Kingdom of Salt and Sirens

by J. A. Armitage

  “I … I wasn’t on my own. I met a guy and I went out with him. He was a really good swimmer. It was just so sad.”

  “You went to the caves with someone you just met?” His voice is getting louder and harsher. “Are you stupid? That’s what probably happened to Anna, you know that, right?”

  “I know it was stupid, but he just made me feel safe.”

  “Where is he now?” Jack looks around, trying to see if there is someone with me.

  “He had to go home.” My eyes drop to the floor and I whisper, “He left.”

  “You’re not going to be spending more time with this stranger. Jeez, Soph. Anything could have happened.”

  “I’m not a baby, you know? I know how to look after myself and I need to have some freedom too.” My heart rate is increasing; I can feel the blood pumping through my veins. I push away from him and storm off. I know he’s right, but that makes me even madder.

  I stop when I get far enough away that I can’t hear what he’s saying and I take my towel out and lay down on the grass to watch the boys. I’ve had enough today.

  It’s not long before I’m asleep and, of course, I dream of Nix.

  * * *

  Nix emerges from the water like a sea god. His bronzed body ripples with the water running down his chest.

  “Come, on Sophia. Join me in the water. Let me take you on an adventure you’ll never forget.”

  It’s like he has some sort of magic calling me. I feel like I'm in a trance as I walk towards him. I don’t even feel the cold of the sea as I head for his outstretched hands.

  “Hey.” He grabs my hand to pull me closer. “Let’s swim out to sea. There’s something I want to show you.” He looks into my eyes. “Trust me?”

  “I trust you,” I say before he submerses himself in the water.

  “Come on, Sophia. The sea is lovely.”

  I lower myself down to cover every part of my body. I push my wet hair back off my face and turn to look at him. He’s smiling and that makes me smile.

  He starts to swim out to sea and I follow him in a trance. I feel like I would do anything he asks of me.

  “Slow down, Nix,” I shout as I can feel myself getting tired. We’ve been swimming for about fifteen minutes and the shore is getting farther and farther away.

  He just keeps swimming. Another ten minutes later, he turns and takes my hand. “Come on. Nearly there.”

  I can’t see anything nearby. I don’t know where he’s taking me.

  “Nix, I’m tired. I can’t keep going. I need to stop.”

  He just keeps pulling me farther out to sea.

  Eventually, I pull on his hand to make him stop and he turns to me. I can’t keep swimming. I know I need to get back to shore.

  When he turns around, it’s not him, but his friend Eva. She laughs at me as she continues to pull me. “Nix is mine!” she shouts. “Stay away from him.”

  I feel the fight in me slowly leaking out as she keeps dragging me. Suddenly, she stops, but the evil look on her face makes me even more scared.

  “I’m going to show you what he needs.” She dives under the water, dragging me with her. I try to struggle, but remember that that’s the worst thing you can do in the sea; it uses up more oxygen. But she isn’t going to let me come back up to breathe. She keeps swimming deeper and deeper.

  I can feel my life drifting away from me as she drags me farther into the darkness.

  3

  Nix POV

  I can’t believe Eva came and found me in the caves. I was just getting Sophia to relax and talk to me. I could feel all her tension when I hugged her. I couldn’t look at her when I left. I knew it would be hard for her, but I had to go straight away. My sister, Darya, is looking for me and that usually means I’m in trouble. I can’t afford to be in trouble if I want to keep seeing Sophia.

  When I think of her, it makes me smile. She is such a gorgeous girl, inside and out. She makes me laugh and I just want to hold her hand and touch her. Shaking my head, I continue swimming deeper. I have my tail back now. My legs had started to tingle in the cave so I knew my time with her was getting shorter anyway. Swimming is so much easier with my tail; I can propel myself for quite some distance.

  As I go deeper, the palace gets bigger until I’m just outside. I reach out to my sister in my head. “Darya, where are you?”

  “In my room.”

  As I swim into the palace, the guards give me a nod and let me in. We are heavily guarded as my dad is extremely important in ocean hierarchy. Making my way to Darya’s room, I throw the door open and see she’s sitting on her bed, crying.

  Any anger I might have had at being pulled away from Sophia is gone in an instant. My sister is delicate and I like to protect her and keep her safe.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask as I kneel in front of her.

  “I had a nightmare.” Sobbing, she looks up at me.

  “Again? You keep having them. Did you talk to Mum?”

  “No!” she shouts. “She can’t know. Nobody can.”

  “One day you are going to tell me what the nightmares are and then I can help you. But if you don’t tell me then I can’t help.”

  “I know,” she whispers in between sobs.

  * * *

  The next morning, as soon as I wake up, my mind races thinking of Sophia and I can’t wait to meet her on the beach. I’ve never been this excited to meet a girl before and she’s human. She’s my first human friend. I know it’s frowned upon, but I’m drawn to her.

  I waste no time before I’m bobbing up on the surface of the sea, but I can’t see her. I spend most of the day hanging around the rocks by the shore, watching the cliff steps, waiting for her. I wonder if she’s gone to the caves, so I dive down and swim over to the cave we were in yesterday. Nothing. No one.

  Disappointed, I swim back to shore and wait for another while, but she doesn’t come down at all today. Is she avoiding me?

  I think about her as I swim home. She must be really angry with me for not swimming back to shore with her. Tomorrow, I’m going to go back, and if she doesn’t come down to the beach, then I’m going to find her myself. I’m not sure I’ll know where she is, but someone will point me in the general direction. Well, I hope they will.

  As I get to the palace, I sneak into the garden to pick some more of the magical seaweed. I need enough for a couple of hours to find Sophia and then I’ll have to hurry back to the sea.

  After dinner, I hide out in my room, not in the mood to talk to anyone.

  * * *

  The following morning, I swim to the shore and wait for Sophia. After a few hours, I realise she isn’t coming again so I chew and swallow some of the seaweed and feel the ball of oxygen in my throat. My tail starts to disappear and is replaced by board shorts and legs. I always think it’s funny to see my legs and I stumble slightly when I climb out of the water.

  I’ve never been farther than the beach and I don’t really know what awaits me. I’ve seen humans walking up the steps and I know that’s the way I have to go.

  It’s strange to walk up the stairs, and I hold onto the rail. I can see the ocean fading behind me. That scares me quite a lot. I know I need to stay beside the sea to live. I’m putting my life at risk here; she had better talk to me when I find her.

  There are a couple of boys running around the field playing football; I think that’s what it’s called. Stopping, I watch them for a while. It’s only then that I notice two girls walking towards them and talking to them. One of them is Sophia. She hands the taller boy an ice-cream and he hugs her.

  The emotions that roll through my body frighten me. I hate him for letting her touch him. I don’t want her to touch anyone except me. What is happening to me?

  I cry out her name, “Sophia” and hope that it’s carried on the wind.

  She hears her name and turns to look in my direction. She puts her hand above her eyes to block out the sun to get a better look. She smiles, says something to her friend, and t
hen starts to walk over to me.

  As she gets closer, I notice she isn’t smiling anymore. Yeah, she’s annoyed at me.

  “Nix, what are you doing here?” She stands with her hands on her hips.

  “You didn’t come yesterday.” I reach out to touch her, but she steps back.

  “You left me in the cave. You knew how hard it was for me to swim out to it in the first place. And whoever that girl was, you just upped and left when she told you to. Who is she Nix?” She takes a breath. “Actually, I don’t want to know. I’m not interested.” She turns to walk away.

  I panic, grab her arm, and pull her back to me. I need to feel her.

  She struggles. “What are you doing, Nix? Let me go.”

  “I want you to listen to me, but you just want to walk away. Will you listen if I tell you what happened?”

  She looks me in the eyes for the first time and I’m hoping she can see the turmoil behind them. Nodding, she takes my hand and drags me farther away from her friends.

  After dropping my hand, she says, “Okay, tell me.”

  “Eva, that’s the girl that came into the cave, she is my sister’s best friend. She’s also my ex-girlfriend.”

  “Really? So you left me in the cave to go with your ex-girlfriend?”

  “No. My sister is delicate, and when she needs me, I try to be there for her. She needs someone and usually it’s only me that can calm her down. Eva came to tell me that my sister, Darya, needed me. I had to leave, but I didn’t want Eva to see my feelings for you. She’s a bitch and she would try to tear us apart. When you didn’t show yesterday, I wondered if it was because I left you in the cave or because Eva had said something.”

  “She left just after you. I’m sorry that your sister feels like that, but you have to realise how hard it was for me to swim out to the caves and then you left me in the one that my sister used to visit. Not cool, Nix.”

  I can see she’s battling with her emotions. She wants to be angry at me, but I think she wants to talk to me too.

  “If you can’t forgive me for leaving you in the caves, Sophia, then tell me now. I missed you yesterday and wanted to see you so much.”

  “How do I know I can trust you?”

  “I’ll tell you everything there is to know about me and my family. I want you to know. I just want to be with you. I’ve never felt a connection like this before.”

  She blushes, clearly embarrassed by my words. I reach out and take her hand, hoping she can feel the connection we have.

  “Urgh,” she grinds out, like she’s frustrated. “You confuse me, Nix. I enjoyed our time together and I wanted more of it, but then you let me down so badly in the cave.”

  “I explained that. But give me another chance and I promise I’ll tell you anything you want to know.” I pull her closer to me and hug her. Whispering in her ear, I say, “Please?”

  Her arm slowly wraps around my body and I feel the fight leave her. “I want that, Nix.” Pulling back, she smiles at me. “Let’s see what this is between us. I can’t deny our connection and I would always regret not giving us a chance. But the next time you do something like that, I will walk away and nothing you can say will make me change my mind. I need someone in my life who is there for me, Nix. Do you think that could be you?”

  Smiling from ear to ear, I answer, “Yes. Definitely.”

  “Okay, well seeing as my brother and my friends are staring at us and checking I’m okay, I think I’d better introduce you. Come on,” she says, grabbing my hand and pulling me over to the three people watching us.

  As we’re walking over, I can feel her hand tightening around mine. I’m nervous to meet them. I hope they don’t notice I’m different to them.

  She stops in front of them. “Everyone, this is Nix.”

  “Hi,” I say.

  “Are you the guy who took her to the caves?” the good-looking blonde guy says.

  “Yeah. She had to go back otherwise she would always be afraid.”

  “You obviously know why she doesn’t like them. Did you not think about how she would feel after?” He’s angry; I understand that.

  “I thought it would be good for her. I don’t need to justify my actions to you.” I stand tall and move in closer to him.

  Sophia stands in between the two of us. “Stop it!” Turning to me she says, “I did need to go. I was just upset when I got back and Jack could see that.”

  Turning to Jack, she says, “I didn’t realise I needed to go. I was upset, but I felt better after I’d been. I’m okay.”

  Jack steps back. All the tension in my body seeps out as I realise that I did help her.

  She takes my hand and turns me to face the other girl, who has mousy brown hair, a cute little nose, and lots of freckles on her face. “This is my best friend, Molly.”

  Reaching out my hand, I shake hers. She blushes and says, “Hi.”

  “Hi. I’m pleased to meet you.”

  “You’ve met by brother, Jack. This is his friend, Evan.”

  I shake his hand too. Both boys look at me curiously. I’m not surprised. I would do the same if Darya was introducing me to a stranger.

  Standing back, I put my arm around Sophia’s waist and bring her closer to me so that she’s leaning into me. “Can we get away for a few minutes? I want to talk to you.” My heart beats rapidly as I wait for her answer.

  “Sure.” Turning to the others she says, “Sorry Molly. Can I catch up with you later?”

  Molly smiles, showing us that she doesn’t mind. “I’ll see you later and we can catch up then,” she says to Sophia, stepping forward and giving her a hug.

  “Jack?” Sophia asks.

  “Yeah it’s grand,” he says, staring at me.

  “Great. Come on then, Nix. Let’s go.” We turn around and walk back towards the beach. I need to be near the sea. I feel like I’m suffocating without it being nearby. We’re silent as we walk down the cliff steps, and when we hit the sand, I feel like I can breathe again.

  “Let’s go sit on the rocks.” I pull her over with me and help her to climb across. “I’m really sorry, Sophia. I didn’t want to leave you there, but I didn’t want Eva to know how much I like you. She’d try to destroy whatever it is we have.”

  “Why? Why would she do that?”

  “Because she’s evil.”

  “But she was your girlfriend. You must have liked her at one stage.”

  “Yes. I thought I did, but when I didn’t want to do the things that she wanted, she started to get nasty. I broke it off with her as soon as she started acting weird. She keeps following me and trying to get me to go back out with her.”

  Laughing, Sophia says, “Life must be hard, all the girls chasing you, huh?” She nudges me with her shoulder.

  I laugh with her. “I like you a lot, Sophia,” I say quietly when we’ve both stopped laughing. “I don’t know what we can have together, if anything, but I just want you to know how I feel.”

  She blushes and then takes my hand and wraps it around hers. “I like you too, Nix. I’ve not really had many boyfriends, but no one has made me feel like you do. I had a pain in my heart when you left, and again when I purposely didn’t come down to the beach yesterday.”

  “I hung around the beach all day, hoping you would come. I was so angry with myself when you didn’t. I knew I had to go and find you so you realise how serious I am.”

  “Well, I’m glad you did.” She looks out to sea and we both go quiet.

  I’m nervous. I know I need to tell her what I am, but I need to know if she thinks we have a future together. I could be sentenced to death for telling her. Personally, I think she’s worth it, but only if she wants to be with me too.

  “I need to tell you something, Sophia. But I know you’re going to freak out. I know you won’t believe me.”

  “What? What do you need to tell me?” She sighs heavily and moves slightly farther away from me.

  “I’m different to most people. I love being in the sea.�
�

  “So do I. Why would that make you different?”

  “I... err. I live in the sea.”

  “You mean on a houseboat? That’s cool.”

  I turn to face her and take her hand. I need to touch her. “Today was the first time I’ve ever left the beach. I don’t normally go onto the beach and I wouldn’t have done if it wasn’t for that starfish.”

  “I don’t understand, Nix.” Her eyebrows are furrowed.

  “Don’t freak out, please. I’m a merman, Sophia.” She tries to pull her hand back, but I hold it tight. “I know it doesn’t make sense, but come into the sea with me and I’ll show you. Please?”

  Sophia looks scared. “But you’ve got legs. I don’t understand. Are you sick or something? Do you need your medication?”

  “No, I’m not sick. I’ve only got legs when I’m on land. When I’m in the sea, I have a tail.”

  “You didn’t have a tail the other day when we swam to the caves.” I can barely hear her as she’s whispering.

  “I know. To breathe above water and to be able to walk on land, I have to eat this special seaweed. I took some earlier when I went looking for you. It’s starting to wear off and I need to get back in the sea. Come with me.”

  I can’t wait any longer. I have to get back into the sea. Standing on the rocks, I take one last look at her before diving into the ice-cold water. When I surface a minute later, my legs have been replaced by my tail.

  Sophia has her hands over her mouth in shock. Reaching out, I ask, “Come in with me, Sophia.” Her answer will tell me everything I need to know about our relationship. Have I just made the worst mistake of my life?

  4

  Sophia POV

  What the heck is Nix talking about? Have I dropped into a dream? I pinch myself just to make sure I’m really awake. He can’t really expect me to believe him.