Mira
Chapter twenty
Sirens Cove
I really am turning into my mother. I don’t hate it, but it terrifies me, her power and her presence. And now, all these sirens and mermaids seem to know who I am, what I’m meant to become, before I’ve even had the chance to grasp it myself.
It’s overwhelming, your own reflection being a mystery.
Looking back, I’ve always felt the pull of the ocean, like I was born with saltwater flowing through my veins instead of blood.
Not just because I’m a pirate who was raised at sea.
It’s like the ocean’s been waiting for me to remember who I am all my life.
Anya was the most unsettling creature I’ve ever encountered. There was something about her that didn’t belong, neither in the water, nor in the world. Anya favors the shadows. Her aura bled darkness. Her voice was raspy, like it had been dragged from the bottom of the ocean’s trenches.
“So,” I say, just to stir the pot, “you had a mermaid girlfriend?”
He groans, eyes narrowing. “Mira, I’ve told you—”
“Relax.” I cut him off with a smirk. “I’m just playing. You seem to have a thing for women with fins.”
He shakes his head with a quiet huff, and I laugh, glancing down at our feet swinging over the edge of the crow’s nest. I guess this is our spot.
I came up here to read more of my parents' journals, to hear the waves crash against the ship, to feel the sun on my face and the sea breeze twist through my hair.
But Kai was already here, perched at the edge, staring out at the horizon.
He doesn’t seem upset or stressed. He seems calm.
Gods, he’s so unbelievably attractive it’s unfair.
The sunlight clings to his skin, making it glow golden.
His tattoos twist over his chest and arms like sea creatures in motion, each one tied to the ocean, and strangely familiar.
His wavy dark brown hair hits his shoulders just right, tousled from the wind.
He’s perfect. I’m staring at him when I notice it, his arm. The skin around the gashes is puffy and angry looking, veins darkening beneath the surface. My breath catches. “Kai,” I say sharply, all the warmth draining from my voice. “Your arm, it's gotten worse.”
“It’s gotten awfully sinister hasn’t it?” he asks, acting like this isn’t a big deal.
I reach out to touch his arm, but he pulls back. “Don’t,” he says, distant and hurt. It’s unlike him. I freeze.
“Where is this from?” I asked, my voice dipping. “It looks very infected.”
Now that I’m really looking, the veins spread like black spiderwebs beneath his skin, crawling up his arm and reaching toward his chest. They pulse faintly, alive, like something dark is still moving inside him.
The color isn’t red—it’s the color of deep water, of ink.
This isn’t just a scar. It’s a mark left by the siren that nearly claimed his life as a child.
“I was told something might happen to it,” Kai said, eyes fixed on the horizon. “I’ve been feeling sharp pain lately and the veins are spreading faster than before.”
I squint, trying to make sense of it. “What do you mean? Told by who? Can I see it?” He moves his arm farther away from me, putting up a silent wall. “Please,” I say softly, flashing him my eyes, steady and unrelenting. Finally, he shifts, offering me his arm. I take it gently.
The scar has split wide open, the skin angry and bleeding. The flesh around it shimmers faintly, something sharp glinting just beneath the surface, like bone, or—
“I was told,” Kai says, voice low and rough, “that because I escaped a siren once, because I nearly killed her, she marked me. That I carry a piece of her. And now that she’s gone, that piece is waking up.
It’s just a lot worse than I thought it was going to be.
It seems like the siren is trying to kill me from the inside out.
” I look up at him, my breath shallow. “Her claws, her teeth, they surface through my skin. As if I’m meant to carry her remnants.
To protect them.” His voice cracks slightly, the pain too obvious to hide.
“In order to make a wish at the fountain, you need a piece of a siren, so this may be true?” I say slowly, the thought crystallizing as it leaves my lips. One of the rarest, most dangerous parts of the map to obtain, pieces of a siren. “It looks like the scar is killing you more than anything.”
“Yes, I’m starting to think that as well,” Kai says, his gaze still on the horizon. His hazel eyes shimmer gold in the fading light, but something in his expression shifts. He’s retreating. Quiet. Guarded.
“What is it?” I ask.
“It’s how I found out… that’s the problem.”
My chest tightens. “I’m not following. How did you find out?”
He finally turns to look at me. Really looks. “You know I’d protect you,” he says. “Till the ends of the earth.”
The words make my heart drop. Anxiety surges through me, crawling under my skin. What is he about to say? “I do,” I whisper, eyes locked on his, my voice coated in fear. “I trust you.”
“These creatures, the kappas, they boarded my ship. Right before you found me,” Kai says, his voice tight. “They gave me the intel I needed. And I… I made a deal with them.” He hesitates. “I didn’t know how much you meant to me then.”
My stomach drops. “You better not have sold me to the kappas,” I say, my voice cold.
“I didn’t—” he started, but I cut him off.
“I know the kappas, Kai. They’re vile. Wretched. Manipulative. They make you feel needed and then they drown you in the dark. If you made a deal you can’t keep,” I shake my head, “you’re as good as dead. I'm as good as dead."
He looks at me, eyes rimmed with sorrow.
“The deal was to grant their captain a wish. To free him, to let him rest.” His gaze flicks to the water, then back to me.
“But there was another part. They wanted you kept safe.
Said when the time came, and they needed you, they'd take you. But I never agreed to that part.”
My eyes widened. He reaches for me, grabs my leg, but I pull away from him, like he put fire to my skin and burned me. “That will never happen, Mira,” he says, voice fierce. “You have to know that. I will gut every last one of them before they even look at you.”
“What do they want me for?” I ask, my tone flat, emotionless.
He hesitates. “They said you're a key. A piece of the map.” His voice slows, like he’s picking every word out of a minefield. “They told me to keep you safe until they need you.”
My chest tightens and all I can see is red. Has he been pretending this entire time? Acting like my protector just to deliver me to them? Are you fucking kidding me?
I stand, balancing on the beam like it’s solid ground beneath the storm in me. I’m shaking, no, vibrating with rage. Smoke could rise from my skin, and I wouldn’t be surprised.
“Mira, listen to me. Please,” he says sharply, his tone bordering on desperate.
“No, I'm done listening to you,” I snap. “What the hell is wrong with you?” My voice trembles, not with fear, but fury.
“You’ve been playing this whole protector role because of some deal?
Because you owe them? Every time you said you were keeping me safe…
you meant for them.” His face tightens, but I don’t stop.
“You don’t care about me. Not really. Everything you do is for you.
For the fountain. You are no better than your father.
” I turn my back on him, the heat of my rage boiling in my blood.
But I know my words probably cut him deeper than how I'm feeling.
Even though deep down, I know he wouldn't do that to me. That he would protect me, because of our bond.
I climb down the narrow ladder from the crow’s nest, the wind tugging at my hair, Kai close behind.
The sun has long since vanished, and now the sky is drowning in pitch black.
The moon, my usual guide, is completely swallowed by thick, unnatural fog that clings to the sails and to my skin like it’s alive.
Something feels wrong. I pause, tuning into the sea.
The air crackles with energy, heavy and tense.
Mother Nature is angry tonight. Her waves swell, slamming against the hull with increasing rage.
Then, the sky opens up. Rain pours down in sheets, blinding and cold.
I grip the ladder tighter, each step downward heavier than the last.
Why are there no lanterns lit? Where is the crew?
“Mira! Stop! You can’t go down there!” Kai shouts. His voice cuts through the storm, laced with panic. I freeze, instincts screaming. The air shifts, colder now. I start climbing back up, but then I look down.
A silhouette is emerging from the fog, scaling the ladder at an unnatural speed.
Half-man, half-sea monster, tentacles twisting from the sides of his head, suctioning to the wood like leeches.
His slick skin shimmers in the slivers of faint moonlight that manages to pierce the gloom.
His human eyes lock onto mine, empty and soulless. I knew what he is. A kappa.
I scramble upward, heart pounding, but he’s faster. His tentacles lash out, wrapping around my ankle. The suction burns against my skin, bursting blood vessels beneath the surface. His grip tightens, trying to drag me down. I scream. And then, out of nowhere, Kai.
He swings in from the side, gripping a sail rope, crashing into the creature with brutal force. His boot connects with the kappa’s face, breaking its hold on me. The impact knocks them both from the ladder and into the abyss below, swallowed by darkness and storm.
Uncertain of what to do, I know the one thing I could do would be to jump into the ocean.
But the fog is so dense I can barely see the mast from the mainsail.
The rain slams down in sheets, blurring the world into shadows and chaos.
Still, I know I’ll be stronger underwater.
Down there, I wasn’t useless. I had senses, power, a connection that made me something more.