24. Chapter 24
For a moment, I wondered how I could have sung a siren’s song without my voice. But when I placed a hand to my throat and felt not an inkling of sound rumbling there, I realised it wasn’t mine.
Down the beach a short way, holding her swollen belly in both hands, was mum. Adrian and Bronwyn accompanied her a few steps behind, hauling the still unconscious pirate between them.
The powerful melody reverberated down to my bones, and perhaps even to my soul itself. Its strength far exceeded anything I had produced, and every man in the vicinity stood to attention the moment the first note rang. Including Ben.
I stepped into his path and covered his ears as he walked toward Mum. He blinked a few times and wrapped his arms around me as if to anchor himself. I dragged him down to my lips by his ears and indulged in a brief, but deep, kiss. For a moment there, I wondered if I would ever have kissed him again.
We turned to watch as the pirates wandered in a daze toward Mum, and my gut writhed with discomfort. I didn’t like that they surrounded her like that, even though she had them under control.
But Mum glared at Eyepatch, her face red and her brow furrowed in a terrifying arrangement. She reached into his shirt and snapped the magical seashell from around his neck, smashing it against the nearest rock.
The same golden ball of light shot back toward me and struck me in the throat. My vocal cords thrummed, and I luxuriated in an audible gasp. Thank goodness for that.
I stifled a snort as I caught sight of Adrian, who had dropped the pirate and also followed Mum in a daze. Bronwyn abandoned the pirate and leapt onto Adrian’s back, slapping her hands over his ears. He jolted out of his stupor and tried to whirl around, but face-planted the sand with Bronwyn on top of him.
The moment the pirates let go of Kira, she tottered her way toward Ben and me, trying to flap her wings still tangled in rope.
“A little help, here?” she asked.
Ben covered his own ears and, with my newly freed hands, I seized Kira and pulled her into a bone-crushing hug.
“Ow. Ow! Get off me, you nutter. I am sick of being restrained,” Kira snapped.
“I’m loving you. Get over yourself.” My voice hitched in my throat a little.
“You soppy sack of...” Kira’s tender insult trailed off, and she rested her head against my shoulder.
When I could finally compose myself, I unravelled the rope from around her and hugged her properly. For all her brash statements about an interesting death-by-pirate, the thought of actually losing her made me want to crumble.
Over Kira’s shoulder, I watched Mum gather the pirates, her expression that of serene focus. She drew in a long breath and screeched a high-pitch note that rippled the very air around her. One by one, the pirates toppled onto the sand, out cold.
“That’s... impressive,” Ben said, lowering his hands. “Can you do that?”
“Thanks to Adrian, I can.” Credit where credit was due, after all.
“Adrian?” Kira sounded more shocked than was probably reasonable, but I still didn’t let her go.
Mum wobbled a bit as her feet slipped in the sand, and I finally released Kira.
“I’ve got to help mum,” I said.
“We’re coming.” Ben put a hand to my back and then Kira’s to encourage us across the beach.
“Mum?” Kira’s tone shot higher still as I broke into a jog.
I left Ben to explain as I hurried to mum. I got to her as she leaned against a nearby rock, still clutching her stomach. Had she even let go of it since I got here?
“Sit down, mum.” I grabbed her arm and helped lower her onto the beach. “You shouldn’t have come down here. It’s dangerous.”
“Well, that’s what worried me. Once you’d gone I thought, what kind of mother am I letting my daughter run off into danger like that?” Mum leaned against the rock and huffed in a few breaths, red-faced. “You could have gotten hurt.”
“Mum, I’m not a baby. I mean... well, I guess I am, sort of.” I gestured to her stomach as I sat down next to her. “But you shouldn’t have put yourself in harm’s way like that.”
“Darling, I’m your mother.” Mum patted my knee. “If I don’t, who will?”
“Is everyone okay?” Bronwyn and Adrian hurried over, having abandoned their pirate.
Adrian had the look of a deer in the headlights, perhaps still in shock from the effects of the siren song.
“I think so. What about you guys?” I asked.
“All good.” Adrian gave a thumb’s up, even if his face told a different story.
“Shall we get these dicks back through the portal before anything else goes wrong?” Kira said as she sidled up with Ben.
“Do you know where it is?” I asked.
After getting thrown a distance from it during our entrance, I hadn’t had a chance to see it.
“It’s over here.” Kira pointed to the cliff, but she did a double take as she got a good look at mum for the first time. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open. “Maeve, is that you making that enormous bump?”
“Don’t say it like that.” I grimaced. Even if it was true, the idea of it made me feel icky.
Ben clapped a hand on Kira’s shoulder and steered her toward the portal. “We’re going to get the pirates to the portal. Take all the time you need,” he said. He beckoned Bronwyn and Adrian after him, leaving Mum and me alone on the shore.
“Oh, look at you. Sand everywhere.” Mum picked at my hair, shaking grains out of the strands. “You’re definitely my girl if you can get into such a mess.”
I wished I knew. “Thanks, Mum. For getting us out of that. I don’t know what we’d have done if you didn’t.”
“It’s not right for you to thank me,” Mum said. “Apparently, this is the only thing I ever do for you. I’m grateful to have just this, if that’s all it must be.”
Tears blurred my vision as I stared at her belly.
“What’s the date today?” I asked.
“July 14th.”
Three days before my birthday. Three days before Mum would die and her soul became trapped in the arrow. How was any of this fair?
Mum pulled me against her as I sobbed, and I cosied up on her shoulder. Hints of lavender perfume overwhelmed the sea breeze.
“Whatever happens, my darling, you must know I’ll always love you,” she said as she stroked my hair.
“I love you too, Mum.”
No matter how many times I tried to pull back the tears, they kept streaming. Somehow, meeting Mum had only emphasised my feelings of loss. There was no closure, only the feeling that once I walked through that portal, I would lose her all over again.
“I don’t want to leave,” I mumbled.
“You must, my darling. I’m so honoured to have met you even just this once, and I’m so proud of you.”
I dissolved. Dad had told me so many times that Mum was proud of me, but it didn’t feel the same coming from a third party. To hear it from her added a piece to my heart that I had missed from the day I was born. Even though we only had such a short time together, I would never forget this day.
***
Once the others had piled the pirates in a disorganised heap at the foot of the portal, Ben poked his head around the rock to summon me. I clung to Mum as we slowly made our way to the portal. I didn’t want to let go, and it seemed neither did she. I activated the portal with the amulet and Ben and Adrian tossed the unconscious pirates through it one by one.
“I’m so pleased you have such good friends and a young man to look after you,” Mum said, holding my hands and giving them a squeeze. “It...it’s a comfort.”
I scrunched up my face and hugged her, side-stepping her bump.
“You’ll take care of your dad, won’t you?” she whispered.
“I will, I promise.” If it meant breaking every curse Dusk had ever witnessed, I would do it.
“And you’ll take care of Maeve, won’t you, young man?” Mum said as Ben made a slow, silent approach.
“Of course, ma’am.” Ben bowed his head a little.
Taking a deep breath, Mum placed my hands into Ben’s and took a step back.
A dull headache brewed from the near-constant crying, but I couldn’t stop if I tried.
“Love you, Mum,” I said, as Ben led me toward the portal.
“I love you too, my darling.” Mum waved and hiccuped a few times, awash with tears.
With a gentle touch, Ben guided me through the portal. I blinked, and my mother was gone. But when I blinked again, the Captain stood before us, eyeing the pile of groggy pirates slowly coming to their senses on the floor of the food hall. The tables and chairs were still askew, but no longer broken, as many of them were when the portal dragged us through it.
In what must have only taken half a second, the Captain looked up, ripped the sabre from its holster and plunged it into my gut.