Page 78 of The Sea of Zemira (The Zemiran Chronicles 1)

“No time to figure it out,” the captain said. “Let’s get out of here.”

“I’m okay,” Nola said to him, sitting up as his arm slacked around her waist.

Lincoln buried his face in her hair and gave her a gentle kiss on the top of her head. He sprang to his feet, rushing to the helm, while the rest of the crew tossed the sleeping gnomes into the icy waters.

* * *

Nola laid in the captain’s cabin, wrapped in a blanket. She towel-dried her hair, dabbing the tiny drops of water dripping down her neck. She looked up, placing the damp rag next to her, and glanced in the mirror on the wall. Color had returned to her cheeks.

Nola heard the sound of Lincoln’s boots clomping down the steps that led to the room.

“Here,” the handsome captain said, handing her one of Kitten’s dresses once inside the cabin.

She held it loosely in her hands. “A dress?” Nola said, lowering a brow.

He shrugged. “You somehow ripped the last clean pair of pants Mazie had. This will have to do until we wash our clothes.”

Nola narrowed her eyes above his right shoulder. She had not noticed before the scratch marks over the curve of his neck.

“Are you okay?” She reached out. Her delicate fingers ran down his neck but avoided the marks.

He smiled widely. “Aye. Those little bastards were quite savage. But I’ll survive.”

Lincoln’s playful smile grew somber as he looked down at her. He seemed to scan her for injuries.

Her cheeks’ pallor found its color again,he thought, giving him a sense of relief.

The captain then ran his hand down her messy, damp hair but stayed silent. Lincoln’s tousled hair spilled over his right eye. She wanted to reach up to move it away and look into his emerald eyes, but she did not. He was acting strange, distant, and she was not sure why.

Nola tilted her head and studied the expression on his face instead. “Is everything okay?” she asked. “What is it?”

He let his gaze run down her face. “When you fell into the water, I thought I was goin’ to lose you,” he said.

She frowned. “Do you have me?”

He did not respond as if an internal conflict ate at him.

Lincoln withdrew his hand from hers and looked at her intently with his brooding eyes. “I, um—”

Nola then heard Boots’s voice bellowing, “Heave,” above deck.

“Stay down here until your body feels a bit better; I have somethin’ to tend to.”

The siren girl nodded. “Sure,” she whispered as he rushed out of the room.

A shiver of emotion ran through her body. Something had happened between her falling into the water and after they re-emerged into the Portland Sea.

Is he afraid of something?She wondered. Afraid of me?

She sunk into the mattress.

He knows because he saw,she thought to herself. He saw my tail.

Once Lincoln ascended to the top deck, she dressed quickly, wrapped the blanket back over her body, and followed him.

Nola rounded the corner but stayed close to the door, watching from a distance. Lincoln reached out his hand below him, his back to hers, and helped lift a woman to her feet—a siren.

Nola had never seen a siren up close, but even then, she still could not see her entirely from where she stood. Mazie held out a robe as if they had been expecting her. The woman used it to wrap around her body.

Then Lincoln’s hands reached her shoulders and he escorted her down the front entrance to the deck.

Nola’s heart hammered hard against her chest. He knew that woman, and they were not enemies.

Suddenly, Mazie turned and saw Nola watching.

Only a small pout reached Mazie’s lips before the siren girl quickly disappeared.

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