As we rapidly closed in on each other, they soon realized that their hymns had no effect on me, as all of my focus was on saving Jace and bringing him back to the air above.This quickly heightened their annoyance at my presence for interrupting their feast—onmymate.
The first strike from the sharp fins of a tail came at me swiftly. The other siren, her form a distorted blur, lunged at me with bared teeth, emitting a piercing screech. I twisted away, narrowly missing the blow as the water’s resistance clung to my movements.
I unsheathed my dagger as quickly as my slowed movements would allow, aggressively swinging in every direction.
Our fight unfolded in a dance of desperation and rage. The sirens moved with a menacing taunt as they circled me with an almost supernatural coordination. I evaded their attacks with a combination of swift kicks and forceful swings of my dagger.
My limited air supply became a constant reminder of the time I was running out of as they relentlessly attacked.
My dagger found purchase deep into one of their stomachs, and in turn, a flowing river of black blood escaped the wound, causing me to do a double take. An ear-shattering scream left the siren as she darted away, and the force of her tail sent me soaring back with the current she made while fleeing.
While the second siren was distracted, I used the opportunity to kick her in her face as forcefully as the water’s resistance allowed, crushing her nose beneath my boot, and in turn, she followed the other and fled.
Fading in and out of consciousness, I urgently kicked off the muck ground and propelled myself to the surface. After taking a heaving breath of air, I instantly dove back down.
With a swift motion, the remaining siren whipped her tail through the water, generating large bubbles that she eagerly inhaled—she then once again pressed her foul lips to Jace’s and pushed the air into his lungs.
The wicked creature returned her attention to me and released his body, allowing him to sink down to the marsh’s floor. I had maybe a minute, if I was lucky, to get him to the surface before he ran out of air, and I lost him forever.
I swam at her in urgency, and her pace toward me matched until we collided in an unfaltering, violent clash. My dagger’s blade met its mark over and over, yet so did her fin. Her tail lashed out at me, catching the outside of my ribs, and my body let out a scream from the pain that tore through me, causing me to lose some of my already precious air. Our dance continued in a haze of crimson and black blood that floated around us.
As I made another move to strike, she caught my throat with her webbed hands and coiled her long tail around my legs like a serpent. My eyes bulged as panic consumed me—her piercing, white stare shone brightly through the darkness. I peeled my eyes away from hers and looked at my mate one final time, my heart cracking in my chest. This couldn’t be how it would end. I refused.
I turned my attention back to the sea-witch who held me in her grasp, and my eyes wandered down to the center of her throat—where a conch shell was embedded and beginning to glow as she opened her mouth to put me in her trance. With a battle cry, I lost what remained of my air and heaved my dagger as hard as I could at her. The blade plunged into her throat, carving the shell out of her skin.My hand reached out and ripped the conch from her before she had time to grab it and place it back herself.
The siren screeched so loud that, even beneath the water, I thought I would go deaf, but she released me on impact. The creature shriveled before me, no longer appearing as an alluring monster but now morphing into a decrepit, skeletal form of a husk right before her body floated to the surface.
My eyes followed her for a moment as I pocketed her shell right before I fell out of my daze and dove for Jace’s body. My eyes widened in horror at the sight of his beautiful, frozen face. I wrapped my arms beneath his own and pushed off the bottom of the marsh and swam us up to the surface as fast as possible.
The moment my head was above water, I gasped out, desperate for air—but Jace didn’t.
“Jace!” I whimpered as I tried to circle around. We had drifted so far from the pinnace. “Jace, baby, I need you to wake up.”
My feet kicked violently beneath us as I worked to tread the water for both of us, but the gash in my side from the siren's fin was making me weak.
“VELI!” I screeched. Tears burned my eyes, realizing I couldn’t feel Jace’s chest moving while I held him. I reached down in the bond, slamming my thoughts onto the bridge that connected us, and felt him fading. “Veli, I need help!” I screamed once more.
“Over here!” Avery’s voice called from the edge of the riverbank where she stood. “Veli, they’re here!”
I followed her gaze to where Veli was by the boat. She pointed a single taloned finger in our direction, and then closed her fist, pulling it into her chest.
In an instant, our bodies were forcefully dragged through the water, creating a current that surged outward on either side of us, propelled by Veli's magic.
“He mustn’t touch the soil!” Veli reminded me as I moved to drag him onto the bend.
“Fuck!” I screeched in panic.
“Brother!” Gage called from aboard the boat where he was recovering. A small bit of relief slammed into me to see that he was alright.
Veli’s magic thrust us to the edge of the boat, where Zaela and Gage waited, and the two of them helped me heave my mate into the safety of it.
Once he was aboard, Zaela lent me her hand and helped me into it. I dropped to my knees at Jace’s side and frantically looked his body over.
“He’s not breathing, Gage.He’s not breathing!” I bellowed, as tears streamed down my face.
Gage jumped on the opposite side, rocking our small boat at the force of his weight. He looked at me then. The playful appearance his face normally wore was entirely gone. “I’m going to do chest compressions, and I need you to pump air into his lungs. Can you do that, Lia?”
“Yes,” I whispered, without removing my stare from Jace’s body.
