Then, reaching toward me and pulling me from the center of the whirlpool, I see him.
My seal.
He’s returned to me when I called. Relief floods through me, fear washing away at the sight of someone so familiar. I swim toward him, pushing past the whirlpool with renewed strength, and follow him, hoping to be led toward Eric.
My sweet, thoughtful, gracious Eric.
But he doesn’t take me to my lover.
He takes me to his prisoner.
18
West
I pull myself up onto the boat with Crew’s help. Sputtering and coughing salty water, I don’t know how I made it out alive.
If it hadn’t been for that voice full of light and love that reached toward me and kept me safe, and then Harlow finding me and bringing me back to life with a kiss, I’d be dead.
We’re fucking lucky, and as I look around the boat, realizing how much damage and destruction this vessel has suffered, I’m amazed we’re here at all.
Kai is finally sitting up, trying to steady his breath.
“It’s not good, man,” Crew says, his eyes withdrawn in a way that this easy-going guy never shows. “Can you try the radio? We need help. “
I nod. “Eric’s still down there. Harlow has gone after him, but I don’t know what the fuck is happening under the ocean.” I run a hand through my hair. “We were right about her. She isn’t just...”
“I know,” Crew says. “She is a Siren. She did bring us here. We answered her call. And now, we can’t let her go.”
I clench my jaw, reaching for the radio, as Crew tends to Kai, getting him a blanket and bottle of water from below deck.
I’m able to radio out, asking for an emergency crew. “Lost at sea. Her family owns a – –”
The emergency operator cuts me off, immediately knowing which family I’m talking about. “Hang tight. We’ll get a boat there right away.”
I look out over the water, my heart still pounding in my chest. I’m desperate to see Harlow surfacing, to see Eric being pulled from the depths--alive.
I was holding my breath underwater, but I realize I still am.
The truth is, Eric and Harlow might never come up for air.
19
Harlow
Eric is trapped in a tangle of seaweed. This can’t be happening.
I swim toward him with all my might, but the seal is between us and I need to pass beyond the spirit animal who tricked me. Who lured me to the depths of the sea. Who possesses a power I still don’t understand?
The seal’s eyes have turned a dark shade of black. The very entity I trusted now terrifies me.
In the distance, Eric is pale and lifeless, and I want to kiss his lips the same way I kissed West’s. I want to bring him back to life. I want him in my arms without any fear. Without any trace of this horror.
But when I scream his name, he doesn’t answer
“What have you done?” I cry out to the seal. But he just stares at me, refusing to respond. I need him to turn into his human form, so I can push him, yell at him. So, I can fight him.
“What are you doing? Are you doing this to me? I thought you were sent to protect me?
The seal swims toward me, his teeth are bared and for a moment I withdraw, forgetting that I’ve transformed into a Siren.
I think only of my humanity. My skin and bones and blood. I forget that whatever has been coursing through me since I turned twenty-one is more powerful than the girl who walked on the seashore, wondering when her life would begin.
But now I am strong enough to harness a storm. Strong enough to bring a man back to life with a single kiss. And I am sure as hell strong enough to survive whatever comes next.
This seal will not take me prisoner, too.
And I won’t let that the man I love, go without a fight.
“You don’t scare me,” I shout at the seal; even though parts of me are still terrified.
I am down in the murky depths of the sea, in an underwater cave. As far from the bright turquoise waters where the dolphins play as possible. Here there are no brightly colored fish dancing and swaying in the ocean.
No. This is not the same sea. It’s not a place I recognize. It’s certainly not the ocean I grew up swimming in. This is dangerous, treacherous water.
Still, I won’t back down. I will be brave.
“I’m not scared of you,” I scream. The seal must finally realize I’m not playing games because his eyes glaze over and I feel him shifting.
He may have caught me in his pull before, but I will not be caught again.
He spins furiously and his body warps into a cyclone of water, moving so rapidly it pushes currents of water toward me. Eric is still caught in the seaweed, and I try to move toward him as the seal is spinning, but the torrent of water pushes me away and I can’t swim forward.