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Chapter Thirty-Five

RAZIEL

Raziel gazed at the fire in the village square, trying to decide if he should return to the cottage.

His wife had been avoiding him all day.

Skye hadn’t even shown up today for a visit. His fiilee didn’t like the scent of the pyre and Raziel didn’t blame him.

He thought they’d reached a truce and maybe had even been building a tentative friendship.

“Have you seen Coven, my king?”

Raz blinked up at Isla, shaking the thoughts from his mind. “What was that?”

“Coven, have you seen her?”

His brows furrowed as he ran over the day. When was the last time he saw the quiet girl? It had been around lunch. “Last I saw Coven she was washing linens. Perhaps she’s at her home?”

“She actually lives with my husband and I, my king.”

“I think we’re close enough to drop the title, Isla.” Raziel smiled when she blushed and shook her head. “So Coven is your daughter.” That explained why Coven was always hovering around Isla.

The older woman smiled. “She was our miracle. We were not blessed with children so when Coven came into our lives, I was overjoyed.”

“She’s lovely,” he replied. While he hadn’t gotten to know Coven very well, she was one of the hardest-working people in the village. “If you don’t mind me asking, was she a ward of your family?”

“No, in fact you would hardly believe how she came to be with us.” Isla laughed and gestured toward the ocean. “The sea gives, and it takes. It took my father but blessed me with a daughter.”

“How did the sea give you Coven?”

“One morning my husband went out to fish and there in the surf sat Coven. She was only two years old.” Isla blew a strand of graying black hair from her face. “We tried to find her parents, but there’s no village close by. It would have been impossible for a toddler to travel so far.”

“Was she hurt?”

“No. Not even a scratch. She didn’t speak for five years. It was only with kindness and patience that she began to speak at seven years old.”

Raziel was stunned. “How do you think she got on that beach?”

“My best guess is that she fell off a fishing vessel. All the villages along the coast fish. Even at two, she was an extraordinary swimmer. It seems bizarre but I think she swam to our village. The poor thing slept for almost two days once we’d discovered her.”

Raziel smiled. “You’re fortunate to have such a daughter. She’s a hard worker.” He slapped his thighs and stood with a groan. “Do you want help looking for her?”

Isla pulled a face and glanced at the sun that had almost completely set. “The girl is always running around. I’m sure she’ll show up soon.” She wrung her hands and the skin around her eyes was a little too pinched.

A worried mother.

“I need to take a walk and work out the kinks in my back. I’ll keep an eye out for her.”

“Thank you, my king.” A relieved smile touched her lips. “Please let Mer know that I’ll drop supper off in a little bit.”

Raziel nodded. “You know you don’t have to cook for us.”

Isla gasped. “And not be hospitable to my king and queen who risk so much each day for our home? I’ll not hear of it.”

“As you say.”

He waved and meandered through the village, hating all the blue slashes of paint along doors. A sign of sickness. It was the ones without any light glowing from the inside that made his heart ache.

Raziel found himself pulled toward the cottage he shared with a mercurial Sirenidae.

It surprised him how much he’d enjoyed the mundaneness of their evenings.

Bathing, eating, speaking a little about their days, and then sleeping.

Although, he would love a real bed. Sleeping on the hard, cold floor left him aching.

The thunder of waves hitting the sand grew louder as the ground sloped to the beach, the sunset leaving only the tiniest hint of light. Raz turned to the west and strolled down the beach, his boots sinking into the black sand with each step.

Their little home rested at the end of the beach, nestled near the curved outcropping of rocks that stretched into the ocean like a crooked finger. It was odd Mer hadn’t met at the village fire tonight. Those who were still strong and not ill started meeting there to boost morale.

The Sirenidae seemed to take great pleasure in joining in. Asking questions about Methian legends, telling stories of her home, or just listening empathetically to the villagers’ struggles.

It was a whole different side of his feral wife that he was experiencing.

And he… liked it.

His steps sped up just thinking about Mer. Raziel kicked the sand and physically forced himself to slow down. Too many obstacles were between them for him to start forming any real attachment to her. At least that was what he kept telling himself.

Each day more of her personality began to show and she intrigued him.

It was an unhealthy addiction… wondering what she’d say next.

Raziel scanned the sea and spotted her floating in the distance, her pale skin a beacon in the dark water. A wry smile pulled up his lips. She was probably searching for more herbs, speaking with sharks, or charming the creatures of the sea.

Like she has you.

Raziel huffed at the thought.

Even though he didn’t like it, it made it no less true. During their time in the village, he’d softened towards her. It was a problem. A real problem.

As he drew closer to their cottage, he frowned at Mer. She lay face down in the water, not moving a muscle. A tread of alarm tugged in his chest.

She breathes underwater.

His speed picked up anyway, his thighs burning as he jogged through the sand. He couldn’t get rid of the real fear that something was wrong.

A wave rolled forward, picking Mer up and his heart stopped.

Long brown hair tangled in the waves.

Brown hair, not silver.

It wasn’t Mer.

Coven.

Raziel yelled at the top of his lungs, sprinting for the water. He stopped in the surf and tore his boots from his feet then ran deeper into the water, lifting his knees high to get through the breaking waves. He sucked in a deep breath and dove.

Cool water surrounded him for one breathless moment before he popped up and swam forward. His heart raced in his chest as he cut through the dark water.

Not fast enough.

He gritted his teeth and swam harder, determined to get to the girl.

Raziel reached her just as a waved rose and crashed down, shoving them beneath the water.

He grimaced as saltwater flooded his mouth.

He blindly groped for Coven, catching her hair.

Water filled his ears, but a haunting melody reached him.

Raziel opened his eyes but there was nothing but darkness.

He surfaced with a choked cough, dropping Coven’s hair and grabbed her arm, pulling her to his chest.

“Wake up,” he shouted in her ear.

She didn’t respond.

Raz wrapped his arm around her bare chest, her back resting against his own as he towed them toward the shore. Another wave shoved them beneath the water but he managed to hold on to Coven.

He kicked hard, bringing them to the surface again, glimpsing the cottage in the distance.

“Help!” he bellowed, praying the Sirenidae heard him.

Mer stepped out of the cottage and spotted him almost immediately.

She bolted toward the water.

As his toes met sand, a warm pair of hands touched him. “Let me help.”

He shifted and Mer practically tore Coven from his grip, swimming back to the shore quickly.

Raziel struggled to catch up, dropping to his knees beside the pair.

Mer had placed the girl on her back and was blowing air into Coven’s mouth.

She then proceeded to lace her fingers and press on her chest.

Coven’s bare chest.

Sourness churned in his gut and Raziel yanked his shirt over his head and covered the girl’s torso.

His hands began to shake as Raz took a good look at Coven’s body.

Blue lips. Vacant eyes. Gray skin.

“Will she be alright?” he rasped, his throat raw from all the seawater he’d inhaled. In his heart, he knew she was not okay. Raz took her limp hand in his own, running soothing touches across the back of her palm.

Mer didn’t answer him but continued the compressions.

“Come on,” the Sirenidae growled, never stopping her ministrations.

He watched in silence, his heart sinking with each second.

Get yourself together.

Raziel swallowed the lump in his throat and switched off his grief.

Someone had hurt the girl. Her clothes had been torn off.

He stared at her bare leg, his mind finally noticing that something wasn’t right.

Leaning closer, he examined the striped pattern that ran up and down her legs.

It wasn’t a tattoo. Had she painted it herself?

He moved to the hand he was holding, looking at her nails. All were torn and broken. Like she’d been clawing to get away from her attacker.

I’m sorry.

“Raziel.”

He lifted his head and met Mer’s solemn gaze as she continued to work.

“What?”

“Look at this.” She nodded to Coven. “Her ears.”

Raziel lifted a strand of Coven’s hair away from her face, where her ears should have been. She had little siphons like an octopus instead of ears. They were covered with the orange goop that still clung to the wound on his chest.

“What am I looking at?” he rasped.

“Later. I can hear people. Isla is bound to be with them.”

Raziel gently laid Coven’s hand on his shirt that dwarfed the girl. “I’m sorry,” he whispered before standing.

Reef, the tallest Sirenidae, rounded the house first, followed by his sister Avalon.

Then came Isla. She caught sight of her daughter and released a guttural wail.

The older woman sprinted toward them, her hair tumbling from her bun. Raziel caught her up in a hug. Isla wailed again, bending over his arm, tears streaming down her face, straining toward her daughter.

“It can’t be possible.”

Reef and Avalon took over for Mer, murmuring in their lyrical language to each other as they checked over the girl. His wife sat back on her haunches, watching them with her lips pressed thin. The two Sirenidae siblings locked gazes and Avalon finally turned to Raziel and shook her head no.

Isla screamed and he released her. She scrambled to her daughter and fell to her knees, pulling Coven’s head into her lap. She cried harder, rocking back and forth.

“No, no, no, no, no,” Isla chanted, soul-wracking sobs shaking her frame.

Avalon moved to the older woman’s side and sat beside her, combing her fingers through Isla’s loose curls, a soft hum falling from her lips.

Mer slowly stood, swaying on her feet and stumbled back a step. Raziel broke from his stupor, tapping on Reef’s shoulder. “Bring Isla’s husband and a few men. We’ll need to move her,” he whispered.

The Sirenidae jerked his head up and down once, then climbed to his feet and ran toward the village.

Raz reached his wife and stood beside her. He lifted his arm and Mer pressed into his side. Raziel found himself wrapping his arm around her shoulders as she leaned into him.

“This isn’t right,” she said, her voice wooden.

“No. It isn’t.”

They waited.

Mer sang with Avalon.

Isla’s grizzled husband arrived and the devastation on the older man’s face just about brought Raziel to his knees. He held Isla and his daughter, crying until snot and tears mingled on his face.

More men arrived with Reef.

They all waited until Isla cried herself out. Her husband helped her to stand. Reef made to pick up Coven but her father held out his hand.

“No. I will carry my daughter home.”

Raziel watched as the older man lifted Coven into his arms. Avalon adjusted the shirt laying on top of the girl to cover her.

One by one the people left.

Reef eyed Mer. “We need to speak.”

Mer nodded. “Tomorrow.”

The tall healer strode away, the darkness swallowing him up.

Raziel and Mer just stood there in silence.

Bioluminescent plants glowed softly around the cove, but it wasn’t as charming as he’d found it before. Today it felt insidious.

She shivered and he forced his legs to move toward their cottage. She let him lead her into the house. Raz released her by the fire and moved back to the door, shifting the large chunk of driftwood in place.

“Did you see her eyes?” Mer whispered.

Vacant eyes.

Raziel shuddered and leaned his forehead onto their makeshift door. “I did.”

“Did you know those markings around her eyes only happens when someone drowns?”

He pushed away from the door and moved to the fire, staring into the flames. “Are we not going to talk about her… siphons ?”

Coven was Sirenidae.

“I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,” Mer murmured.

He flinched, staring hard at his wife. “She is one of your people, is she not?”

Mer met his gaze, her magenta eyes burning. “No. I don’t know what she is.”