Chapter 12 #2
“What your kind don’t seem to understand, especially your father, Hazel Emerson,” malice coating his voice as he enunciated each syllable of my name, “is that we do not care to ‘lure humans to untimely deaths’ the way your legends have painted. People like Lord Emerson and his associates enjoy plowing their ships through the ocean with no regard to the established habitats and creatures, and it causes extreme distress for those of us who live there.”
His voice was laced with emotion, and I couldn’t blame him for his anger.
“My father is a monster,” I said. “Believe me, I’m well aware.”
“I’m surprised he didn’t raise you with the same hatred for us that he carries in his heart,” he scoffed.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Draya muttered, standing up and pulling his hands out of my grasp. “We have some important things to sort out, but I need to know your mind is sound before we continue.”
I nodded, taking in his words and trying to figure out what he meant.
Did my father have prior interactions with the Talassi?
The more I thought about it, the more it made sense.
The Emerson fleet was the largest merchant organization in the world, and he’d spent years of his life exploring the ocean.
It wouldn’t come as a surprise to me if he’d angered the Talassi at some point.
“I don’t understand the human part of you,” I blurted out, surprising even myself. “I always thought Talassi were sea creatures with humanoid elements, but you seem to be able to take on a true human form.”
“We are able to shift to our human forms when we are in close proximity to a body of water,” he explained. “But we can’t stay in this form for too long, or we start to deteriorate.”
“What’s the purpose of it?”
“Survival, most likely,” he said. “It gives us an advantage in seaside towns and ports like Whitethorn Bay. We can infiltrate human spaces and learn about your kind.”
I frowned, unsure what he meant by that.
“We can also procreate with humans,” he said, raising a brow.
My breath hitched, and for a split second I was overcome with terror. Was that what all this was about?! He saved me from drowning so he could use me as… I didn’t want to think about it, so I shrunk into myself and pulled the blanket over my body again.
“Absolutely not,” he laughed, a twinkle in his eyes as they curiously roved over my stricken face. “I would never do such a thing. But it seems you may be the byproduct of… that.”
“What?!” I exclaimed, my mind reeling.
He knelt down again, his face so close to mine that I could feel the heat radiating from his cheeks. Gentle fingers brushed against that sensitive point on my neck again, and the same burning, desperate feeling shot through my body, settling low in my core.
“What are you doing,” I gasped, wanting more of this touch but not understanding what was happening.
“You have gill marks here,” he said, flashing me his razor sharp canines as he grinned. My cheeks heated when he removed his fingers from my skin, though the need inside me didn’t dissipate as quickly as I would have liked it to.
“So, because my neck is sensitive means my parents weren’t human?” I asked, growing irritated.
“No,” he said again. “I’ve been curious about you for years, Miss Hazel Emerson. When I found you after that shipwreck, I assumed you were dead. You were far too deep in the water for a human to survive, but I was drawn to the way your hair seemed to glow.”
I looked down at my pale blonde hair, now matted with seawater. What is he talking about?
“I was only going to move your body out of the wreckage so you could sink to the bottom and enter the afterlife in peace, but when I touched you, your eyes opened and I realized you were alive. You scared the hell out of me, Hazel.”
I couldn’t help but giggle. The idea of scaring Draya, especially in his Talassi form, was quite amusing.
“At that point, I figured I’d reached you soon after the wreck, and you had somehow not drowned yet. So I took you to that island and waited for you to wake up,” he paused, as if waiting for a response.
“I remember,” I said slowly, wondering what was coming next.
“Have you ever noticed that storms seem to follow you?” He asked, narrowing his eyes.
“I suppose so,” I said. “I grew up in Whitethorn Bay where storms are common, though. And I figured my life was gloomy enough that it was fitting. Although I must admit, I hate thunderstorms.”
“Well,” he started hesitantly. “You seem to have some… control over them.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, shaking my head.
“When you’re distressed, storms appear,” he answered, but I was still confused. “All Talassi possess water magic. It manifests differently among each of us, but our species can control oceans, rivers, clouds, rain, storms, and sometimes even fluids found in the bodies of living beings.”
My eyes widened as I followed what he said. He was making sense, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear the rest. Though he didn’t seem to care, and continued with his theory.
“Aside from your inexplicable ability to survive in the ocean, your faint gill marks, and your ability to call upon storms, your body has completely healed from the scratches and cuts you had received prior to jumping off that jetty. Which, by the way, was an incredibly stupid idea. If I hadn’t been there to catch you, you would have been sucked under and likely impaled on the sharp rocks beneath the surface.
The ocean surrounding Akala Island is not as deep as you’d think. ”
“Slow down, please,” I pleaded, my head swimming.
“Why did you do it?” He asked, his voice commanding this time.
“Do what?!” I exclaimed.
“Why did you jump off that jetty?”
“I…” I started. “I couldn’t take it anymore. They were abusing me in that horrific excuse for a hospital, and I had nowhere else to go.”
“And?” He asked, now gripping my shoulder. “There’s more, isn’t there?”
I closed my eyes, blowing out a long breath as I tried to form the right words.
“Yes,” I whispered. “But Draya, I’m positive that I’m mad. My father must be right, I’m suffering from hysteria. How do I even know any of this is real? For all I know I could be hallucinating in hydrotherapy treatment again!”
“What the hell is that?”
“It’s a large tank full of water,” I said, shaking my head. “They’d hold me under until I stopped breathing, waiting to see if I’d pass out, then they’d pull me out, question me, and plunge me under again.”
“That’s… torture for a human,” he growled, clearly agitated by the idea.
“I realize that now,” I said, breaking our gaze and staring down at my hands in my lap. “But I never passed out, nor did I drown. So they would dunk me in and out for hours. It was awful.”
“And you still didn’t think something was… strange when you refused to drown?” he asked. I shook my head. “Hazel, why did you jump off that jetty?”
“They killed my only friend,” I blurted out, no longer caring about how badly the story would hurt to tell, nor how utterly insane I was going to sound while telling it.
“I had a nurse, Bucky, who was the only person in that entire establishment who treated me like a person, and not some sick, delusional animal. When I was under his care, he’d help me sneak out to the beach late at night, and it was the only time I felt peace and solace in that wretched place. ”
“Why the beach?” Draya pressed, and I shook my head.
“It calls to me,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.
“At first, I enjoyed the small taste of freedom. They didn’t start hurting me until I’d been there for a few months, and I simply enjoyed my moments by the water, the only time I wasn’t being watched and analyzed.
But as the abuse worsened and my mental state…
deteriorated… I found a sort of comfort in the ocean. ”