by Charlie Hart
I blink back tears that no longer exist. Can you even cry if you live in the water? I feel my body quake with fear. I can’t be a siren. What happened to the pink-haired girl who is trying to figure out her life?
How is she now this... this creature swimming toward the men who were thrown overboard, from a storm she summoned? This isn’t real.
It can’t be.
Because right now, she is forced to choose between Eric and Kai and West. Three men, all sinking to the bottom of the sea.
I’m just one person or maybe just one half-person. How can I save them all?
Before I am forced to make a choice, Kai comes into view. I see him first, so I will save him first.
My heart breaks--no it shatters--as I take his hand in mine, and with a strength that is otherworldly, I pull him from the sea, swimming up to the surface of the water.
He doesn’t move, his body is cold. When I push his head out of the water, I look around, desperate for Crew to be here, to help.
He is.
“Crew,” I scream as Kai’s eyes open.
He sees me. He takes a breath, clawing at the air with a desperate need.
He is alive.
Thank god. “Take him!” Crew moves quickly, with skill and without hesitation. Thank god, he is not stunned by trauma; he is moved to action. He takes Kai from my arms as I swim to the back ladder of the boat. He reaches down, and grabs hold of his friend.
“I’ve got him, Harlow. Go.”
I nod, lips trembling. The emotions that rise inside of me are terrifying.
I would do anything for these men. Dive to untold depths and risk my life.
I know what this feeling is.
I doubted it before but now… now I know.
And there is no room for doubt when lives are on the line. I am strong enough to accept what these men offer, and I am strong enough to fight for their survival.
My body shakes as it absorbs this truth.
“Be a badass. Don’t get scared now,” Crew says, steadying me.
He’s right. The power inside of me ... the one I unleashed to start a storm … can also be harnessed. Power works both ways.
I move under the water, this time with more confidence. Schools of fish surround me, and their glistening bodies seem to guide me toward the light surrounding West. I move to him, my fin pushing me fast, and I have no time to marvel over this incarnation of my body because West and Eric are still lost at sea.
I must save them.
I must.
West is in a nest of light. A light I know and understand.
The nest of light that saved me.
I move toward it, trying to see where the source is coming from, but there is no beginning or end.
“West,” I cry, pulling at his lifeless body. “No!” I shake my head. He can’t be dead but he has been under water for so long. His face is white, his body limp.
“No,” I bellow to the ocean that misunderstood me. “Save him,” I beg, pulling at his body, desperate to bring him up to the surface, for Crew to pull him on the boat. To breathe life back into him.
“Help me,” I cry, unable to move him, though I try with all my might. Why could I bring Kai up so easily? Was he less... dead?
Suddenly the ocean water that fills my lungs suffocates me.
“Help,” I cry, trying to take West from the nest of light. “I need him.”
I press my hands to his face, kissing him, my hair flowing in the water, and my tail waving with the current, sending green sparkles of light with each flutter.
His lips move against mine. He tastes like honey and memories and a deep, dark forest. His eyelids flutter open at our kiss, his eyes a beacon of light and his brows knit heavy like his heart.
“Harlow,” he whispers under the sea and somehow, he is alive. In my arms. Somehow, he is here, he isn’t lost at sea despite the tattoo on his arm.
“How?” I shake my head, tears stinging my eyes and my words catch in my throat. There are tears on my cheeks; tears I feared I would never shed again. And I don’t know how you can cry under the sea--but you can. Because I am.
Maybe it’s because the ocean isn’t one fluid thing. It’s ever-changing. Yes, the tides move on a table you can read but the deep sea is not as simple as that.
It’s the same with our hearts. Maybe you can memorize the shallow parts, but the depths? Those are ever-changing. Deep and wide. The breadth of which can swallow you up, or deliver you to safety.
“Gaia came. She saved me.” West says, blinking heavily. “Then she went for Eric.”
Eric.
My Eric.
I have to go after him.
I take West’s hand in mine without another word, the nest of light vanishing as we swim up, up, up. As we move toward the safety of the sea breeze and salty skies.
With a burst, we break through the surface of the water. West can swim now, his strength renewed--both through my kiss and whatever vigor the elusive Gaia bestowed upon him.
“Go,” he tells me, moving toward Crew on the boat. “Get him, Harlow.”
I nod, wanting to both fall apart and fall in love, in his arms. I don’t want to leave any of them. I want them to cradle me against their chests and whisper sweet nothings in my ear. I want them to smooth out my tangle of hair and hold my hand as tenderly as they have taken hold of my heart.
“Go,” he says, more adamantly this time, breaking me from my trance.
I love these men.
With all that I am.
The truth forces me to swim back into the water I am just learning to trust, and I reach deep inside myself, I beg for Eric to be known to me.
Where is he?
I swim, going deep in the dangerously dark waters. They remind me of one thing--when I was caught in the whirlpool by a force I didn’t understand. That same power curls around me now.
I can’t get swept into this, not now. Now I need to find Eric. I need to save him.
But West said Gaia went after him.
Is she coming after me too? Is she the force fighting against me?
No. She came to protect, not to destroy.
What then, is trying to hurt me?
The whirlpool’s power grows but I remember the way I made a storm arise out of nothing with my call. Maybe I can push the power away with my voice.
I open my mouth, not knowing if it will push the spiraling water away. I close my eyes and press my hands to my throat and sing a song I don’t know. My thigh burns and I look down, seeing the tattoo glows against my fin.
Then, reaching toward me and pulling me from the center of the whirlpool, I see him.
My seal.
He’s returned to me when I called. Relief floods through me, fear washing away at the sight of someone so familiar. I swim toward him, pushing past the whirlpool with renewed strength, and follow him, hoping to be led toward Eric.
My sweet, thoughtful, gracious Eric.
But he doesn’t take me to my lover.
He takes me to his prisoner.
Chapter 18
West
I pull myself up onto the boat with Crew’s help. Sputtering and coughing salty water, I don’t know how I made it out alive.
If it hadn’t been for that voice full of light and love that reached toward me and kept me safe, and then Harlow finding me and bringing me back to life with a kiss, I’d be dead.
We’re fucking lucky, and as I look around the boat, realizing how much damage and destruction this vessel has suffered, I’m amazed we’re here at all.
Kai is finally sitting up, trying to steady his breath.
“It’s not good, man,” Crew says, his eyes withdrawn in a way that this easy-going guy never shows. “Can you try the radio? We need help. “
I nod. “Eric’s still down there. Harlow has gone after him, but I don’t know what the fuck is happening under the ocean.” I run a hand through my hair. “We were right about her. She isn’t just...”
“I know,” Crew sa
ys. “She is a Siren. She did bring us here. We answered her call. And now, we can’t let her go.”
I clench my jaw, reaching for the radio, as Crew tends to Kai, getting him a blanket and bottle of water from below deck.
I’m able to radio out, asking for an emergency crew. “Lost at sea. Her family owns a – –”
The emergency operator cuts me off, immediately knowing which family I’m talking about. “Hang tight. We’ll get a boat there right away.”
I look out over the water, my heart still pounding in my chest. I’m desperate to see Harlow surfacing, to see Eric being pulled from the depths--alive.
I was holding my breath underwater, but I realize I still am.
The truth is, Eric and Harlow might never come up for air.
Chapter 19
Harlow
Eric is trapped in a tangle of seaweed. This can’t be happening.
I swim toward him with all my might, but the seal is between us and I need to pass beyond the spirit animal who tricked me. Who lured me to the depths of the sea. Who possesses a power I still don’t understand?
The seal’s eyes have turned a dark shade of black. The very entity I trusted now terrifies me.
In the distance, Eric is pale and lifeless, and I want to kiss his lips the same way I kissed West’s. I want to bring him back to life. I want him in my arms without any fear. Without any trace of this horror.
But when I scream his name, he doesn’t answer
“What have you done?” I cry out to the seal. But he just stares at me, refusing to respond. I need him to turn into his human form, so I can push him, yell at him. So, I can fight him.
“What are you doing? Are you doing this to me? I thought you were sent to protect me?
The seal swims toward me, his teeth are bared and for a moment I withdraw, forgetting that I’ve transformed into a Siren.
I think only of my humanity. My skin and bones and blood. I forget that whatever has been coursing through me since I turned twenty-one is more powerful than the girl who walked on the seashore, wondering when her life would begin.
But now I am strong enough to harness a storm. Strong enough to bring a man back to life with a single kiss. And I am sure as hell strong enough to survive whatever comes next.
This seal will not take me prisoner, too.
And I won’t let that the man I love, go without a fight.
“You don’t scare me,” I shout at the seal; even though parts of me are still terrified.
I am down in the murky depths of the sea, in an underwater cave. As far from the bright turquoise waters where the dolphins play as possible. Here there are no brightly colored fish dancing and swaying in the ocean.
No. This is not the same sea. It’s not a place I recognize. It’s certainly not the ocean I grew up swimming in. This is dangerous, treacherous water.
Still, I won’t back down. I will be brave.
“I’m not scared of you,” I scream. The seal must finally realize I’m not playing games because his eyes glaze over and I feel him shifting.
He may have caught me in his pull before, but I will not be caught again.
He spins furiously and his body warps into a cyclone of water, moving so rapidly it pushes currents of water toward me. Eric is still caught in the seaweed, and I try to move toward him as the seal is spinning, but the torrent of water pushes me away and I can’t swim forward.
Where is the magical Gaia now? She saved me once and saved West once. Doesn’t Eric deserve the same treatment?
Eric deserves to live.
I need him to live.
The water stops swirling around, and when it stops, before me is no man. No seal. No selkie.
This is an ocean king.
The God of the sea.
“Who are you?” I cry out. “What are you?”
I feel so tricked by him. He told me he wanted to protect me. In fact, he was luring me in--to what end? Why?
“You think you know what game you’re playing, but you’re wrong, Siren.”
I shake my head, I don’t know any games because after all this time, I still don’t know who I am?
I don’t know the truth but I’m practically begging for it.
No. I will not beg him. Not now. Not ever.
This creature is not a man, he is a god and he is strong and massive. With a gasp of shock, I realize what he is.
Who he is.
His face shines with ferocity. He’s half fish, half god and all-powerful. A golden crown encrusted with seashells sits atop his head and his bright silver hair is wild and free. He has a tail like me, but his arms are large and if I didn’t know better I’d call him King Triton.
He holds a magnificent trident and as I gaze upon it, I know why his eyes can reach inside my soul.
I know why my tattoo burns. I know because when I look into his eyes, I see myself.
“Poseidon,” I whisper. “That’s who you are, isn’t it?”
“I am. Poseidon, God of Olympus, and you are my daughter.”
I swallow back tears of terror, still confused, but also, finally finding answers.
He lifts his staff, his fist wrapped tightly around it, and he reveals his middle finger. I gasp.
It’s a replica of the ring my mom gave me on my birthday. She told me she found it in the basket the day she rescued me.
It is a golden band, glittering brightly, made of something ancient. Something mine.
Whatever bound this piece, melted the gold and soldered it for our fingers, is something older than time. Something from the beginning.
“It was the ring that brought you to me, isn’t it?” I ask trying to pull it off my finger. “I don’t want any part of your world. I want to go back in time, back to the beginning.”
Poseidon looks at me--my father looks at me. “This is the beginning. The ring is the beginning. You’ve come back to where you started.”
I shake my head. “No, no, no. I want to start at the ocean’s edge, not deep in the sea. I want to start where my mom and dad found – –”
He cuts me off, his voice blaring, booming so hard and loud that the cave shakes. The sea quakes. “No, I am your father. I’ve been looking for you since before you were born. And I finally found you.”
“Then why trick me? Why didn’t you just tell me who you are, what you are – –”
He shakes his head, and I know he’s holding something back.
Maybe the truth.
Maybe more.
“I have my reasons, child.”
“I’m not a child. I am a Siren. And I’m not going to listen to you if you insist on lying to me. I’m done with games.”
It enrages him, my self-possession. My confidence.
Good. Finally.
I wanted to a badass and now I find out I’m the daughter of Poseidon. If that doesn’t feel strong as hell I don’t know what would.
“I don’t need you,” I tell him. “I always thought I did, but I don’t. I already have everything I need.”
He laughs at this, tilting back his head.
How did my father become the villain of the story?
“Do you really have all the answers child? Do you know who your mother is?”
I swallow, and he must see my flash of hesitation.
He lips snarl, knowing he’s played the trump card.
Because of course, I want to know. Of course, I want to fill that great hollow in my heart.
But would it? Would knowing something like this change anything for me? Don’t I already have the life I want? Parents, who love me and friends who love me and men who love me? Isn’t that enough? Isn’t that everything?
Still, parts of my heart long for more.
“Tell me,” I say. “If you know the truth and you’re holding back, then tell me now!”
He says nothing.
I’m suddenly exhausted, he has worn me down.
He has Eric trapped and I don’t know how to free him and he knows the story of my orig
in and refuses to tell it.
Finally, he answers, “It isn’t that easy child.”
“Isn’t it? Why is it more complicated than just speaking the truth?
“A curse has been set upon me. I can’t tell you who your mother is, no matter how hard I might try, outside forces refuse to let me. The same way I couldn’t find you unless you put that ring on your finger, I can’t tell you who your mother is unless you are with all of your sisters.”
My heart seizes.
“Sisters?”
Chapter 20
Harlow
“Sisters?” I ask again, the salty tears brimming in my eyes.
Poseidon cackles, he’s cold and in that dark reply, I know he doesn’t feel love for me. He wants the curse broken, but I’m not such a fool to believe it is with good intentions.
“Breaks the curse?” I ask. “How? Tell me what I need to do, and I’ll do it. For you. For our family.”
“I thought you didn’t need any more family or any more answers?” He says moving closer to me. His eyes search mine and I hate to think what he might see. He may be the villain, but he also holds the answers.
The answers I want so badly. Sisters.
“Then let’s say I do. I want to know who my mother is, who my sisters are. What do I need to do to break the curse?”
He shakes his head. “You are such a foolish, gullible child. I have no reason to break that curse. I have no reason for you to know any of that.”
My blood goes cold
He’s not trying to help me with anything. He doesn’t need anything from me. Except... Why is he so intent on luring me into his cavern? So set on gaining my trust?
Terror seizes me as I realize how right he is.
I am a fool.
“Don’t you see,” he croons. “I wanted you, so I could bind you back forever. Just like your lover right here. If you’re lost at sea, you’ll never be found, and your mother will never find you.”
“She’s looking for me?” I ask. Everything within me trembles.
