Page 162 of Storm and Sea

“I’m here,” Nyel replied.

“You shouldn’t have, Ny.”

A webbed hand locked with his.

“I told you before. You aren’t alone anymore.”

Words failed him as he squeezed Nyel’s hand. The stunned silence of the crowd pressed in on them like the deepest part of the ocean, the pressure building until Atreus feared he might cave in on himself.

“I—I’m…”

“You can’t do this.”

The voice spat and hissed, slithering into his mind like a venomous thing. It curled around his doubts, twisting them into truths, feeding on his insecurities like a leech.

“You’re nothing.

You’ve always been nothing.”

The words dripped with disdain, each syllable sharpened to cut deeper and deeper.

“You think you matter?

That you have any control?”

It laughed, a low, mocking rasp.

“You’re a freak. A monster.

They hate you. Hate you.

HATE YOU!”

But then Nyel squeezed him, and the golden light flickered—like the beating heart of a flame—banishing the voice, burning it away like mist under the morning sun.

I’m not alone.

He tried again, this time steady enough to break through the lingering shadows.

“My name is Atreus. I work at the Sleeping Whale pescheria. I live in the abandoned lighthouse across the bay. Baia Vita has been my home for most of my life and… I’m a Mer.”

His heart wanted to escape his chest and take refuge in the water without him.

“My name is Nyel. I work at the Sleeping Whale pescheria. I was born in these waters, and though I’ve only lived here for a season, Baia Vita feels like home now. I am a sireno—a Mer, native to your bay.”

The crowd shifted at the sound of their voices. At the familiar voices coming out of the mouths of creatures that belonged in fables. When Nyel finished, they stirred. They inched closer, like a hive ready to attack an intruder. Ready to defend its home from something that didn’t belong. Atreus took a step backward, ready to run.

“It’s them!”

Marina’s stout frame burst free of the crowd, splashing into the shallows to stand between them and the onlookers. She held out her arms as though to defend from oncoming projectiles.

“It’s still them! The same people you’ve been working alongside on the docks.”

Whispers sounded, but the crowd continued to edge closer. Atreus spotted several of the men reaching for tools at their belts.

Marina’s red hair was frazzled into wild knots, which made her appear larger as she shielded them. “Listen to me! I knew about them. I chose to keep their secret because I knew they wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

“That wasn’t your choice to make!” someone called from the crowd.