Chapter 21 #2
Clamorous laughter shatters my thoughts.
The crew that stayed aboard the ship help to empty the row boats, organizing all the supplies and leaving the monster loot in a separate pile.
Some of them look at the components with disgust, while others grab handfuls of flesh ribbons or amphibious tongues to brandish against the others.
Maurice, a golden-skinned human man who’s been with me through so many fights I’ve lost count, squeals as the man next to him jabs the green-grey skin in his direction, causing another wave of laughs.
I grin, my eyes finding Odi. The withdrawn look on her face is gone now, but she just moves for the crates of sticky limbs, jaw set, and gaze focussed, ignoring everyone else.
I jog to catch up to her, determined to break the shroud of the last twenty-four hours. Anything to lighten the mood, even just for a moment. “Not your version of fun?”
She snorts, brushing away a stray lock of hair as she reaches for a crate. “That word is unfamiliar to me.”
A grin steals across my mouth as I step into her pathway. “Surely there’s something that you like to do.” I’ve travelled to many islands, many parts of the mainland. I’ve heard and seen the weirdest things, not a lot surprises me.
Odi releases her grip on the crate, and stands tall, folding her arms across her chest. “Will you let me take this to Bear if I answer you?”
“Absolutely.”
“Fine,” she huffs. “I like to run.”
I pause, watching her, the weight of those words sinking deeper than she probably meant them to.
Run. A simple word, but there’s more beneath it—something caged and aching.
As a siren I have the sea to shift and stretch.
As a shifter dwelling with vipers, she only had the deck of a ship, a creature made for speed and open ground, forced to pace behind wooden walls.
It makes my chest tighten.
I offer her a soft smile before reaching down to grab a sack of monster parts. When I straighten, her eyes are glassy. “Running suits you,” I say gently.
The look she offers is soft, like a small part of her feels seen.
I don’t wait for her to answer as she finally picks up the crate.
Twisting on my heel, I lead us towards the galley.
“Especially your furrier form. I guess she doesn’t get the chance very often.
” It’s strange to talk about her beast like the fear isn’t hers. All of it is her.
“You can see why,” she answers, her voice low and tired like she doesn’t want the others to hear. The jostling components fill the silence that follows.
When we make it past the lines of hammocks, I pause, trying and failing to stop myself from pushing her just a little further. “She’s safe here. No matter what form you’re in, if you go overboard, we’d just pull you back up.”
She blinks her brown eyes up at me, like she’s processing the thought, and I start walking again, hoping she realizes I don’t expect her to respond. Her gaze drops to the floor, her lips press into a line, but she doesn’t argue.
It’s a start.
Otto’s eyes grow to the size of dinner plates when I push the door open,
“All of that for me?” he gasps as he tugs at the collar of his shirt before rolling his sleeves up.
The sack I’ve been carrying squelches as I drop it at his feet. “Well, I certainly didn’t harvest monster organs to give to the quails.”
Otto grins. “Vicious seas, am I going to have some fun.”
Odi drops the crate next to the sack and then perches herself on the edge of the kitchen table.
Her creamy blouse is bloodstained despite our pathetic attempts at washing on the island.
The fabric slips off one of her shoulders as she hunches forwards, tired from exertion, yet she smiles at Bear with such endearment, her attention focussed on the way his face lights up at the sight of monster legs.
I can’t help noticing the way the afternoon sun kisses the exposed skin on her shoulder, travelling across her collarbone to caress the curve of her delicate neck.
My fingers itch to brush her nape, to bury my face into the place her pulse flutters with life.
Something’s shifted between us. It started the moment back in the temple when I saw the fear in her eyes when the water started rising, and all I could do was taunt and tease her just to keep her fear at bay.
Then she stood her ground against Reid, fire burning without an ounce of trembling in her voice.
It was the way my body moved before my mind caught up—how all I could think about was getting her away, keeping her safe.
The instinct hit like a wave, sudden and unforgiving.
“What will you do with all of it?” she asks Bear.
Otto holds up a green limb, breaking my trance.
“I presume that these are mudaliks due to those orange sucker pads.” He points to the canvas sack. His blue eyes are wild with passion, his unruly hair messed by the ocean breezes. “There are so many elixirs I can make.”
The table creaks under my weight as I lean my hip against it, grateful for a moment's rest while the pair liaise back and forth about all things monsters. Soon Odi and I would have to go back to how it was before. In this together simply to fulfil a mutual goal. Her, to pocket gold and find some lonely, land-based paradise, and me to find what I could about my mother, or the very least my water elemental bloodline. After that, I’d never see her again.
“We don’t have to eat them do we?” Odi asks, her voice hesitant, like she’s afraid of the answer.
Bear starts pulling out another mudalik leg to inspect before he answers. “I wouldn’t feed this to my worst enemy.”
My brow raises, and I inspect my nails like I have all the time in the world. “He’d deserve it.”
Otto snorts, but it’s true, and when I come face to face with the man, I’ll shove this monster guck so far down his throat it’ll come out the other end whole.
I glance across the table to where Odi sits, her hair cascading around her in soft, dark waves.
She catches my eye, and for a second neither one of us looks away.
Her perfectly pink lips are slightly pouted, and when I think about how it felt to touch them with mine, my lungs constrict from the absence of air.
If given the chance, I’d probably do it again.
The door to the galley squeaks open, announcing the arrival of Elio and Tavi. My gaze lingers on Odi’s face for a moment longer as Elio brushes past me to drop another bag of monster goodies.
Odi offers them a worn smile and then turns back to Otto. “So what sort of elixir requires such dangerous ingredients?”
Otto’s eyes glitter with joy as he starts digging through the bag of monster loot Elio discarded, kitchen knife in hand.
“See, the thing about mudalik sucker pads, they’re sticky as sin.
Dry ‘em out, grind ‘em fine, and you’ve got yourself a powder that’ll seal any cut tighter than stitches.
Even works on rope burns! Thought about mixing it with honey, but that’s sticky on sticky and, well, then you’re just stuck.
” He laughs at his own joke before tumbling into the next thought.
“And their spit—oh, their spit’s glorious. More acidic than a sour wine but you dilute it right, mix it with seawater, and aloe vera gel, and it becomes a potent disinfectant.” His grin is wide, eyes bright, but he doesn’t pause.
He flips the knife, gestures with it like punctuation.
“And the skin. Don’t waste it. We wash it, cover it in salt and dry it out.
Then if someone burns themselves, you can re-hydrate the mudalik skin mixed with quail egg whites to the burn area and repair your skin. Maybe I should have asked for more—”
“Otto.” My voice cuts through the air, but I’m sure to offer him a smile. He’d talk all day if I let him.
He blinks at me, fingers twitching against the knife hilt. “Right. Rambling again?”
“A bit.” I wink. The boy’s chaos has a way of bleeding into the air around him, but I’ll admit, I’d rather have his endless chatter than silence.
Odi looks everything over. “It’s amazing Bear, you should become a healer, not a cook.”
The skeleton earring Otto wears swings softly as he shrugs. “Why not be both? It’s all mixing and measuring, finding the right ingredient.”
Tavi speaks up from where she’s taking the bandages off Elio's leg. “Speaking of healers. Elio could use some attention.” The fabric of his trousers is stained with dark red. Otto springs into action, rushing to her aid.
The sight of it hits me in the stomach. I’ve lost too many already, and what if Elio had been one of them?
I don’t think I could learn to live alongside the guilt of knowing my best friend died because I couldn’t be satisfied with the quiet presence of unanswered questions.
“Here, press that there—no, firmer,” Otto rattles on, hands flapping as he gives instructions, then scurries off to fetch his jars of salves and tinctures.
His voice fades down the corridor, leaving the room quieter, charged.
Elio winces but doesn’t move, not when Tavi steps closer, not when his fingers catch her waist and tug her between his knees.
She exhales sharply, cheeks blooming pink, but she doesn’t push him away.
Instead, she leans over the wound, fussing with cloth and pressure, her hands steady despite the flush on her skin.
I look away, then back again just in time to catch it—the briefest of kisses.
A stolen thing, soft as breath, gone before it can root.
Tavi pulls back instantly, red-faced and scowling, muttering something about infection.
Elio just grins like the cocky bastard he is, sitting there bleeding and smug.
Like a magnet, my gaze finds Odi again, who still sits on the edge of the kitchen table. She’s not looking at the two love birds over in the corner. No. She’s looking at me. Warmth erupts in my chest like a forbidden flower blooming under moonlight.