Chapter 19
Kye
Maren was terrified. Her big eyes opened even wider. Fear distorted her lovely features.
“We need to get out of the water!” She turned around, searching for the shadows, the tentacles, and the dark creatures lurking beneath the surface.
But there were none around anymore.
I gestured out to the horizon. The first pale rays of sunrise stretched over the expanse of the ocean, streaking the crests of waves with a golden glow.
“Daytime is the reign of Nanami, the Mother of the Ocean,” I said. “The nightmares are gone, until tonight at least.”
“Oh...thank God.” She ran a hand over her wet, tangled hair. Her face relaxed with relief, exposing a deadly exhaustion.
“You’re still right, though. We need to get out of the water,” I agreed. “I have to take care of you.”
I wished I could wrap her in a blanket and tuck her into bed right away. But after we got back onto the main deck of the ship, many other things had to be taken care of first. The crew were diverting the water out of the ship and back into the ocean. The cargo inside was being dried too.
Sagara, the ship’s captain, met us the moment we stepped onto the deck again. He bowed in greeting, brushing away a curly wisp of sky-blue hair that had escaped the colorful scarf he’d tied around his head.
“Should I send for another ship, Your Majesty?” he asked. “His Highness, Prince Arnon—”
I lifted a hand, stopping him. His Highness, my uncle, had a lot to answer for. The best he could do for himself was to make sure he died peacefully before I saw him again.
I’d trusted Arnon with the woman who had become near and dear to my heart, believing he would protect her better than I could. And he betrayed me. Anger burned through my insides at the thought of what he’d done to her.
Now I wished to break the curse for the sole purpose of being able to tear Arnon limb from limb with my own hands. He didn’t deserve a quick, merciful death from simply turning to glass.
But my vengeance would have to wait.
“No. We can’t wait for another ship,” I said. “We can’t linger in Lyrei. We need to be in Sarnala by nightfall and out of the water by sunrise. I’d say ‘let’s set sail,’ Captain, but since we have no sails left, it’ll have to be your crew’s magic that will get us there. Can they do that?”
The sirens’ ships rarely used the power of wind anyway, moving mostly through the water magic of their crew. The ship being made of glass now potentially presented a concern, but Sagara nodded confidently.
“With the water out of the ship, its buoyancy is greatly improved now. Combined with our magic, we will get you to Sarnala, Your Majesty.”
“Splendid,” I said to him, but my gaze kept drifting to Maren.
She shivered, wrapped in a blanket that one of the crew had brought out for her.
I couldn’t see most of her body under it, but there was a cut on her forehead and another one on her cheekbone.
She did not escape unscathed, and those were just the visible wounds.
What she’d gone through tonight must’ve left even deeper cuts on her mind and her soul.
Fuck. All I wanted was for her to be happy and enjoy her life by my side. But all she got had been one nightmare after another.
“We’ll depart immediately then.” Sagara bowed. “Your cabin is ready, Your Majesty. We brought enough provisions for your breakfast too. The rest we can clean, dry, and organize on our way.”
“I don’t need any special accommodations now since the ship is made of glass anyway,” I said. “I can stay anywhere on deck. But I do need a bed, bath, and breakfast for Maren. And I need them now.”
Maren leaned her shoulder against the broken mast. The pearls, both black and white, strained around her throat with her every breath.
“Do you have a hag on your crew?” I asked Sagara.
He nodded.
“I want her to see Maren as soon as possible too,” I said, keeping my eyes on my butterfly.
She acted strong, as usual. But I knew it would take a long time to ease the memories of the last night. It might take even longer for her mind to heal. But at least I could make sure that her body was cleaned, healed, and rested as soon as possible.
“Come with me,” I told her, eager to make her warm and comfortable again.
The ship swayed into motion. The vessels stirred by sirens were renowned for a smooth ride with hardly any rocking from the waves and swells. No lurching in the storms. No risk of motion sickness.
Maren’s pale, pinched expression made me pause, however.
“What is it, darling? Are you alright?” I came closer.
Her breath suddenly rasped in her throat. She jerked and grimaced as if punched in the stomach.
“Maren?” I grabbed her blanket and tore it away. It rained down onto the deck in a waterfall of glass shards.
The ropes of black pearls that densely covered her body tightened, digging into her skin.
“Kye...” horror flashed in her eyes.
“I’m here, Maren. I’m not going anywhere.” I hovered my hands over the pearls. Damned if I touched them, damned if I didn’t. “We’ll need to get Jahanam’s magic off you. But you’ll need to hold still, sweetheart. Very, very still.”
“Ahhh...” Air rushed from her chest.
She bent over, and I barely managed to jerk my hands away just in time.
“He...” she panted, “he won’t let me leave.”
Rage burned inside me. How dare anyone—a man, a fae, or a fucking god—even fathom that they could tear her away from me.
“He holds no power over you,” I growled. “He cannot have you.”
She tossed her head back. Her neck strained. Blood rushed to her face. The two strands of black pearls looped around her neck just below the wide choker of white ones.
The white pearls allowed her to breathe underwater—a fairly harmless magic of siren hags.
The black ones belonged to Jahanam. He’d claimed her, as if she was his to claim.
“Get them off her,” I ordered the closest sailor of the group that had gathered around us.
The sailor happened to be a woman. With trembling fingers, she tried to yank at one of the many strands of pearls around Maren’s chest, but couldn’t even get a good grip on it.
“Who put them on her?” the sailor asked in anguish.
“One of the Ancient Ones,” I said, deliberately omitting Jahanam’s name—no need to send the crew into panic.
Still, the sirens around me gasped, then murmured in awe and trepidation.
“The divine magic cannot be manipulated,” Sagara said quietly on my left.
Of course if the god put the pearls on Maren, he certainly would’ve made sure no siren could remove them. Not an ordinary siren, that is.
Maren croaked, clawing at the pearls and her exposed skin alike.
“She can’t breathe,” the woman sailor warned in a trembling voice.
“If the Ancient One wants her to stay,” Sagara suggested, “I’m afraid the only way to keep her alive is to leave her in Lyrei. We’ll need to turn back before she dies.”
To leave Maren for Jahanam would be condemning her to a death more horrible than any of us could imagine. He’d use her in any way he’d find beneficial to him, then he’d suck her life force out of her, turning her body into one of his undead servants.
“I’m not leaving her,” I snapped at that preposterous idea.
I’d never give Maren up to anyone. She belonged to me.
Maren staggered to the side until her back hit the stump of the broken mast.
“Hold her,” I ordered the captain and his crew.
“Keep her back pressed to the mast. Sagara, you hold her shoulders.” I pointed at the female sailor.
“I want you to hold her head. You and you...” I picked two more sailors from the crowd.
“Hold her arms and legs. I want her still. Perfectly still. Do you hear me? Use your fucking fae strength and don’t let her move a muscle. ”
As they rushed to comply with my orders, I leaned over Maren, searching her eyes.
“It’ll be alright, darling. Just try to hold still for a few moments. Can you do that for me?” I cooed in the sweetest voice I could muster, but I couldn’t entirely hide the rough notes of anguish from it.
Her eyes were wide open. Veins bulged out on her forehead. Her mouth was open, too, but only a hoarse croak came out in response.
Fuck.
I closed my eyes for a moment, afraid to delay yet terrified to rush it.
“We’re ready, Your Majesty,” Sagara’s shaky voice reached me.
My fingers trembled as I extended a hand toward the pearls on Maren’s body.
As necessary as removing the strands around her neck was, I decided to start with those on her chest first. The outer layer of the row just above her breasts seemed a little more accessible, easier for me to reach with less danger of accidentally touching her skin.
The black pearls weren’t like beads on a string. Black, sticky slime connected them. As I slid my finger over the row, the entire loop turned to glass.
“Break them away from her,” I ordered one of the crew.
Carefully, avoiding my hands, the man hurriedly scraped at the glass. The glass beads fell off, bouncing off the deck, then rolling off into the ocean.
It worked.
Except that this was just one row. The rest of the cursed black beads, thousands of them, were still clinging to my butterfly’s body. Disrupting one strand didn’t loosen the grip of the others.
An old woman rushed to us from one of the lower decks. I didn’t spare her a glance, simply catching her moving in my peripheral vision.
“I’m Daria, the ship hag you sent for, Your Majesty.” She stopped at a distance, probably utterly confused by what was going on.
“Great,” I rasped, my throat dry as sand. “Don’t just stand there. Help her.”
The hag slipped behind the mast, keeping as far away from me as possible. Reaching from around the mast, she touched Maren’s cheek.
“She isn’t breathing, Your Majesty...” the hag whimpered.
“Then make her breathe!” I roared the order.
Terror gripped my insides. My hands shook, and I clenched them into fists, drawing a long breath. For once in my life, I couldn’t just let the rage out. I couldn’t break things, murder people, and roar until my throat felt sore and my voice was gone.