CHAPTER 6
Daria did her best not to gasp, not at the sting of the coolness of the water, not at the fear clutching her throat and chest at the thought that she was now in the water with whatever that thing was, not at falling headfirst into the depths.
Her mind tried to reassure her that she had been in the water with it before, but there had been far more bodies for it to feast on then.
She opened her eyes, trying her best to will her heart to be calm. She saw sunlight. She just had to right herself and swim for it.
Something was around her waist. She couldn’t help it; she gasped a scream that exploded almost silently in air bubbles. Those bubbles ran, darting up to the surface, abandoning her alone with whatever this thing was as they fled to the sunlight, the traitorous cowards.
It had wrapped itself around her torso and she kicked back, shocked to hit something firm and coarse there too. How big was this thing? And why did it feel like…arms around her?
No, she didn’t have time to think of that. Her lungs were already burning from losing all that air. She had maybe ten seconds to get away or she would surely die. But what were the chances she could outswim this thing even if she could get free?
She shoved the thought away. Now was not the time. She squirmed violently, with all the strength she had, but its arms were fast, holding her like lead, and each move made her lungs scream for oxygen.
They exploded to the surface.
The surface?
Her body was smarter than her mind. It gasped a breath while she languished in confusion.
What was going on?
Nothing was eating her or hurting or biting or dragging her into the depths.
Something was still around her waist, as firm as metal.
And worse, she could feel something pressing up against her from behind.
It wasn’t warm—not at all. From the temperature alone, it would have been impossible to tell it from the sea.
Did ghosts have bodies? She now regretted never listening to her father’s stories. No wonder they said to listen to your elders.
Whatever it was, she dare not scream. What if that set it off?
She had to just remain calm, get back in the boat, and paddle like her life depended on it.
Easier said than done when just getting into the boat with its high walls would prove to be a challenge even if she wasn’t being held by such a creature.
The boat was only twelve feet away. All she had to do was get free first. She could figure anything else out later.
It felt as though her heart was shaking as she looked down. Her prior thought wasn’t wrong. It was two human arms around her waist. My God. Was this some sort of demon of lost souls, some conglomeration of those lost?
Did she speak? Squirming had seemed to do very little against its grasp.
“Thank you,” she said, hoping her heart wasn’t loud to the creature. To her, it sounded louder than the words. “I’m fine now. You can let go.”
There was no response, at least not verbally, but it started swimming as it held her off a bit to its right, dragging her like a man caught in a net entangled with a whale.
It was so fast she didn’t even have time to fight it. All she noticed was how pale and perfect the skin was—not at all what she would have thought from a personification of death—and then suddenly she was facing the boat. She was in the air. She was over the edge. She was hitting the floor.
She thumped ungracefully on the wood, hitting onto her side, hand extended up, and there was a part of her that didn’t want to move, like a deer freezing or a possum playing dead.
She couldn’t even guess what had just happened—had it…
saved her?—but fear was still gripping her chest and her heart was racing at the thought that just beyond those thin wood beams was something.
Something indeed. Hadn’t she just decided she would not allow herself to be afraid of the sea and now she was truly considering playing dead? It was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard.
She sat up, still breathing heavily, and turned to where she had plopped over from.
A head floated above the water, but on second glance, it seemed to be attached to a man’s torso. Any more than that was lost in the shadows of the churned-up sea.
He had long, pale-white hair. In the sun, it was practically iridescent like the inner bits of a shell. His skin was smooth and pale. His eyes were haunting—not because of their red color or pale lashes—but because they looked at her with all the compassion and emotions that a human might.
They held her stare, pulling her in, captivating her with a look that held both concern—seemingly for her—and wariness.
“Did you…did you save me last night?” she asked.
He just looked at her for a moment before rattling off something in tones she had never heard before. What was that? She knew both French and English, but that, that hardly sounded human.
Oh, perhaps that was no surprise. Whatever he was, he was no longer human, if he had ever been.
“Are you a ghost?” she asked.
But he just stared at her in confusion.
Could he not understand her either?
Still, despite the strange hair and eyes, he looked human and he had picked her up easily enough, and she wasn’t sure but she didn’t think ghosts were tangible. Was he one of the monsters of the deep from her father’s lore?
But if he was just a man…
She reached out her hand, trying not to let her gaze drop—for she had never seen a man shirtless before except in anatomy books. It was horribly improper. “How did you get out here?” she asked, unable to help herself from speaking.
He stared at her hand for a moment, his head still the only thing above water as if he was cautious of her. Probably not a man then. Or not like any she knew.
But just as she started to retract her hand, he reached up his and grabbed it.
His skin was thick, a texture no human should have. No, it was like the texture of a shark, and she pulled away an inch only for his hand to grab hers again. He looked at her as if he was trying to figure out what to do. She wondered if she was looking at him much the same way.
Would it be rude to ask him what he was? He didn’t seem to understand her anyway, so maybe it was pointless, but all the same it felt odd to ask someone if they were a monster.
“Are you human?” she asked.
He opened his mouth and said some kind of words she was sure, for the tones and sounds changed and paused, but what he had said, she had no idea.
Regardless of it being gibberish to her, her mind had stopped hearing any of it when she saw his teeth.
It wasn’t just his skin that felt like a shark’s.
Oh no, his mouth looked like one too, with every last tooth a jagged canine.
“Oh,” she said, pulling away. Their hands broke apart and he looked a bit startled before he rattled off something else.
“I am so sorry,” she said, suddenly feeling so wildly uncomfortable.
“But I don’t speak that language.” Those teeth were not human, which perhaps should have been no surprise, but all canines?
He was a predator. He could rip someone to shreds.
Thank God his mouth was only the size of a man’s or she was sure she’d have had real problems. Even then, she wasn’t so sure.
Didn’t dolphins attack whales? Little by little and piece by piece was not out of place here in the sea.
He pointed to her, then the lighthouse, and said something else. What could he be asking: if she lived there? If she was going back? If she knew what it was for?
“I’m the lighthouse keeper. I live there,” she said, feeling stupid for saying it at all if he couldn’t understand.
He nodded his head toward it as if telling her to go towards it, then gestured to the open sea and made hand symbols that she guessed might be angry rain clouds.
“Are you talking about last night?” she asked, wondering how she could make a symbol for it.
But he seemed to be gesturing her along as if he wanted her to go toward home.
She frowned but went to the oars all the same. “If you insist…” she muttered.
And as she started to row, the most incredible thing happened. He watched her go for a second before diving after her, and as he dove, his lower body broke through the surface—a tail. A turquoise and silver tail.