Page 61 of Between Salt and Serenades
“My body has been better, but my heart is happy to see you. Was that your sister with us down there?” she asked,motioning her chin below to the Kilkov. I peered into the water below, though I knew Zellia was long gone now. She could handle blood, but apparently, seeing her sister in love made her squeamish.
“Zellia, yeah. She’s the one who healed you.”
She leaned forward and whispered against my lips, “But I know it was you who kept me breathing. In more ways than one.”
My arms were too fatigued to reach out of the water and cup one of her cute little cheeks like I’d wanted to, so I nestled my face into her neck. Water splashed me in the face, but I could feel her heat on my skin, feel the pulse in her throat. That was all that mattered.
“I have your bubbly water to thank, I suppose. Drawing oxygen through the water is a lost art. We don’t have too many visitors in need of it these days.” I finally pulled back to take in the sight of her once more.
“I suppose not.” Her eyes were starting to droop with fatigue, and the corner of her mouth formed a lazy curve.
“You need rest. Are you ready to go back down?”
Breena simply nodded her head, her energy fading quicker than I imagined it would. With one final kiss, I began to descend. Once both of our heads were a few feet under the water, my body screamed with relief.
We heard the sounds of a groaning wooden ship over the Dreslee a few hours later. Zellia returned to the Kilkov promptly to say her goodbyes and ensure Breena was ready for travel. She replaced her seaweed bandages and sang a healing song to lessen her inflammation. Though they couldn’t speak, Breenamouthed “Thank you” to Zellia in her air bubble. I wasn’t sure Zellia would recognize the words, as she hadn’t seen words spoken since she was a child. I telepathically communicated Breena’s thanks to my sister, just to be safe. Zellia returned the sentiment by taking one of Breena’s hands and giving it a squeeze.
If our lives had been different, I believed they would have become fast friends. A piece of my heart ached that this hidden hope was equally as unlikely to come to fruition as Rory suddenly sprouting gills.
“Make sure she knows I’m happy I got to meet her, despite the circumstances,”Zellia said.“Oh, and I have something for you.”
Zellia swam over to the basket she’d left near the edge of the Kilkov and reached inside. After digging around for a second, she pulled out a pearlescent glass pendant with a broken rope dangling from it. She removed the rope, placed it in her basket, and swam back over to me with a proud smile.
“You found it!”
“I did.”She placed the pendant in my palm then reached for her own. My sister removed the necklace my dad had given her as a child and freed it of its rope. She took the pendant back out of my hands and looped the rope through it to make it whole once more. I remained silent as she ushered me to lift my hair, I simply did as she asked. When the pendant hit my chest, secured around my neck once more, I felt my eyes grow pink with emotion.
“Zellia, I can’t,”I said, holding the pendant off my chest, as if to rip it back off.
“Yes, you can. It’s your turn, Sid.”Zellia placed her hand on top of mine and lowered it.“I’ll be fine without mine for a little while.”
“Thank you for everything,”I said, my throat tightening.
“Just promise me something?” A sparkle in her brilliant eyes.
“Anything.”
“If you won’t let me come with you, promise me this won’t be the last time we see each other,”she begged, the sparkle in her eyes just a moment ago dulling.
“It won't. I will see you again, I swear it.”I pulled her in for a hug then tilted my chin up to the massive shadow on the surface.“But it’s time for us to go. Please tell Mom I’ll see her soon.”
Zellia nodded her head in a silent agreement. I took that as my sign that it was time to scoop up Breena and get to the Indigo Tide before any of the hunters did something stupid.
I dipped my arms under Breena and into the warm sand until I was cradling her. She threw her arm over my shoulder and met my nervous gaze as I hoisted her off the seafloor. She gave me a swift nod, as if to tell me we were doing the right thing, that it was time to return to Barthoah. And so that’s exactly what we would do.
As Breena and I swam through the Dreslee, we remained close to the surface to avoid any unwanted attention. I knew curious and resentful members of the pod would be looking up at us, watching as we boarded the ship, but as long as they stayed out of our way, they could watch as much as they pleased. I was beyond caring what they thought of me.
When we grew closer, I saw movement around the wooden hull of the ship. My stomach clenched, and my grip on Breena constricted as the image of five hunters armed with spears came into view.
“Get out of our way, Tetwin,” I warned. Shooting daggers at him with my eyes, I assessed his deep red scales as his tail fin thrashed and flicked angrily.
“Run back into the arms of our enemies, little hunter, but don’t you dare forget for a second what you are!”Tetwin shouted after Breena and me, echoing the thoughts of manyas they peered up to the bottom of the Indigo Tide. I stopped swimming for all but a second to shout into the minds of every siren I could manage to communicate with.
“You know nothing of our real enemy! You might not want to discover the truth, so I’ll let you wallow in the ways of our past while I uncover our present and pave the way for our future!”
Xifi’s mouth gaped as he stared between Tetwin and me. Tetwin’s face remained immovable for now, but when all the fish returned, I would prove to him everything I had been meaning to. I didn’t care to see the look on his face then, because my mental imagery of him realizing he was wrong was already satisfying. I knew that moment would come soon enough.
I made a promise to myself right then and there that I would never waste my time or energy on someone who didn’t deserve it again. What I would do was board the ship of my human friend with my second heart beating right beside me.
