Page 70 of Song of Lorelei

“Think it’s coming from one of them?”

“Lorelei.” Killian. Oh, thank God.

“Wait, what’s he doing?”

“Get off my leg, Ian.”

“If they’ve come back for us, I’m going with Cap. Leaving your idiot asses behind.”

“Will, you high or something? They’ll eat us!”

“’K, well. Bye.”

There was more shuffling. Then another round of whisper yelling.

“It’s a trap!” Ian. Another, too. Maybe the helmsman?

“Don’t be an Odysseus, man!” Lorelei rolled her eyes. Great. One of them was a scholar.

“Quiet, all of you. Your fear is going to get you killed.” That last one was Walt. “Let go of the captain.”

The whispering stopped.

Heart twinging, she sensed Killian’s presence on the opposite side of the door. No smell, no sound, just soul-deep certainty. He was so close. Only a thin slab of wood between them.

There was a soft snick as he unlocked the door and opened it. A cloud of engine grease wafted out, only the barest hint of human flesh beneath. He filled the doorway, skin and clothes streaked from head to toe in the oily substance. She wrinkled her nose, burning under the olfactory overload.

That had been smart thinking.

She brightened her bioluminescence just a fraction, only enough to be seen by him and the crew. God, she wanted to hug the shit out of him, but there was no time.

“Quiet,” she signed. “Merman in the freezer hold. Go upstairs to top deck, then out.” Killian nodded, retreating into the room to quietly translate. Save for Will and Walt, the crew was cowering in a corner on the floor. When Killian returned, the whispering rose again.

“That you, Lorelei?”

“How the…”

“Oh shit, girl, you’re a mermaid?”

They weren’t loud, and the merman was still making a noisy mess in the freezer hold, but it was better if they didn’t speak at all. She overemphasized tapping the side of her index finger to her lips to explain this—the widely understood sign for ‘shh.’ They quieted.

“Go now,” she signed to Killian.

He sent Will and one of the deckies out first. Will squeezed Lorelei’s shoulder as he passed by, mouthing the words, “Thank you.”

The helmsman stumbled out next, clumsy on the sloped, rocking surface. She shot forward to steady the man before he hip-checked the staircase railing, preventing a sharp cling!

That was far too close for comfort.

Another deckie followed. Then Ian.

Killian was helping Walt up from his sitting position on the floor when Ian tripped halfway up the stairs and smacked bodily into the grated metal steps.

Cling!

Everyone froze.

A moment of terrified silence fell amongst them.

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