9. Rock the Boat
Demi
It was my third day on shift, and I was over it. Completely and utterly over it. I hadn’t touched Marina in two days, and I missed her so much that my chest felt hollow.
Just a couple more, I reminded myself as I pulled on my gear.
The first day, Marina had followed me for the first six hours, but it’d made me nervous. Sometimes, the captain had harpoons shot through the water, and I suddenly had a fear that one would hit the woman I was falling in love with.
My mate.
It’d only been a week, but I knew it was right. All of this was right for me. Every moment spent with her confirmed that Marina was who I’d been missing my entire life.
There were a lot of people in my life who would never know about Marina, though, and it made me sad. I’d have to introduce them to the world of monsters.
The one person in my life I was excited to tell about Marina was my dad.
The older fisherman had his own stories about the sea, and he knew all about monsters.
Especially sea monsters. He’d be happy for me, as happy as he was the day I came out as a lesbian.
My dad may have looked like a scrappy redneck, but he was the most accepting person I’d ever met in my life.
Both of us missed my mom way too much, and it saddened me to know he’d never marry again.
Although, I got it now. After meeting Marina, I couldn’t imagine ever wanting someone else in my life.
I was not, however, looking forward to the amount of dad jokes he’d crack in front of Marina once we had dinner with him. Maybe we’d set something up on a pier somewhere . . .
“Dem—what the hell are you doing? Get over here!”
I startled as the captain’s gruff voice echoed from our vessel, a steel harpoon boat that’d been in service the last four decades. I ran across the deck and met him, offering him an apologetic look.
“Sorry, Jake. Just thinking about things.”
Jake rolled his eyes. He was young for a captain, which was why I liked working with him.
Dark hair, in his thirties, eyes that crinkled when he smiled.
Although, he wasn’t smiling right now. “Well stop that. Ed and Brent are already on the boat. Got four people today on the crew, and we gotta go before the waves get choppier and it’s hell to get out.
It’s already been a nightmare the last couple days. She’s angry.”
He meant the ocean, and he was right. There was an uneasiness in my gut today, but I was comforted by the knowledge that Marina or her guards would be keeping an eye on me.
I tightened the hood on my rain jacket as it started to come down harder, casting my gaze out to the band of dark clouds in the distance. It wouldn’t be the first time we worked through a storm, and it wouldn’t be the last.
“Are you sure we’re good to go?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said. “Radar was showing some rough cells, but we’ll move around ‘em. Ain’t worried about it. We’ll bring in swordfish and bluefins, then head home. We’ll be out just a little longer.”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
As always with our small crew, we fell into a rhythm. With only four of us, we each had to take on multiple tasks, which meant I was running around with hardly any room to think as we made our way further out into the ocean.
The further out we got, the rougher the waves became. The skies were quickly darkening again, the wind becoming brutal.
My stomach twisted with nerves.
“All is well,” Brent said to me. “We’ll bring in this haul, just like any other day.”
I frowned, but nodded. I looked out to the choppy waves, searching for any signs of Marina or the two guards she’d assigned to me. After Marina needed to leave yesterday, I’d spotted the shimmering scales of two mermen. Guards.
I missed her, but I wanted her to be safe. And the thought of any merperson being close to our vessel while we worked made me nervous. Especially with the harpoons.
If you didn’t know about mermaids.
Ed and I brought in a few swordfish and then two bluefin tuna together. The boat tipped back and forth, my footing slipping every now and then as water sprayed up the sides.
“Weather is getting worse!” Jack yelled.
It was. “The fish are gonna start going deeper,” I said to Ed.
He nodded. “Agreed. Let me go talk to Jack. May need to call this one, yeah?”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
I wrangled a four-foot swordfish across the deck, shaking my head as I made my way back to the side of the boat. I grabbed onto a lure, but then gripped the ledge, peering over.
Our boat suddenly lurched and I gasped, holding onto the ledge with all my strength to keep from going over. I yelped as my ring got caught on a nail on the ledge, slicing through my finger.
Pain burst through me and I winced, trying to wrench my hand free as the boat steadied. I quickly slid my ring off, but then the whole world tilted again.
A wave slammed into the hull, the boat tilting. Between the blood now dripping down my hand and the rain, my ring went flying.
“No!” I shouted, reaching out for it.
It plunked into the water and my mouth dropped, everything going numb. It was the only piece my mother had ever given to me and in all the years I’d worked out on the sea—I’d never so much as dropped it.
“Fuck!” I yelled, choking back a sob.
A flash of iridescent scales drew my attention overboard, and I spotted Marina.
Wait. My breath was sucked from my lungs as I realized Marina was going for my ring. But my ring—it was right in our fishing zone.
It was right where Brent was shooting harpoons.
“Marina!” I shouted over the roar of thunder. “Let it go! Get out of there! Marina!”
“Demi! What are you doing?” Ed shouted across the deck.
Marina’s bright hair suddenly surfaced and she held up her hand, the ring glinting in her grip.
“Get out of here! Marina!” I screamed.
They couldn’t see her—they couldn’t see her so if she was in the way—
Panic gripped me, icy and unrelenting as I heard the thump of the harpoon cannon. It hit the water right next to her and her scream split the air, her head bobbing back down.
No, no, no—
I climbed up onto the rail, but a firm hand gripped my ankle. Ed was suddenly next to me, his face full of panic.
“I have to go!” I yelled.
Marina had been hit by the harpoon. Every muscle in my body strained, my heart pounding a thousand miles per hour. He didn’t understand that I had to get down there. I had to get to my mate.
“What the fuck are you doing? Get down—”
The boat swayed again as a loud cracking sound seemed to split the earth. I took Ed’s momentary panic as my chance, and jumped off the side of our boat without a second thought.
I heard their shouts as my body plunged straight into the cold water. Blood clouded around me as I opened my eyes, surrounded by a school of fish, their bodies darting away. I looked down, seeing Marina sinking toward darkness.
No. I surfaced to suck in a breath and then dove back down, kicking with all of my might to swim toward her. The harpoon had pierced her tail, and she wasn’t responsive.
Marina.
I had to get to her. I had to get to my mate.
What if I never got to tell her how much I loved her?
What if I never got to tell her how much she meant to me?
What if she dies?
My lungs burned as I swam deeper and deeper, reaching for her. But she was heavier than me, and sinking fast.
I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t give up.
I could hear the thunder above, the world shaking. Marina’s blood stained the water, and my thoughts started to spiral.
If I didn’t get to her, I was going to drown.
Please . . .
Marina . . .