Always Remembered, Chapters 1-3

Chapter 3

I peeked into Ula's room. She was my closest friend here, and also my aunt and confidant. I had so much to tell her. I felt bad about abandoning her at the farewell celebration for Uncle Ren. I couldn't tell her about the plan for Kieran and I to rescue Evan—the more people that knew, the greater the chance that my dad might have found out and stopped us.

At the moment, she seemed to be in a good mood, listening to reggae music and reading a dog-eared Nancy Drew book. Then again, she hadn't realized that I was there yet. I rapped loudly on her door, and she pulled her earbuds out.

"Want to get some fresh air?" I asked.

Her green eyes narrowed in irritation. "Where have you been? You bailed on me the other night."

"I'm sorry." The apology was heartfelt. It was a crappy thing to do. I was so mad at her the first time she left me at an event, and here I did the same thing to her. To be fair, it wasn't as if we were hanging out. She spent the evening with Uncle Ren and his family saying goodbye, so it wasn't like she was alone. I cleared my throat. "I have a good reason."

"I know." Her expression softened. "Evan. Did you find him?"

"No. Ken kidnapped him. They were already gone when we got there."

Ula frowned. "Isn't he the guy who financed Evan's internship?"

"Yes," I said.

"I don't understand."

"I don't either, but I'll tell you what I know." I bit my lip, my thoughts still on my little cousin, Nico, and my uncle and aunt. "Uncle Ren...they made it home okay? Do we know?"

"They're fine," Ula said. She didn't seem worried at all.

"How can you be sure?" I persisted. It wasn't as though Selkies had phones or even email.

"You know my parents' necklaces and how they work?" she asked. I nodded. "Ren has a similar communication with David. A silver chain they wear on their wrists. Have you seen it?"

"Yeah, I guess." I vaguely remembered seeing a flash of silver at my dad's wrist. It almost looked like a watchband.

"All of us have one. They were gifts from our parents, although Brigid, Paddy, and I don't wear ours since we live here. David keeps his on to communicate with Ren, and our other brothers, Murdo and William."

Murdo. William. I repeated the names silently to myself. It was the first time I heard of them. Two more uncles I hadn't even met yet. I forgot that my dad once told me there were seven children in his family. It was difficult to believe I went from my mom being my only family to this large Selkie family. What would Mom have thought? I guessed she would've liked them. I blinked my eyes and forced myself to focus on something else. Thinking about Mom always made me cry. My uncles...where did they live? Did they rule clans like my dad? Did they have wives or kids? I could ask Ula, but that would sidetrack us into a long conversation about family. There would be time to talk about that later. Right now, I needed to update her on what we learned at Ken's house. I took Ula's book and marked her spot. After setting it on the shelf, I offered my hand to pull her up. "C'mon, it's gorgeous outside. Let's go for a walk."

"Okay." She smiled and grasped my hand. The next thing I knew, we were standing on the shoreline and Ula was beaming at me.

"You're really getting good at transporting," I said. While she grinned, something nagged at the back of my mind. "Ula, why is our family the only one in our clan with powers?"

"I don't know. It's always been that way." She gave me a curious look. "Why?"

"You've been practicing transporting, and your abilities have grown stronger." I paced, thinking about what I wanted to say next. "Why couldn't we try to teach the others? Maybe they can do magic, and they just don't know how."