Chapter 13
DRAYA
Hazel slid into the water, melting against my body as if she belonged there. This girl was so starved for care and affection that she was seeking it from me, a predator who could kill her in seconds and not a soul would know.
“You have very bad self-preservation skills,” I murmured, adjusting her as I formed a pocket of air around her head.
She said nothing, just leaned her head against my shoulder and closed her eyes.
My mind was all over the place. Of course, I wasn’t going to leave her in a cave in the middle of the ocean. Nor was I going to take her back to that fucking torture island. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about bringing her into the Talassian Capital.
If she did not possess any Talassi blood, she’d be killed.
Humans were not allowed inside the Capital under any circumstances, and if they were brought in as prisoners they were promptly disposed of once any useful information had been extracted.
No full-blooded human in Talassian history, at least that I was aware of, had traversed one of our cities and lived to tell the tale.
Hazel and I slipped below the surface of the pool, following the current down through the tunnel and out to the open ocean.
I’d taken her to one of our outposts, a small cave connected to a peninsula off the coast of what the humans call Maine.
Talassian outposts were protected by magic, and provided a safe base for our warriors when we were completing missions on land.
These caverns and tunnels contained clothing, human food rations, water, and survival gear in case we needed to camp for a few days to a few weeks.
All full-blooded Talassi could shift between our sea forms and land forms, with our land forms mimicking a true human body.
We could only stay in our land forms for a period of time, ranging from a day to a few weeks depending on our age and strength, and we had to stay close to a natural body of water to maintain the shift.
Talassi who had human blood, as I suspected of Hazel, typically spent most of their time in human form and could only shift into their Talassi bodies when in close proximity to the ocean or another large body of water.
Half-Talassi were rare, and I wasn’t quite sure how Hazel had come to be. Which was why it was important that I brought her back to the Capital.
Despite the irritating part of me that seemed to care about her, I was curious.
There was something strange about her existence, and for my own selfish reasons, I wanted to know more.
Lord Emerson was undoubtedly not Talassi.
He’d been an enemy to my people since long before I presumed she was born.
She couldn’t have been older than twenty-five, and I remembered hearing of the horrible atrocities Emerson and his fleet had committed against us during my own childhood. I was nearing thirty-five.
Strange oddities were happening within the Emerson family line, and the more I thought about it, the more confident I was in my decision to save her.
However, I was reluctant to inform her that she was now, for all intents and purposes, my prisoner.
“Hazel,” I said, trying to keep my voice soft enough so as to not hurt her ears. Our voices were amplified in the water, and I didn’t want to give her permanent hearing damage.
“Yes,” she said, her voice low against the crook of my shoulder.
“I need to prepare you for when we arrive at the Capital,” I said. She nodded, squeezing her frail arms against my torso. “Talassi don’t typically take… kindly to humans. And considering your bloodline, you will not be given a warm welcome.”
“Lovely,” she said, her voice lifeless.
“I’m going to bring you in as a prisoner,” I said gently, hoping she wouldn’t thrash or yell.
Her reaction, or lack thereof, surprised me. She said nothing.
“Hazel?!” I snapped, loosening my hold and leaning back to look her in the eyes.
Her expression was glazed over, as if she couldn’t have cared any less about what I just said. This woman was going to be the death of me. Why didn’t she care about anything?!
I shook my head, readjusting her so we could continue our journey, and we didn’t exchange any more words until we reached the outskirts of the Capital.
I bound her wrists in front of her with a piece of kelp I ripped from the sea floor, to which she gave no objection, then we ascended to the iron gate barring the city.
“Is this a volcano?” She asked, startling me.
“Yes, though it’s been inactive for centuries,” I replied. “Now keep quiet, I must speak with the gatekeeper.”
I announced our presence, thankful the guard didn't put up a fight when he saw my unexpected prisoner. My status as a warrior allowed me to traverse in and out of the city without much trouble, and within minutes we were floating through the iron gates.
I brought her to a part of the volcano close to the front entrance, a series of tunnels and alcoves that served as holding cells. It wouldn’t be very comfortable, but she could manage for a night or two. At this point, I was positive anything would be better than that miserable hospital.
We floated into an empty room, and I slid the iron door closed behind me.
“You weren’t joking about me being a prisoner,” she said, looking around the cell. The room was bare, the floors and walls made of volcanic rock with a few veins of bluish crystalline stone running through it. In the corner sat a large, smooth rock that she could sit or lie on.
I waved my hand, removing a stone from the floor and revealing a large drain. Within moments the space was devoid of water, and I placed her on the ground before shifting into my human form.
“How did you do that?!” She demanded, life seeming to flood her eyes again. “And can you untie me, please? These are hurting my wrists!”
“Cranky,” I said, slicing through the kelp with a sharp nail. “We have human forms, you know. And not all Talassi are full-blooded Talassi. Plenty of areas in the city can be both dry and wet, depending on what we prefer.”
“This is insanity,” she breathed. “I’ve truly gone mad.”
“If you keep telling yourself that, you’re going to start believing it,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m leaving to grab you some food and water, all right?”
“Am I just supposed to stay here?”
“Yes,” I said. “I’ll get us a meeting with the Queen as soon as I can, and then we’ll decide your fate.”
“My fate?!” she exclaimed, and I winced.
“Your… next steps,” I corrected, and she shook her head and sat atop the smooth corner stone, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.
It took me quite some time to find proper food for her, as I had to track down a half-human to ask what I could feed her.
They sent me back with some cooked fish and a squishy pod.
They said the pod contained freshwater packed with minerals, which were apparently important for humans since they couldn’t just absorb minerals through their gills.
Yet another flaw in their horrible design.
When I returned to the cell, she was still huddled in the corner. Her breathing was slow, and she didn’t even open her eyes when I entered or shifted. As I approached, I noticed she was trembling.
“Hazel,” I whispered, not wanting to scare her. She said nothing. “Hazel!”
She jumped, eyes widening as she scrambled backward against the wall.
“I’ve brought you some food,” I said. “And this pod full of water is apparently good for you.”
She still said nothing, her eyes tracking me as her fingers clawed at the stone behind her. Something was wrong, and I wondered if she was going into shock.
I sighed, regretting all my decisions and wondering if I should have just taken her back to the island.
“Hazel,” I said again, reaching out a hand towards her while once again pulling the rumbling song from my chest. Constantly having to hypnotize her was getting irritating, but it was the best way to get her to calm down. “You need to stop clawing at the stone, or you’re going to hurt your hands.”
Her trembling slowed as I pulled her small palms away from the wall, placing them in front of her, and her breathing seemed to slow as her eyes darted over my face.
“It’s…” she croaked, and I noticed a few tears streaming down her face.
“What’s wrong, Hazel?” I asked, trying to mask my annoyance as she wouldn’t release her grip on my hands.
“It’s so dark,” she said. “And damp.”
“Well, yes,” I replied. Obviously. We were in a cave inside a volcano. On the floor of the ocean.
“I can’t see,” she said, pausing again to collect her words. “And it makes me panic a little bit.”
For a moment I was confused, because I could see perfectly fine, but then I remembered she wasn’t used to being underwater like this. And she still was at least half-human, which likely meant her eyesight wasn’t great at depths like this.
“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling a pang of guilt. “You weren’t nervous while we travelled.”
“When you’re here, I’m not as nervous,” she said. “I know it’s ridiculous, but the cold, wet, dark makes me feel like I’m all alone in that hospital again. It makes my heart beat very fast and my head becomes cloudy, and it’s difficult for me to remember where I am.”
I brushed my hand along the lines of crystal splintered through the wall, and within seconds they lit up with a bioluminescent glow. It wasn’t as bright as being above the surface, but it was enough that she could hopefully see around the room a little better.
“I wasn’t even sure if I was alone in here,” she whispered, and I felt true remorse.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, grabbing her plate of food and setting it down on the stone beside her. “I can’t stay in here with you for much longer, but I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
She nodded.
“Please eat,” I said. She nodded again.
“Draya,” she started, staring at the food but making no move to retrieve it. “Why did you bring me here?”
I sighed, not exactly sure how to answer.
In part, I was intrigued by her. I wanted to understand how and why an Emerson had Talassi blood, or so I assumed.
But I was also starting to care about her in the way a child cares for their first pet, and I wasn’t sure how to explain that to her without making her cry again.
And I couldn’t handle any more of her tears.
“You’re an interesting phenomenon, Miss Emerson,” I said, backing up towards the doorway. “And I intend to figure you out.”
She said nothing as I slipped out of her cell and back into the water, and I hoped the Queen would grace us with a meeting sooner rather than later.