Page 51 of Wicked Tides #1

Vidar

What we love most goes unrealized

Until we’ve lost it and know not what to do

~ Lady Madeline

It was late in the night when I finally settled in my cabin. Sleep did not come easy with the images of those vile creatures devouring Collin’s crew like a swarm of ravenous sharks. The seas had become twice as dangerous with their presence.

But they were not the only things haunting my thoughts.

I found myself lying on my bed and staring at lines of moonlight from my window.

The clear skies were unusual and welcome that night.

Seeing the blue light on my walls made me think of Dahlia’s pale skin, though, and the brilliant, dangerous grey color of her eyes.

I found myself trying to sleep with visions of her behind my lids and the sound of her voice in my ears. Dahlia, who’d haunted me since I was a boy only possessed me as an adult. I hadn’t escaped her. I wondered if I ever would.

The deeper I fell into sleep, the more she took up space my thoughts.

I could hear her breathing as if she were lying beside me and somehow, it lulled me into a deeper slumber.

Each time I took a breath, she let one out.

And as I exhaled, she breathed in. My heart slowed and I felt my body melting into my bedding as the ship rocked upon mild-mannered waves.

Please, whispered a voice. Her voice. I’m afraid.

I was partially conscious, my mind floating between dreams and reality and the voice felt the same. It felt like a ghost.

Vidar, she said, her voice a soft whimper. Please. Help me.

I opened my eyes to the sound of crashing waves and rolling thunder.

I was on that black sand beach, soaked to the bone by pounding rain.

I rose to my feet, a stabbing chill coursing through my blood.

I could barely see. The chaos came so abruptly.

Waves pummeled the sharp stones further down the beach, sending icy sea spray into the air.

“What the fuck,” I hissed.

It was a dream. I knew it was a dream.

How did I know it was a dream?

I needed to wake up.

A large wave hit the beach, pushing a flood of water onto the sand until it reached my knees. I fought the current and moved further up, trying to see through the raging downpour.

“Vidar!”

Dahlia’s scream was shrill and full of distress.

I spun around to see darkness so black it was like a curtain.

From it emerged Dahlia in a pure white dress, her face twisted with panic.

She rushed forward as if in retreat and crashed into me, clinging to my body like I was her only anchor.

But as quickly as she reached me, she was torn away.

Her body was yanked to the ground at my feet and suddenly dragged back toward the darkness. She cried out, clawing at the sand.

I sprinted after her. She reached out to me and I dove, barely brushing my fingers against hers before the darkness swallowed her like a hungry beast .

I woke with a jolt, nearly choking on my own breath. My room was around me again. The ship was rocking more noticeably as if the water had become angrier.

Something was wrong. Something I could feel in my chest like the pain of a thousand losses had suddenly bubbled to the surface again.

And one loss was yet to come. I jumped up and rushed clumsily for my door, emerging on deck and into the night.

Nothing seemed amiss. Nothing but the figure walking to the edge of the ship as if she meant to jump into the cold water.

“Dahlia,” I said.

She did not hear me. Or she did not care.

“Dahlia!” I called out.

The few men keeping a lookout turned at the sound of my voice as I headed toward her.

“Cap’n?” someone said.

The urgency was mine. No one else felt it.

Dahlia reached the railing and swung a leg over, absently moving her body toward the water.

“Stop her!”

My men were confused. Too confused to act. I rushed toward her as her feet left the ledge and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her against me. Her body went rigid as I hoisted her back over the railing. I fell backward, grunting when her weight slammed into me. Suddenly she was flailing.

“Dahlia,” I said.

She was panting as she rolled over to get away. Only then did I see the knife in her hand. She spun toward me, straddling me as she raised it over my chest. I could hear my men pulling their blades and pistols.

“No!” Meridan screamed nearby.

“Don’t!” I ordered my men, reaching up to grab at both of Dahlia’s wrists.

She snarled as I tossed her to the side and restrained her beneath me. Meridan rushed in to pry the knife out of Dahlia’s hand and was quick to step away again, a look of shock on her pale face .

“Dahlia, wake up!” she screamed.

She craned her head to look up at her friend, tears shining in her eyes. “Meridan, please,” she begged.

“What’s happening?” I said.

“She cannot go in the water,” is all she managed to say before I’d had enough.

I stood, pulling Dahlia off the floor with one heave and tossing her over my shoulder.

“It is not her fault,” Meridan said after me as I hauled her down toward the hold. “Please, do not hurt her!”

“I will not hurt her.”

I arrived at the hold and took Dahlia inside, laying her down on the bedding she and Meridan had made up for themselves. When I looked back, Meridan was standing outside the gate, hesitant.

“You may stay with her or not, but I’m locking this gate tonight.”

She nodded and took a step back, confirming she didn’t want to stay inside the cell. I wasn’t sure if that was because she didn’t want to be locked up or if she was afraid, but the look on her face suggested Dahlia’s behavior had unsettled her.

Dahlia, like a tired child, curled up against the wall and pressed her hands to her ears as I stepped out.

Though, in truth, part of me wanted to stay.

She looked in pain and not the kind of pain we both were used to.

Locking the gate behind me, I turned to Meridan, who was staring at her friend like she was dying.

“Explain,” I said.

“You won’t understand.”

“Do your best.”

She took a deep breath and sighed, hugging herself with her arms. I hated the timid way they were both acting. If sirens were so afraid, it couldn’t mean anything good for us men.

“She explained how the sons work to you.”

“Yes. They call you down to breed is what I gathered.”

“To breed. To break us. Like men without silentiums, we sirens cannot resist when they summon us into the depths. ”

“So they’re calling her? Why now?”

“Why ever? No one knows. We are at the sons’ mercy.

At the father’s mercy. Piling pirates and sailors on an island in hopes of satiating their appetites could never work forever.

They feed on us. She is Reyna’s daughter.

Reyna bore many children with three journeys to the deep.

The father favored her. It was only a matter of time before the sons took notice of Dahlia. ”

“Dahlia has sisters.”

Meridan nodded. “Ligeia remains. Poel went to the depths and never returned. The others disappeared years ago like many others. And unlike some of those zealots, she doesn’t want to go to go down there.”

“Why would anyone want to go?”

“The Kroan especially dedicate themselves to the father. They’re more religious than most. Some prepare their whole lives to give themselves to him in whatever way he pleases, but many fear him and his sons as we do.”

“You call serving these creatures a religion?”

“There are some that don’t believe in Akareth. So, yes.”

“Do you believe in him?”

“I’ve seen enough to know something is down there that changes us.

Once returned, something is forever missing.

The returned feel nothing. It is said that looking upon the face of Akareth will tear the mind and soul apart and while some see it as a great cleansing, others fear it.

And perhaps it is because Dahlia has never been down there that she is still as kind-hearted as she is, even when her sympathies got her people killed.

When a child of Akareth grows in a woman’s womb, it creates a hole that cannot be refilled and we are tricked into thinking we are stronger for it.

That the empty space is for the father. In truth, I believe every mother resents her child for what she lost.”

“Do all sirens believe this?”

“No. But her people did. Do you ever wonder why it is the Kroan of all sirens that choose to meet you in every battle? They are bloodthirsty and broken creatures. They are the closest to Akareth in spirit, it is said.” Her eyes turned to the semi-conscious Dahlia.

“She has a sliver of light in her that you should be very glad still exists. None existed in her mother. She had only enough room in her soul to care for Dahlia in the end. And I believe even that is something Dahlia’s been lying to herself about her whole life. ”

Everything she said chilled me. I realized my understanding of her people was not nearly as sound as I had believed it to be.

“Have you been down there?”

“There’d be no mercy in me if I had, Vidar. Though, sometimes I think being stripped of feeling would be easier.”

“You truly believe that? Would you go down there if you were called?”

She paused, narrowing her eyes at me. “I don’t believe I’ll be called. I am different.”

“How?”

“My father was human.”

I had to repeat those words a few times in my head to truly hear them.

“Your father was human? How is that possible?”

“I don’t know, but to my people, I’m nothing. To Dahlia, I am family. I don’t want to see her get pulled into the darkness.”

A stretch of silence grew between us as our eyes wandered back to Dahlia lying in the cell. She was quiet now, but I knew she was not sleeping by the way her fingers slowly played in her hair.

“How do we help her?”

“I don’t know,” Meridan said solemnly. “I’ve never known anyone to even try to resist Akareth, let alone succeed in escaping him.”

“Then it may not be impossible.”

Meridan glanced up at me, her eyes wide and unblinking as if she couldn’t believe her ears.

“You want to help her,” she finally asked. “Why?”

“Helping her helps me. These past days have proven that.”