AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Mom,” Katrina breathed. “This is something I have to do. If I don’t, I’ll never forgive myself. I can’t leave Milo behind.”
I almost wanted to roll my eyes as Katrina went on to reassure and plead with her mom. Grace wouldn’t understand that fearless sacrifice Katrina talked about. She’d never been faced with anything of the sort. She was always the one being saved. She had no right to tell Katrina not to do this...Maybe I didn’t either. I didn’t know anymore.
“Please, Katrina. What if I feel the siren’s pull again? What if I can’t resist it without you?” Grace sounded more desperate than I’d ever heard her. I didn’t believe she wasn’t really worried about that. She was just reaching for whatever she hoped might anchor Katrina here.
“Katrina,” I muttered, interrupting Grace’s pleas. “Every second matters now.”
Katrina switched her gaze to me, Grace glancing between the both of us. Noah stepped in to reassure her mother, because he must’ve known I wasn’t going to do it. “Mrs. Delmar, if anyone can do this, it’s Katrina. McKenzie and I will be right here with you, waiting for her when she gets back. She will come back.”
Grace blinked, swallowing nervously as she shook her head. “I know I can’t stop you,” she said, her voice quivering and tearful. “But just remember you have to come back to me. No one else can show me how to be a mermaid.” I caught a glimpse of Katrina’s brief smile.
“I will.” Katrina lifted her chin high. “I will.” Grace leaned into her for a hug, one that looked clumsy from the start, but gradually softened into some semblance of what a mother-daughter embrace should look like. I looked away, fighting the feeling of awkwardness that hung in the atmosphere.
“At least let me help you prepare.” Noah spoke to me, his tone somber. “You can't go empty-handed. These antique shops are bound to have something of use.”
It wasn’t a horrible idea, so I agreed on the condition that we hurried. The girls left to check into a hotel where McKenzie and Grace would stay, while Noah and I scoured the few shops still open. There was no doubt an array of artifacts and old weaponry from my own time and beyond, but finding some in usable condition was the trick.
In the last store we searched, my eyes scanned the wall of old, ravaged rifles and muskets, rusted swords and remnants of flintlocks. And then I saw it. A harpoon. Marked with signs of obvious use, but still intact and still sturdy. The spearhead was solid. I could sharpen it on the way.
“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Noah glanced over at me, noticing my fixation on the harpoon. Not five minutes later we left the store with our new harpoon, wrapped to appear as an oar or something less dangerous, and met the others back in the city square.
With a few more heartfelt goodbyes and well-wishes for safety, we parted ways, McKenzie, Noah, and Grace agreeing to linger in a nearby hotel in San Juan. Katrina and I trudged back to the shore, now bathed in moonlight and the glow of the city above it. We waded in, climbed aboard the jet ski, harpoon in hand, and zipped back to the yacht bobbing in the distance, onto a voyage more daunting than any I’d ever faced as a pirate.
I helped Katrina aboard, still silent in my anger at our encounter with Bastian.
“I know you like holding grudges,” Katrina grumbled, “but if we want to have a chance at surviving this thing, you should probably talk to me.”
“Why? So you can do the exact bloody opposite of what I say?” I snarled, working the anchor up while Katrina reached for a tank of fuel. “You’ll do whatever you decide in the end, with or without me.”
“Why are you being like this, Bellamy? You said yourself we don’t have time!”
“We don’t! But it doesn’t matter, because in the end you’re going to do something stupid and get yourself killed regardless of what I say! You’re just like her! You’re reckless and headstrong and you don’t listen and it’s going to be the death of you! I won’t live here on this shitty earth alone without you, too!” I slammed my fist against the hull, sure I would later regret the bruise it would leave on my knuckles.
I didn’t even register the words coming out of my own mouth. I was losing myself to my thoughts of Serena as they flashed before my mind’s eye. This all felt too familiar. Too repetitive to be real…
“This isn’t about me, is it?” Katrina’s voice softened, and I knew she knew.
“You’re part of it,” I grumbled. “But no…it’s really not about you. Feel free to take the helm.” I walked away and retreated to my room. The floor became my focus as I slipped away into the start of a memory…
I watched her from the back curtain, entranced as any song-struck sailor as she flitted through the water, turning and spinning and dancing in the bubbles behind the glass. She waved at the audience before blowing a kiss. Her hair flowed around her like ribbons in a breeze, and her eyes sparkled with a magic even real sirens didn’t possess. Dancing joyfully from the confines of the massive display tank, she was a vision of herself in her truest form. In the water was where her spirit came alive. Anyone could see it.
After her performance, I snuck backstage, past the next act of dolphins and sea lions doing tricks for their trainers. The moment I saw her, seated at her dresser, already out of her tail and wrapped in a towel, I ran to greet her, planting kisses on her cheek and lips. She was carrying on about how she missed a cue to blow bubbles during the music because she couldn’t hear it well under the water.
“They loved you. You were amazing,” I breathed into her still damp hair as she rubbed her eyes.
“I was afraid you weren’t going to make it.” She turned to me, nuzzling her adorable nose against my jaw.
“Well, being on time is hard when the ocean controls your schedule,” I teased, making her giggle. “But of course, I’d be here, just like I promised. I wish you had more night shows.”
“I don’t,” she stood up, tossing her towel aside and throwing on a sheer white dress to cover her bikini. “I don’t want to be here at night when the best swimming is out there.” She tilted her head, and I could already tell she was dreaming of dipping into the waves beneath the moonlight, as she so often did. It was such a dangerous habit for anyone else, but for her it was life-giving.
She took my hand, a beaming smile across her face as she looked to the back door. “Let’s go.”
Katrina showed up soon enough, knocking till her knuckles would break by the sound of it. “We have to settle this. I’m not sailing across the sea like this.”
I popped the door open just a crack. “Then swim.” When I tried to close the door, Katrina stopped it with her foot.
“You said I’m like her,” she said. Katrina had moved closer to me.. “Like her,” She repeated. “You mean Serena, don’t you?” She pushed the door open a bit wider. I let her and stepped outside as she continued. “I’ll make sure you don’t lose me, too. I won’t leave you alone in the world.”
