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“A burial at sea, so that he can always be with me.” Her whispers carried in the air like ghosts. “To love a siren is always a path to destruction.” Then she began singing, a slightly different version of the siren lullaby.
“My heart found a sweet sailor bold,
Out on these seas and the depths untold,
A sailor who loved me and followed me down,
A sailor I kissed is a sailor I drowned.”
Her voice cracked at the last word, and a tear rolled off the tip of her nose and fell onto Bellamy’s pale cheek. I found myself holding back my own tears, still filled with more anger than I could contain at Bastian. He was long gone, but his damage was done.
Milo stepped forward and placed the sword on Bellamy, gently placing his hands over the hilt as though he was holding it himself. “For the locker, mate.” He choked.
I gave him a moment, and then knelt down myself, placing my hand over Bellamy’s. The cold stiffness of his fingers forced a sob out of me I didn’t realize I’d been working so hard to keep in. With my head hung, I uttered my goodbyes.
Serena straightened her shoulders and summoned a patch of water that swirled nearby and reformed the crystal water jolly boat, this time just big enough for one. Another stream of water washed beneath Bellamy and began to gently lift him, pulling him into the boat. As we braced to send him off, a sudden shift in the wind caught everyone’s attention. A harsh breeze blew in from the west, eradicating all the sea mist around us. And following it was a cloud of shadow, whisking right through us all and knocking the sword from Bellamy’s hands.
“Davy Jones,” Serena uttered with a scowl. “Even now he can’t let us rest.”
The black shadow moved aggressively, weaving between us and over Bellamy again and again before finally shooting out to sea and plunging in. Where it entered, a ripple of black formed that grew larger and larger until it was a slow-swirling black watery void—just big enough to swallow a small boat whole.
“Leave us!” Serena screamed, her desperate plea scathing my ears. But the shadow pool didn’t leave. “I’ll burn his body before I let you take him!”
We all looked at one another, not even Serena knowing what to do next. And for a moment, I missed my siren powers, because I felt helpless as the darkness raged off the shore.
55
Dark Water
Milo
The strange dark whirlpool grumbled with hunger, drawing nearer and nearer to the shore of the sandbar. I ran to grab Bellamy, pulling him away from the waterline. In my struggle, Bellamy’s arm shifted, revealing his open palm and a black snake marking on it. And I understood.
I stopped, still clinging to Bellamy as the realization settled into my bones.
“Serena,” I called out. The look in her eyes pained me, but she had to know. “He’s been chosen. He’s the next to be Davy Jones.”
“No, no!” She fell across Bellamy’s body with her own. “No, he can’t have him! I’ll protect him. If he’s the next chosen, Davy Jones will never stop pursuing him…so I will never stop protecting him.” Each word was more frantic than the last. She struck the void with a blast of her golden water, and for a mere second it dwindled and vanished. But seconds later it returned unscathed.
The shadowy vortex continued spinning, sloshing and splashing like a growling lion waiting to devour. We all watched, all seven of us, stealing glances at one another as if perhaps one of us would know the answer to the question before us. Was it right to let Bellamy become Davy Jones, even if it seemed fate would deem it so? Or was Serena truly meant to guard him for eternity?
I looked at Katrina. Her gaze was already on me, and I knew what she was thinking—what we were both thinking. I cocked my head as if to make certain, and she replied with a solemn nod. So I spoke up. “The souls. The lost at sea that Bastian trapped. Bellamy could free them.”
I expected the verbal lashing that followed as Serena turned red with rage at the very idea. Some of the others gasped or muttered amongst themselves.
“How could you even dare?” Her nostrils flared as she pierced me with a deathly stare. “That you would even suggest—’’
“If there’s anyone who could handle the power of Davy Jones, it’s Bellamy,” Katrina blurted out. “There’s enough good in him to balance out the darkness. It has to be him. It has to be.”
Serena whipped her head around from me to her, her face shining with tears. “No it doesn’t!”
“She’s right, Serena.” I met Serena kneeling on the sand. “If it’s not him, Jones might find someone with a truly black heart, maybe worse than Bastian. But Bellamy…Bellamy has enough good in him to balance the power. He’ll fulfill the duty the gods gave Jones. He’ll send the souls on.” I placed Bellamy’s lifeless hand in hers, truly believing my own words, and hopeful that it just may be the key to keep from losing Bellamy forever. “And he’ll rule the seas with you, instead of against you.”
That seemed to spur a reaction from her. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand as she lowered her gaze to Bellamy’s hand in hers. “With me,” she sniffed. “With me, forever. He’d never age. Never die…never die.” She repeated the words quietly as she stroked his cold skin with her thumb.
She pushed me aside and stood to her feet, facing the roaring black pool of shadows waiting in the water. She watched it for a moment as we hung on the suspense. If any one of us were breathing, it was impossible to tell.
“It’s your decision, Serena.” I stood up, too, before stepping away to resume my place at Katrina’s side. “Do what you think is right.”
