A Kiss From a Merman (Kiss From a Monster #8)

Chapter 1

ASTRYD

If only I had left town sooner, I could’ve avoided this entire situation.

It was foolish to think the unrest permeating the town over the last few months wouldn’t affect me. I believed the worst thing I would have to endure was a cutting of my wages at the bakery. Customers had become scarce due to the troubles on the high seas.

Stories of sinking ships and drowned sailors were carried by the handful of vessels that had safely made port in Bluewater.

The villagers of this modest-sized trading town depended on the fleet of ships to bring in fish and goods from other lands.

If the fish markets weren’t thriving, then the people of Bluewater would suffer.

The last whole fish was sold over three weeks ago.

The only thing left in the market’s crates were handfuls of mussels and shrimps, and even those had begun to dwindle.

People had taken to cooking and eating the seaweed that washed ashore.

When the markets began to dry up, there was a noticeable shift in the villagers.

Still, like a fool, I believed things would turn around.

We only needed a few fruitful deliveries to make landfall, and order would return to our town.

As supplies became scarcer, I knew Gil would have a harder time justifying my job at Sugarfish Bakery.

It wouldn’t have been ideal to find myself jobless, but I had my savings I could live on.

People were fleeing the city at an exorbitant rate, so there was no real danger of being evicted from my apartment.

I had no family—no parents or husband. There were no hungry mouths of children I was responsible for feeding. In comparison, I was lucky, but that luck would soon run out. I knew the people of Bluewater were getting desperate for a solution.

However, I never imagined that desperation would lead them straight to a madman.

To a swashbuckling, pirate captain who had pillaged and ransacked every land he had visited.

His reputation preceded him—he was ruthless and not to be trusted.

Yet, that is exactly what the people of Bluewater did.

They welcomed this viper into their home, where he hatched a plan he promised would save us all.

Those most desperate had looked at him like he was a god—a savior sent to spare them from their plight. What he said made sense to those who were hungry and hopeless. Captain Blacktide said the way to bring peace back to the riotous seas was easy: we had to appease the Kraken.

Blacktide said the monster beneath the waves had not taken a human bride in some time.

Growing up by the sea, we had all been taught the legend of the Kraken as a cautionary tale to not stray from our beds at night.

It was an old wives’ tale, and yet, it rang like prophecy through the town.

The Kraken was angry, and he was sinking the ships carrying food and supplies as punishment—it seemed as logical an answer as any to the starving masses of Bluewater.

To stop his anger, all we had to do was offer up a human sacrifice as his bride.

When this suggestion was first made a few weeks ago, many in the village had rejected the captain’s sentiments.

However, as hunger worsened and madness became easier to catch than scurvy, more people began to listen to him in earnest.

After all, what was it to sacrifice one in order to save everyone?

I hadn’t given much thought to any of it—I had survived this long on stale bread and used teabags.

Before my parents passed, we had fallen on hard times.

It was never pleasant, but it taught me that all struggles eventually come to an end.

Besides, the only way out of Bluewater was to set off through The Woods.

If the Kraken was meant to keep children in their beds, The Woods was meant to ensure they never put even one toe into the treeline.

Legend or not, the tales of the creatures dwelling inside made me unwilling to venture through something I was sure would blow over in a month's time.

It was my ignorance and fear that led me straight to the pirate captain.

Captain Blacktide had never taken note of me.

A fact, I was grateful for, given his reputation.

In Bluewater, I filtered through the crowd like any other unremarkable fish in a school of others.

It wasn’t until last night, when I was coming home late from my final shift at the bakery, that I passed by him, speaking to his supporters.

They were whipped into a frenzy under the torches they carried.

Foam collected between their cracked lips as their dazed eyes regarded the captain as a deity.

His mouth was spewing the same sermon he had given for the last five weeks.

I had pulled my cloak tighter around myself and hurried my steps.

Only it didn’t matter; I had been spotted, and the life I knew ended in the blink of an eye.

“You there,” Captain Blacktided had called. “Girl. Come here.”

I had swallowed and walked faster only to be snagged around the arms by two burly figures.

With swords at their hips, I had no chance of fighting them.

They dragged me toward Captain Blacktide, who had them rip my cloak off me.

His eyes gleamed as did his one gold tooth.

Licking over his cracked lips, he surveyed my body despite my attempts to cover it.

“You—you will do. A beautiful bride for the Kraken,” Captain Blacktided declared, pointing a long, ring-addled finger at me. “Who knows this young woman?”

I prayed for silence, but a voice from the crowd rang out.

“She works at Gil’s. An orphan. Unmarried.”

I glared towards the crowd, their hungry faces stared back at me with no remorse. They no longer saw me as one of them. I was a pawn to be used in their own salvation. Anything I said would not be heard. I couldn’t fight them—I couldn’t go home; they'd tear my building down to get to me.

The quiet, solitary life I had carefully crafted for myself was gone.

In hindsight, I should’ve tried to fight.

To break away and make a run for it, just to say I did.

It wouldn’t have made much of a difference.

The evening would’ve unfolded the same way, albeit I probably would’ve been more bruised.

“It is decided then. We will give her to the Kraken at dawn.” Captain Blacktide’s eyes darkened. “Are you a virgin, dear?”

My cheeks had heated at the indignant question. Even with my freedom dwindling, I still held onto my pride.

“No,” I had said, willing my face not to betray the lie.

Captain Blacktide sucked in a breath, shaking his head before waving a dismissive hand.

“It matters little. You will be our human sacrifice. No one is to touch her.” He nodded once more to his men. “Take her to the dungeons.”

And the dungeons are where I spent my last night of freedom.

I was given a singular cup of wine and pieces of dried fish.

Sleep had not come easily on the stone bench I was meant to lie on.

My jailers roused me an hour ago and stripped me of my gown.

Trembling in my thin shift, I hadn’t even tried to fight them. My body had gone completely numb.

I barely registered the sight of the massive rock as Captain Blacktide and his pirates rowed me out towards it.

The rising sun glowed along the bright blue water.

The pirate captain reeked of whiskey and body odor as he unloaded me from the boat.

Heavy iron shackles were placed around my wrists and ankles.

“Your death will not be in vain. Remember that,” Blacktide said before stepping back into his boat, leaving me bound to the massive boulder.

That is where I am now, contemplating the choices that have led me here.

The sun rose high overhead, and the heat beat down on me with a burning intensity.

Salt stung my nostrils. A few seagulls called overhead.

It has only been a few hours, but the sea is already rising.

When I was initially placed here, it lapped gently at my ankles.

Now, the brackish water has reached my chest.

No Kraken is coming for me. I will drown before all the villagers standing along the docks, barely a hundred yards away.

Not one of them will save me. They won’t risk the pirate’s ire, but more importantly, they want what he has said to be true.

They’d rather have me live a life of eternal pain if it meant ending their own suffering.

Desperation dances in their hungry eyes as they stare out at me. My mouth is parched, and I don’t bother using my last minutes of air to call out to them. It would be useless.

My eyes snag on a familiar face near the front of the dock.

Gil’s green eyes are framed with deep wrinkles.

When our gazes lock, he swiftly looks away, and my heart cracks.

He is not my family, even though he had taken me in at sixteen, shortly after my parents’ deaths.

I had started looking up to him. I thought he cared enough about me that he would’ve spoken up on my behalf.

Even if it had only been the barest of condemnation, it would’ve meant the world to me.

Yet, as I watch him clutch the hands of his two young sons, I realize just how wrong I had been. Gil has his own family to take care of. I have no one. No one will mourn me, no one will miss me. I have spent the last eight years alone, and I will die alone.

Nothing like being chained to a rock against the rising tide to make one realize how inconsequential they are.

Sweat pours down my neck, and the water rises even higher. It brushes the underside of my chin. My arms have gone numb from being chained above my head. The skin on my shoulders is red from the sun. My throat feels like sand. The edges of my vision begin to blur.

From the dock, I can hear a few murmurs. An older woman, draped in stained linen, thrusts a bony hand towards me.

“Is this right? She will drown soon?”

“Why has he not come?” a young man beside her asks.

“Patience,” Blacktide snarls. “He will come. Have faith.”

Have faith.

There was a time I believed in something bigger than myself. I had dreams of adventures—of setting off in one of the ships that docked in the harbor and seeing what the world had to offer. Now, as I feel the sea bathe my lips, I realize I was always on borrowed time.

Bluewater is not kind to unaccompanied females.

Still, to die at twenty-four at the behest of a madman seems ridiculously unfair.

If I live through this, I will live each day for myself.

I’d have adventures—I wouldn’t hold myself back.

Dreams of what could’ve been dance through my mind and distract me from the fact that the water has now reached my nose.

“What’s that?” someone calls from the dock.

“Did you see it?”

“Have faith!”

The water covers my nose, and I let go. With one final silent plea, my weightless body remains tethered to the rock as the last dregs of air still in my lungs.

I pray that this is over swiftly and that in the next life I’m dealt a kinder hand.

A few more voices rise up, but I don’t hear them.

My vision blurs, and everything goes dark.