Page 90 of Ensnaring the Siren

They weren’t alone out here.

She clutched Reid tighter.

“What is it?” he whispered.

“Bigger boat.”

“Could be Killian and his crew. They’re out here too.”

She shook her head. The Lovely Lorelei was familiar, this wasn’t. “Something bigger.”

“One of Nautic’s then.” His voice was low. “They’re the only other ones still fishing out here. Chased everybody else off.”

She nodded, gently fitting his goggles back over his eyes. “It’s getting closer. Be prepared to dive.”

He complied wordlessly, adjusting the goggles, and fitted the breathing apparatus back into his mouth. With one hand on his diver’s belt, keeping them anchored together, Nireed dipped down into the water, listening.

The engines were more distinct now, though one was significantly larger, louder, and quickly overtaking the other.

Her heart sped up, panic flaring.

They were too close together.

Five short horn blasts preceded horrendous crunching and screeching, tearing metal. The terrible sound cut across the distance. Jerking back, Nireed clapped a hand over her ear, pressed the other into her shoulder. It hurt, but she refused to let go of Reid. Not in this fog, not even for a second.

An urgent tap on her hand brought her back to the surface. Reid’s eyes were wide with fear.

“You heard it too?”

He nodded, cheeks chalk white. “It’s got to be The Seraphis. Nothing else is big enough to do that. They plowed into one of the local fishing boats just last week.” A fishing boat was a whole lot bigger than Cure Creator’s little vessel; a factory ship would be massive by comparison. Reid swallowed thickly, clenching her hand. “I can’t lose my sister. I only just met her.”

If Lorelei and Lila had been crushed on impact…

No. Nireed couldn’t think like that. Her friends were alive, and they needed her to hold it together. They needed her help. “Lorelei’s fast. She would’ve grabbed Lila.”

“She’s strong like you?” His voice was quiet, uncertain.

“Yes. She’s strong like me.” And Nireed meant it, every word. Lorelei may not have been raised ocean-hard, but she was a capable siren and had overcome her fair share of trials and tribulations. Getting run over by a hulking Surface Dweller ship was not what was going to do her in. Taking Reid’s hand, Nireed placed it on her shoulder. “Let’s find them.”

He nodded, determination fixed in the hard set of his jaw.

Nireed raced toward the collision site and the sound of The Seriphus’s engines. It went against everything she’d learned from birth, wisdom passed down from her foreparents. Stay away from the Surface Dweller ships and their deafening noise and ensnaring nets. But risking her hearing was nothing compared to the lives of her friends.

With each passing mile, the noise grew, quickly moving into uncomfortable territory. The factory ship’s shadowy hull loomed ahead, propeller churning the water. They needed to dive. Flashing her bioluminescence, Nireed hoped it was enough warning, and Reid’s responding squeeze on her shoulder made her think it was. She eased into the descent, putting five, ten, twenty feet between them and The Seriphus. A glance back to check on Reid was met with a thumbs up, the Surface Dweller sign for approval; her resilient mate was stalwartly flutter kicking along, and her heart squeezed to see it.

The water went dark as The Seriphus passed overhead, all 200 feet of its hulking form blocking out the sun. It chugged along, the discordant, metallic grinding grating on her ears, but she gritted her teeth and kept on swimming, because Lorelei and Cure Creator needed her.

When they cleared the ship’s underbelly, the water suffused with surface light once more, she brought Reid back to the surface. The less they had to use his canned air supply the better. A horrid ringing plagued Nireed’s ears, but she kept swimming, pushing on and on.

She knew they were getting close when she began to smell leaking fuel. It worsened the closer they got.

The surface was littered with broken bits of Dr. Branson’s research boat. It hadn’t sunk, not yet at least, but it was taking on water, and it was only a matter of time before it made its final plunge into the deep.

Yet, another Surface Dweller vessel destined for the sea floor, Nireed thought bitterly. But she didn’t linger on it because the lives of those onboard were far more precious.

Reid let go of her shoulder, and they both fervently began searching the site, making shallow dives for their friends.

Nothing. No one.

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