Page 6 of The Sea of Zemira (The Zemiran Chronicles 1)

Her slim-reddish brows knitted together. “Is tha’ a baby?” she asked and reached her hand out, lifting the blanket, staring down at two tiny eyes, the size of buttons, looking back at her.

“I had no choice, Val,” Duncan said, running his hand down his face. “The king had at least ten of their ships out there, shootin’ their harpoons into the sea. I kept movin’ though, back to shore, but then—” the child let out a loud cry, and Val covered her mouth with her hand. “I couldn’t leave her out there to die,” he confessed. “They would have killed her. She looked as if she had been floatin’ in the sea for days.”

He looked down and pulled the thin blanket back to reveal the rest of the child’s body.

Val’s breath caught. “Aah, dear. Is tha’—?”

He nodded. “A siren. Yah.” Duncan placed the child securely up against his broad chest and gently bounced on his feet to soothe her. “We can’t have children, Val. Maybe this is the answer we’ve been waitin’ for?” Duncan said. He reached his hands out, handing over the child to his wife. “Here, take her.”

She gave him a curt nod and wrapped her arms around the child, rocking her back and forth.

Duncan rushed to lock the door, then pulled the drapes over the window. There was an empty feeling in the pit of his stomach. He began to pace the room with his hands placed loosely in his pockets.

“We ain’t keepin’ it,” she pleaded. “Duncan, we ain’t—”

“Her,” he corrected, stopping at the sofa. “The child is a her, my love.”

Val pressed her lips together into a thin line, then sighed heavily. Her shoulders slumped but she kept her eyes on her husband’s.

“Duncan, ’ow do we ’ide a child from the king? They’ll know she is not ’uman. They’ll know she does not belong to us.” She gestured to her husband. “Look at us,” she threw a hand up, “Yer as dark as a crow, and I’m a pale-faced redhead. Ye crazy?”

She looked down at the light olive-skinned child with dark-brown eyes, like the color of pine honey. Her hair was a shade of dark brown to match her eyes, but with traces of purple and silver streaks down the sides. Not the physical traits that came naturally to humans.

“Tha’ lil’ tail of ’ers may be blinded to most the people in our village, but the king ’ill know.” She ran her hand through her tight curls. “He ’ill know what she is.”

Duncan nodded, but a slight chuckle came from his lips.

She scowled. “Not a laughin’ matter, Duncan,” she said. “They ’ill kill us.”

“No, they won’t,” he assured, his smile faded as he placed a hand on his wife’s arm, trailing his fingers down to her elbow.

He was used to Val huffing up over small things, and though it was a trait he adored about her, he could not help but laugh. Their life had never come easy, that was certain. Now, they had added the topping to the cake with a siren child.

“We were prepared for the day the king found out ’bout the spies,” he continued, “and we will do what we’ve been doin’ for the last year. Keep our heads down, stay out of the king’s affairs, and now protect this child.” He stopped and bit his bottom lip. “We’ll say we adopted her from the Green Valley Orphanage,” he suggested and then gestured to the baby’s tail. “?From what I understand, once she fully dries, her legs will form, and them fins don’t come back unless they’re soaked in water.”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, look at ye. Aren’t ye the expert on the siren race!”

He inched closer to the child and placed his hand on her head, brushing her strange-colored hair away from her eyes. A small smile grew on the child’s chubby face.

“Will you look at that,” he said, staring down at his wife. “She likes us.”

The baby’s smile widened, revealing two little dimples on the side of her cheeks, and Val and Duncan grinned back at her. A quiet giggle escaped the child’s lips, and she reached out her fingers at them and batted her eyelashes.

“We’ll have to give her a name,” he whispered to his wife’s ear, then kissed her pale cheek.

Val stared at him, unblinking. “Yer serious ’bout this, aren’t ye?”

He shrugged. “I don’t believe we have a choice, my love.” He placed his arm slowly around his wife, bringing all three of them closer together. “I’ve never been more serious about anythin’ in me life. We’ve never been able to have children. She came to us for a reason. We are to protect her with our lives.”

Val’s eyes drew to a bright, red object wrapped in coral around the child’s wrist. “Wha’ is tha’?” she asked.

“Oh, right, that. I dunno; it was on her already when I found the little one floatin’ on top of a wooden board. We’ll need to remove it; the coral is burnin’ her skin, see?”

Gently, the tall man began to untie the seaweed holding the little charm in place. Then, as he touched the algae, it crumbled open, revealing a dazzling crimson ruby. Val and Duncan both widened their eyes at the beautiful sight.

They placed the jewel on the counter and wiped away the rest of the seaweed. “I’ll make ’er somethin’ more comfortable to dangle the jewel from when she gets older,” Val said. “Obviously, ’er birth folks intended for ’er to ’ave it.” She frowned. “Assumin’ the king kill ’em, perhaps it was somethin’ they wanted their child to remember them by.”

“Are you sayin’ we can keep her?” he asked with a hopeful smile on his face.

She nodded slowly. “If we ’ear of a siren mum lookin’ for ’er child, ’en we must be willin’ to ’and ’er back.”

Duncan placed his hand on his wife’s back and pulled her close to him.

Val stared down at the siren baby for a long beat before sucking in a heavy, defeated breath. “How’s Finola sound for a name?” Val asked. “After me mum.”

Duncan grinned and ran his pinky over the child’s cheek. “That’d be beautiful, Val,” he said. “We can call her Nola.”

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