Page 52 of Wicked Tides
She swallowed, her teeth grinding as if she were chewing on her words. I waited, but she only responded with silent defiance.
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. “Tell me something. Do you truly believe that I was wrong to have done what I did? Do you believe your mother to have been good?”
“Do you believe your father was good?”
“Do you believeyouare good?”
“No,” she snapped.
It was at that point when Merilyn awoke to our bickering. She noticed me at the door to the cell and flicked her gaze between us in alarmed confusion.
Dahlia kept her eyes on me. “That we are good is the greatest lie we’ve ever told ourselves. We are simply caught in the same whirlpool, going in circles, completely unaware we are drowning.” She paused to take a breath, her brows twitching. “I believe I tried to be good when I unlocked your cage.” Another pause. I watched the duskiness in her eyes become even darker, defying the definition of the word. “And then you turned me into a hateful monster. You turned me into my mother.”
She spoke as if that was the worst thing that could have ever happened to her. Her words were rigid and stained. Pained and broken. I recalled for a second what her body looked like when she’d removed her previous clothing to change. She was covered in scars. More scars than I had seen on any siren’s body, dead or alive. I had to wonder why. Had she lost that many fights? Had shebeenin that many fights? Or perhaps the scars were a symbol of her victory. I didn’t know and I didn’t think I cared enough to find out.
The most certain thing, however, was that she was not like others. She did not even harbor the same kind of empty disdain. Hers was her own, built up over the years with me being the pillars on which it was erected. Beside her, Merilyn looked at me like most sirens did, with a sense of abhorrence and fear. That look was what I knew. But Dahlia looked at me with so many years of contempt, confusion, and fire. It mimicked the way I looked at her. I didn’t know if I wanted to march into her cell and behead her, ridding myself of her presence for good, or… well, I didn’t know what else I wanted to do. I truly didn’t and it twisted me up inside.
“We know where the girls are from,” I divulged, eager to see her reaction to the fact. “It will take a week or two to get there, but that’s the direction we’re headed.”
She seemed unaffected by the news. It was irritating. I started to walk away, feeling frustrated that I didn’t get further than a small argument with her.
“Why doyoucare about the girls?” she called after me. “Rugged killer like you.”
I stopped and slowly turned back around to look at her through the iron bars. The cold space between us and the obvious disdain that tainted both our souls made my resolve clear as glass.
“They’re young enough,” I sighed. “If they go home now before they see the rest of the world, maybe they won’t end up like us.”
~ 21 ~
Dahlia
There is serenity in darkness
And peace in oblivion.
~ Eli Williamson
“They’re young enough,” Vidar said. “If they go home now before they see the rest of the world, maybe they won’t end up like us.”
I hated that those words hit me like they did. As Vidar disappeared upstairs, I wondered if that was truly the reason I didn’t want to see them killed or hurt, too. It was rare to find eyes that hadn’t been darkened by violence and loathing. Something in me wanted to preserve it.
What disgusted me more was the realization that maybe Vidar and I had something in common.
“He is a sly bastard,” Meridan said, pulling me from my thoughts. “Do you believe anything he is saying?”
“I don’t know. All I know is we’re behind bars. No matter what happens, he currently has the upper hand.”
“In here, perhaps.” She reached over and tapped my temple lightly with one finger. “Not in here. Can you control the dreams?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even know if I’ll find him in my sleep tonight. I’m not sure how it works.”
“I believe you will find a way. You have to.”
I had to…
Meridan’s words stayed with me until it came time for the crew to sleep. Thankfully, my own fatigue cradled me at the same time and I found myself dozing on the thin bedding. I didn’t know how to find Vidar in my sleep again. The first time was entirely accidental. All I could do was think of him as I drifted… as uncomfortable as that was.
Black sand covered a flat as far as the eye could see. It was dark, but the world was visible around me. Bland. Dreary. I spun in a slow circle to gauge my surroundings only to find the same view in every direction. Dark sand littered with half-submerged whale bones and the skeletons of decrepit ships. It was a graveyard. A place where all dead things eventually ended up.
