Page 31 of Sink or Swim

The boys behind us lift their drinks in the air and chirp variations of “I’ll drink to that!”

“What is offing?” Oona asks.

I smirk at her and say in her tongue, “Killed. He’s thanking you for killing our enemies.”

“Oh,” she says, looking up at Maurice. “It was not for you. They threatened my mate.”

“A win is a win,” Kyle says.

Maurice’s eyes twinkle again as he laughs. For a moment, everything is good. I’m not sure how long it’ll last, but right now, in this moment, I’m happy.

“Now,” he says, then takes another swig of his beer. “We should celebrate. But first….” He takes a few steps toward Oona and me. “What do you two need?”

I blink. “Uh … what do you mean?” Honestly, everything I need is right here. My Oona, safe and sound beside me. It’s all I’ll ever need for the rest of my life.

Oona tenses beside me and she casts me a concerned look. “I need water,” she says. “I can’t be without it for long.”

I nod. This is true. She’ll need access to a large body of fresh water. There’s the channel right outside by the docks, but the current is too strong for that to be a permanent solution. She needs somewhere she can relax and let her hair down.

“We have a bathtub,” Kyle suggests, but I’m already shaking my head. “Yeah, I guess that’s too small, huh?”

“And the channel is too dangerous,” I say. “It was dicey the last time you swam in it, Oona. I can’t risk anything else happening to you. Besides, this close to the city and someone might see you.”

The lagoon is the ideal environment for her, aside from all the snakes and gators that give her grief. But those snakes and gators also provide her with a food source. In Sugardove City, there’s plenty of food to be had, sure … but I’m not certain what a human diet would do to her. I guess I could visit the shops and get her fresh fish, but that’s only solving one of our problems.

I take Oona’s hands into my lap and squeeze them as I look up into her dark eyes. Right now, they’re a muted brown, suggesting she’s calm but something is bothering her. “What do you want to do, sweetheart?” I ask in her tongue.

Oona doesn’t hesitate before saying, “A future without you in it is not a future I want. I’ll stay with you, no matter the cost.” I don’t understand her, and when I take too long to respond, she says, “Stay with you.”

Romantic, to be sure, and I appreciate it, but….

“But living with me here will hurt you. We don’t have the water you need, or a suitable food source.”

Maurice runs his fingers along his beard and murmurs, “There’s Sparrow Island, just south of here. It’s smaller than the lagoon, but it’s big enough that Oona could live there in relative peace and quiet. Start over.”

Sparrow Island is ten miles off the coast of Sugardove Lake and adjacent to Pine Crest Hills, a bougie area filled with rich assholes who own yachts. But it’s remote and closed off to the general public, and since it’s a popular spot for a species of endangered birds to nest, no one is allowed to visit the island without risk of being trespassed. It could work.

“As long as you don’t eat the birds,” I say. “I think it could work.”

Oona’s lips peel back into a small smirk. “I can leave the birds alone so long as there are fish and snakes. But will you be there with me?”

My heart falls into my stomach. I just got her back, and already I’m thinking about letting her go again. It’s for her own good, of course, because she can’t stay here in the headquarters. It won’t be healthy for her, I know this, yet my heart is already breaking at the thought of sending her off to that island alone.

I shake my head sadly and say, “I can’t. I can’t live on the island.”

Her eyes flicker from muted brown to a deep navy blue. Pure, unrelenting sadness. “No. I don’t want that. I want to stay with you,” she says in English.

“If that’s the case, then you two lovebirds need a place where you can roost together,” Maurice says as he rubs his chin thoughtfully. “Somewhere else entirely. Like … Pine Crest Hills swamp.”

“The swamp?” I say, blinking. “But what about the people who live there? Don’t you think they’d notice if Oona suddenly moved in with her human boyfriend?”

“Not really,” Dwight says. “Those people are weird. And they have a bunch of local legends that keep the townsfolk away from that area. I used to go to high school out there. It’s haunted, man.”

I snort and turn around to give him a withering look. “You can’t be serious.”

Dwight nods, his expression stoic. He’s being totally serious. “No shit. It’s haunted. That bog is full of ghosts.”

“And you want Oona and I to live there?” I scoff. “Thanks. That sounds really fun, living in a haunted swamp.”

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