Chapter 14
Chapter
Fourteen
When she stole softly to the edge of the lagoon she might see them by the score, especially on Marooner’s Rock.
When I feel like my lungs are about to burst, we finally surface, the dark water sparkling around us as I sputter and splash.
“I thought you said she could swim.” A mermaid with dark skin and the most beautiful curls I’ve ever seen swims in a circle around me.
“She swims, just not well.” Quenith, the mermaid who tried to eat me, gives me a toothy smile. “Sorry, but I could tell you were in trouble, and I owed you one from the other night in the lagoon.”
I cough some more and try to tread water as Quenith remains perfectly still, politely waiting for me to stop trying to drown. “The pirates—” I cough some more.
“They’ll be back on their boats soon. The moon is almost all the way up. They won’t stay on the island when it is.” The other mermaid stops beside Quenith and stares at me. “You don’t look anything like Wendy.”
“Okay.” I’m getting pretty damn tired of all the Wendy comparisons, but there’s not much I can do about it, I suppose. “Thanks for that.”
“You’re certain we can’t eat her?” she asks Quenith.
“Marinda!” The other one turns to her. “We shouldn’t. Peter would get angry.”
“What care I for Peter’s anger?” Marinda bares her teeth.
“Hey, whoa!” I try to push myself away from them, but they easily stay the same distance away no matter how much I try to swim back. “You can’t save me from the pirates just to eat me.”
“I can do whatever I want, mainlander.” Marinda moves behind me.
“No.” Quenith’s voice is a bit stronger now, the sound still so beautiful. “This is me making amends.”
“Once you have her on land, then your obligation is fulfilled?” Marinda asks.
“Yes.” Quenith sucks on her tooth. “I suppose that’s right.”
“So, if the little mainlander gets into the water again—”
“Then you could eat her,” Quenith finishes for her. “Though it would make Peter quite angry.”
“Wait, what? Quenith, come on.” I don’t like the sound of any of that. “Please don’t eat me.”
She shrugs, the water shining off her green scales in the moonlight. “I won’t. But Marinda might.”
I spin in the water and face Marinda. “Okay, so Marinda, please don’t eat me, okay?”
Marinda grins, her shark teeth terrifyingly bright. “Let’s get you to shore, little lamb.” She takes my arm, and once again I’m pulled beneath the water.
Holding my breath, I keep my eyes shut tightly as Quenith takes my other arm and we speed through the water. I only hope I have enough air, because I’ve discovered that mermaids have absolutely no idea how long a human can go without taking a breath.
When we finally stop again, I gasp in air and cough up water. They lift me and drop me onto solid ground. I lay there for a moment, just gulping in air and telling my lungs that I’m going to survive. After a while, I can finally breathe without panic, so I sit up.
They float just ahead of me and whisper to each other like a melody.
“Thanks.” I go to stand, but when I do, I realize I’m not actually on the shore. “Wait. Hey, wait. Quenith?”
“Yes, Moira?” She bobs higher in the water, her perky breasts coated with a faint layer of scales.
“Um, I seem to be on a rock. I need to be over there.” I point to the beach that’s about a hundred yards away.
“Oh, yes, I know.” She nods. “You’re on Marooner’s Rock.”
Marooner’s Rock. That was in the stories Wendy passed down. Hook brought Tiger Lily here and chained her to the rock so she’d drown when the tide came in. Holy shit.
“Quenith?” I try to keep the hysteria from my tone, but I can’t. I look around, and I could swear the water is already rising, covering the barnacles attached to the edges of the dark gray rock that’s no bigger than Rose’s headboard from Titanic.
“Hmm?” She’s still bobbing as Marinda stares at me, her eyelids unblinking.
“Can you please take me to the beach?”
“No. She did right by you, mainlander. You’re safe on Marooner’s Rock,” Marinda says.
“Sure. For now. But if the tide comes i—”
“When.” Marinda rises from the water, her dark skin coated with a sheen of silvery scales. “When the tide comes in.” She looks up. “It’s almost here. The moon is getting so high.” Her eyes return to me. “Good. Because I’m starving.”
“Quenith, please.” I appeal to her. I have to. Marinda’s mind is made up. “Please take me to the beach. I think that’s only fair, right? And Peter will be so mad if you eat me. He’ll come after you. He and all the Lost Boys. You won’t be safe.”
Quenith swims closer, and I recoil. She rests her fingers on the rock, the webbing between them almost translucent.
“I wouldn’t worry so much about me, Moira,” she whispers as if Marinda can’t hear her.
“You should worry more about you.” She floats back, joining Marinda as the water continues to rise right along with the moon.
Terror courses through my veins as I glance at them and back to the beach. There’s no way I can make it. It’s too far, and they are too fast. They’d catch me the second I got into the water.
“Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock,” Marinda sing-songs as Quenith bops her head along to the rhythm.
I do the only thing I can. Turning to the shore, I cup my hands around my mouth, and I scream, “Peter! Coy! Anybody!” The sea seems to swallow my voice, gulping it down until only the lapping of the waves remains. No one can hear me, and now the dark water is past the barnacles.
“Don’t be afraid.” Quenith practically purrs. “We’ll drown you first. You won’t feel our bite.”
“How fucking comforting!” I yell at her.
She floats away from me a bit and has the nerve to look hurt.
“No need to yell, Mainlander,” Marinda hisses at me.
“You’re trying to kill me, and I’m the asshole for yelling?”
She wraps her arm around Quenith, and they go back to whispering.
I’m so fucked. Here I was thinking I was getting rescued. Like an idiot. If this island has taught me nothing else, it’s that I can’t trust anyone I meet here. Peter’s the only one who’s actually looked out for me. He and Coy seem to be the only thing between me and an untimely death.
I yell for them again, and again the sea chews up my plea.
“Can’t we make a deal or something?” I get to my knees and plead with Quenith.
“What kind of deal?” She swims around the rock, her movements so smooth in the water, as if she’s dancing through it with practiced steps.
“I don’t know. Is there something you want?”
“Just you.” Marinda starts circling me, too, a shark waiting for its meal.
“Oh, come on. There must be something you want that I can get for you. Or maybe something from Peter. Anything. Just ask.” I even clasp my shaking hands together. “Please.”
“The sea gives us everything.” Quenith shrugs. “All its treasures are ours to claim.” She reaches beneath the water and pulls up a strand of large pearls that must be attached to her waist on a belly chain. “See?”
They gleam in the moonlight. “Those are really pretty.”
“I know.” She dives down and pops up on my other side. “I made it myself.”
An idea hits me. “What if I got you some bigger pearls?”
“There aren’t any bigger than these.” She holds up the strand again and smiles at it. “I found these off the coast of the fairy village. Their magic runs into the water, enchanting everything in different ways.”
“There are.” I lean forward. “I’ve seen them.”
“She’s lying.” Marinda hovers just out of reach. The water is brushing against my knees now.
“Where could you possibly have seen bigger pearls?”
“A woman on the shore. She tried to give me one, but I was … suspicious. Anyway, they were huge, and she had several of them.”
They stop bobbing, their eyes going wide.
“Queen Ari,” Quenith says with an air of disbelief.
The old hag is actually a queen? Like I said, never trust anyone on this island. “Yes! Her name was Ari.”
“Where was this?” Marinda hisses. “Where is she?”
“I can’t just tell you. You’ll eat me.”
“Tell us now, Mainlander.” Marinda puts her palms on the rock. “Now!” she screams, the sound like an arrow straight through my brain.
I cover my ears. “No! I won’t say shit until I’m safe on the shore.”
“Marinda.” Quenith pulls her back, and they whisper their sweet melody to each other again.
I try not to hold my breath, try to keep from pissing myself, try to just keep it together.
They finally stop, and Marinda turns to me. “If you tell us where you saw Queen Ari, we’ll let you swim to shore.”
“Unharmed?” I ask. I’m not falling for some loophole. “And I’ll only tell you after I’m safe on the sand.”
“Fine.” Marinda looks up at the moon that’s perched almost overhead now. “If you start now, you can make it. Maybe.”
“Maybe?” I glance at the shore again. It seems farther away than ever.
“When the moon hits its peak, we can’t control ourselves.” Marinda’s eyes turn to slits. “And we’re hungry.”
“Just swim me over there. You’re fast.” I regret my words the moment Marinda reaches for me, her claws already curling around my wrist, her mouthful of shark teeth bared. “Wait! Never mind! I’ll swim for it.” I wrench my hand away from her.
“Best go now, Moira.” Quenith’s eyes have changed, too. “Fast.”
I don’t need any more urging. Bending my knees, I spring off the rock and into the cool water. My dive verges on a belly flop, but it doesn’t matter. I’m swimming for my life. My legs pump as hard as they can, my arms slapping down into the water and pulling me forward.
Each push drains my energy and brings my headache roaring back. I force myself to keep going. No stopping to catch my breath, no treading water. I have to make it to the shore that seems impossibly far away.
My muscles burn, and the ocean keeps trying to drag me down. My sweatshirt is an extra weight, but I don’t want to stop and strip it off. That’d just waste more precious time.