Quenith swims closer, and I recoil. She rests her fingers on the rock, the webbing between them almost translucent. “I wouldn’t worry so much about me, Moira,” she whispers as if Marinda can’t hear her. “You should worry more aboutyou.” She floats back, joining Marinda as the water continues to rise right along with the moon.
Terror courses through my veins as I glance at them and back to the beach. There’s no way I can make it. It’s too far, and they are too fast. They’d catch me the second I got into the water.
“Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock,” Marinda sing-songs as Quenith bops her head along to the rhythm.
I do the only thing I can. Turning to the shore, I cup my hands around my mouth, and I scream, “Peter! Coy! Anybody!” The sea seems to swallow my voice, gulping it down until only the lapping of the waves remains. No one can hear me, and now the dark water is past the barnacles.
“Don’t be afraid.” Quenith practically purrs. “We’ll drown you first. You won’t feel our bite.”
“How fucking comforting!” I yell at her.
She floats away from me a bit and has the nerve to look hurt.
“No need to yell, Mainlander,” Marinda hisses at me.
“You’re trying to kill me, andI’mthe asshole for yelling?”
She wraps her arm around Quenith, and they go back to whispering.
I’m so fucked. Here I was thinking I was getting rescued. Like an idiot. If this island has taught me nothing else, it’s that I can’t trust anyone I meet here. Peter’s the only one who’s actually looked out for me. He and Coy seem to be the only thing between me and an untimely death.
I yell for them again, and again the sea chews up my plea.
“Can’t we make a deal or something?” I get to my knees and plead with Quenith.
“What kind of deal?” She swims around the rock, her movements so smooth in the water, as if she’s dancing through it with practiced steps.
“I don’t know. Is there something you want?”
“Just you.” Marinda starts circling me, too, a shark waiting for its meal.
“Oh, come on. There must be something you want that I can get for you. Or maybe something from Peter. Anything. Just ask.” I even clasp my shaking hands together. “Please.”
“The sea gives us everything.” Quenith shrugs. “All its treasures are ours to claim.” She reaches beneath the water and pulls up a strand of large pearls that must be attached to her waist on a belly chain. “See?”
They gleam in the moonlight. “Those are really pretty.”
“I know.” She dives down and pops up on my other side. “I made it myself.”
An idea hits me. “What if I got you some bigger pearls?”
“There aren’t any bigger than these.” She holds up the strand again and smiles at it. “I found these off the coast of the fairy village. Their magic runs into the water, enchanting everything in different ways.”
“There are.” I lean forward. “I’ve seen them.”
“She’s lying.” Marinda hovers just out of reach. The water is brushing against my knees now.
“Where could you possibly have seen bigger pearls?”
“A woman on the shore. She tried to give me one, but I was … suspicious. Anyway, they were huge, and she had several of them.”
They stop bobbing, their eyes going wide.
“Queen Ari,” Quenith says with an air of disbelief.
The old hag is actually a queen? Like I said, never trust anyone on this island. “Yes! Her name was Ari.”
“Where was this?” Marinda hisses. “Where is she?”
