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My sister, my family, my blood.

Come on, she says, grabbing my hand. We’ll be swimming this way. About a day’s journey, if not more, depending on how the storm is blowing. The ship might be taking a beating.

Wait. You’re taking me on the ship? I can’t be with you the way that I am, I tell her, keeping pace. You are human; you have legs on land. I don’t. I can’t be part of your world, and you can’t be part of mine.

I can, she says. I will stay in the water with you as long as you want, but don’t underestimate me, dear sister. I have my own ways of making things work. She pauses. There is someone on the ship I would like to you meet. He’s a witch. He’d be able to give you legs. If you want, of course.

My body tenses. I know there is absolutely no chance she’s talking about Priest, and yet my heart starts to thud wildly, like it knows it’s him.

A male witch? I ask. And he’s not the captain?

Well, the captain does know magic, but it was taught to him with a very powerful magic book that we keep hidden. The man in question has innate magic within him. I know he was able to turn a Syren into a human once.

I stop swimming and stare at her.

What is this witch’s name? I ask warily.

Aragon, she says, and it’s like I’ve been punched in the heart. Strangely enough, he used to be a priest.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

PRIEST

“This storm will get worse before it gets better,” Thane grumbles to me as we attempt to pull in a loose sail on the mizzenmast as it flaps out of control. The rope itself is scraping off all the skin on my hands, leaving the fibers bloody, but I barely feel it. There’s too much happening at once for me to focus on just one thing.

“How can it get worse?” I ask, just as a giant wave crashes over the bow and takes out three crew members, throwing them down the deck and smashing them into the sides of the railings.

“When you’re at sea long enough, you learn to listen to the ocean,” Thane says. “My guess is the closer we get toward Roche Island, the worse the storm will get. Storms tend to use the wind and air currents from land to fuel themselves. Add in the fact that we’re in the middle of Drake Passage, where the Atlantic mixes with the Pacific, and you’ve got a recipe for the world’s roughest seas.”

“You’re talking like Abe now,” I comment dryly. “From pirate to scientist.”

I swear I hear him chuckle, though it could be the wind. Might be the first time I’ve ever heard him laugh—not that I’m one to talk. That’s probably why Thane and I find ourselves together often. We’re both tall and stronger than most of the crew, which makes us handy on a ship like this, but I like that he doesn’t ever feel the need to crack a smile, makes me feel like I can be as damn broody as I want to be. Sometimes, Abe gets a little annoyed with my relentless melancholy.

Sometimes, I get annoyed with his relentless optimism.

In addition, Thane has gone through the same sort of pain I have. He lost his wife, Samantha, who was also a member of the crew, during a battle with a Kraken a few years ago. He may not have murdered his own wife, but I still feel as if I can relate. I may not remember those decades clearly after her death, just as I can’t even remember her name, but I can see on Thane’s face that he is still grieving deeply.

And so am I.

Because there is new grief in my life that has made itself present every single day for the past five years.

And now, that sorrow I hastily tucked away inside is threatening to overwhelm me again. Everything hangs in the balance. This storm that bashes the Nightwind, battering the sides of the ship and throwing everyone around, is no match for the storm inside my heart, the one oscillates from the brightest hope to the darkest despair, no safe harbor in between.

Once we get through this storm, we’ll either find Larimar or we won’t. She’ll either be in Maren’s grasp, or she’ll be lost to her forever. Lost to me forever, even more so than she already was, in the grip of some mortal, savage men planning to do who knows what to her.

Beyond this thunder and lightning, which is starting to feel like a message from God himself, lies everything I’ve ever wanted and never deserved. I’ve tried so hard to be a decent man after I turned, though perhaps I didn’t try hard enough. Either way, I am prepared to burn the oceans to get her back, even if that means losing her to the flames in the process.

“Aragon,” Thane warns me. “You need to let go.”

I stare at him for a moment, wondering how he just heard my thoughts.

Then, I realize he’s talking about the rope.

I open my hands, and the rope snaps out of my grip, the sail billowing out just enough to catch the wind.

Thane grabs the loose end, ties it up, and then pats me on the back.

“You’re learning,” he says. “But you have yet to learn how to stop drowning inside your head.”