I blink slowly, then swim the last few feet between us, placing my hand gently against her snout. She closes her eyes, leaning into the touch. Her scales, to my surprise, are warm.
“I’ll see you soon, Keta,” I say down the bond.“May your waters stay guarded, and your days be peaceful.”I lift my hand off of her snout.
Before I can swim away, I hear her voice again. “There is great unrest churning in the sea,” Keta says, her tone calm but endless, like the tide just before a storm. “You must guard yourself well. The Pirate Lord is bound to you. Trust in him.”
Her ancient eyes met mine, unblinking and unreadable. Then her voice sinks lower. “An army rises beneath the waves, one far greater than me. Greater than you. It is being forged by the Soul, and she does not wish to sleep. But she has turned dark. Cruel. She must be stopped. That burden now falls to you.”
Anger surges through me. I knew the Soul had gone bad, but that goes against all that it is there for. The Soul was meant to preserve balance, not poison it or raise monsters to destroy what little light we had left in this sick world. “Let her build her army,”I say, my voice like flint, my eyes narrowing. “Let her rise from the deepest trench she can find. I was born of this sea, and its fury runs through me. And I don’t bow to anyone that’s forgotten what it means to belong to it.”
Keta gives a slight nod, the glow in her eyes deepening. “You, child, are the light. The Soul is dark,” she says, her voice echoing like a distant tide. “You know my name. Call it when the sea turns against you, and I will come. I will save you.” Her words settle, anchoring my soul.
Before I can move, Keta shifts, graceful and deliberate. She rises beneath me, scooping me up with a gentleness that doesn’t match her size. She carries me through the waves, back to the ship. Then, with an eerie ease, she lifts me from the water. The water parts between her sharp talons and she sets me down on the main deck, right next to Kai where I belong.
She holds his gaze, unflinching. He doesn’t look away. “If he is the one your soul is tied to,”she says,“then he, too, is under my protection. May your journey to the fountain go smoothly. Don’t waste your wish.”
She looks at me once more, eyes softer. “Remember, you know my name.”Then she turns, slipping silently beneath the waves and vanishing into the depths from which she came.
Kai’s hands are on me in an instant, gripping my arms and scanning every inch of me, wild with worry. “What the hell happened?” His voice is controlled, but his gaze is a storm. Panic, fear, disbelief.
Water drips from my hair as I lift my chin, the entire crew frozen around us, waiting. “I bonded with a tarlock,” I say,steady and sure. “Her name is Keta.” Shock ripples through him like a wave.
“You did what?” he breathed. “How is that even possible?”
I try to rise, but my legs give way beneath me. Kai catches me before I can fall, hand firm against my back. I meet his eyes. “She wasn’t trying to kill us, she was just protecting her home. But there’s something worse coming. Something darker. We need to go.”
His jaw tightens, but he nods. “We’ll take the long route,” he says. “We’ll find Taika. But not through cursed waters.” Kai’s grip tightens on my arm as he helps me to my feet. “Mira, what do you mean you bonded with her?” He steadies me until I can stand on my own, but my legs feel like they’ll only work underwater.
“It means if I ever need her, she’ll come,” I say simply. “The crew is safe. The ship is safe. We can move on now, shall we?”
Kai lets out a slow breath, his eyes shining with something softer than awe. “Every time I think I’ve seen all there is to you, you surprise me. You’re unparalleled, Mira.”
I lean in slightly, voice low, just for him. “And if you ever need her”—I tap his chest—“call her name, Keta. She’s bound to you now, too.” His smile fades, jaw tightening, eyes softening with something close to pride, like he’s trying not to show just how much it moves him. Because now, we have the most powerful being in these seas on our side.
Chapter thirty
Mira
Reflections
The ocean feels wrong. Too still. Like it’s bracing for something. We’re still headed to Alek, to Taika. The thought of facing her under these circumstances knots my gut. I’m not afraid of what she might do, but I’m afraid of what it’ll do to him.
Kai masks it well, but I can feel the storm brewing inside him. A son aching for answers, a wound left open for far too long. Every time her name is spoken, I feel his heart twist. I feel theweight of what he’s never said. And it terrifies me, because I don’t know if meeting her will heal him or break him.
I can’t help but wonder, why did the map she gave me lead to him? Was it drawn from her own desires, a mother’s quiet hope that her son still lived? Or was it truly shaped by mine? Or both?
We haven’t touched the map since we found Veyra. I haven’t touched anything Taika gave me, not the shell she said to use if I ever needed her, not the vial of mermaid tears that could heal even the deepest wound. They're relics from someone I no longer trust. The vial of mermaid tears never leaves my neck. The one who gave them to me may be far from pure, but the tears, at least, are not.
I’m scared that everything she gave me is cursed. That every gift was a chain in disguise and I was too blind to see it.
Kai informed me we’re running low on supplies, weapons, food, even rum again, and insisted we stop at Seal’s Island. He always tries to dock there during his voyages. Says the merchants give him the best deals, especially on the things he values most: steel, salt, and spirits. Especially the rum. Gods forbid we run low on the rum.
I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to power through as much sea as possible. Something’s shifting in the ocean that I can feel, and my gut is rarely wrong. But Kai’s right. We need what we need.
Seal’s Island was only half a day away from where we encountered the tarlock. Since then, Kai’s been locked in the study room with Jay, poring over every map and scrap of parchment, hunting for anything that could lead us closer to Sirens Cove. He’s been in there for hours.
I’ve been at the helm scanning the horizon for any more unwelcome visitors. The ocean is both beautiful and brutal. One wrong turn, one moment of hesitation, and she can swallow you whole, delivering you to a place no soul has ever seen. That’swhat makes her so dangerous. She’s unpredictable, always shifting like a living thing.
As I stare out at the horizon, my mind drifts to the Soul of the Ocean. The one who came before me. The one who now clutches the title like a blade held to the throat of the sea. Who was she, truly? Was she once human, like me? Or born a creature, siren, mermaid, witch, something older?
