Page 65 of Hot Summer's Prey

And with that, he dives into the ocean, the tide having risen so much it’s just a foot from the trail. He pops up back above the water for me, smiling. I do everything I can to memorize his true form one last time before he disappears below the water.

28

BROKEN PROMISES

PACARI

Barely past the sand bank, Kalixto joins me. His face is as grim as I feel.

“What do you know?” I ask, desperate for the information he always seems to have on the Lantern Witch.

“That dog isn’t drowning,” he observes.

Not the answer I wanted. I hold up Slugger, showing off the obscenely large shell around its neck.

“Wasn’t the human wearing that?” he asks.

“Pretty, pretty, Kalixto,” I grumble.

“I know you think so,” he purrs, swimming in circles around me. “Miss me that much?”

“Like a drowned sailor misses water,” I huff.

“I will have to ask Aka if he misses the water. He seems to, since he spends so much time with us. So you must desire me desperately.”

I sigh, trying to swim a bit faster. He keeps up, easy enough for him. Sirens love the sound of their own voices. I lose track of his chatter, too anxious for answers and unable to shake the feeling of this storm. Noticing my mood, he hums. My nerves relax slightly as his song builds a bubble of hope to keep out the angry ocean.

“What is your relationship with the Lantern Witch?” I ask. “Why is it lately you always seem to be about when questions of her arise?”

Kalixto goes quiet, the riotous currents battering against us as he swims beside in silence. It builds an anger within me, frustration leftover from when we used to be lovers. How quiet he would be, hiding his thoughts from me. Understanding each other has always been difficult. Not like Teresa and I. He and I make great friends but terrible lovers.

Finally, he admits, “I sing to her of… the surface. Songs of the humans.”

This floors me. Even Slugger seems discomfited by the idea, shifting in my arms and letting out a strange little bubbly bark as we race to the Abyss.

“What? How did this arrangement come to be?” I ask.

He smirks at me. “You have your skills, I have mine. My voice is my only offering.”

“But why?” I dig, still not satisfied.

“You have your desires… I have mine,” he answers, swimming forward. “Should we slow down some more? You know the Witch doesn’t like to wait.”

I hiss at him, ignoring him the rest of the way down. He picks up his song again, which makes it harder to stay mad at him. When the light disappears, he swims closer, needing my glow to see. The waters here are just above freezing, but bubble as if boiling. Harsh currents sweep against us. No other fish can be seen despite the Abyss’s usual color.

I scan the ocean floor, trying not to grow fearful as I see the rip along it. The crushed life that scatters it. As soon as we arrive at Lantern Witch’s dwelling, Kalixto doesn’t simply wait for her presence. No, instead, he lets out a single call.

And surely enough, she appears, half-hidden by a rock. Even this much of her image is haunting, silhouetted by the light of her lantern. There is a red glow to the water.

“Siren,” she coos, her voice strange and strained.

“My lady of the Lantern,” he calls back. “You seem as if you could use a song.”

He starts to sing. She comes forward from her hiding place, dragging something behind her. Her light is too bright, the current shifting and swirling around us too fast, for me to see what it is. As she comes towards us, there is a strange calm—the eye of the storm.

“Sing a song, silly siren,” she giggles, a strange threat underlying her words.

Even Kalixto seems discomfited, though he strode in with so much hubris.

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