Page 39 of Between Salt and Serenades
“Hopefully, this is the last,” I grumbled. At least she didn’t dive into the trash to hide this time. “Do you have the bag?”
Breena showed me her back and the pack that was strapped around both her shoulders.
“Good. Let’s get out of here. We have to get to my grandfather’s store before the captain does.”
When my knuckles rapped against the door of Muliver’s Glass Masterpieces, the sound of clicking locks followed moments after. I suppose my grandfather had been waiting all morning for this moment as well.
“Girls, come in,” he said, not flipping the “open” sign over just yet. I waved Breena in, careful not to follow her too closely. My grandfather watched with curious eyes as we maneuvered inside, a subtle smile creeping over his aged face. “Happy to see you both this morning.”
“Mhmm. This is Breena. Breena, this is, uh, my grandfather. I supposed we won’t pretend you both don’t already know about each other,” I said with an awkward grin. I wiped my damp brow with the back of my hand and swallowed what little moisture I had left in my dry throat.
“It’s so lovely to finally meet you!” Breena chimed, beating him to the expected pleasantries. She wiped her sweaty palms down the length of her skirt before holding one out to him.
“Likewise.” He removed his tweed hat before taking her hand. “Honored to meet the person responsible for the extra time I’ve gotten with my granddaughter.”
When he glanced at us again, his white brows drew in, and he said, “Why don’t I grab you both some water, and you can tell me what happened.”
Old people always knew when something was wrong, didn’t they?
When we caught him up to speed, the man simply laughed. That’s right—he laughed, just as Breena had. What was wrong with these two?
“You’ve been staying at your dad's old place all this time?” he chuckled. “Polly and Roderick have lived there for years now. Just got back from their extended vacation in Cerys.”
“Cerys? Where’s that?” Breena asked, sipping on her glass of bubbly water. My grandfather was even so kind as to slice up an orange for her drink, which Breena was quite pleased by.
“Oh, you girls have so much to learn. Cerys is the next kingdom over, ruled by a long line of Dryad Queens,” he said. Water didn’t abide by kingdoms. Us sea fae had our territories, and that was that. People of the land had villages within kingdoms, within continents. It truly was too much to remember.
When the sound of a knock on the front door reached us in the workshop, my grandfather rose from the wooden stool he sat on with a stifled groan. “Anyway, you two girls stay put and make yourselves comfortable. I was supposed to open the shop about twenty minutes ago.”
My grandfather disappeared to tend to his customer, and Breena and I settled into the workshop as we waited for the captain to show. I was grateful he hadn’t come first thing in the morning, because it gave Breena and I time to slow our racing hearts and cool off from our run through the village on this summer day.
Wallace had promised to let us know when the captain was here, so the two of us could rest in the meantime. Breena and I slipped into a much-needed sleep, her curled up on a cushion on the ground, me slung across the leather armchair.
When the signal arrived, it came in the form of three knocks on my grandpa’s register. Breena woke first, her eyes more alert than mine. I blinked away my grogginess while battling the adrenaline starting to course through my veins all in the same breath.
Breena rose from where she sat on the floor and made her way to the workshop door.
“Can you tell it’s him?” I asked, wondering if she needed to see him to know, or if she had an innate feeling, just by being close to him.
“Even dead asleep, I felt him the second he walked into the shop.” The warm brown of her skin fell into a sickly grey hue. “It’s him.”
I felt as if I had a mess of ropes and nets for organs, all bunched up and tangled inside me. Breena moved closer to the door with an odd look on her face. I watched her for a second, trying to figure out what she was doing when it hit me.
Launching myself off the leather chair, I beelined toward her. She was reaching for the handle of the door that would lead her right into the arms of that man.
Before she could turn the knob, I reached for her, a deadly mistake. The two of us stifled our own screams as pain took hold. Breena fought through it faster than I and went for the knob again.
“You can’t.” My hand slammed onto the wood of the door.
“Being this close to him… I don’t know if I have a choice,” Breena said, the whites of her eyes slowly turning pink. She batted the moisture rimming her eyes away before tearing her gaze from mine.
“You can fight it.” I wanted, with everything in me, to be the one to pull her into my arms. Why didmytouch have to threaten this man’s hold on her? Why didmytouch have to be what caused her pain? “Just a little longer.”
“And then what? We follow him to his home? Get even closer to him and torture me even more?” Breena asked.
“I’m not trying to torture you,” I choked out. “We are so close to getting your pelt back, so I can’t let that captain see you rightnow, can’t let him have you. We’re so close. Please, just stay here with me.”
“I wish I could, but it feels like every cell in my body is screaming at me to go to him. I’m sorry, Sid.” Breena opened the door only a sliver, but I called on the water making up her body and the humidity in the summer air. My magic swirled around her waist before she could go anywhere. She was stronger than me, and though she couldn't see my shimmery blue magic, she could feel it like ropes around her waist, and she yanked on them, hard.
