Chapter 37 #3
"Not tonight," I decided. "Tonight I want to go home with clean hands. I want to hold her and tell her it's done and not have the taste of her tormentors on my tongue."
Riven nodded, understanding. "The ship?"
I looked up at the dark hull. Lily's nightmare made manifest. The place where she'd learned to be afraid, learned to be small, learned to hide everything she was just to survive another day.
"Sink it," I said. "All of it. I don't want a single plank left floating. I don't want anyone to ever find it, ever wonder what happened, ever speak its name again."
We worked together, claws tearing through the weathered hull, ripping open wounds that let the ocean pour in.
Wood splintered and groaned. The ship listed, tilted, began its slow descent into oblivion.
We swam through the interior, shredding everything we found—hammocks and nets and the captain's precious cargo, all of it destroyed, all of it consigned to the deep.
By the time we were done, the Windchaser was nothing but debris, scattering as it sank, disappearing into the darkness below.
By morning, there would be no trace of it.
No evidence that it had ever existed at all.
Good.
The swim home was peaceful. We moved through the water without speaking, letting the current carry us, lost in our own thoughts.
Mine kept circling back to Lily—to her face when she'd frozen at the smell of fish guts, to the way her scent went sour with old fear in the middle of the night, to every small scar that ship had left on her soul.
The Windchaser was gone now. However, there were other scars. Other wounds that hadn't healed.
"We need to talk to the others," I said finally, breaking the silence. "About Marcus. About her parents."
Riven's golden eyes gleamed in the darkness. "You think we can find them?"
"We have connections." I thought of the networks we'd built over centuries—other sirens, sea witches, creatures of the deep who owed us favors or feared our wrath. "The merchant Marcus, the one who bought her like she was cargo—he has ships. Ships travel routes. Routes can be tracked."
"And the parents?"
My jaw tightened. "Coastal city. Port town. We know which one." Lily had told us that much, in whispered confessions late at night, her voice cracking with the weight of old betrayals. "It would take time to find them. But we could do it. We will do it."
"Kaelan has contacts in the northern waters," Riven mused. "Sirens who track shipping lanes, who know which merchants travel where. If Marcus is still sailing..."
"We'll find him." The words came out hard as iron, sharp as teeth. "When we do, he'll wish he'd never laid eyes on our mate. He'll wish he'd never heard the word omega. He'll wish he'd died in his cradle before he grew into the kind of man who buys women like property."
Silence fell again, but it was a comfortable silence, full of shared purpose and grim satisfaction.
The ship was gone. Cort was long dead. Decker and Brennan, the captain, and the others had joined him in the dark.
It wasn't enough. It would never be enough—nothing could undo what Lily had suffered.
But it was a start. And there was more work to be done.
When we finally reached the cave system, Lily was awake and waiting for us. She was curled in the nest with Kaelan and Thane, but her dark eyes were fixed on the entrance, and she pushed herself upright the moment we appeared.
"Is it done?" she asked, and I could hear the tremor in her voice, feel the complicated tangle of emotions pulsing through the bond.
"It's done." I swam to her side, gathering her in my arms. She fit perfectly against me, as she always did, her head tucked beneath my chin, her fingers curling into my scales. "The ship is gone. The crew is gone. Every single one of them."
She shuddered, releasing a breath she'd probably been holding since we left. "Decker?"
"Riven took his time with him," I said, meeting my packmate's eyes over her head. He nodded once, savage satisfaction in his expression. "He knew exactly why he was dying. He knew exactly who sent us. And he suffered, Lily. He suffered the way he made you suffer."
"The captain?"
"Dead. They're all dead. And the ship is at the bottom of the ocean, scattered in pieces. No one will ever find it. No one will ever know what happened." I pressed a kiss to her hair. "It's over."
She was quiet for a long moment, and I felt something shift in the bond—something loosening, releasing, like a knot that had been pulled too tight for too long finally coming undone.
"Thank you," she whispered. "I know I shouldn't... I know it's wrong to be glad they're dead. But I am. I'm so glad."
"There's nothing wrong with it," Kaelan said quietly, drawing closer to wrap himself around her other side. "They hurt you. They deserved what they got. And if being glad about that makes you a monster, then you're in good company."
She laughed at that—a small, watery sound, but genuine. "I suppose I am."
"There's more we need to discuss," Kaelan continued, his voice shifting to something more serious. "Marcus. Your parents. They're still out there."
Lily stiffened slightly, but she didn't pull away. "I know."
"They sold you," Thane said, and his gentle voice had gone hard with uncharacteristic anger.
"Your own parents sold you like livestock.
And Marcus paid for you like you were cargo, like you were a thing instead of a person.
" His amber eyes burned. "They don't get to live peacefully while you carry those scars. "
"We have ways of finding them," I said carefully, watching Lily's face. "Connections throughout these waters. It would take time, but when you're ready..."
"I'm ready," her voice was quiet but certain. Cold in a way I'd never heard from her before. "I've been ready. I just didn't want to ask. Didn't want to seem..."
"Like what?" Riven demanded. "Like someone who wants justice? Like someone who has every right to want the people who wronged her to pay?"
"Find them," Lily said, and her voice was steady now, all hesitation burned away.
"All of them. Marcus. My father. My mother.
" Her jaw tightened. "I want to know where they are.
I want to know everything about them—where they live, what they do, whether they ever think about the daughter they sold. "
"And when we find them?" Kaelan asked quietly.
Lily was silent for a long moment. I could feel her emotions churning through the bond—old pain and fresh rage and something that might have been grief for the family she'd once thought she had.
"I don't know yet," she admitted finally. "I need to think about what they deserve. What I want their ends to be." She looked up, meeting each of our eyes in turn. "I want them found…when I've decided... when I know what I want..."
"We'll be ready," Kaelan promised. "However long it takes.
Whatever you decide. We'll be ready." She nodded and seemed to deflate, exhaustion replacing the cold determination in her eyes.
I pulled her closer, feeling Riven press against her other side, feeling Kaelan and Thane complete the circle around her.
Five bodies tangled together in the soft glow of the nest, five hearts beating as one.
"I love you," she whispered, and even though she was speaking to all of us, I felt the words settle into my chest like a gift. "All of you. Thank you for... for being mine. For doing this. For being the monsters I need you to be."
"Always," we answered, four voices blending into one.
"Forever. Whatever you need. Whoever you need us to be.
" I began to hum softly, a lullaby I'd composed just for her, for moments like this when the weight of the past grew too heavy and she needed to be reminded that she was safe now.
The melody wrapped around us like a blanket, soft and warm and full of promise.
Lily's eyes fluttered closed. Her breathing slowed.
Her tension melted away, leaving only peace behind.
Tomorrow, we would begin the hunt for Marcus. Tomorrow, we would set wheels in motion that would eventually lead us to her parents' door. Tomorrow, the vengeance would continue.
Tonight, there was only this. Our omega in our arms. The glow of bioluminescence painting everything in shades of gold and blue.
The satisfied weight of justice served, however incomplete it might still be.
The ship was gone. Its crew was dead. Somewhere in the world above, a merchant and two parents lived their lives unaware that death was coming for them.
This was only the beginning.