Chapter 35
Tink
Memories, dreams, thoughts… Everything and nothing rushed through her mind. Each image escaped before she could grab ahold. Her body jerked. Water spewed from her mouth. She gasped, sucking air into her raw and aching throat.
Everything hurt. Ev-er-y-thing.
If this was the afterlife, it sucked.
Sight returned slowly, everything around her blurry and spinning.
“—alive. Easy now.”
She beheld pale pink against dark grey lit by a blue glow, and pulled in another breath, just as painful as the first.
“I’ll be back.” A splash followed the musical voice.
Tink moved. She could—somehow. She tried to sit and failed, collapsing onto the rocky ground in a fit of coughs. Sharp rocks jammed into her back, just one more pain along with the searing burn in her wings, the throbbing headache, and her general state of shit.
A cave? Her sight cleared as she scanned her surroundings from her position on the ground.
Reality finally smacked her in the face.
She’d drowned. She was dead, and this was some shitty afterlife.
The elders always said the next life reflected the actions of the past one.
Had she really been so terrible as to deserve this?
She’d made her mistakes, but most of them were small: cutting out of class early, playing pranks on friends.
Or her bad habit that lingered from childhood of stealing extra dew candy from the storehouse.
Was it because she was cursed? All this for selling pixie dust?
A splash echoed through the cave, followed by sputtering and a heavy thump.
Tink sat up successfully this time.
“Smee?”
He lay on the rocky ground next to her, half his body still in the water. A naked, pink-haired woman leaned over him. A soft, blue glow illuminated them in the darkness.
No, not a woman… A navy tail flicked in the water below her. She sliced at the ropes around Smee’s wrists with her claws—swift but careful at the same time. She twisted to Tink. “Up. Good. See to him.” She backflipped into the water and disappeared into the depths.
“Tink,” he wheezed.
“You’re here.” Such a stupid thing to say, but it was all she could think of. He was here. That was a mermaid, one she’d seen before. They weren’t dead. She’d saved them. Holy fucking revered elders, I am alive.
No wonder she hurt so bad.
Tink scooted across the stones. They were on a small, rocky beach hidden within a cave.
Some kind of blue coral grew on the walls and down into the water, providing soft illumination like the moon on a dark night.
It was stunning really. That might have snagged her full attention if not for her revelation moments ago.
The ropes fell away from Smee’s wrists as he tugged the last bits apart.
“We’re not dead.” Tink just couldn’t stop staring at him. Real, he is real. And alive, just like her.
“No,” he said. “Captain…” He shook his head. “Never seen him like that. He thought you—”
James! He was still out there. She had to get to him. She had to save him. Tink tried to rise and stumbled, falling into the water. Her fingers clutched at the rock. Her boots kicked open water as she let out a panicked squeal.
“Got ya!” Smee grabbed her arms, pulling her with him onto the safety of land.
Her whole body shook with fright. One wrong move, and the sea had almost claimed her again.
“Shh, I got ya.” He wrapped his arms around her as if cradling a child—size-wise she was, compared to him. “So glad you’re alive. When you didn’t surface…” He shook his head.
Another mermaid emerged with a sputtering Barley. Smee released her and scrambled to his friend. Thank goodness. Another friend made it, but how many more?
“Take me back,” Tink demanded, voice raw.
The mermaid whirled on her. “No.” Not a mermaid, a merman, one with an angular face and dark green hair draping down his body like kelp.
Before she could say another word, he was gone, disappearing down into the deep water that had nearly drowned her a second time.
One by one, the crew appeared in their cave, hauled in sputtering or unconscious by the merfolk. Every time, Tink begged their aid, and asked to be taken back to the Kraken. How could she leave James?
Each time one of the merfolk broke the surface, she hoped for one face. But he never appeared, and they never took her back with them.
“Where is he?” Tink demanded. She paced the rocks, near hysterical.
The pink-haired mermaid—Adella, Smee called her—had reappeared in the pool and, this time, did not leave to fetch another sailor. There were no more. All members of the crew of the Jolly Roger were accounted for—except its captain.
“He was not in the water.” Her hair floated around her like a bright cloud, catching the light of the bioluminescent coral.
Tink’s hands fisted in her own hair, nearly yanking it out by the roots.
Barley wrapped his arms around her to stop her pacing. “Captain’s strong. He’ll be okay.”
“Okay?” A humorless laugh bubbled into the air as she pulled away. “Captain Blackbeard has him tied up on his ship! He just tried to drown us all. He burnt the Jolly Roger!”
“I know,” Barley said, ever the level-headed one.
“We all do,” Smee said. He sat with his arm around Anne, who looked paler than usual.
Tink heaved a sob, fighting against the tears that threatened. She’d never cried so much in her life. Barley took her in his arms again. Sage joined them, hugged them both tight. “We’ll figure out a plan. Soon as we get out of here,” she said.
“Speaking of which…” Barley glanced at the merman who’d joined them.
He bobbed idly in the water. “She comes,” his deep voice echoed through the cave.
“She?” Tink asked.
The water seemed to swell and expand. A moment later, a pale head draped in violet hair burst through the surface. Titania’s bone-white crown bore a twist of green kelp. Necklaces of baby pink pearls were draped over her bare chest.
“My, you all look wretched.” She appraised them one by one with her too-intent gaze.
“Thank you for saving us.” Smee stood before bowing to the queen. He was truly the first mate in that moment, taking on the mantle of leadership.
“Thank my consort and his sister.” She waved her hand at the other two.
Consort? Tink raised her brows before dipping a respectful bow to the green-haired merman and his cheery sister.
“Queen Titania,” Tink burst out before she’d fully raised her head. “Captain Blackbeard has James, er, Captain Hook. We have to get him back.”
The queen lifted one lavender brow. “Asking another favor of me?”
“Yes.” She’d taste the lie if Tink tried to deny it.
Titania blinked. “You love him.”
It wasn’t a question. Even so, she answered, “Yes.”
Standing there in her truth, her soul bared, she’d never felt more comfortable. She loved him. His crew might as well know—they’d heard his confession, after all.
Titania nodded, thoughtful. The haughty air that hung about her dimmed until she looked almost normal, relatable, friendly. It wasn’t a real change, more a softening of her features. “I cannot risk my people. Not even for love.”
Tink’s stomach dropped. That was it, their chance to save James.
Sharp nails bit into her palms. Titania could save him.
She didn’t say she couldn’t, just that she wouldn’t.
“He got caught because of you!” She threw an accusing finger at the queen, her voice going sharp.
“We’re here because you wanted the damn scale of Leviathan! ”
The temperature in the cave dropped.
“Tink.” Sage grabbed her arm in warning.
Titania’s eyes narrowed. Her tail stirred up waves.
“You’re here because you wanted something from me.” She bared her fangs. “My people saved your life!”
The words hit like a slap to the face. Tink’s shoulders fell.
She was right, of course. It wasn’t the queen’s fault.
They’d asked for a way to remove their curses.
Tink had gotten James and his men cursed when she stole from them, after Blackbeard had taken the jewels to begin with.
It was Blackbeard’s men who’d seduced Lily, who’d accepted Tink’s dust in trade for her, even knowing she was there by her own will.
Blackbeard. It all came back to him. He was the source of all their pain, and now he held James’s life in his hands—after trying to end all of theirs.
“I’m sorry,” Tink croaked, holding back a sob.
“She’s upset,” Smee said at her side. “She didn’t mean it. Not really.”
Titania’s tail fins slapped against the water. “I know.” She crossed her arms. “I believe you have something for me?”
Tink sniffled and wiped at her face. “How did you know?”
She grinned, revealing her sharp fangs. “Magic such as that…I feel it.” Titania glided forward through the water, nearing the drop-off of the rocky beach. She unfurled one clawed hand to reveal a black pearl.
Tink sucked in a breath. Her entire focus narrowed down to that one shimmering object. Finally. Her way home.
But the joy she expected didn’t come. It’d be a relief to let her family and friends know she was all right. Sleeping in her hammock, eating the sweet fruits they grew…it would be like a dream after so long away. But those joys were fleeting. They satisfied the body but not the soul.
“You don’t look pleased,” the queen observed. “It’s what we agreed.”
“Yes, yes, it is.” Tink fished in her pocket and pulled forth the scale.
“You found it,” Barley gasped.
“Thought Captain was lying,” Smee added.
Tink shook her head. “He wasn’t. We found it in the cave when we escaped the rain.” She looked around at the crew. The people who’d become friends, companions, gathered round to glare at the stone scale in her hand.
Leaving wouldn’t just mean losing James. It would mean losing all of them too.
The queen’s eyes widened as Tink held out the scale. They met at the drop-off, Titania raising her torso out of the water as Tink sloshed to the edge, trying to forget she was one step away from falling into the depths.
The exchange was simple, unremarkable. One small, precious item for another.
Titania looked past Tink. “Your captain’s pledge is fulfilled. The storms will chase you no more.”
“Thank you, Your Highness,” Smee said, as if he were a gallant royal courtier and not a pirate.
He must have done something, because Titania’s eyes twinkled with mirth. “I do like you all. You’ve been a friend to the merfolk.”
Anne rose to her feet and stepped forward. “Then why did one of yours tell Blackbeard where we’d gone?”
Titania froze. The temperature in the cave dropped again. The other merfolk gasped.
“They…” The queen shivered, and the temperature returned to normal. “I taste your truth.” Her tail splashed water, sprinkling them with droplets. “Always someone seeks my crown… I am sorry you suffered for this.”
A claw-tipped finger tapped against her cheek.
Hope ballooned within Tink’s chest. The queen might help now. Someone had tipped off Blackbeard’s crew, given Lily the chance to get there ahead of them and set her trap. Tink rocked on the tips of her toes, then scrambled back from the edge.
“Still, I will not attack Captain Blackbeard for you. It risks too much for my people, especially if some of mine ally with him.” Tink’s rising tide of hope ebbed. “But…” Titania glanced to her consort and his sister. “I believe some friends are nearby?”
One sharp nod confirmed her question.
Titania shifted her attention back to Tink and the others. “Rest here. My people will bring food. When Captain Blackbeard has gone, they will take you to the surface.”
“Friends?” Barley asked.
The queen only grinned. “You shall see. We did not save you to strand you here.” The sharpness faded from the queen’s face—the briefest lowering of her imperious curtain—and she winked.
A moment later, she was gone.