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I wish Larimar was here now so I could ask her, so she could tell me what she went through, if she was searching for her sister this whole time.

But I know that if Larimar was here right now, she wouldn’t be talking. She would be gagged with a chain. The only sounds coming out of her would be whimpers and cries of pain until she apologized for what she did to me.

Until she knew what it felt like to have your heart ripped from your chest.

You’re doing it again, Abe says, and I realize I’m tugging on my ear.

Maren seems to notice, looks over at me and frowns, but she doesn’t say anything. I had promised her I wouldn’t touch any Syren, most especially her sister.

I aim to break that promise.

“There’s a bad storm coming,” Ramsay says, stepping onto the foredeck. He puts his arm around Maren and nods at the dark clouds on the horizon. “As soon as we hit the South Atlantic, we’re going to get walloped.”

Maren nods. “We’ll be fine. The ship will take care of us.”

“Aye,” Ramsay says. “That she will.”

“Maren!” the Greek Drakos yells from the crow’s nest high up in the mainmast, waving his spyglass at us. “There’s a shark ahead!”

“Nill!” Maren says, leaning over the edge of the bow.

“Careful, luv,” Ramsay says, grabbing her shoulder firmly to hold her back. “You want to make sure it’s Nill first before you dive in.”

She grins at Ramsay in nervous anticipation. “I can take care of myself.”

Then, she rips herself out of her husband’s grasp and leaps overboard. Abe and I lean over the edge, watching as she swan dives perfectly into the water, though she’s immediately swallowed by the gray waves.

Abe sucks in his breath. “She could hit the ship.”

“She’s a Syren. She’ll be fine,” Ramsay says, though he sounds a little nervous as well.

All three of us stare at the waves as they smack against the bow and beat against the hull, growing bigger as we approach the entrance to the Atlantic. Even with the excellent eyesight of Vampyres, it’s still hard to see.

But then the bosun yells from the aft. “They’re down here!”

Everyone scrambles to the side of the ship, where Cruz and Thane are already lowering the ropes to pull Maren back up.

Ramsay reaches over and picks her up the rest of the way while Thane, Ramsay’s brother, yells at Lucas to get her a blanket. Before my eyes, I watch as Maren’s teal-and-purple tail flaps underneath her dress then slowly changes into legs, no spell needed.

“Fascinating,” Abe whispers.

Lucas runs over with the blanket, and Maren is quickly wrapped in it. Her teeth are chattering, her skin pale and blue. I suppose in the water, as a Syren, the temperature has no effect on her, but the moment she’s back to being human again, it all comes crashing down.

She tries to talk, but her teeth chatter too hard, and someone hands her a mug of hot tea, which she cups in her hands while Ramsay holds her close, rubbing the blanket across her back.

“Take your time,” he says.

Can this shark really talk to her? Abe asks in my head.

Apparently so, I tell him. Yesterday, they had sent the shark ahead of the ship to try and locate the Syren colony at Roche Island. They explained that while none of them can communicate with the shark, Maren can, as well as with other creatures of the sea, including whales, seals, and the Kraken. I’m not too convinced by that last one, since the Kraken is supposed to be an animal of old legend up in the North Sea, but Ramsay says the beast certainly exists, and that Maren can control it.

Regardless, she can talk to a bloody shark, so perhaps the beastie really does exist.

“She-she’s in d-danger,” Maren finally says, biting out her words. “There’s a whole co-colony and-and another ship, an English ship. The-they’ve captured them. They’ve captured Larimar.”

“Larimar!” Abe exclaims.

I keep my face immobile. He doesn’t know that’s the name of the Syren they’re looking for.