They stopped at a coffee shop and a large grocery store, and then Liam took his time driving toward the seaside town that had delivered a mermaid into Cessair’s hands and marked out Austin’s life with a black cloud whose shadow was ever-reaching.
His cottage was tiny, had no insulation, and managed to be an icebox even on warm summer days. The white chalk walls were chipped, the single-pane windows were filthy, and the one in the kitchen had been made opaque by a large spiderweb crack caused by a storm last winter. Austin had never bothered to get it fixed. A car Austin had never learned to drive was parked around the back, probably rusted in place by now. He hadn’t the faintest idea where the key was.
The only thing the property had going for it, and what mattered most to Austin, was its location: it was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a mix of blanket bog and woodlands that Austin owned and had declared a protected reserve. Close to the house was the ocean. The base urge to be near it at all times had intensified over the past year to an unmanageable level.
They parked, and Liam cast a critical eye over the place. When Liam had last seen it, the cottage had looked half decent. Vines hadn’t been climbing up the walls, potholes hadn’t littered the drive, and the wood on the windowpanes hadn’t been disintegrating.
“Is it damp inside?” Liam asked. “Any mould?”
Just because Austin had been in the cottage a few days ago didn’t mean he remembered what it looked like.
“I’m going for a swim.”
Overgrown nettles crowded the path leading to the ocean. There was only a tiny slip of space in the middle to go forward, just wide enough to fit Austin. He paused and turned back to Liam. “There’s a coffee pot inside. Filters and ground coffee are in the cupboard next to it.” He knew the coffee pot was clean and ready to be used, the ground coffee in date, unopened, and Liam’s favourite dark brew. Austin always kept the coffee station ready for Liam, even though he’d banned him from ever showing his face there again.
Liam nodded and began a slow walk around the cottage, surveying and cataloguing it all.
Austin walked through the nettles, letting thorns hook into threads in his clothes and pull them loose. The breeze the next town over had been cold and bitter, but the ocean breeze washing over him now was a welcoming delight. On a physical level, Austin knew it was no warmer here, the same way he knew the ocean was cold. He never felt it.
The overgrown wilderness led to a rocky shore, where sharp stones mixed with razorfish to form a deadly walk over coals—but where coals would burn, these shells sliced. Austin walked to the edge of the lapping water before undressing, tossing his clothes where the waves wouldn’t snatch them away. Naked and fearless, he entered the ocean.
The waves were choppy, breakers rising above his head when he was waist-deep, so he dove under, strong strokes thrusting him forward. He opened his eyes underwater, but churning sand and shells obscured his vision. It wasn’t until he was well past the breakers that the underwater world settled. Austin grabbed a breath and dove, sinking until his feet touched the ocean floor and daylight was a mere glimmer high above him.
The weight of the ocean pressed in on him, settling every aggravated nerve with its sheer, overwhelming presence.
Chapter Three
The light had faded from the sky when Austin returned to the cottage, and he walked the path blind, on memory. He passed a black pile that smelled of ancient ash and caught the scent of fresh smoke in the air. Orange light reflected on the living room window, while cardboard covered the broken kitchen window. Austin entered the cottage with his clothes and shoes bundled in his arms, greeted by the smell of food and the blaze of every light turned on.
In the kitchen, a pot of mashed potatoes rested on the stovetop next to a tray of roasted root vegetables, and a whole chicken was cooking in the oven. There was a cup of half-drunk coffee next to the food. Austin surveyed the rest of the cottage. The living space comprised a large couch facing an open fireplace—lit, crackling and warm—and a bookcase on the far wall next to an unused desk. Two doors led off from the space. The bedroom door was open, the room empty, while the bathroom door was shut.
Austin trailed ocean water and sand as he walked to the far side of the kitchen. The utility room was separated from the rest of the space by a curtain. Austin drew it, revealing the whirling washing machine and dryer. A basket with a mountain of clothes was set next to the machine, while two neatly folded piles of washed, still-warm clothes rested on top of the dryer.Austin dumped his clothes into the dirty pile and grabbed a fresh change from the clean one.
He fetched two bowls from the draining board—where every dish Austin owned was currently scrubbed clean and drying—and checked that the chicken was done before dishing up two portions. He waited at a small two-person dining table in the kitchen with his ankles crossed beneath the chair.
Surprise flashed across Liam’s face when he emerged from the bathroom and spotted Austin. He joined him with a grateful, “Thanks.”
The food was incredibly plain. From the taste of the vegetables, not only had Liam neglected to use any spices, he’d boiled any strong flavour out of them too. Austin happily ate.
After a few bites of food, Liam looked more relaxed than he had all day. “Have a nice swim?”
“Yes.”
“Any visitors?”
Austin’s hand paused halfway to his mouth, a flash of anger jolting through his recently settled nerves. He exhaled, trying to keep hold of the calm the ocean had given him. “I don’t get along with any of them.”
Liam just nodded, like he’d expected as much.
“There are a load of octopuses, actually. In the rocks just past the breakers. They hang out with me whenever I swim. Connor’s afraid of octopuses. He won’t come near the water here, and nobody can walk across that shore without it tearing their feet. Even if you’re wearing shoes, you’ll get cut.”
Liam leaned to the side, checking Austin’s feet. They were bare, white and unharmed. “Are you afraid of them?”
Austin took the time to chew. “There’s this huge one down there, about the size of your chest, and she’s the matriarch. All the little ones bring her food to keep her happy, so she doesn’t eat them. She watches me.” He’d got a fright when hefirst spotted her only a hand span away from his face, but there hadn’t been fear. Austin knew fear and its contours intimately, and maliceless octopuses could never incite the thing. “She comes and says hi now. She does this.” Austin demonstrated for Liam as best he could with his arm. “The others copy her, but they never get close to me the way she does.”
“Was she there today?”
Austin nodded.
