Page 33 of Wicked Tides
We caught each other’s stares and I was unwillingly captured by the strange, almost ethereal glow.
“I’ve never killed a man,” she said.
“But you’ve fed on them.”
“It is our nature.”
“But you don’t feed on these men.”
She paused. “Not in front of you.”
It didn’t seem right. The witch was feigning kindness and it made my head hurt. Or maybe that was my hunger doing that.
“I’ve never killed a siren,” I returned.
“But your father has killed many.”
We lingered there in silence for a while longer until I saw her uncurl her fingers, letting the necklace hang at length within my reach. I swallowed and slowly maneuvered my hand, palm facing up. She dropped the necklace into it and the ice-cold feel of the metal made my pulse shudder. I glanced up at her, waiting for the deception to make itself known. There had to be a catch. A trick. Some sinister meaning behind her returning the only thing that would prevent me from falling under a siren’s spell again.
“What are you doing?” I said, lowering my voice even more.
“Promise to leave?” she said, leaning closer to the bars until she was only a breath away. “Leave and never come upon the sea again.”
It was a promise I couldn’t make. One I didn’t want to make. Her mother had given me far too much reason to take to the sea again. I was not just a hunter. I was vengeful. Enraged. Hate and fury were the only two wolves fighting over the scraps of my soul now.
But saying that would not get me out of that tiny cage. So I looked at her, tears of wrath in my eyes disguised as fear. I trembled, doing everything I could not to shout my hatred to the heavens before her.
Closing my fingers over the pendant in my hand, I nodded.
“There is nothing for me on the sea anymore.” I turned to look at my father’s form in the dark. “All the reason I had to sail is there, murdered by his only son.”
For a while, I couldn’t look away. The entire moment replayed in my head a thousand times in a blink. It was the cold, damp touch of fingers on my wrist that brought me out of it. It was jarring and not at all pleasant, but it pulled me from that torturous memory, which I was certain would stay fresh for many years to come.
I turned slowly to look at the girl as she withdrew her hand.
“Wait until the moon has hit the peak of the volcano there,” she gestured toward the dark, mountainous silhouettes in the distance. “They will all be fast asleep. Your father’s crew was quite robust. Your small boat is far down the beach, but you can make it.”
My teeth ground at the coldness of that statement.
The girl was about to stand but she paused, biting her lip again.
“What is your name?” she asked.
“Why should you need a name if we are never to meet again?”
The corner of her lips curled ever so slightly. Not in a malicious way. It was almost… serene.
“I like names,” she said.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to give her my name. Not that sirens held any sway over names, but I wasn’t sure a siren deserved to hear it.
Then again, my lies were thick. I was not going to stay off the sea. I was going to bend it to my will one day. I was going to be a menace to her monstrous kind. I was going to take vengeance on every cunning, beautiful, awful creature under the waves and for that, they would need a name to fear.
“Vidar,” I said.
~ 14 ~
Vidar
