Page 99 of Wicked Tides
“I haven’t known you to feel warm, Dahlia. Your blood seems to run cold.”
“Our warmth is deeper. Less obvious. But it’s there.”
His eyes met mine, a struggle raging behind his irises. His brow was taut and I could see the tiny muscles in his jaw pulsing. I desperately wanted to know what he wasn’t saying, but I had no right to force it from him when I was withholding something, too.
“Captain!” someone called from above.
Both of us turned away and began heading up the steps. Men were jogging to the railing on either side of the ship and peering over into the water. Among them was Meridan. When she saw me, she gave me a subtle smile as if she were ashamed. I shook my head, hoping she knew she was blameless. I knew tossing me in that cell was best and I did not hate her for not wanting to see me through the worst of it. I would have barely noticed her presence anyway. Over the last few days, I was so far from myself with the incessant voices in my head that I could barely recall how much time had passed.
I strode toward her and we both walked to the railing to see what was going on.
Below, the water was littered with thin slats of white ice. The Rose easily navigated through it, but it wasn’t the ice the men were staring at. It was the shapes beneath it.
Ghost-like in color, the figures darted in and out of sight alongside the ship. I counted four of them. They stayed submerged, deep enough that nets would not snag them. Swimming with them was a pod of strange whales, all white with gray spots. As they breached the surface, water sprayed upward into the air, misting the ship.
“They’re so beautiful,” Meridan muttered.
Vidar turned to us. “Have you never seen them before?”
We both shook our heads.
“The Maruhk do not leave the ice,” I said. “That’s why we call them ‘coldfins.’”
“They’ve likely never seen sirens like us before, either,” Meridan added.
Suddenly, a few of the girls ran up to the railing, smiling as they pointed into the water. Every man on the boat turned to ogle at their enjoyment, confused.
“God help us,” Gus groaned. “They’re calling them ‘sea angels.’”
I recalled what Kea said when we first encountered the girls, but I still couldn’t quite wrap my head around a culture that saw sirens as anything more than a deadly threat. I’d been fighting humans since I was a child and my mother had been fighting them since she was a child. Generations of sirens and humans did nothing but kill each other. And now I was watching the young girls being giddy over the sight of a small group that didn’t even want to come to the surface.
Uther slammed a fist against the railing and pulled out his pistol. Vidar quickly waved him off.
“Put it away, Uther,” he commanded.
It took a moment for him to comply and when he did, he was not happy about it. His eyes flicked to me as if he wanted to turn his aggression my way, but then he finally conceded and paced to the other side of the ship. With him were three others that did not seem to be enjoying the journey or the company.
I looked up at Vidar and could tell the exact same thoughts were going through his head. He and his crew were fighting generations of killer instincts as they watched the skryll swim alongside the Rose. The ship was full of harpoons, nets, and canons, and yet they weren’t using any.
I was sure it was killing them.
When Vidar met my gaze, there was so much there that I still didn’t understand, despite having walked in his dreams for many days. But, for once, his hatred was buried beneath a need to see things through. A need to finish what we’d started.
Hours passed. The sun was slowly descending toward the western horizon and the Rose was taking a beating from ice that was floating in patches on the water. We could see land on either side of the ship, salted with snow and frost. Mountains stood as tall as the clouds on one side and before the day had ended, one of those mountains stoodout to us. It was oddly shaped with a flat top and a massive cave entrance at the base. The girls moved to the foredeck, pointing.
Vidar and I exchanged another look Ahnah ran toward me and took my hand. She tugged me toward the front of the ship, speaking with excitement as she gestured toward land. It wasn’t hard to tell that we’d made it to their home. The girls were practically crying.
The sun was growing ever closer to the horizon when Vidar called to anchor just off the coast. The sirens in the water had disappeared where the water seemed placid and the wind was soft. Once the sails were up and the boat was lowered, the girls seemed almost willing to jump in the water and swim to land just to get there faster.
Vidar began naming men to accompany him to shore and included Gus seeing as he was the only one to know any amount of the girls’ language. He also picked two of the oldest girls, leaving the rest to wait on the ship. Lastly, as everyone was climbing down into the boat, he turned to me with a subtle nod of his head.
“The girls trust you more than any of my men,” he said.
I stepped forward, but Ahnah still had a hold of my hand and pulled me toward her. Glimpsing the look on her face, I knew she wasn’t going to let me leave without her. I tossed Vidar another look and after a few seconds, he rolled his eyes and waved us both onward.
I helped Ahnah climb over the railing, making sure her short legs were secured on the ladder before I climbed over myself. Beneath her, Vidar descended the rungs slowly, making sure he was positioned well enough to keep her from falling. When we’d all piled into the boat, Ahnah was at the front with Vidar, staring longingly at the beach as it neared. Somehow, after the loss of her aunt and all the horrors she’d seen, she was still just an innocent soul inside a young skin. She was trusting. Vulnerable. Precious. I found myself staring at her with envy, wishing I could have known even a day of what it was like to be so pure. Instead, I was a canvas of violence and quarrel. Of wrong decisions and consequences.
Coming to the shore, the men rowed as close as possible to land. In the icy water, no one was about to get their feet wet prematurely.Before the boat was even on the rocks, the girls hopped out and started running inland.
