Chapter 31
Chapter thirty-one
Goddess Adjacent
Bash
Though accounts vary—Ama-no-Ko in the Eastern Isles, Tideborn along the Western Reaches, and Sea-Claimed among Nordic fishers—nearly every seafaring society shares the same conviction: a child delivered upon the waves is not happenstance. It is selection.
— The Mysterious Deep: A Comprehensive Understanding
“Maybe next time ask questions and shoot second?” Oscar said.
I watched him tie a knot in the rigging and fought the urge to shoot something else.
“I don’t know what the fuck we are doing.” I ground out, gripping the steel of my hook.
I felt unmoored, like my skin was too tight, but I couldn’t find a way out no matter how hard I tried. It’d been two days since the merrow’s warning. Every mile brought us a little closer to Ximena and, potentially, a sleeping leviathan.
“I would have shot it too,” Val said, pulling at the mast.
All of this was already done for the night, but this restless energy wouldn’t abate, and so we did things second and third times out of necessity.
Not to mention my bed was currently occupied by my wife and the demon cat, who eyed me like I had a death wish anytime I even thought about going to bed.
“All I’m saying is Dilly seems to think we got lucky back there, so maybe ask the expert before angering mysterious creatures,” Oscar said.
He stood straight, wiping his hands over his pants before resting them on his hips and staring at me like he was about to tell me something he knew I wouldn’t like.
“No,” I said.
“You don’t even know what I was going to say,” he said.
“Yeah, but you’ve got that look about you.” Val hummed.
“What look?” Oscar asked, sighing dramatically. “It doesn’t matter either way. What matters is that we should plan for the worst. What do we do if Ximena is able to reach us?”
A question I asked myself every few minutes.
“Then I deal with it,” I said.
Val snorted. “Yes, because Rose is going to allow you to sacrifice yourself and just keep sailing onward. That makes perfect sense and is not historically contradictory at all.”
A problem I was currently working out, though, I was coming up short. I could give Ximena what she wants and stay on Mallorca, but I doubted Rose would accept that outcome, even if it meant sparing her life.
“I found it!” screeched my mysteriologist.
I cracked my neck, not knowing whether finding something was a good thing or not, but answers were something this crew and its mission were severely lacking.
Dilly was running across my ship, red curls unrestrained and going every which way as she clutched Edmond’s journal to her chest.
“It’s in here!” she shouted, probably waking the dead.
Val folded her arms and took a long breath like she was preparing for whatever came next.
Not two seconds later, Inu appeared from below, hand on her sword just in case. I shook my head. No danger, just one enthusiastic mysteriologist.
“It’s in here,” she panted, coming to a stop before me. “Daughter of the sea!”
I froze, my hair standing on end. It was like a current of dread pulsing through my bloodstream. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the words the merrow spoke to Rose would come back to haunt us over and over again.
Dilly held out the open book to me and pointed at a passage.
“They talk about a rarity in the deep–the son or daughter of the sea. A child born on a Black Tide Moon. It’s when, despite a full moon above the sea, it appears dark and still like it’s holding its breath. The legends claim that a child born on it may be claimed, replaced, or returned.”
“May I remind you that I was also born on that same night, two minutes apart from Rose, and I have yet to have a sea serpent obey my commands and follow me around,” Oscar said.
“You weren’t claimed.” Inu said, “Rose was.”
“What does that mean?” Oscar asked.
“Where I come from, we have a similar belief.” She said, voice quieter than usual.
“Ama-no-Ko. It means Child of the Heavenly. A child born beneath a haloed moon or on a still tide is said to straddle the line between human and ocean-spirit, but only if they are chosen. Many parents venture to the sea during these occurrences, hoping their child will be chosen, but one rarely is.”
“What makes someone chosen?” Val asked.
Inu shook her head. “Only the gods know.”
“A similar sentiment is stated here that Ra`n chooses–she’s a Norse goddess said to control the sea,” Dilly said.
“Guess Oscar wasn’t up to par.” Val chuckled.
Oscar shot her his middle finger, but I had more pressing concerns than their bickering.
“What does that mean for Rose?” I asked.
Dilly shrugged. “I don’t know yet, but whoever wrote this book knows. I think the answer is in Angra do Heroísmo.”
“What creatures are we likely to encounter on the way, and what is the risk to Rose?” I asked.
“Storm Mares potentially. Near the Azores is rumoured to be a fire serpent, but usually it precedes a volcanic eruption, so let’s hope we don’t see that. There is also the Mist of the Enchanted Isles, but again, those usually precede a terrible ship-killing storm, so I'm hoping not to see that.”
“Excellent,” Oscar murmured. “If we see something, then we die. Excellent prognosis considering we are travelling with a mysterious magnet of a human being.”
In answer, Koinu released a bellows from behind the ship.
“I think he was offended,” Val whispered.
“Which proves my point,” Oscar said.
“Aye, but you're just jealous you weren’t chosen as a mysterious magnet,” she countered.
“Keep searching,” I told Dilly.
I was done having my bed held hostage by a cat.
Val and Oscar continued to bicker beneath the flickering light of lanterns, but I’d had enough of people and everything that came with them for tonight.
The cabin I now shared with Rose was somehow warmer and more like a home since she had implanted herself into it. I opened and closed the door as quietly as the creaking wood would allow, but truly, I doubted a tidal wave could have woken her.
She lay bundled beneath a thick array of blankets, her brown hair scattered over her pillow in rebellion. She was breathtaking. It would have been a perfect image if her arms hadn’t been tightly wrapped around a grey blob of cat that was staring at me with those eerie green eyes.
They were truly reminiscent of Edmonds, and I was beginning to think the answer to both of them was wrapped up in each other. Whatever lived inside them was a cousin to the other. I was never a man who was desperate for answers, but these past few days, they were all I could think of.
Answers meant keeping Rose alive.
That was the only truth I needed.
“Out,” I ordered the cat.
Whatever he heard in my voice made him obedient for the first time ever as he crawled out of Rose’s arms and thumped to the ground in a huff of irritation.
I took off my boots and stripped off salt sea clothes, sliding in beside her. She didn’t hesitate to scoot herself against my chest, breathing a sigh of contentment as she rested her head.
“You’re grumpy,” she whispered.
“You’re supposed to be asleep,” I said.
“You kicked out my cat.”
Fair enough.
“Sorry for the inconvenience,” I said.
She hummed in agreement.
“What happened to make you extra grumpy?” she said.
I debated not telling her and letting her sleep, but I knew she wouldn’t thank me for it in the morning. More than that, it was her answers, and she deserved them more than anyone.
“Dilly found mention of being a daughter of the sea in the journal,” I said.
Before the words were out of my mouth, she was sitting up, her hair falling over bare shoulders and her camisole.
“Tell me,” she ordered.
My lips twitched at the authority in her voice. She’d come so far from the woman who whispered she was in charge when she was drowning in the chaos of her own making. Now I was never truly sure which of us was in charge.
“You were born under a Black Tide Moon in the North Sea. Apparently, the goddess of the sea there did something, and now you have a connection to the deep and the creatures within.”
I couldn’t have said what I expected, but she simply nodded and wrapped the blanket around her shoulders.
“That’s–I don’t know what I expected, but I trust Dilly,” she said. “But why would the merrow have known about the bargain on my wrist and that my fate is drawn?”
“I don’t know, but we will find out,” I said.
She nodded and curled herself into me. I wrapped my arm around her, wishing I could protect her from whatever was happening. A few moments passed, and I pressed a kiss to her head.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
She nodded.
“I just kind of thought it would be something better than that. Like I’d have secret powers.” She said,
I snorted.
“Only you.”
Rose twisted in my arms, effectively climbing into my lap and stealing any words I had left.
Her grin was practically wicked. “So does that make me a goddess adjacent?”
“You always have been,” I said, my voice gravelly.
I ran my hand along her spine and memorized the way it made her shiver. I would rather sink to the bottom of the deep than ever be the reason she questioned her worth.
So I vowed to remind her over and over as long as it took.