The Scent of Salt & Sand: An Escaped Novella

by Kristin Cast

  “No! Stay back!” he shouted.

  Adrenaline surged through his body as his survival instinct kicked into overdrive. Dean lurched back suddenly, violently, to avoid her grasping touch, and the lip of the rooftop balcony caught him hard in the back of his thighs, knocking him off balance. Frantically, his arms windmilled into empty air as he tried to regain his balance, but there was nothing—nothing at all except a horrible plummeting sensation joined eternally with an otherworldly, inhuman sound that filled his senses, blanketing him from reality.

  Dean fell.

  He didn’t feel the pain of landing on the concrete sidewalk two stories below. He didn’t feel anything. All of his senses were focused on the creature that used to be Melody as she stared down at him, sobbing and keening into the night.

  She does love me, Dean thought. He blinked tears from his eyes, and tried to sit up, but found he had no control over his body. And I love her—unconditionally. He stared up at his Siren, and really saw her.

  She was different, and yet she was still Melody. He could see that now, and his fading mind wondered why she had seemed so terrifying to him. Why hadn’t he sat beside her and let her explain? She wouldn’t have hurt me. She would never have hurt me. As the world began to darken around him, Dean understood. Her change had made him react on an automatic, instinctive level, and he hadn’t been able to reason through the fight-or-flight impulse. But encroaching death brought one gift—the ability to see through his reflexive response and find his Melody within the strangeness of the Siren.

  With a last, superhuman effort, Dean lifted his arm, reaching his hand up toward her.

  Melody’s reaction was instantaneous. She leaped to stand on the lip of the balcony, and then she jumped.

  “No!” He tried to shout, but the word came out as a whisper.

  But she didn’t fall to the pavement and land broken and dying beside him. She landed lightly, gracefully, in a crouch several yards from him.

  “I won’t come near you,” she sobbed. “I’ll get help!”

  She started to turn away, but he managed to lift his hand again, reaching toward her. “Don’t go,” he whispered through the blood that frothed from his mouth.

  She came to him then, falling to her knees beside him. “I—I can’t change back—not while I can’t control my emotions.” She bowed her head and tears pooled with his blood. “Forgive me. Please forgive me.”

  Dean fought against the rising tide of darkness narrowing his vision. I can’t leave her like this.

  “Melody,” he whispered. “Look at me.”

  She lifted her head.

  He turned his hand to her, and she took it gently between hers. Her sea-green skin was warm and soft, and her claws rested carefully, harmlessly, against his fingers.

  “I love you,” he said.

  A sob tore from her throat, and she shook her head, the copper tendrils swaying around her. “No, you can’t. This is what happens when a human loves a Siren. I thought I was different—I thought we could be different. I was so, so wrong.”

  Dean tried to smile, but he couldn’t feel his mouth—all he could feel was a deep, dangerous cold creeping through his broken body. “I do love you. We are different.”

  “You’re dying because of me,” she cried.

  “And yet I will love you forever.” His body spasmed then, and he coughed as blood filled his mouth. His vision dimmed even more as the world around him began to fade. “I—I thought you were a sea goddess the first time I saw you. I was right.”

  She bent to him, resting her head on his chest as she held him and sobbed. “I love you, Dean. Always.”

  “Then find me again, my sea goddess.”

  She lifted he head so that he could look into her eyes. They blazed with an inhuman emerald light that suddenly filled Dean with the sweet solace of hope. “I swear to you on the blood of my immortal ancestors that I will find you, Dean Kent, and when I do we will never be parted again.”

  “I will hold you to your oath for an eternity…”

  Then his fading sight went black, his breath fled his body, and Dean Kent died in the arms of his Siren.

  Epilogue

  “W-why are you doing this? I’ll give you what you want. Anything!” The woman had finally stopped kicking and squirming and pummeling Rhapsody’s back with bony fingers. “Please,” she sobbed. “Please, let me go. I won’t tell anyone. I won’t! I just want to go home. Please!”

  Rhapsody’s insides warmed with each cry from the sniveling woman she carried over her shoulder toward the water’s edge. It had been too long since she’d made a human beg for its life.

  The water was waist deep and inky black. Rhapsody slid the woman down the front of her glistening, gold body until she cradled her like a child. Swollen, frightened eyes stared up at her, and Rhapsody smiled.

  “I’m sending you home.” She dropped her into the frigid ocean water, catching her by the cheap, sequined jean jacket that’d drawn her attention under the dim streetlight of Fort Mason Park. Women were almost as easy to subdue as men. They were weak, so weak—the entire species.

  Water splashed her face as the woman resumed flailing. Rhapsody cringed and felt the skin around her eyes and brow wrinkle like the flesh of a decaying peach. She’d been at this for more than a year. Back and forth to the Mortal Realm. Each time lengthening her stay. Each time growing older and less beautiful. She needed to retreat to Tartarus and restore her rapidly aging visage, but she couldn’t. Not yet. Not until she’d completed her quest.

  She forced the writhing, burbling body deeper under the waves, her grip tightening around the jacket’s collar as the woman struggled to free herself. She clawed at Rhapsody’s scaly arms and salt burned the gashes and scratches, but it didn’t faze her. The Siren was consumed by the need to recreate what had come so easily to that insipid Melody.

  “She didn’t deserve your gift, you fools!” Rhapsody cursed whichever gods took the time to listen. Her lips curled and puckered like fractures in parched earth. “But I will get mine. I’ll take human life and become more than she is!”

  After that night in the warehouse, when Rhapsody had discovered how to undo the curse oppressing her race, Melody had disappeared into the stinking abyss that was the overpopulated city. Not that that mattered. Rhapsody knew what she had to do—she didn’t need that weak child to guide her. “I’ll be greater and more powerful than she ever will.”

  Garbled screams bubbled up from black water. Rhapsody cackled as the woman’s nails sank into her wrists. “Keep trying! It’s more enjoyable when you struggle!” she roared, and plunged her deeper under the dark water.

  The thrashing stilled. The muted chokes quieted. Gentle pulsing waves rocked Rhapsody and the woman. She released the body. The woman’s lifeless limbs rose to the surface, peeking through the ebony water like cream in coffee.

  Rhapsody patted the skin around her aging eyes. “Huh, nothing.” She smoothed down her hair and wiped at the mascara streaking her face. “Well, you know what they say in this realm—if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

  Acknowledgements

  We would like to thank our wonderful agent and friend, Meredith Bernstein. She’s the reason Team Cast exists!

  Thank you to our publisher, Diversion Books, for being so enthusiastic about this novella. We appreciate you! Go Team Cast!

  A big thanks to the Fairmont Residences at Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco for making our research stays divine.

  From P.C.: I want to thank my daughter, Kristin, for being so brilliant and simply fabulous in all ways. Shall we have celebratory luncheon now?

  From Kristin: I want to thank my mam, P.C., for being absolutely amazing and not too obnoxious when I cut some of her beautiful words. Let’s luncheon!

  And to you—yes, YOU! Your choices are powerful. Thank you for choosing us. And remember, be kind to yourself.

  About the Authors

  KRISTIN CAST is a #1 New York Times and #1 USA Today
bestselling author who teamed with her mother to write the wildly successful House of Night series. She has editorial credits, a thriving T-shirt line, and a passion for all things paranormal. When away from her writing desk, Kristin loves going on adventures with her friends, family, and significant other, playing with her French bulldogs, and discovering new hobbies. This year she'll work on gardening, cooking, and renovating her house.

  P.C. CAST is a #1 New York Times and #1 USA Today bestselling author and a member of the Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame. Her novels have been awarded the prestigious: Oklahoma Book Award, YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Prism, Holt Medallion, Daphne du Maurier, Booksellers’ Best, and the Laurel Wreath. P.C. is an experienced teacher and talented speaker. Ms. Cast lives in Oregon near her fabulous daughter, with her adorable pack of dogs, her crazy Maine Coon, and a bunch of horses.

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