by Ellie Margot
“And you said you couldn’t make friends,” said Mekhi, who noticed the exchange. “Maybe you just needed someone as badass as you are.”
“I am pretty badass, aren’t I?”
“No, see, it’s one of those things where if you acknowledge it, you lose ten points. You were at the level, but with that shit, you’ve gone back down to semi-entertaining with some coolness levels. It’s a shame.”
“Mekhi,” Riette said and laughed. Then the guilt for feeling any kind of good when Corin was who knows where came back. Hard.
“Don’t,” said Mekhi. “I can’t think about anything that’s not fucking rainbows right now where’s she’s concerned, and neither can you. That’s not how we get through this. Okay?”
“Everything all right?” asked Cassian.
“We’re good,” said Riette. “Where did you run off to?”
“I had to handle something,” Cassian said.
“Well, that doesn’t sound ominous at all,” said Mekhi.
The three of them stood looking out at the sea in front of them. The water sloshed against the boat, and Riette leaned on Cassian’s arm. He touched her shoulder, and she pulled Mekhi in on the other side.
It was them against the world, but it never looked so obvious as it did right then.
Night came quickly. The others left them alone, minus the one Riette nicknamed Lefty.
They went to the main deck. Mekhi wanted to see the stars, which looked different against the backdrop of the waves. Something akin to peace filled Riette until she made eye contact with Lefty.
Lefty did everything with his left hand, including flipping her off. Cassian and Mekhi pushed her behind them to avoid confrontation, which pissed Riette off worse, but nothing happened.
Riette kept the promise she’d made to Cassian at the front of her mind, and after some time looking at the sea, she wanted to go to bed. Cassian and Mekhi went down with her, insisting they didn’t want to leave her alone. But she wouldn’t be alone. That was a luxury they didn’t have in the bottom of the ship. The beds were cots, laid out in just about every square inch of the floor, but they weren’t all taken. About half of the beds were empty. Why that might be was something that made Riette grab the small weathered blanket given with each cot. The side of the room they were given flanked the small port window on the side of the ship.
The other members of the crew gave them wide berth, but their eyes didn’t leave them. There were very few women on the ship, Georgette excluded, so Riette got attention, whether she welcomed it or not. Her training prepared her for altercations, but knowing there could be one at any time when she was trying to sleep messed with her.
When they laid down, Riette was by herself, and Cassian and Mekhi lay head to toes, but sleep eluded Riette. She slept closest to the porthole, and with the sounds of the people snoring around her, Riette sat up in bed.
She worried the Vitan wraps from her father that she got out of her bag. They were tight strands of Vitan vines that she played with in her hands under the blanket she held. Then she checked on Bark.
He had wrapped himself around the other items in the bag, fast asleep as well. He had already eaten a third of the small collection of food she had brought for him, but she knew she could scrounge up just about anything to keep him happy in that department. When she peered in at him, he had opened one eye to make sure he didn’t need to bite her, but when he saw it was Riette, he settled down again. She was just thankful he didn’t mind being in the bag and traveling in small spaces. He was used to them after all of the years she found him hiding away in the drawers and closet of her room. Riette left him alone, shutting the bag again, and moved to the window.
For a place that should have given her nightmares, the sea was still calm, frighteningly so. She looked out into the dark depths and saw nothing. It was hypnotizing. The occasional bubbles that formed. The gentle movement of the ship rocking as the waves took her farther and farther from home. The man who stared at her from a small distance away.
What the fuck?
Riette jumped. Something in the water stared back at her. A man with haunting eyes and a smile on his lips. She jumped from her spot near the window, and she blinked her eyes, rubbing them. There was a man there. She knew there was. She also knew that was impossible. From their position in the boat, the only way it could be a man is if it were a siren or a dead body stuck with its eyes open, neither of which were good options.
Riette turned away and took a breath. She needed to get a hold of herself, and she couldn’t do that and stare at the man at the same time. Her heart beat faster and faster still. She swallowed, looking to where Cassian and Mekhi were sleeping. Cassian gripped the threadbare blanket they had been given. His long form was barely covered by it. Mekhi had abandoned the blanket completely.
She looked back to Cassian. It was only at night when all the worry lines left his face. He seemed peaceful, and she got some peace from it herself. Riette had probably lost her mind already. There’s no way she had seen anything. Maybe she was going crazy already from being stuck on a ship, and looking out the window played tricks on her, and that was why she thought there was something out there. She had to look again. Riette went back to the porthole and looked outside.
He wasn’t there. Riette pressed her face against the glass and looked again. There was nothing. She took a step back and took a breath. It wasn’t until that second that she realized she had stopped breathing. Relief washed over her, and she swallowed, but then something flickered just outside of where she could see comfortably. There was a dark section of the water, and that darkness was moving toward her. She looked harder again, her hands holding the window frame.
Then the darkness took form again. It was him.
Fuck.
He had abs like she had never seen before and long black hair, not as long as hers but enough to touch the tops of his shoulders. He was less than ten feet away, but the water was dark enough to make it hard to make out every detail. Somehow though, even from here, she could see the blue of his eyes. His lips were full, almost too much so, and Riette swallowed again. His smile was small and barely appeared on his face before it disappeared.
Riette’s panties dampened instantly, and she shifted on the bed. She wanted to blink, but she couldn’t. There was nothing she could do to look away. Then, she heard a soft voice, low and rumbling.
Come upstairs, it said. I won’t hurt you.
Riette shook her head. She broke the spell a little with the force of the movement, but she could only glance at Cassian before the blinding ache in her head started. Her ears rang, and there was a thrumming at her temples. The feeling gave her the sensation that her powers were gathering, the force of it, but all concentrated like a knife slicing behind her eyes. She tried to cry out, but no sound came. When she lifted her hand and touched her ears, her fingertip was wet. Blood.
Don’t turn from me, the voice whispered impossibly inside her head, inside her soul. She looked back at the porthole, and he was there still. His face was pinched. He bit his lip and he nodded.
Up.
Riette rose. Her eyes never left the window.
Up the stairs.
Riette dropped the blanket she’d been gripping. The bag she’d never let leave her side fell from her hand, and she dropped her feet on the floor beside the bed. Each step was heavier than the last. It felt like she had strings attached to her, a poorly built Marionette doll, a broken one.
She made it to the top, the main deck. It was cold now, and the night was quiet. There were a few people, but they were yards away, mostly sleeping when she made it to the edge of the ship. Riette looked down, and her eyes found him instantly.
Pretty girl, the voice whispered.
“What are you doing?” a voice yelled, but it sounded far away like there was water between us.
“Hey,” she heard as a hand grabbed her arm. “Wake up. Hey.”
Push him away. Join me.
“Yes,” Riette said
. “Yes.”
She shook her head against the call of the words. Someone pulled her arm again, and then the pain started again. The sensation she had before when looking at the man in the sea came back violently. The world swirled around her. Her sight went dark and back and dark again.
Jagged nails squeezed her face and shook. She felt the skin of her jawline being pressed by them, but she couldn’t shake through the haze to get them off of her. The nails pressed again, threatening to break the skin. The nails cut little half-moon incisions into her face. She blinked and then was herself again.
“You there?” the man yelled near her ear. He released her, and she touched her jawline to check for damage.
“Yes, I—I’m here,” she choked out. Her face wasn’t hurt, but she could feel where his nails had been.
“You were looking at the water,” he said. She recognized him instantly as Lefty.
“No, I wasn’t.”
“You were. I saw you. You were about to get into the water with one of those demons.”
“No. I would never.”
“I saved you,” he said, nodding.
Riette swallowed. “I don’t know what came over me.”
Her tattoo burned. It felt too hot, like it would melt through her clothes. It roared to life as if it had been fighting to get to the surface.
“Come here.” He grabbed her. He pulled her close to him in an embrace. She flinched. Her body jerked at the contact, but he held her still, even as her nerves pushed against it. He was shorter than her, just slightly, and Riette let herself be moved. Her head still burned.
“Shh, it’s okay,” he said. He patted her hair.
She tried to stand up fully. At his height, he had her hunched slightly.
“Thank you. I’m okay. You can let me go.”
“Hush, little girl.”
“Really, I’m okay.”
He grabbed her tighter.
“Let go of me.”
He didn’t. He gripped her harder.
“You smell so good,” he said. He slid his hand down her back.
“Back off.” She shoved him.
“Just let me—”
“No,” she yelled. Her hands shoved him, but her elemental earth powers flared to life right before impact. The man flew back, landing yards away from her, his body hitting the railing before hitting the deck with a thud and a crack. Then, the man was very still.
Riette swallowed. She looked down at her shaking hands. The tattoo on her back still tingled, almost quieted down by then, but the power had rocketed out of her. She moved closer to the body. That was what it was now, a body not a man.
When she reached it, she saw the blood coming out of his ears and his lips. She covered her mouth.
“What’s going on down there?”
Riette turned. Jeffery came out of what she assumed were his quarters near Georgette’s office. It was the room tucked inside the private quarters on the main deck, where they had been when they first got onto the ship.
“Riette?” His big form moved closer.
“He fell,” she said, and her voice wasn’t her own.
Jeffery moved closer. Riette hurriedly wiped her hands on her clothes as if she could right the wrong in front of her by doing so. She pushed her hair behind her ears and felt the dry blood there. She turned away from Jeffery’s closely moving form, wiped away the little bit of blood left, and put her hand on her stomach to settle it.
Jeffery touched her shoulder. She jumped, and the tattoo tingled again. Flames appeared on her palms. Jeffery looked down at them and then back at her before he nodded. There was a tremor in the action though. A shakiness in arms that betrayed the coolness on his face. She knew he had never dealt with a being like her before, not with her power.
“It’s all right,” he said quietly. “It’s all done now.”
“What’s happening? Riette? Jeffery?” Georgette appeared.
She wrapped the faded red robe she was wearing around her tightly. It looked like at one point, it was high quality, but that time had passed and took the luster of the fabric with it. Her eyes jumped to the body in front of them.
“What’s this?”
“Porter,” said Jeffery. “Or it was.”
“Fuck me,” said Georgette. She looked down at the body and then at Riette.
Riette moved back. She squared her shoulders.
“What happened?”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“Go on. Not sleeping doesn’t kill people, not in my world. Speak.” The captain’s volume brought them to the attention of others. Different members of the crew started to appear, and with their presence, Riette knew it would only be moments before Cassian and Mekhi showed up.
Riette opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Cassian stormed out of the opening at the top of the stairs. Mekhi was right behind him.
“Riette, what are you doing up here?” Cassian ran over to her. He grabbed her shoulders and bent down slightly to look into her eyes. The flames in Riette’s hands still burned a little, but it was a small flame that one would need to look for to find. Cassian grasped her hands to put the flame out and then moved beside her.
He saw the body. Riette saw it on his face when he did, but he didn’t say anything. His jaw clenching with an accompanying clicking sound was all she heard.
Georgette looked between them. Riette had the sickening feeling that she missed nothing.
“Your girl here was just about to explain what’s she’s doing on deck with a dead body.”
Cassian gripped her hand harder.
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“You said that part,” Georgette said.
“Georgie,” Jeffery said. He didn’t say anything else, but Riette saw that his tone and term of endearment calmed Georgette a little, and she crossed her hands across her chest.
“I thought I saw something outside in the water. I came up to look because I couldn’t sleep. He grabbed me, I pushed him, and he landed here.”
“You pushed him?” Georgette said.
“Yes,” Riette said, gripping Cassian’s hand again. Mekhi caught her eye from across the little group and shook his head so slightly, she thought it almost didn’t happen.
Georgette stepped closer. “What did you see?”
“I don’t know what it was.”
“Was it a man?”
“Y—yes.”
“Did he have blue eyes? Dark hair?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes or no, girl?” Georgette moved closer. There was something wild in her eyes, something dangerous.
“Georgette, stop.”
“You know it’s true, Jeffery. Look at her. It’s all over her face.”
“What is?” Mekhi asked, stepping up.
“She’s turning siren,” Georgette said. Her eyes flitted over Riette’s face. “Just look at her.”
“No,” Riette said.
“Did you have a headache? Feel sick? Did you want to go into the sea for him, even though you know it would kill you?”
“No.”
“Did he make you feel things you normally wouldn’t?”
“No,” Riette said.
Georgette’s eyes narrowed. “Did—”
“If she said it didn’t happen that way, it didn’t happen that way,” said Cassian. He stepped forward as he did, and his height advantage showed over Georgette considerably. “Frankly, I’m more disturbed that one of your men attacked her on deck. Shouldn’t that be our primary concern?”
She looked him over, pausing in places that she shouldn’t, given the company, and a small smirk showed on her lips for the barest of seconds. Then, she nodded, and the act settled the group.
“Fine. We’ll pretend it’s not happening, but she’s on you. If she gets sick, sicker than she’s ever been, she gets put to sea. Are we clear? I won’t have him coming after her.”
No one asked who he was. Georgette seemed to already know anyway.
She looked at Riette for a steady beat before turning to Jeffery. “Get rid of the body.”
“We can’t throw him overboard,” Jeffery said.
“I know we shouldn’t, but I’m not going to have him stinking up my boat. Get it done.”
“Yes, Captain,” Jeffery said, but he leaned over as if the weight of his shoulders was too much to weather.
“Go back to bed,” said Georgette. “The show is over.” She turned and walked back to her bedroom without looking back.
Riette turned, and Cassian hugged her. The others left the deck, but Jeffery touched her shoulder after she left her embrace with Cassian.
“You’ll be all right, little thing. Even if something did happen, it doesn’t always kill you.”
“If I did see a siren, what would that mean?”
Jeffery gave her a hard look for a moment, like he was studying her features and looking for something, but then he softened his stare. “It starts with a sickness. Sometimes, there’s blood on the outside, and then there’s blood on the inside.”
“The inside?” Riette asked, stepping forward.
“Things inside you rearrange. It depends on the age of the siren too. Sometimes, it comes on quick, but other times, it drags on like a sickness of your bones. Then you need the sea. You’d die without it, and you’d die to take others down with you.”
Riette didn’t say anything, and Jeffery didn’t wait for her to.
“You all go on somewhere. I have to work a miracle to get this body off of the ship without killing us all in the process.”
Cassian took Riette by the arm, and Mekhi followed closely.
As soon as they were alone, Cassian asked her, “It’s true, isn’t it? You saw one of those things.”
