Page 22 of Claimed By the Deep
But I call out anyway. "Please. I just need to know."
Hours pass. The sun moves across the sky. My voice gets hoarse from calling into the void.
"This is stupid," I mutter, but I stay put anyway.
Then it happens.
A splash near the stern, too deliberate to be random debris. My heart hammers as I rush to the rail, scanning the water for any sign of what caused the disturbance.
There's nothing visible in the afternoon light, just expanding ripples that could have been caused by anything. But something about the pattern, the way the water moved...
"Cyreus?" I whisper.
Silence. But I stay at the rail, watching, waiting, hoping.
An hour passes before I finally accept that it was probably just a fish or a piece of kelp. But as I start the engine to head home, I catch myself scanning the water one more time.
Just in case.
Back at the harbor, Fergus appears as I'm tying up.
"Any luck today?" he asks.
"Maybe. Hard to tell." I secure my lines, avoiding his eyes. "Fergus, if someone told you they'd met... someone... who seemed too good to be true, what would you tell them?"
"I'd tell them that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is." He pauses. "But I'd also tell them that sometimes impossible things happen, and the smart money is on figuring out what's real rather than assuming everything's fake."
"Even if the impossible thing was really impossible?"
"Especially then." Fergus leans against the dock post. "Meri, I've been working these waters since before you were born. I've seen things that don't make it into the official reports. Heard stories from fishermen that would make your hair stand on end."
I feel a chill. "What kind of things?"
"The kind that make smart people keep their mouths shut and their minds open." He meets my eyes directly. "The kind that might explain why someone like you has been sitting in empty water for three days instead of working."
For a moment, I consider telling him everything. About the rescue, about Cyreus, about what he showed me. But even as the words form in my mind, I know I can't. Not yet.
"I just need some time to figure things out," I say instead.
"Time I can give you. But Meri?" He straightens to leave. "Don't figure yourself out of something good just because it doesn't make sense."
That night, I lie in my bunk staring at the ceiling, replaying every moment of the last three days. The endless waiting, the unanswered calls, the growing certainty that I'm chasing something that was never there. But then I remember the splash. The way the water moved. The feeling, just for a moment, that someone was watching.
Tomorrow, I tell myself. I'll try one more time tomorrow.
And if he doesn't come, if there's no sign of him, then I'll accept that it's time to let this go. Time to get back to real life and leave the impossible behind.
But not yet. Not until I'm absolutely certain.
Because the alternative—accepting that I'll never see him again—is still worse than looking crazy.
Cyreus
ELEVEN
Iwatch her from the depths, hidden among the rocky outcroppings that have sheltered me for decades. For three days now, she has returned to these waters with a persistence that both breaks my three hearts and fills me with a longing I'd forgotten I could feel.
She doesn't know I'm here. I've made certain of that, staying deep enough to avoid detection while close enough to reach her if danger threatens. But watching her call my name to the empty surface, seeing hope drain from her voice with each unanswered plea, inflicts a torment I never imagined possible.
