Page 98 of Wicked Tides
“Your father was human? How is that possible?”
“I don’t know, but to my people, I’m nothing. To Dahlia, I am family. I don’t want to see her get pulled into the darkness.”
A stretch of silence grew between us as our eyes wandered back to Dahlia lying in the cell. She was quiet now, but I knew she was not sleeping by the way her fingers slowly played in her hair.
“How do we help her?”
“I don’t know,” Meridan said solemnly. “I’ve never known anyone to even try to resist Akareth, let alone succeed in escaping him.”
“Then it may not be impossible.”
Meridan glanced up at me, her eyes wide and unblinking as if she couldn’t believe her ears.
“You want to help her,” she finally asked. “Why?”
“Helping her helps me. These past days have proven that.”
~ 35 ~
Dahlia
Madness is the monster come
to eat the things you love
~Marcus Crow
I felt hollow sitting alone in that cell. The air had grown severely cold in the days passing so I knew we were in a very different place. Not even Meridan had come to see me since first greeting me the moment I opened my eyes and I suspected it was because she was afraid. Neither of us enjoyed the idea of disappearing into an abyss only to return as something not ourselves. Seeing me out of control must have spooked her. All our pain and suffering could not be traded for a farse of a life. A false mind. Going to Akareth meant I would never be the same and even death was better than that fate.
When I heard heavy boots descending down the steps, I turned to see Vidar approaching the cell with a tight bundle of clothing under his arm. He looked surprised to see me awake and paused before coming closer to the bars. I wasn’t sure what he’d seen or how exactly things played out. I only knew what Meridan told me. I had attempted to go into the water before Vidar pulled me back and Idrew my knife on him. Faint echoes of my cries for help were the only other thing I remembered.
Vidar leaned against the gate and hung his hand through the bars, regarding me thoroughly. There was an empty plate of food in front of me that I’d forced myself to eat in hopes that it would fill the void I could feel growing inside, but it did nothing.
“We’re getting close to shore,” Vidar said. “One of the girls spotted a landmark, so we’re heading that way.”
He pulled a keyring off his belt and raised it toward the lock.
“Should you do that?” I muttered.
His eyes met mine and he paused. “Meridan says it’s unlikely the sons will come this far north.”
“They’re from the deep. I assure you, the waters where they’re from are just as frigid. The cold will not dissuade them.”
“Have you heard them the past couple days? Or felt them? I’m not quite sure how it all works.”
I shook my head and immediately, he slid the key into the lock and twisted. He pulled the gate open and stepped inside the cell with me, motioning for me to stand. On strangely sore legs, I got to my feet as he unrolled what I could now tell was a leather coat with a hood. Our eyes met for a moment and behind both our gazes were words we could not say. I felt them hanging in the air, silent and restless.
“Turn around,” he finally said.
Slowly, I turned so my back was to him and he maneuvered the coat over my arms. It was heavy and thick and smelled like oak and rum. Like Vidar. When I faced him again, he casually adjusted the front of the coat, slipping two of the wooden buttons on the front into their respective loops.
“You don’t have to do that,” I said.
I huffed a sigh. “Do you even need a coat?”
He was avoiding eye contact when he said it.
“It helps,” I said.
