11. Maren
11
Maren
S leep wove in and out like a needle made of vapor.
Solid one moment as it stitched tight around my head, dissolved the next. I was underwater; I was in the sky.
The silver face of the moon gazed down at me, waiting to see if I might live or die, until clouds stretched over its bright face, blocking out its light and leaving the world black.
A tunnel opened underneath me, and I swam down through ice-cold water. My hands stroked a sheet of ice. I turned over to kick my heels against it. The stone I needed was below. But I didn’t have heels—I only had a tail that I thrashed and thrashed against the ice. Weakness came and I grew tired. Gloriously tired. My head throbbed. My lower back blazed with pain.
Rock bit my palms, the darkness too bright, leaving me nauseous.
“Little Creature.” Nori sat beside me, watching the waves of the sea. “Did we not teach you of the dangers of man?”
“You didn’t teach her that,” Selena said, beached on the other side of the rock. “You taught her about twigs and roots and birds. You taught her to cordae with her island. You never taught her to protect herself.”
Nori’s fingers tightened on the rock. “I would have. I would have taught her all she needed to know, every risk and every defense, had you not stolen her away. I, who reared her as a child, would have shown her how to swim, how to seduce, how to forge herself as a weapon upon which to slay greedy humans. It’s your fault she fell victim to the whims of man.”
Selena’s blue eyes ignited. “You squandered your time, bonding her to your land, waiting for the final moment before the door to transition closed. Then, you panicked.”
Their voices pounded into my mind, and I opened my eyes to tell them to stop, suddenly finding myself alone. I tried to sit up. Clouds in the dark sky tilted to my right, then snapped and tilted left. They rebounded like a tree branch, pulled back and released. The ground heaved with them, leaving my head spinning. I leaned over and vomited.
It was dark. My lungs ached. My ears felt as though someone had ripped them from my skull.
A door creaked open.
I glanced around for the presence of one. For a house or cabin that I hadn’t seen when I’d crawled ashore. If it were there, I couldn’t see it.
Dripping water echoed.
Shadows slithered low in the corners of the rock, gathering behind my head. I tried to look, but I couldn’t move. My limbs had turned to marble. Cold gripped the sides of my arms, biting into my flesh. Something pulled me upright, the motion sending a frothy cough from my mouth. The hairs on my neck raised.
Clouds shifted across the sky, blotting stars one at a time like candles being snuffed out. Wet fingers brushed my hair across my shoulders, gathering it at my back. The final star died.
I tried to turn. Angling my gaze up, I tilted my chin toward the sky, letting my head rotate backwards until my eyes locked onto what sat behind me.
My stomach clenched as a shadow smiled upside-down into my face. “Hello, young Naiad,” it said, its voice a wisp of air. “Did you come to strike a bargain?”
Freezing fingertips grazed down my arm, slick moisture leaving a trail across my skin.
I tried to shake my head. To tell the shadow to leave. I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak . It inched closer, mist then solid, human then velvet air, deep as the backdrop of the sky. “Tell me what you want, darling. I can free your ropes, I can loose your binds. I can break the chains of body, mind, and soul. You are tied by all three. You need only ask, and I will release you.”
Shadows snaked across my shoulder, folding into my lap. Cold weight pressed the backs of my legs into the rough rock. Dread twisted in my belly. The half-moon hid behind a shroud of muddy fog, its reflection reduced to a dim glow.
I felt the shadow’s legs on either side of my body as it straddled me.
The muscles in my neck ached, my leaden head impossible to raise and look at it. I’d let it fall too far backward. The shadow climbed up my chest. It grinned at me, reaching out its velvet arms to grasp either side of my face, righting my head. Everywhere it touched was ice against my body, melting as it met my skin.
“No,” I answered, though the word was little more than a breath of empty air.
Drip… Drip... Drip...
It drew my face to its own, breathing misty air across my mouth. I pushed away, suddenly falling backwards, my head cracking against craggy rock.
“If you ever change your mind…” The shadow chuckled and leaned low over me, a finger stroking my cheek. It angled my head sideways. Ice swept across my lips, freezing water dripping down my chin—
A wave crashed over me, joltingly cold. The undertow crept away, moonlight shining thinly through the cloud cover.
I glanced around, my mind whirling over what might be real. And what may be nothing more than a trick of the moonlight. But there was no answer.