Surrendering (Swans Landing) by Shana Norris Read Free Book Online Page A

until then. I had been too busy to eat after we’d arrived in Swans Landing, and then once I made it back to Sailor’s house, I was so exhausted I wanted to sleep for days. I felt like I could eat a few bowls of cereal myself.
    “So Callum told me how the meeting went,” Sailor said through a mouthful of cereal. “Do you think anyone will be able to convince the rest of the humans to help us?”
    I shrugged. “I don’t know. If they’re all like my mom, probably not. But I don’t see what other option we have. We need as many people fighting back against Domnall as we can get.”
    “I don’t know how much help the humans will be,” Callum said, shaking his head. “They’ll be easily susceptible to the song’s effects, and Domnall knows that. He will use it against them.”
    “Is there anything else the song can do?” I asked. “Is there a way we can use it to protect them? To manipulate their reaction to the song with a different one?”
    “Not that I’ve ever heard,” Callum said. “The song was only meant to help finfolk. We’ve never really been interested in trying to protect humans, so we wouldn’t have tried to develop songs for them.”
    I hated that the stories about finfolk were true. I had read all the books and websites about finfolk that I could find, and they all said the same thing: Finfolk were cruel creatures and they used their powers to trick humans into following them to their deaths, or else kidnapped them to keep as pets. I had never wanted to believe it. The finfolk in Swans Landing seemed like ordinary people.
    But if these stories were true, if finfolk could be that cruel, was there something inside me that could be just as bad as them? Did that kind of cruelty live in the blood within me that gave me the ability to change?
    I gulped down the last of the cereal and drained the milk from the bowl. I wiped my mouth and then stood, looking Callum up and down. He still wore the tattered, dirty robe he’d been given back in Hether Blether.
    “I think I have some clothes that might fit you,” I said. “Look in my bag. There should be some jeans and T-shirts. Sorry I don’t have extra shoes.”
    Callum inclined his head once. “That is fine. Thank you.”
    “Where are you going?” Sailor asked as she watched me deposit my bowl in the sink.
    I ran a hand over my hair. “I’m going to talk to some old friends,” I said. “See if I can convince them to join us.”
    Sailor raised her eyebrows. “Humans?” she asked.
    I nodded. “I have to let them know what’s coming and try to make them see that joining together is the only option we have.”

 
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER EIGHT
     
    I shoved my hands deep into the pocket of my hoodie as I stood on the Moorings’ front porch and looked at the ominous fog that hung low in the sky. It was way too cold for August. Things just weren’t right here on the island, something other than the threat that lurked out in the ocean. The island reminded me of Hether Blether, and that thought chilled me all the way to the bone.
    As I walked down the stairs, a movement out of the corner of my eye made me stop in my tracks. I peered into the shadows underneath the house. Like most other houses in Swans Landing, it was raised off the ground by wooden pilings, to protect it from flooding during hurricanes or other rough storms. Most people used the area under their homes as storage for things like lawnmowers and yard tools. Miss Gale kept her belongings a little more neatly organized than most people did, but there was still a lot under there and a lot of places that someone could hide.
    A chill prickled the back of my neck. I felt unseen eyes watching me. I moved down the steps and then walked slowly toward the area under the house, my eyes scanning every inch.
    Was Domnall here already? Had he arrived while we were sleeping and now either he or one of his people waited under the house for us?
    I reached the first wooden piling, where a shovel