Chapter 3
HAZEL
Vibrant, emerald green eyes peered into mine, searching my face as I tried to make sense of my surroundings.
The man’s hard, angular jaw was only inches away from my face, his breath coasting over my neck as I tried to stop shivering, unsure if it was from the cold or from the panic surging within me.
From what I could tell, I was seated on some type of hard surface in the middle of what I assumed was the Atlantic Ocean, and a very muscular shirtless man knelt beside me.
“Who are you?!” I demanded again, pressing a hand against his bare chest, trying to put some space between us. His skin was soft, slightly warm to the touch, and he gently laid his massive palm over the back of my hand.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, furrowing his brow as if the sight of me amused him. “But I am wondering who you are, as well.”
I shook my head, looking down at my lap. The terror I’d felt moments before was dissolving into anguish, and I shook my head as I tried to hold back a sob.
“Hey, hey,” the man said softly, reaching to brush a strand of hair away from my face before resting his palm on my shoulder.
My limbs were heavy, my throat was dry, and my head was pounding so hard I could have sworn I felt my heartbeat in my temples.
I was freezing, scared, and every inch of my body was screaming in pain, but for some reason unbeknownst to me, I leaned into the mysterious stranger’s touch.
We sat in silence for a moment, studying each other. Moonlight glistened off his shaggy, pitch-black hair and olive-toned skin, sculpting the silhouette of a strikingly handsome man. Faint scars laid across the sides of his neck, and the tops of his ears almost resembled translucent fins.
Fins? I must have swallowed far too much ocean water.
Panic began to set in as I realized I might have been hallucinating things, and my breathing came in rapid bursts as I felt my chest tighten.
Where the hell am I? Who is this man? What happened to me?
Where is the ship?! Drops of rain pattered against my bare shoulders and neck, and I felt the wind pick up around us yet again.
“The storm!” I exclaimed, my eyes darting in all directions as my mind grew clearer.
“I was on a ship! There was a storm! We have to get to shelter!” I pushed back at the man again, trying to gain my bearings as the gravity of our situation weighed down on me.
We were huddled on a small island made of smooth rocks with nothing but the vast, angry ocean around us.
It was a surefire death sentence if the storm caught up to us.
“We’re going to die!” I cried out again, pushing to my feet. Which turned out to be a terrible idea, as my vision swirled in all directions and I nearly collapsed forward.
The strange man caught me, and as quickly as the panic had permeated through my body, it started to dissipate.
How peculiar, I thought, resting my head against his bare chest, the rumbling of his heartbeat bringing me an unexpected sense of ease.
He didn’t seem to mind my closeness, and we stood for a moment as his smooth hands caressed my shoulders.
“You’re alright,” the man said calmly, guiding me back to a seated position. “The storm is long gone, and so is that ship full of wretched sailors.”
“Oh,” I said, my memory slowly becoming clearer. “They tossed me overboard.”
“So I gathered,” the man replied, his beautiful face pained with pity. “You were underwater for hours. I don’t know how, or why, you were able to survive, but I’m afraid I can’t help you any further.”
His hands left me abruptly as he stood, and I realized that he was, thankfully, wearing black linen pants.
“You’re leaving me here?” I exclaimed, throwing my hands in the air. “At least take me with you! Where is your boat?” I stood up to follow him, though it was only a few short steps before the rocky island dropped right into the ocean.
“I don’t need a boat,” he replied, pausing at the edge of the rocks. Muscles rippled over his back as he moved, and for a moment I wondered if I faced more danger from him or the sea.
“What do you mean you don’t need a boat?
!” I shouted back. I did not survive a shipwreck only to be left by some…
inhumanely strong-swimming man on a rocky island in the middle of the Atlantic!
My thoughts were racing so fast that I didn’t know what to make of this situation.
I was starting to wonder if I was already dead, whether this was some sort of test before God or the universe sent me into another life.
As I contemplated shoving him over the edge of the rocks and into the churning water below, he made the decision for me.
With what seemed like no effort, he leapt into the air, and his legs vanished into a long, dark-turquoise tail.
His skin turned from olive to a greyish teal, and I watched in horror as fins and spikes sprouted from his shoulders and back.
I shrieked again as he landed in the water, dousing me with the splash, although at this point I was so waterlogged it was of no matter. He spun around, then pulled his upper half over the edge of the bluff, those emerald eyes roving over me with a smirk.
As a child, I’d heard legends of the Talassi, vicious half-human and half-fishlike creatures, but I’d never imagined they might be real.
Let alone that I’d see one, or that he would save me from a shipwreck only to leave me to die.
My father was a sailing merchant, for god’s sake, and he’d always brushed them off as a cautionary tale.
According to the tales, Talassi were terrifying, dangerous predators.
They were beautiful creatures to watch from afar, possessing the ability to shift between their human and oceanic forms, but according to old wives’ tales they would lure sailors and young children into the water with a mesmerizing song, only to feast upon their flesh.
In his human form, I would have labeled the man handsome, but the creature that dove into the water was indescribable.
His teal-colored torso was broad and chiseled, that of a man, though it was peppered with light blue freckles and accented by faint lines at his hips and neck.
His arms were a deeper teal, with fins at the elbows and webbing between his fingers.
Like I thought I’d noticed before, the tops of his ears turned into translucent fins, and his face somehow became even more gorgeous and terrifying with its teal hue and light blue freckles.
His hair had changed as well, now falling in long strands over his face and the fins along his spine, and a massive, dark teal tail moved gracefully under the surface of the water.
“You’re Talassi,” I choked out, still in a wide-eyed daze.
“Yes,” he answered matter-of-factly, a slight grin peeking at the corners of his mouth. I noticed razor sharp fangs hidden behind his lips.
The creature before me was utterly terrifying, and I wasn’t sure why he hadn’t killed me yet. Were they the type of predator to play with their food? Was this some sort of game for him?
It must have been due to the adrenaline, or the fact that I simply could not believe this was actually happening, but I didn’t feel scared of him.
I knew I should, but I was mostly just nervous that he’d leave me on this island to succumb to the elements, which felt like a far more gruesome death than being flayed alive by a beautiful sea creature.
“Well… that means you can take me back to Whitethorn Bay!” I exclaimed. “You cannot just leave me here!” Whatever infatuation had struck me as immobile for a moment dissipated, and it was replaced with anger. I will not be left to die here.
The creature blew out a breath, causing me to pause for a moment as I wondered how he was able to do so.
Gills marked the sides of his neck, but he must have had lungs as well.
His webbed thumb and forefinger rubbed the bridge of his nose, and he looked back up at me with utter exhaustion in his emerald green eyes.
“Whitethorn Bay is nearly across the ocean!” He exclaimed. “I absolutely cannot take you there!”
“Then take me anywhere else! Take me to Akala, for all I care! In case you’re uncertain, I am not a Talassi. I’m a human. A cold, weak, very frightened human! And I will die here if you leave me!” Desperation filled my voice as the words left my mouth.
The surrounding air thickened with static as the light rain turned into a heavy downpour. Gusts of wind howled against the rocks, and the choppy waters of the ocean looked more ominous by the second. I knew the storm wasn’t gone. This creature was playing with me. Was I about to become his dinner?
Salty tears streamed down my face, mixing with the seawater invading my mouth as choked sobs escaped my throat. Without a doubt, I knew I was about to meet my demise, and with that came the death of my will to fight.
“Who are you?” The Talassi’s voice boomed over the sound of the rain and the sea, and I sank to my knees at the edge of the jutting rock.
“My name is Hazel Emerson,” I yelled, not missing the way his eyes widened when he learned my last name.
My shoulders slumped, and I leaned forward until my forehead hit the smooth rock.
Did I want to drown myself, or did I want to die of exposure and hypothermia as I was pelted by the rain and storm atop this island. All of my options were quite bleak.
“Hazel Emerson,” he repeated, and I didn’t bother to answer. “I should just kill you now,” he snarled. His tail thrashed in the water, spraying me with a light salty mist.
“Please!” I begged, my face still pressed into the rock.
“Please, just kill me. Get it over with. I’m going to die anyway if you leave me, so the least you can do is give me the mercy of a quick death!
” I had no desire to fight anymore. I missed my mother, I missed my life, I almost missed my cold-hearted father.
Whatever sick joke the universe was playing on me by allowing me to survive being thrown overboard, drowning, and a shipwreck, only to die from the elements on an island, was becoming too much.
I longed for the sweet embrace of whatever lay beyond this miserable life.