Page 10 of Of Song and Darkness

The closer I ventured to the Caribbean Sea, the more the water warmed around me. The rising temperature was an unwelcome change, far removed from the comforting coolness of Aquarius's dark ocean floor. Exhaustion weighed heavily on my shoulders, and fear gnawed at the edges of my resolve. A relentless ache in my belly constantly reminded me of my hunger. It was a perilous combination for a siren, especially one already teetering on the edge of her wits.

I had traveled for days to reach the Caribbean Sea, and I was calling myself a fool with each mile I swam. Doubt festered within me, a nagging suspicion that the sea witch had sent me on a self-destructive mission. How I would ever convince a heathen, a hunter of my kind, to take me to Medusa was a mystery as vast as the ocean itself.

I pondered the option of using my beguiling song to persuade him, but I knew I couldn't sing the entire trip. The odds were stacked against me, and the weight of the task ahead was crushing, like the depths of the sea.

A sunken ship resting on the ocean floor ensnared my attention, pulling me away from my thoughts. I cautiously approached it, marveling at the new residents of the boat. The ship had become a vibrant ecosystem of its own, swarming with fish of every imaginable shape and color that swirled around its sunken hull. Crustaceans scurried across the decaying deck, breathing life into this forgotten vessel.

My pulse increased as a tiny octopus shot out of a circular window, ink trailing in its wake, fleeing the scene as I drew closer. The shipwreck, with its thriving life, offered a stark contrast to the solitude and uncertainty of my mission, and I found a moment of comfort in this submerged world.

A smile tugged at my lips. I should have kept going, but my curiosity got the better of me. I ducked into the porthole that the octopus had just vacated. Darkness engulfed me as I edged deeper inside the ship. Rays of sunlight peeked through the rotting floorboards, disrupting the gloom and offering glimpses of the ship's interior. I was giddy with excitement. These human objects held a certain allure, something I had never witnessed before in the world of sirens and sea. My father would have a fit if he knew I was this close to human objects.

I continued down, winding through the debris and destruction. A small cry of surprise escaped my lips, shattering the eerie silence as I came upon the skeletal remains of a human. Foolish curiosity had my hand lifting as my fingertips brushed across the smooth bone of the skull. My eyes traveled down the form, brushing over the material that swayed in the current, covering the bony extremities. Humans really weren’t that different from us, except for the legs.

I left the sailor behind, continuing deeper, slowing when the ghostly creak of the wood echoed through the water. I nervously chewed on my bottom lip. This whole vessel could collapse at any moment. Good sense begged me to leave, but thick wooden barrels caught my attention, pulling me deeper into the darkness. I approached one and pulled until the waterlogged boards gave way. Hissing in pain, I pulled my hand to my chest as a splinter of wood lodged in my palm. I yanked the offending piece out, waving my hand through the current as my blood tainted the water. Ignoring my minor injury, I glanced into the barrel, studying the contents. My stomach heaved as a sour scent invaded my nostrils. Whatever this was—or used to be—was pungent. A quick glance revealed an array of barrels, each bearing identical symbols on their sides. I had no desire to investigate them further.

I hurried from the ship, hoping that the stench of whatever was in those barrels did not linger on me. I squeezed out of the porthole, stalling in the water before I noticed that the inhabitants of the sunken ship had vanished and the sea was eerily quiet. The hushed silence made my pulse race, hinting at the danger.

A dark, shadowy figure ahead of me caught my attention, and I immediately scolded myself for becoming distracted and not paying closer attention to my surroundings. I glanced down at my palm, which was still bleeding, cursing myself for not being more careful.

The silhouette stalked closer and became more apparent, exposing itself as a threat. My heart increased tempo as a giant shark swam closer, battle scars etched in its gray skin. It circled me with a predatory grace, its cold, unrelenting gaze sizing me up. I’d had minor dealings with sharks. Aquarius was too deep and far from the mainland for sharks to frequent. Whenever one ventured that close, Orm and his army dealt with it. This shark was massive in length and inched closer to me with each pass it made. I was an easy bite-sized meal for it, or so it thought.

My lips parted, and my siren song hummed through the ocean. I prayed that it would work against this shark. If not, I had already made the grave mistake of letting it get too close to me. I would have to flee if my song didn’t work. Sirens were one of the fastest creatures in all the oceans, so hopefully I could get away. The shark instantly paused. Its body slowly started to drift to the bottom of the sea. I stopped my song immediately. When a shark stopped swimming, it stopped breathing. I didn’t want to kill it, even though it was trying to eat me. It was just doing what sharks did.

Even after stopping my song, the shark sank to the bottom. Against my better judgment, I swam toward it, grabbed its fin, and started pushing it. A small trickle of relief filled me as the shark’s gills began flapping in the current. In a matter of seconds, it bucked and thrashed. I released it and retreated a few feet. It finally got the message that I was the more significant threat and swam off in the direction it came. My father had always told me that my big heart would get me killed, and based on my current situation, he was probably right. The shark may not have been my doom, but the mission I was on now likely would be.

I collected myself after my shark encounter and continued on my journey. As I swam, the ocean darkened. I braved going to the surface and eased my head above the waters. Night had fallen, and only a few twinkling stars were visible, along with a big moon high in the sky. It was rare that I broke through the surface of the water, so I just floated there for a while, enjoying the beauty of the night sky. A loud cracking sound had me swinging my head around, and I looked to the sky, where an angry storm had built in the distance. Lighting struck again, this time closer and louder than before, and soon after, rain started splattering across my skin. I ducked below the surface. I would be safe from the squall under the water, or so I assumed.

I dove deeper as the waters became rougher. No matter how far I ventured down, the storm seemed to follow. I was using all of my strength to keep from being tossed around. Never had I seen a storm churn the waters this deep before. My body was roughly thrown through the ocean as a whirlpool swallowed me. My lungs threatened to collapse in on themselves as the swirling pool of death suffocated me, its icy grip pressing against my chest…

I inhaled deeply, expecting the cool ocean water to pass through my lungs, but instead, I nearly choked to death as I breathed in sand. I sputtered and coughed, trying to rid the offending substance from my mouth and throat. My body ached, and my skin and scales felt parched and dry. I dared to pry my eyes open, only to be blinded by the bright, blistering sun as it bounced off the pristine beach.

Dizziness enveloped me, my head swirling, as an intense, searing pain surged through my fins. Agony gripped me, and a screech escaped my lips as the torment heightened. I raised my head, sweeping tear-saturated eyes across the tattered remnants of my tail fin. Panic consumed every inch of my being. The extent of the damage left haunting uncertainty of whether I would ever swim again.

Spots danced across my vision when I saw how far the storm had tossed me from the ocean. How would I ever maneuver my mutilated body that far to get back into the sea? I was hopelessly beached.

I laid back down as I tried to calm my hysteria. I just needed to rest for a minute to catch my breath, and then I would claw my way down this massive beach and back into the safety of the ocean.

I struggled to keep my eyes open as my hope plummeted like a ship in a storm. Seagulls cawed in the distance, circling overhead as if waiting for my eyes to close. No matter how hard I fought, I was losing the battle against consciousness. My head buzzed as darkness crept in from all sides. My head dropped onto the scorching sand as my eyes rolled back. An eerie voice whispered, its sinister tone beckoning me to follow it to my death.

Cael jumped down from the splintered mast, his boots scuffing against the deck as he approached me. “Cap’n! The rigging is badly damaged. It will take all day to fix it.”

I closed my eyes as anger bubbled up inside me. The storm last night had wreaked havoc on my ship. We should have been halfway to Andros by now, not stuck on some godforsaken island repairing our rigging and mast.

“Then I suggest you get to it instead of standing here telling me about it,” I grumbled.

Cael shot me a lopsided smile and started yelling orders. He knew to avoid me when I was in one of these moods. I grabbed my scabbard, attached it to my hip, and joined my men in one of the dinghies. My anticipation swelled with each stroke of the oar, and an exasperated groan escaped my lips. We had two tasks to complete, and I was already lagging behind. Despite being a pirate, I prided myself on punctuality when it came to completing a job.

The small boat gently grazed the sandy shore, and my crew eagerly scrambled toward the untamed wilderness to gather supplies. I stopped midway as a mass of seagulls in the distance caught my attention. It was stupid and not time-efficient to go investigate whatever it was, but something about the scene bothered me.

“Carry on,” I instructed my men as I headed down the beach.

Whatever was washed up had to be sizable for that many gulls to gather. My boots sloshed in the soft sand and sea spray, and my gaze fixated on streamers of seaweed as they danced in the surf.

I rounded a beachside boulder and came to an abrupt halt as I spotted the source of the gulls' excitement. There, stretched out on the sand, lay the lifeless form of a siren. As I approached, the gulls scattered into the sky. It had been years since I had seen a siren, so I leaned in for a closer look. Was this the siren that the sea witch had informed me was on the way? It had to be. The timing was too perfect.

I cursed under my breath and gritted my teeth in aggravation. The death of this siren also meant that my job of taking her to Medusa and then killing her was void, and so were my chances of getting the Wraith.

I glared at her, my eyes sweeping over her form. Her body was face down in the sand, and she had been through hell by the looks of it. Her tail fin looked like someone had taken a blade to it. It was probably a good thing she was dead because she wouldn’t swim again anytime soon with that kind of damage to her tail.

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