11. Allarick
Chapter 11
Allarick
T he walk home is silent but beautiful. Erin sleeps soundlessly in my arms. I’m amazed at the trust she’s giving me, and I don’t plan on ruining it. Today went better than I anticipated—even with her panic attack. Seeing her open up in small ways made me feel like I was making some progress with her. Like the genuine smile that lit up her face when the turtle came for a visit. Or the look of pure wonder upon seeing the mermaids.
When I reached out to touch Erin, I had planned to guide her back toward the cabin. But it triggered her, and she violently started crying and shuddering. I did the only thing I knew how to do to calm her. I had to touch her again, but I hoped she would see it as friendly rather than threatening.
Her entire demeanor changed the moment I got her in the ocean. Her body needed to feel the water, and she needed to hear the sound of the ocean creatures to bring her back to reality. It made me unbelievably proud that my queen connected with the ocean so quickly.
Back at the cabin, I carry Erin to bed. She’s still in her clothes from earlier—dry, thankfully—but I wish I could make her more comfortable in the sleeping clothes I’ve provided her. I won’t wake her to change, and I’m definitely not going to change her myself while she’s asleep. So, these clothes will have to do for now.
Pulling the blankets up around her, I take my spot on the chair. Sleep will not come for me tonight as I plan to watch over her, but I’m resigned to my fate. I grab a spare blanket folded at the end of the bed and pull it up around my shoulders.
I’m in and out of consciousness, the smallest sounds wake me, and my instinct is to check on Erin each time. She clutches a pillow close to her chest, murmuring something unintelligible in her sleep. It’s not the peaceful sleep I hoped she would have tonight, but she doesn’t appear to be suffering from a nightmare.
Or so I thought.
Not even ten minutes later, Erin screams. A high-pitched, bloodcurdling scream that has me jumping off my chair and springing into action. I expect to see an intruder, perhaps one of King Alpha Rip’s wolves who let their curiosity get the best of them and wandered too far from the pack.
But there’s nothing in the darkness. I strain my ear, hoping to pick up on the sounds of footfalls or breathing, but all that comes to me are Erin’s screams of pure, unadulterated terror.
“Allarick!” she screams. For a moment, I’m frozen to the spot, unable to do more than gape. Erin thrashes in bed and soon pushes herself up. Her eyes are wide, full of terror as she desperately searches the room. It’s nearly pitch-black in here, and she can’t see me. “Allarick!” she calls again, choking back a sob.
Hearing her broken cry breaks the hold she has over me, and I don’t think. I just act. I close the distance between us and wrap my arms around her. Erin screams and tries to push me off, because of course she does. She can’t fucking see me, and I haven’t made my presence known.
“Sweet girl, it's me. It’s Allarick. I’m here.” I repeat those words over and over again. “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll protect you.”
After a few minutes of strangled breathing and a racing heart, Erin goes limp in my arms, her head falling to my chest. “Allarick?” she asks softly, as if scared of the answer. Or scared that I’m not actually next to her.
“I’m here,” I say again, keeping my hold around her. I don’t have my tentacles this time, but she either doesn’t mind or doesn’t realize what’s happening. She shudders against me and reaches up to feel my face.
Her hand moves down to my neck before moving on to my locs and fingering one gently. “Allarick.” This time when she says my name, it’s not a question but rather a confirmation of what she needed to know. She needed to feel me to know I’m real.
“I’m sorry,” she says after a long pause. Her voice wavers, and a single tear rolls down her already tear-stained cheeks.
“No, Erin. I’m sorry.” My own voice is deep and full of emotions I can’t keep to myself anymore. “I’m sorry you can’t feel safe in your own dreams. I’m sorry someone hurt a beautiful, smart, and confident girl until she felt unworthy of love. I’m sorry I can’t do more, but understand this…”
Erin hasn’t moved since I began speaking. She remains tense in my arms, and I try to soothe her by rubbing her back gently.
“Know that you are wanted here. That you will never have to be fearful of me. I will do all I can to help you heal, even if that means comforting you every night because you had a bad dream. Here, you are a queen and will be treated with nothing but the respect and kindness you deserve.”
I can’t fix Erin. I can’t reach into her soul and mend the broken pieces instantly, no matter how badly I want to take away her pain. This human I have only known for a short time has become one of the most important people in my life. I can be there as she heals and regains the part of her that someone broke. Even if that takes one hundred years.
“Thank you,” she says, but before I can answer, she goes on, “for everything. Both for comforting me during the panic attack and the nightmare.”
“You don’t need to thank me.” She doesn’t. I don’t comfort her to get her gratitude. I comfort her because she deserves it.
“Still. No one has ever done that for me. Not since I was a little girl, at least.” Her voice cracks from use. I don’t think I’ve heard her talk this much to me. One day I’ll learn more of Erin’s story, but it is a discussion for later. We still have a few hours until morning, and she needs sleep after purging her emotions.
Erin yawns and gently removes herself from my embrace. I feel her absence instantly but let her go. She lies back down on the bed, but before she does, she snatches up the blanket I was using earlier. I can’t hide the grin on my face, even if she can’t see it.
She wants a piece of me. Or maybe she’s just really cold, but I prefer to think Erin wants the blanket because it smells of me. And hopefully my scent brings her a semblance of comfort.
After all, it was me she called for in the midst of panic. I don’t take that lightly.
She curls up on her side, bringing the blanket to her chest. I know she’s tired because her eyelids keep drooping, and her breathing evens out. Just when I think she’s asleep, Erin’s small voice breaks through the silence: “I’m safe.”
It sounds like more of a reminder, both to herself and me. A fragile trust blossoms between us, barely there but taking root.
“You’re safe,” I agree, but Erin’s already fallen back to sleep with my blanket for comfort.
I smile for a long time after that until my cheeks hurt. This feels a lot like progress.
I didn’t sleep much that night, consumed with making sure Erin was still sleeping well. She jolted in her sleep numerous times throughout the night, as if she were running from someone. I wanted to take those nightmares and lock them away in a place she’d never have to deal with again. I was helpless to do much other than watch her and be there if she woke up.
Eventually, I gave up on sleeping and got up to make breakfast. She hasn’t complained once about my food, even though I know it’s terrible. She’s polite and doesn’t comment, but she also doesn’t eat much.
As I flip the egg, the front door to the house opens up. I drop the spatula and turn around to see Atina waltz through the door. “Brother mine,” she says dramatically, shrugging off her black coat. “Did you miss me?”
Atina strolls into the kitchen and eyes my sorry attempt at breakfast. Too-runny eggs and burned salmon. She tsks. “I don’t know how you managed to keep your wife alive if this is the food you’ve been serving. I bet you're missing that fancy kitchen staff you have right about now, huh?”
“Have you always been this insufferable, or have the land dwellers rubbed off on you?” I frown, which earns me a rag to the face. Atina barrels past me to toss my attempts at breakfast and start anew.
“I hope you have information.”
“Oh, do I ever.” Atina gestures to the cupboard. “Hand me a few plates and join me for breakfast. Then I’ll tell you, but I need food first.”
Ten minutes and three plates of food later, Atina and I sit in her living room. I take the couch, leaving the extra plate of food next to me in case Erin wakes up and wanders out here. Atina makes herself comfortable in her chair, kicking her feet up to rest on the coffee table.
“Well,” she says after taking a bite of her egg salmon sandwich. “Whoever gave you that information about the singing coming from the deep ocean was, unfortunately, correct.”
“You heard it? Where? Delmare hasn’t made much progress.”
“Of course he hasn’t,” she scoffs. “I told you, this surpasses Delmare’s expertise. He might be a good guard, but he’s a shit explorer.”
I hate to admit it, but she’s right. Delmare is a great guard and will lay down his life for me and my people, but this is bigger than what he can handle. Hell, it might be bigger than what I can handle alone.
“We stopped at different ports and hung out at the local pubs there. Drunk people like to talk. There have been whispers about voices coming from the water, but no one could tell us much more than that. Not until we started to intercept ships at sea?—”
“Please tell me you didn’t kill these people.” I know my sister and her lack of patience for answers. The people who live their lives on boats are usually the sons and daughters of merpeople and land people. They are technically mine to protect.
Atina rolled her eyes. “Please. And get blood on my favorite boots? Not even you are worth that, Brother.” There’s a wicked gleam in her eyes as she smirks.
“Fine, fine. Go on. What did you find?” I chuckle but instantly get serious again at her next words.
“Most of the ships we stopped admitted to feeling uncomfortable or sick around this area.” Atina removes her feet from the table and rolls out her map. She points to a spot in the ocean nestled between Lycan Forest and Fae Court, marked with a large X.
“We sailed here to see if the stories we heard were correct and…” Atina trails off. If I didn’t know my sister better, I would have thought she looked nervous. But Atina Eldridge rarely gets nervous, only even.
“Go on,” I urge, discarding my mostly untouched breakfast.
“There was a sound. Almost like singing, but like no siren song I’ve heard before. This was deeper and mournful. It affected everyone on my crew. It almost felt like invisible hands around our bodies, wanting to pull us down to join them.
“But the song was weak and only lasted a few minutes at a time,” she goes on. “Easy to ignore for a crew like mine, experienced with sea creatures. For a lesser crew?” Atina shakes her head. “I’m not certain they would have been able to ignore it.”
My stomach churns. A simple tale from a dying man holds more merit that I originally suspected. “And you believe this to be the Leviathan?”
“I have no other explanation.” Atina shrugs. “If these are those creatures, then I think they are trying to follow in the footsteps of their cousins, the Nephilim, and break out from whatever prison they’re rotting in. They are, unfortunately, succeeding.”
A threat is in my ocean, and I’m not there to defend my people. I had hoped to make more progress with Erin so I could be back by now, but I’m not certain she is completely comfortable around me yet. Throwing her into a situation where she’d be completely reliant upon me sounds disastrous.
But I also can’t sit on my ass and do nothing while I know about the Leviathan. Truth of the matter is that I can’t stay on land any longer, not after the information Atina has brought me. I need to check on my kingdom and look into anything I can find in our libraries about the Leviathan and their alliances with the Nephilim.
“Atina, I need you to do me a favor.”
“You usually do,” she sighs, with no real malice behind her words. “What is it this time?”
There are very few people I would entrust Erin with. My sister happens to be one of those people. She will make sure Erin is safe and be the one to get her out of here if things go south. She knows how Erin arrived, all bruised and broken, but I haven’t gone into detail of her past, mostly because I know very little. It’s also her story, not mine, to tell. Atina’s smart though. She can guess at the horrors Erin went through.
“I need you to stay here with Erin while I go back to Tetria. I don’t know for how long yet, but I need to check on things. Catch up with Delmare and speak with the scholars.” There are many other things I need to do too, but these are the most pressing matters.
I know my sister doesn’t like staying in one place for too long. She has this home out of necessity, but her true home is aboard her ship, sailing the open sea. She isn’t pleased by my request but nods all the same.
She’s a far better sister than I deserve.
I stand, itching to leave. The sooner I leave, the sooner I’ll be back with Erin. “Good. Thank you, Atina. I will be back just as soon as I can. I’ll leave now?—”
“Please don’t leave me.”
Atina and I both turn toward the new voice. One I didn’t realize was listening in on the conversation.
Standing in the bedroom doorway, dressed in a new outfit, is Erin.
And she looks terrified.