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I met her mossy gaze without blinking.
Something ancient stirred beneath my skin. The sea pressed closer, the currents tightening around us until the water itself felt heavy.
Bryony lowered her head before I had spoken another word.
“You will obey me.”
“Yes, my goddess.”
Murmurs rippled out through the Sirens, repeating the words that swelled something inside of me that I didn’t realise existed.
My goddess.
It was the same intoxicating pull I had felt walking the halls of the Obsidian Court beneath my crown of shells, while Fae watched me with equal parts awe and fear.
Only now did I understand that I craved to be worshipped like the goddess I was supposed to be.
“You will keep our ship protected. I fear the God of the Seven Hells will try to drag us to the Nether for escaping his justice.”
The ship that carried us from the Hells drifted overhead like the shadow of a sleeping leviathan, its immense hull blotting out the blood-red light filtering through the sea as it made its way towards Rythos’ ship.
I gave a powerful flex of my tail and the Sirens around us scurried out of my way, bowing their heads.
Water rushed past me, whipping my hair in a torrent as the ship grew closer.
The Sirens stayed in the murky depths while I pulled myself up the ropes on the side of the ship. My tail dragged across the timber like dead weight, each pull sending fire through muscles never meant to leave the sea. My arms trembled beneath me as I clawed towards the railing, fingertips slipping against the salt-slick wood.
With a final, desperate lunge, my hand slapped over the rail and I hauled myself onto the deck.
My body hit the timber with a sickening, wet thud.
A broken groan tore from my throat as seawater flooded from my mouth, spilling across the planks while my lungs rejected the ocean that had sustained them only moments before.
I braced myself for the pain, knowing I deserved to feel every minute of it.
My spine bowed violently from the deck. A scream ripped through me as bone splintered and reformed beneath my skin. My tail convulsed, silver scales splitting apart one by one as flesh tore open around them. Tendons snapped. Hips wrenched wider. My body twisted against itself with brutal determination, forcing two legs from what had once been one.
Every crack echoed through my skull with a sickening echo, drowning out the voices surrounding me.
Every breath tasted of salt and blood, sea water gushing from my mouth in violent coughs.
By the time the last scale disappeared beneath torn flesh, I was left sprawled across the deck, shaking so violently I could barely remember how to breathe.
Something warm settled over my trembling body before strong arms slid beneath me, lifting me from the deck as though I weighed nothing at all. For a fleeting moment, I was suspended between sea and sky, until I was gathered against the cold, solid wall of a chest that steadied the frantic rhythm of my heart.
My head lay atop his rotting heart, and I strained to hear its shallow beating.
Vanilla wrapped around me, threaded with the familiar scent of salt and darkness, the smell sinking into every fractured part of me until it felt like I could finally breathe again.
Home.
My eyes fluttered open to endless pools of black searching mine with such quiet desperation that it stole the air from my lungs. It looked as though he needed to convince himself I was real. That he had found me before the curse had claimed him.
Guilt crashed over me.
I wrenched the bond shut before he could feel it. I shoved against his chest.
“Put me down!” The words were sharp enough to draw blood. Pain bloomed beneath my ribs as I forced the two mating bonds into silence. It felt unnatural to block them, like trying to dam an ocean with my bare hands.
