Page 58 of Between Salt and Serenades
“They did.”
The way she stared at my hands as if she wished to hold them made acid rise into my throat. I knew what was coming even before she continued. It was written all over my sister’s face.
“Tell me. Don’t make me wait, Zel,”I begged.
“They’re not sending anyone to land.”She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and began freeing the seaweed from around the spear. As she did, scarlet blood leached out of Breena’s wound. Zellia motioned for me to press into Breena’s stomach, and I did despite my fuzzy mind.
“No one?”I had a feeling they would stick me with Tetwin and maybe two other hunters and say that was all they could manage, butno one? Did they not care who died? Who starved because they wouldn’t do anything to help solve the problem?
“I’m sorry, Sid. I know you wanted?—”
“Screw what I want! We need this! We need this to survive, don’t they see that?”I fought, trying to keep my hands steady despite the intense urge to punch the water around me.
“We can still go! You and I,”Zellia said as she grabbed another shell from her basket. She nudged my hands out of the way so she could pull another poor, gooey creature out of its home. When the tan goop with black streaks landed on Breena’s skin, my sister rubbed it into her, stopping the blood as quickly as it came. My heart felt like that sad blob: a helpless, crushed mess.
“Zellia…”My hands fiddled in my lap, wishing I had something productive to do with them. I sat and watched as my sister took care of Breena, but what good was I?
My gaze settled on Zellia as she worked, and depths, was she good at what she did. She was meant to be a healer. She wasn’t meant to come with me to land, especially not to wage war with the hybrids.
“I know I’m not very fast or strong, but I have skills you don’t,”she said.“You need me there, just like you need me now with Breena.”
“You healing someone in the safety of our home is your job. It’s what you’re used to. You coming to land for the first time in over a decade and helping end a war is an entirely different thing,”I said, watching as she prepped to remove the spear from Breena’s gut.
“You’re going, and peacekeeper isn’t your job,”Zellia said in the sassy tone she always put on when she wasn’t getting what she wanted. My jaw clicked and tensed as I stared at her.
“And that is exactly the problem here, Zel. You think I’m going there to keep the peace. I’m going there to do my job. To hunt.”
“You won’t.”She paused what she’d been doing for the first time since she arrived at the Kilkov. Her gaze darted across my face as she held the end of the jagged spear in her hand.
“I will. Those hybrids are starting their own pod on land, with one goal in mind: destroy the sea. I don’t understand why, but they are managing to do exactly that. A friendly conversation isn’t going to solve this problem.”
“It did with the fisherman. Plus, these are our people. You can’t hunt them all down,”she said, her blonde brows pulling together.“I mean, you can, but you shouldn't.”
“Another reason you can’t come. You only want to see the good in people, but that can get you killed here and on land. You should know that to be true, but Mom and Dad kept you so… protected,”I said. I wasn’t here to hurt my sister’s feelings, but if it was between that and permanently losing her, I’d crush her heart all day. My eyes flicked down to Breena so I could avoid seeing the pink creeping into Zellia’s eyes.
“We can talk about this later. Breena needs you right now, and that’s all that matters.”
“Right,”she whispered.“Hold Breena steady. It’s time to remove the spear.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
HIDING IN THE KILKOV
Zellia returned to the Kilkov as often as she could between her other duties as a healer. She’d been getting more and more comfortable hanging around my favorite place, until it seemed as if she’d never had a problem with the sunny plateau in the first place. When she arrived this time, she handed me two crustaceans and three pieces of seaweed. At first, I’d assumed they were for Breena’s treatment, and then I realized they were meant for me. To eat.
Wonderful.
“Quite the hunter,”I muttered.
“You know as well as I do that there’s not much else. Xifi’s sister spotted a black scabbardfish today, though, so that’s something,” Zellia said, picking at a crustacean she’d presumably brought for herself.
“Not much meat on their bones.”After analyzing the offering, I wrapped one of the crustaceans up in a piece of seaweed. As I ate it, I thought of happy eggs with brambleberry loaf.
Has the food on land ruined me forever?
“How’s Breena doing?”She peered down at the spotted seal, who remained as still and asleep as she had for the past day.Her wound was wrapped, and the bleeding hadn’t returned, thankfully.
“She’s been making some odd sounds in her sleep, but Zel, I’m tired, and my magic is waning. You have to wake her. I can’t keep drawing in oxygen like this, but if I don’t, she’ll?—”
