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He glances down into the water and sees my tail flash in the sunlight.

He gasps, his eyes wide. “Mermaid,” he cries out, starting to thrash in the waves.

“Syren,” I correct him.

Then I lunge.

I bite into his neck while my claws start tearing at the rest of him. Blood fills the water and he chokes on his screams and I start ripping him apart, swiftly removing his organs, eating my way through his liver, his kidney, and finally his heart.

Then I let him go and he starts to sink in the blood, and I should be satisfied by having eaten so much of him but I’m still ravenous.

I wait, circling below the ship like a shark, just by the curve of the hull so I’m not spotted, though from here I have a clear view of theNightwind. I see Ramsay on deck, who has clearly spotted Captain Smith, and instead of the ship turning tail and leaving with the wind, it’s staying in place. No doubt Ramsay wants his final piece of revenge.

I want it too.

I get started by tearing apart every naval man that falls into the sea from the cannon explosions. I rip them limb from limb. I shred their skin, remove their organs, and at this point I’m just tossing them aside as fish food because I’ve had my fair share and I’m saving my appetite for one man.

But now that theNightwindisn’t leaving, the other naval ships close in, coming around the pirate ship from all directions. I’m enjoying being a predator, but in the end I’m not helping much, just killing those who would probably die anyway.

I wish there was something more I could do.

“Maren.”

I gasp and whirl around to see Nerissa treading water behind me.

“You’re alive,” I gasp.

“You have blood on your mouth,” she notes, a sly smile.

I quickly run my hand across my lips. “I’m so happy to see you. I thought you were gone. I thought the Kraken would have torn you apart.”

Her smile deepens as her kelp hair flows in the water around her. “The Kraken are free, my child. Edonia is gone.” She reaches into the waves and pulls out the bottle necklace around her neck, the one that my soul was kept in. Now there’s green smoke swirling about. “Well, I suppose she’s not too far gone.”

I frown. “Is that…is that her soul?”

Nerissa gives me a haughty look. “She is my sister, after all. It would be unkind to leave her completely dead, wouldn’t it? This way I can have her at my side for all time, and I’ll never have to hear a word from her.”

She looks back to the ships and the cannon fire, now coming from the others in the fleet. “Looks like your side might need some help,” she says, nodding to theNightwind.

“I’m not sure if that’s my side anymore,” I tell her. “I’m no longer part of their crew, if that wasn’t obvious.” I gesture down to my tail. “I’m no longer a part of their world.”

She makes a tsking sound as she swims closer to me. The waves reflected in her copper eyes make them glow like the sun. “You, my dear,” she says to me, placing her hands on both sides of my cheeks, “are one in a million. And you can make any world your own.”

Then, while still holding onto my face, she starts reciting words in Latin, her eyes falling closed.

I don’t want to interrupt what she’s doing because I’m sure it’s some sort of spell and I have to trust that she has my best interests at heart now, but at the same time the world is falling into chaos around us. TheNightwindis withstanding shot after shot, some of the roundshots penetrating clear into the hull, others are double-head and chain-shots that smash through the rigging, the foremast already having taken a beating from the Kraken. But the more theNightwindtakes, the more it seems like Brethren can’t possibly win. There are cries and screams of pain and fright coming from the crew and I fear that more people than Sam may be dying today.

Finally, Nerissa opens her eyes and stares at me.

“You love him?”

“Love Ramsay?”

“Yes.”

“I do. I love him with all my heart,” I tell her, feeling my very heart swell.

“Then that is all you needed to say,” she says.