Page 92 of The Last Lost Girl

Surat jumps the final few feet onto the deck and glides toward the waves beyond the ship’s edge. Smee already has one leg up and is about to hurl himself over the side…

I hear a splash and my heart drops.

Hudson is upright and again surging toward the siren, but Surat is gone.

I scream his name and push Smee backward a step. Two. He’s as thick as a wall and just as strong.

I see a flash of movement and turn my head to see Hudson dive into the water.

A splash.

A circle of foam.

The siren goes quiet, smiling at the ones she coaxed off the ship.

Daggers gripped tightly in my hands, I dive, cutting into the water and wishing it was her flesh.

The cool saltwater stings my eyes before I kick to the surface, immediately searching in all directions for Hudson and Surat. I don’t know where the siren went, but I see Hudson a few wave crests away treading water, still dazed. I don’t see Surat at all.

“Hudson!” I yell, swimming toward him. “Hudson, do you see Surat?”

She’s not even singing anymore, but he’s still trapped in her daze.

Reaching Hudson, I throw an arm around him and tug him backward, fighting the current. He coughs after swallowing too much seawater. “Stay above the surface!” I shout. “I need you to help me. We need to get back to the ship as fast as we can.” My thighs and calves burn. He’s too heavy for me to maneuver. “Hudson, look for Surat.”

“What?” he finally replies.

“Look. For. Surat.”

He mutters his friend’s name, confused.

“Look for Surat in the water, Hudson.”

Something slams into my side, but I don’t let go of Hudson. With the daggers still clenched in my hands, I stab at the water as I kick and move us both, little by little, back toward the ship. I can’t drop them. I have a terrible feeling I’m going to need them – both of them.

A flash of silver carves around us.

Hudson tenses, like he’s just woken up and realizes we’re in the ocean. He twists his head and looks at me, thoroughly bewildered. “Ava?”

I let him go. “Swim!” I yell. “Back to the ship.”

His arms push against the swelling sea as he turns in a circle. “What…?”

“Hudson!” Smee yells. The spell on all of them must have broken. He tosses a thick coil of rope over the ship’s side and points at us. “Siren!”

Hudson curses and calls for his skiff. Not that it’ll help.

Bubbles race up my legs. She’s underneath us now. Circling.

We push harder toward the ship.

Hudson shouts at Smee. “Surat is in the water!”

Smee scans the waves for a long minute, then looks at us and shakes his head.

And then… the siren who sang the two men into the sea surfaces between us and the ship that’s only strokes away now. Her stare sharpens on Hudson. She opens her mouth.

“Cover your ears!” I shout at him, but it’s too late. The notes have him under her spell.

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