Page 56 of Between Salt and Serenades
Breena.
Pushing myself off the wooden wall, I fled the ship as fast as my body would carry me. Black rimmed my vision as I maneuvered past sunken objects and oblivious sirens, trying to get to Breena before Tetwin made a costly mistake.
Swimming through the entrance of the ship, I darted toward the crowd. I saw a clearing above everyone’s heads, so I propelled myself upward and thrust my tail harder than I ever had. I had to get to my selkie.
Great waves, did she not understand how stupid this was? How dangerous?
“Breena!”I called out, unsure if she would be able to hear me from this distance, unsure if she would be able to hear me at all, or if our communication underwater would be like that of Mai and I.
When Breena seemed like she didn’t notice me at all, I tried something else and rang out into the mind of my fellow hunter,“Tetwin!”
His head swung to me, the sight of slitted pupils though his bright green eyes making my stomach lurch.
“Stay back, Sidra. You may have been the one to find the pod food, but I’ll be the one to keep it safe!”he shouted into my mind, leaving me wincing as I barreled toward him.
“No!”A scream ripped through me. I pushed my limits as I darted forward, but it was already too late. Tetwin raised his spear as Breena swam closer, the muscles in his forearm rippling as his grip tightened. Before I could grab the back of his weapon, the sharpened bone carved with symbols of death left his hand and spiraled through the water.
I pushed a wave of water at the spear, but I’d been too far away. The bone spiraled a hundred yards and struck Breena right in the gut.
Pushing another wave of water, I aimed at Tetwin to buy myself a few extra seconds. The hunter was tossed to the side of the growing crowd, and I used his distraction to my advantage. He righted himself and swam back to his place in the front of the group like its false leader.
I sandwiched myself between him and his prey.
Tetwin only had one spear on him, but I was well aware of the weapons held by the sirens behind him. Xifi pushed his own spear toward Tetwin and said,“Finish that fish-stealing pest. I bet it’s the reason the fish are all but gone again.”
I threw up my hands, continuing to move toward Breena, though now, I relied solely on subtle movements from my tail fin to propel me backward as I stared at the amassing pod. I could smell her blood in the water, see the diluted red of it spread around me, but I couldn’t see her. I couldn't see if she still held up her head, or if she was already lost to me. Tetwin had always had shitty aim, but I had seen his spear strike her gut clear as day.
“No, she’s not!”I yelled back, ready to defend her against my own kind if I had to.“I can explain, just please, put down the spear.”
“She?”Xifi called out, a look of disgust plastered onto his face as he peered past me to the wounded seal.
“You know her? You’re protecting the very creature stealing our food?”Tetwin asked. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my mother and Zellia swim up to the front of the group, but I didn’t dare meet their anxious stares.
Tetwin lowered the spear he gripped in his giant, webbed hand down. My eyes surveyed his body language and flickering pupils and took his easing stance as an opportunity to turn my back on him. When I finally swam the remaining distance to Breena, she was limp in the water, floating in a crimson haze.
“Breena!”I called out again, not caring if anyone else could hear me. She didn’t lift her head, didn’t so much as open her eyes. I pulled her speckled grey and brown body into my arms, holding her close to my chest.
“Zellia, help me!”I cried out into my sister’s mind. I had to focus my scattered thoughts to direct the communication only to her. I wouldn’t give one of the hunters a chance to grab her if I could help it.
She is a healer. She can fix this. She can fix this.
Within seconds, Zellia was by my side. She would have only been able to get to me that fast if she’d already been on her way when I called. My shattering heart swelled for the briefest of moments before focusing all my attention back on Breena.
“I’m here, I’m here. What do you need, Sid?”my sister asked in a rush, her gaze darting from me to the seal I gripped in my arms.
“Help her, please. Please save her!”Fumbling with Breena’s slippery wound, I begged Zellia. I knew better than to pull the spear from her stomach, but seeing it inside her broke me.
That cursed thing needed to be obliterated.
I clenched my hand in the water next to me, bending and constricting it until the pressure around the spear was too muchfor the bone to withstand. The section carved with the death symbols broke away, and as it slowly sank farther from Breena, my chest loosened.
“Sid, I don’t know how to heal a seal. It’s not fae. I-I–”Zellia began stuttering, but I cut her off.
“She is! She’s fae.”It was only then I realized that little confession wasn’t just to Zellia. Anyone in hearing distance now knew exactly what Breena was: not a mere fish stealing seal, but a selkie whose kind left us sirens to die in our war.
“This is the hunter you have all been praising?”Tetwin boomed to the crowd behind us.“The one who holds a slain enemy in her arms, weeping over it like a pathetic child?”
“Air. She needs air,”Zellia said to solely me. She tuned out Tetwin as she analyzed the seal shifter.“I don’t know how long she has been underwater, but seals can only hold their breath for an hour and a half. She’ll need to go to the surface.”
