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I remember a desperate song with the same hypnotic quality bouncing off of towering white cliffs as the sunny turquoise waters off the coast of Seshly turned deadly. The sailors had found our pod, and my mother called the waves into sharp peaks, throwing them from their boats to protect me.
No, that’s not what happened.
I burrow deeper into the memory.
My mother began to call the storm after the sailors cast their nets in our territory. Their harpoons went flying before she got to finish, but I picked up where she left off, a song swelling alongside my fury.
I was alone when the mistico boats rose high and slammed down too quickly, capsizing. Rings of thunderstorms circled above me, but I couldn’t stop what I’d brought forward.
I was lost to the tide, adrift on a wicked current with only the moon for company until my grandmother found me.
“Oh, Goddess.” I touch my throat. My mother would’ve known what I was capable of. She took me away from my father to try to help me control my gift because she knew he’d never allow me to keep it. “You have to let me go, or something terrible is going to happen.”
“No.” Darcy grasps her sword handle, tilting it toward her knee. “I need to be sure I’m not releasing a monster onto my island.”
“If anything we shared was real, then I truly believe you want to do good things, but sometimes you need to listen to your own heart and not what the wrong people are saying.” I’m practically begging through my teeth, trying to get through to her. “Deep down, you know I am not your enemy.”
There are only a few seconds left before those carriage doors open, and she decides what to do with me. I will fight and thrash against her if I have to, but I don’t want it to come down to that.
I have never wanted to hurt her.
She observes me keenly, a cunning leader calculating all of her options during a short time frame. We come to a stop, and she rocks forward, crouching with her sword. “Go along with what I’m saying, and I’ll help you get out of here.”
Rain slants down from the sky as she takes me by the wrist and pulls me from the carriage, leading me into the castle.
“I’m taking this one down to the dungeon,” she says loudly, for the staff to hear. “Do not follow us. This creature is dangerous.”
She leads me down a long, damp hall that smells strongly of iron, then lifts the edge of a moldy rug, revealing a hatch in the floor. A narrow stone staircase descends into the bedrock of the cliff.
Darcy guides me down the first few steps, and Bijou follows behind me, closing us in total darkness. I grip the thin railing running along the cold rock wall, pain stabbing through my feet with each step.
A dull ache radiates up to my knees as dim light streams in through a crevice.
“Just ahead,” Darcy says, placing a hand on my back to push me toward a cut out that blends into the rest of the cliff face. It only takes a couple of steps to reach the edge. “You’ll have to jump to get out.”
My stomach churns like the sea, the waves cresting higher as my Ocean Voice sings beneath the wind.
“Is this a trick?” It would be all too easy to get rid of me like this.
“No, my ancestors designed this to be an escape route.” Darcy points to the water flowing into the rounded cove below. “It will hurt when you land, but you won’t break anything from this height.”
I hold on to the rough rock, too afraid to let go.
“I know you have no reason to trust me, but I can see why I might’ve fallen for you,” Darcy says. “Get out of here while you still can.”
I won’t wait for her to change her mind. This will be our last meeting.
“Goodbye, Darcy,” I say, then nod to the priestess. “Goodbye, Bijou.”
I jump, knowing I’ve made the right choice when my stomach flies to my throat, and Zephyr doesn’t come for me. They would be here if they could.
I hit the water, but it doesn’t hurt. It feels good, not too cold for me anymore.
My eyes adjust to the darkness, the saltwater clearing my vision. Webbing forms between my fingers, and my gills flap open, drawing air in.
My body is strong enough to handle the soaked layers of fabric weighing me down as I swim back to the surface for the last time.
There are things I will miss about this world above the sea. I’ll miss the bread and the sex and the odd bursts of laughter. I’ll miss the women at the marketplace with the soft wrinkles around their eyes and the way wind creaks through leaves.
