Undercurrent: A Siren Novel

218 Pages·2011·2.49 MB·English

by  Tricia Rayburn

EGMONT
We bring stories to life
First published by Egmont USA, 2011
443 Park Avenue South, Suite 806
New York, NY 10016
Copyright © Tricia Rayburn, 2011
All rights reserved
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www.egmontusa.com
www.triciarayburn.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rayburn, Tricia.
Undercurrent: a Siren novel/Tricia Rayburn.
p. cm.
Summary: Returning to Boston for her senior year of high school after the sudden death of her
older sister, seventeen-year-old Vanessa must ward off her transformation into a full-fledged siren
while also trying to handle applying to college, a long-distance relationship, and the mysterious
return of the sirens she thought she had killed.
ISBN 978-1-60684-075-7 (hardcover)—ISBN 978-1-60684-203-4 (electronic book) [1.
Supernatural—Fiction. 2. Sirens (Mythology)—Fiction. 3. College choice—Fiction. 4.
Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 5. Boston (Mass.)—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.R2103Un 2011
[Fic]—dc22
2011002852
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher and copyright owner.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
For Honey
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For helping bring this Siren story to readers, I’ll be forever grateful to
super-agent Rebecca Sherman; expert editor Regina Griffin; Elizabeth
Law, Doug Pocock, Mary Albi, Alison Weiss, and the rest of the Egmont
USA team; and Cecilia de la Campa, Angharad Kowal, Chelsey Heller, Ty
King, and Jenna Shaw at Writers House.
CHAPTER 1
IT WAS SEPTEMBER first. The day my older sister Justine should have been
starting classes. Buying textbooks. Thinking about her future. The day she
should have been doing all the things freshmen do but wasn’t, because her future
had been decided the second she jumped off a cliff in the middle of the night
three months earlier.
On this day, I walked a college campus instead.
“That’s Parker Hall,” my tour guide said. “And there’s Hathorn Hall and the
chapel.”
I smiled politely and followed him through the main quad. The pretty, parklike
square was surrounded by redbrick buildings and filled with kids talking,
laughing, and comparing schedules.
“That’s Coram Library,” he continued, pointing. “And right behind it is Ladd
Library, the one-hundred-twelve-thousand-square-foot Mecca of learning.”
“Impressive,” I said, thinking the same thing about him. His brown eyes were
warm, his dark hair slightly messy, like he’d fallen asleep on an open textbook
before meeting me. His toned arms shone bronze against the sharp white of his
crew team T-shirt. If Bates strived to appeal to teenage girls’ romantic
aspirations in addition to their academic ones, they’d picked a good
representative.
“And comfortable. Trust me, I should know.” He stopped, took my sweatshirt
sleeve in one hand, and tugged. As I stepped toward him, a Frisbee sliced
through the empty air space my head had just occupied.
“I do,” I said.
We stood so close I could hear his quick intake of breath. His fingers tightened
on my sweatshirt, and his arm tensed. After a few seconds, he released me and
grabbed the backpack straps near his shoulders.
“What’s that?” I asked.
He followed my nod to a tall building next to the libraries. “That is the
deciding factor,” he said, starting down the side-walk. When he reached the
building’s front steps, he turned toward me and grinned. “Behold Carnegie