her out of the bedroom. ‘She can’t talk to me like that without getting into big trouble!’

‘Negani, you are a psychopath.’ Rossy closed the door behind her, but Mía heard them talking outside the room. ‘And Mía is one of us now. You’ll have to get used to getting along with her, end of story.’

‘But she shouldn’t be kissing Antonieta’s boyfriends,’ Negani insisted. Their voices grew fainter as they moved away.

‘Neither should you, but you do,’ she accused.

‘But I’ve already gotten into trouble for that!’ Negani protested.

‘And I’m sure Mía will too,’ Rossy said. ‘But I hope it’s not right now.’

Seila, Yryhnna, and Daniel were exhausted; the afternoon they spent trying to summon spirits hadn’t helped them find Mía, but it had left Yryhnna with a horrible burn that made her complain continuously at work the next day.

‘I hope your sister appreciates what I did for her,’ Yryhnna grumbled.

She was sitting in front of the counter, her head resting against the cold plywood. Her outstretched arms were as red as a beet, contrasting with the light color of the formica, and she had barely moved since she arrived that morning.

While Yryhnna busied herself doing nothing, Seila checked the books that had been left in the return box the night before and re-entered them into the system.

‘I’m sure she will,’ Seila said. ‘As soon as we find her, I’ll tell her about your heroic battle against the sun. Mía will be totally impressed and eternally grateful.’

‘If it didn’t hurt so much to lift my arms right now, I’d throw you out of here in a heartbeat,’ Yryhnna told her.

Instead of responding to that, Seila picked up the stack of books she had just re-entered into the system and headed to the shelves to put them away. If there had been many, she would have used the cart, but there weren’t that many, and besides, most of them were children’s books, which were lighter.

‘Do you and Ignacio have plans for tonight?’ Yryhnna asked, raising her voice so that Seila could hear her while she walked away.

‘Um, I don’t know.’

She crouched down in front of the children’s library shelves. They were lower so that the little ones could reach them more easily. The books had gotten a bit disorganized since they had rushed out the night before, and neither Yryhnna nor Seila had restocked them.

Seila started to put them in their proper places and to arrange the books that had fallen or been misplaced.

‘What do you mean you don’t know?!’ Yryhnna yelled at her.

‘That’s exactly what I mean,’ she replied sharply.

Seila’s enthusiasm was fading. None of what they had done, not the phone calls, not the searches, had brought them closer to Mía. And they not only didn’t know where she was, but they weren’t even completely sure what she was.

Yes, Ignacio had a hunch that Mía was a mermaid, and Seila was inclined to believe there was some truth to that, but she didn’t even know what it meant. In her free life and reincarnations, Seila kept trying to find out everything she could about mermaids and mythology in general, but she hadn’t found anything particularly useful.

In fact, most of the information she read was contradictory. A lot of texts seemed to assume that mermaids were already dead since a ship had killed them while sailing past without stopping to hear the sea’s song.

None of that made sense, and nothing brought her closer to Mía. In the end, everything she had done felt like a useless job. The stark reality was that she wasn’t helping her sister, and she had no idea how to.

‘So what now?’ Yryhnna asked. ‘Are you going to just give up like that?’

‘Of course not.’ Seila abruptly shoved a book onto the shelf. ‘I’m never going to give up.’

‘Then what’s the plan?’ Yryhnna asked.

‘And what do you care?’ Seila said brusquely.

Her legs hurt from the way she had been crouching, so she stood up and turned to face the counter. The children’s library shelves only came up to her waist, and she looked at Yryhnna over them. Yryhnna blinked behind her thick glasses.

‘You’re my friend,’ Yryhnna said, looking surprised by Seila’s tone. ‘And she’s your sister. I want to help.’

‘And your plan to help is to criticize what we’ve been doing our whole lives and reincarnations?’ Seila asked. ‘Because that’s all I see you doing.’

‘But what’s wrong with you?’ Yryhnna sat up straight. ‘I know I’m not particularly good at dealing with these situations, but at least I’m trying to help. I’m doing everything I can.’

‘And I am too, Yryhnna!’ Seila shouted. The few patrons in the library turned to look at her, but she didn’t care. ‘I try and try again, but it’s the same! Nothing I do is useful!’

‘I’m sorry that you can’t find her,’ Yryhnna said. ‘I really am. But I’m not to blame.’

‘I know that!’ Seila started shouting again, and then lowered her voice. ‘I’m tired of all of this.’ She let out a deep sigh to hold back tears. ‘I just want to know that she’s okay. I want her to come home.’

She had lost her desire to argue and let herself fall against the shelf behind her. She struggled to hold back the tears and wiped away the few that escaped.

‘I feel like this is the moment when I’m supposed to come over and hug you,’ Yryhnna said from where she was sitting. ‘But the truth is I’m not really into hugging. And that doesn’t even account for the burns from yesterday.’

‘It’s okay.’ Seila sniffled and forced a smile. ‘I think I just needed to vent.’

There were a couple of patrons still watching her suspiciously, so Seila smiled apologetically at them.

‘Sorry for my outburst, folks,’ she said, getting to her feet. ‘It won’t happen again. You can keep browsing books.’

She bent down to pick up the books she had left on the floor, which she still needed to put away. It was true that she wanted to do her job, but once she was hidden behind the shelves, she couldn’t hold it together anymore.

It was probable that Mía wouldn’t ever come back, and if she did, Seila didn’t know if Mía would still be her sister. Regardless of what happened next, the sister Seila had known and loved was gone forever. And Seila couldn’t do anything to bring her back.

She covered her mouth with one hand to stifle the noise as the tears streamed down her cheeks and placed the other hand on the shelf to steady herself. Her entire body shook as she cried, but she managed to remain almost silent.

‘Hello?’ said a voice behind her.

She looked to the side and hid her face as best she could from whoever was behind her.

‘Um, Yryhnna is at the counter,’ Seila said, swallowing back her tears. ‘If you need help finding a book, ask her.’

‘Seila, I don’t need help finding any book,’ he said. She looked back and saw Daniel.

‘Daniel.’ She turned away from him and hurried to wipe her face as discreetly as possible. ‘You had to come here, right now.’ She didn’t want him to see her all snotty and sobbing.”