34. Everett
Everett
It was a storm of wind, water, and tentacles, and I didn’t know where to look: the broken bow; the sharp masts hanging above our heads, inches away from impaling us; Tessa with her bloodied twin daggers; or Rossa, who was now buried beneath the waves. I hadn’t been able to get to him in time.
Several screams from the port side made my heart stop. Vera leaned over the rail, shouting Starke’s name. She barely snagged his arm and, with the help of a deckhand, they were able to pull him back aboard.
I blinked. The man had tried to jump off the ship. I couldn’t find it in me to be too upset. But as I made my way over, Tessa passed by my other side. Her daggers clattered to the ground, and she didn’t bother to pick them up.
“Where are you going?” I asked her. When she merely kept walking to the rail with unseeing eyes, fear trickled down my spine. “Tessa, get back here,” I called again.
Nothing.
She gripped the rail.
“Tessa!” I lurched for her hand, which slipped out of my grasp. She lifted one foot onto the rail. Her eyes were empty and fastened on something in the water. My stomach shot up my throat as she lifted herself up and over the rail.
“No!” I shouted, lunging and wrapping my good arm around her waist. I tackled her to the ground just in time. She fought me, eyes still not focusing. Her fist connected with my injured arm, and I let out a grunt.
“Tessa, snap out of it,” I growled, wrestling her back down. She rammed her knee into my stomach and tried to shove me off her. I slammed her shoulder into the ground, but it seemed to have no effect. Her face was blank, her eyes unblinking, even as she struggled in my grasp.
“Tessa!” I planted my knees on either side of her and brought my hand back. “This better work,” I muttered, then slapped her hard across the face.
Her head snapped back. She sucked in a breath, eyes widening. “What was that for?” she gasped out.
I loosened my hold with a sigh of relief, then hastily got off of her. “A simple thank you would suffice.”
She massaged her cheek. “I bet you’ve been wanting to do that for a while.”
I suppressed a chuckle and helped her to her feet. “I’m just glad you’re…you’re…” I trailed off and slowly turned my neck toward the water. I blinked, eyes heavy. There was…there was this sound. Like a phoenix song, coming from an iridescent glow beneath the waves.
“Swift, I need you,” the voice said. It sounded eerily like Vera.
My feet moved across the deck of their own accord.
The song wrapped around me, beautiful and haunting and full of promises, a silver thread pulling me closer.
“I love you, Everett. I was so wrong about everything before. Please, forgive me.”
Of course, I forgave her. That wasn’t even a question.
“We can be together forever. Isn’t that what you want?”
Yes, that was everything I had ever wanted.
My lips parted in wonder as the voice tugged me tighter.
Nearer. A hand on the rail. Silver shining from a figure slipping among the waves.
Almost there. Distantly, I heard someone call me, but I shrugged it off.
Nothing else mattered except getting to her.
The air was light under my feet as I stepped into nothingness.
Then cold water enveloped me, rushing around my body in an icy grip.
The most beautiful creature I’d ever seen smiled back at me as I plunged deeper, colder, darker.
Her skin caught the moonlight filtering in from above, flawless and luminous, as if carved from pearl.
Raven hair drifted around her in a dark halo.
A slender neck led down to full breasts and a bare waist, where her skin shifted into scales.
A silver tail gleamed like molten starlight with every swipe, and when she lifted a taloned finger to my chin, her tail wrapped soothingly around my legs.
I took a breath, and saltwater flooded my lungs. A small part of me flinched in panic, but when the creature smiled, all thoughts fled my mind, along with the burning in my lungs.
“I know the kingdom that you seek.” Her melodic song echoed through the water. “But you shall never find it, my sweet one. My precious.” A long nail ran along my jaw and down my chest, her tail pulling me closer. “You belong to the sea now.”
I nodded, entranced by her voice. What kingdom? What did I seek? None of that mattered.
When her gaze met mine, something prodded at the back of my mind. Her eyes were a deep, beautiful purple, amethysts against pale skin.
But…that wasn’t right. The eyes I remembered were brilliant gold, like the sun.
This was wrong. I shouldn’t be here.
Everything snapped into place.
My chest burned. I gasped for air, and water rushed down my throat.
Lungs bursting, my head felt light as my vision darkened.
I tried to thrust myself up, but the second I moved, the woman’s face contorted into a vicious monster.
Purple eyes shifted to a sharp, glaring red.
Her nails dug into my chest, almost hard enough to break the skin.
She bared her fangs and lunged for my head.
A shining sword arched through the water. The creature opened her mouth in a gurgling shriek as the blade tore across her shoulder. The force knocked her backward, loosening her grip on me, her red blood ribboning in the water.
Darkness pressed in on the edges of my vision. My eyes fluttered as a familiar hand seized my arms and wrenched me upward. We broke the surface in a surge of cold water. I choked in the fresh air, my chest convulsing as Vera gripped my shoulder with one hand and her sword with the other.
“Just breathe,” Vera commanded. “Everett, look at me. You just need to breathe.”
Golden eyes pierced mine. I took another ragged breath and nodded, my entire body shivering with cold.
Behind me, the water churned. Still catching my breath, I whirled to find the creature whipping toward us, her otherworldly beauty now cold fury.
Red eyes locked on me with hunger. Vera waded around me to put herself between the two of us.
She leveled the sword at the creature’s neck, nostrils flaring.
“Touch him again,” she said, voice low, “and I will end you.”
The sea went still. The creature bobbed in the waves, assessing her opponent with lethal calm. And then that same inhuman voice hummed around us. “You are untouched by my magic, golden one. Such a curious little thing.”
Vera’s arm flexed. “Leave us alone. We haven’t done anything to you.”
“I am the guardian of the deep,” the creature crooned, drawing closer as blood from her wound mingled with the foam. “It has been such a long time since sailors have wandered to these shores.” Her eyes gleamed back at me. “And I am so very hungry.”
Vera raised the sword higher, and the creature merely cackled. “My, my. Such a brave warrior.” She crossed to us in the blink of an eye, taloned fingers closing around Vera’s throat. “But do you think you are brave enough to defy the Fates?”
Before I could reach Vera, the creature shoved her back at me. With a flip of her silver tail, she arched across the waves like a shooting star, crashing beneath the tide and out of sight.
Vera and I swam back to the ship, and the others helped us climb the rope ladders. Tessa grabbed my good arm and hauled me to the deck. “Do I get to slap you this time?”
I coughed up more water, shooting her a glare in between breaths. “What was that thing?”
“Odessa thinks it was a siren. Another myth, apparently. Sent by the Fates to guard the lost kingdom,” Tessa responded.
“I’m getting tired of these guardians,” I muttered.
“That’s the least of our worries,” Kieran said from behind Tessa, staring at something behind me. I turned, instinctively grabbing Vera’s wrist.
The ship rushed into the approaching shoreline of the small island, rocks like jagged teeth rising from the water. Our keel screeched against the shallow bottom. Wood shuddered beneath us, the ship giving its final breath as we were all tossed to and fro on the main deck.
“Get back! Get back!” Starke’s voice cried over the storm.
I weaved my fingers through Vera’s and pulled her as far back toward the stern as we could go, with the others close on our heels. “Hold on,” I said, putting her body between mine and the nearest rail.
The broken bow charged headfirst into the rocky escarpment.
Wood crunched. Pieces of the ship went flying, scraping the exposed skin at my cheeks and arms. The shattered half of the ship collapsed onto the shore, parts of it floating away in the waves.
All that was left standing was the aft—a thirty-foot space of splintered edges and crushed planks.
When the ship stopped moving, I let go of the rail, making sure Vera was untouched. My legs were unsteady as we stumbled over the destroyed deck and onto the shore. Behind us, something wrenched at the remaining half of the ship.
“Move!” Starke barked. “Get away from the water!”
We all spilled onto the little island. Thunder rumbled overhead as we ran toward the lighthouse. Cracked stone and crumbling brown bricks scaled up the side, leading to the flame that burned in the tower at the top.
I glanced around to make sure the others were still following—there was Starke supporting the limping helmsman; Kieran close behind Odessa; a handful of crewmembers, all looking worse for wear; Tessa with her daggers at the ready.
And ahead of me, almost at the lighthouse, was Vera.
Her head whipped around to meet my gaze, and I let my eyes linger on hers for a second too long.
There was a resounding crack as the earth gave way beneath her. Her eyes widened, her hands grasping the air for something to catch her fall.
Then she disappeared beneath the ground.