“Promise.”
Chapter twenty
Mira
Sirens Cove
I really am turning into my mother. I don’t hate it, but it terrifies me, her power and her presence. And now, all these sirens and mermaids seem to know who I am, what I’m meant to become, before I’ve even had the chance to grasp it myself.
It’s overwhelming, your own reflection being a mystery. Looking back, I’ve always felt the pull of the ocean, like I was born with saltwater flowing through my veins instead of blood.Not just because I’m a pirate who was raised at sea. It’s like the ocean’s been waiting for me to remember who I am all my life.
Anya was the most unsettling creature I’ve ever encountered. There was something about her that didn’t belong, neither in the water, nor in the world. Anya favors the shadows. Her aura bled darkness. Her voice was raspy, like it had been dragged from the bottom of the ocean’s trenches.
“So,” I say, just to stir the pot, “you had a mermaid girlfriend?”
He groans, eyes narrowing. “Mira, I’ve told you—”
“Relax.” I cut him off with a smirk. “I’m just playing. You seem to have a thing for women with fins.”
He shakes his head with a quiet huff, and I laugh, glancing down at our feet swinging over the edge of the crow’s nest. I guess this is our spot. I came up here to read more of my parents' journals, to hear the waves crash against the ship, to feel the sun on my face and the sea breeze twist through my hair. But Kai was already here, perched at the edge, staring out at the horizon.
He doesn’t seem upset or stressed. He seems calm. Gods, he’s so unbelievably attractive it’s unfair. The sunlight clings to his skin, making it glow golden. His tattoos twist over his chest and arms like sea creatures in motion, each one tied to the ocean, and strangely familiar. His wavy dark brown hair hits his shoulders just right, tousled from the wind.
He’s perfect. I’m staring at him when I notice it, his arm. The skin around the gashes is puffy and angry looking, veins darkening beneath the surface. My breath catches. “Kai,” I say sharply, all the warmth draining from my voice. “Your arm, it's gotten worse.”
“It’s gotten awfully sinister hasn’t it?” he asks, acting like this isn’t a big deal.
I reach out to touch his arm, but he pulls back. “Don’t,” he says, distant and hurt. It’s unlike him. I freeze.
“Where is this from?” I asked, my voice dipping. “It looks very infected.”
Now that I’m really looking, the veins spread like black spiderwebs beneath his skin, crawling up his arm and reaching toward his chest. They pulse faintly, alive, like something dark is still moving inside him. The color isn’t red—it’s the color of deep water, of ink. This isn’t just a scar. It’s a mark left by the siren that nearly claimed his life as a child.
“I was told something might happen to it,” Kai said, eyes fixed on the horizon. “I’ve been feeling sharp pain lately and the veins are spreading faster than before.”
I squint, trying to make sense of it. “What do you mean? Told by who? Can I see it?” He moves his arm farther away from me, putting up a silent wall. “Please,” I say softly, flashing him my eyes, steady and unrelenting. Finally, he shifts, offering me his arm. I take it gently.
The scar has split wide open, the skin angry and bleeding. The flesh around it shimmers faintly, something sharp glinting just beneath the surface, like bone, or—
“I was told,” Kai says, voice low and rough, “that because I escaped a siren once, because I nearly killed her, she marked me. That I carry a piece of her. And now that she’s gone, that piece is waking up. It’s just a lot worse than I thought it was going to be. It seems like the siren is trying to kill me from the inside out.” I look up at him, my breath shallow. “Her claws, her teeth, they surface through my skin. As if I’m meant to carry her remnants. To protect them.” His voice cracks slightly, the pain too obvious to hide.
“In order to make a wish at the fountain, you need a piece of a siren, so this may be true?” I say slowly, the thought crystallizing as it leaves my lips. One of the rarest, most dangerous parts of the map to obtain, pieces of a siren. “It looks like the scar is killing you more than anything.”
“Yes, I’m starting to think that as well,” Kai says, his gaze still on the horizon. His hazel eyes shimmer gold in the fading light, but something in his expression shifts. He’s retreating. Quiet. Guarded.
“What is it?” I ask.
“It’s how I found out… that’s the problem.”
My chest tightens. “I’m not following. How did you find out?”
He finally turns to look at me. Really looks. “You know I’d protect you,” he says. “Till the ends of the earth.”
The words make my heart drop. Anxiety surges through me, crawling under my skin. What is he about to say? “I do,” I whisper, eyes locked on his, my voice coated in fear. “I trust you.”
“These creatures, the kappas, they boarded my ship. Right before you found me,” Kai says, his voice tight. “They gave me the intel I needed. And I… I made a deal with them.” He hesitates. “I didn’t know how much you meant to me then.”
My stomach drops. “You better not have sold me to the kappas,” I say, my voice cold.
