Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Then I notice they aren’t alone.
Behind them, emerging from the darkness of the deep are two skeletons.
No. That’s not quite right.
Two Syren skeletons.
I gasp, water flooding through my mouth.
The Syrens grin up at me with sharp teeth, their eyes empty sockets as transparent weedy hair flows from their skulls, their arms outstretched and reaching for me.
I flip around and start swimming as fast as I can. I don’t know if these Syrens are remnants of the curse or what, but I’m not waiting around to find out what they want from me.
But even though they’re just bone, they have tails and they move frighteningly fast. They let out a high-pitched screech and grab hold of my arms, one on either side of me.
I scream, trying to thrash, but I’m helpless in their grasp as they start swimming at top speed, pulling me through the water.
What are you? I ask. Where are you taking me?
They don’t answer but it doesn’t take long for me to figure it out.
They’re taking me back to the ship.
The question is, which ship?
CHAPTER 19
Maren
I find out which ship quickly enough.
The dead Syrens drag me right back to the Nightwind, the very ship I just tried to escape. We break the surface and I stare up at the boat to see a woman looking over the railing, her hair green kelp. I immediately know her aura—she’s a sea witch.
This must be the infamous Nerissa.
“Is this the princess you were talking about?” Nerissa asks, her voice low and hypnotic. Beside her Ramsay’s head appears, staring down at me.
I meet his eyes. Please let me go. Please don’t bring me back on board. Let me be free, I say inside, hoping he can somehow hear and understand.
His eyes soften at the corners and he gives me a blasé look as if to say, I’m sorry?
Then Nerissa gestures with her hands, raising them and the skeleton Syrens start to climb up the side of the ship, hauling me up with them. Their bone claws hook into the side of the wood and I watch as Ramsay winces at the damage they’re doing to the ship. Naturally, he doesn’t look all that concerned about me.
Finally, they reach the top and shove me onto the deck before they turn and dive back into the sea. I crumple to my hands and knees.
Nerissa walks over to me until her feet stop right in front of my face, her toenails silver and affixed with tiny pearls.
“Princess Maren,” Nerissa says to me and for a moment I’m terrified that she knows who I am, that us Syrens, even former ones, have a certain look or smell to us. “On your feet.”
I know better than to disobey a sea witch. I carefully press myself up until I’m on my feet, artfully arranging my hair over my shoulders. I’m aware that the water has caused John’s shirt to become semi-transparent on me, so I drape my tendrils over my breasts as if I’m being modest, when I’m really covering up the gills that must be visible on the sides of my neck.
“Do you know who I am?” Nerissa asks, a coy smile on her lips. Her cheeks are round and high when she smiles, glinting iridescent pink in dawn’s light. Her eyes glow like burnished copper as she takes me in under her thick lashes.
“A sea witch,” I tell her. “I’ve heard a great deal about you.”
“All good things, I hope,” she says demurely.
“Not if you ask the skeleton crew.”
She laughs. “That is verily true, my girl. Now, do you know why I brought you back on board after you tried to escape?”
I glance at Ramsay, but his eyes give nothing away, his face irritatingly blank.
I look back at her and shake my head. The only reason I can think of is that she heard somehow, perhaps from Ramsay, that I had Syren or witch-like tendencies and that was enough to fetch me.
“Because the crew here has decided to hand you over to me in exchange for one of their own.”
“Sedge,” I whisper, thinking back to what John had said when he came across me and Ramsay, how he had gone missing.
“Yes. The dear Sedge. He is most beloved by the crew of the Nightwind, despite not being one of the Brethren. And you, who is also not part of the Brethren, are not.”
“Listen now,” Ramsay speaks up, clearing his throat. “We can come to some sort of deal.”
Nerissa smirks at him. “Is that so? And what deal is that?”
He opens his mouth and I cut him off. Truth is, I might be better off with her. Especially if she does what I ask.
“I’ll go with you,” I say quickly. “But only if you help me with one thing.”
She folds her arms across her ample chest. “And what is that?” she asks, a brow raised.