Page 65 of Storm and Sea

Leo had to swallow the profanity that rested on his tongue. He locked onto the black shark tooth hanging from his father’s neck. The tooth itself wasn’t extraordinary, but his grandmother had woven the leather into a beautifully braided cord. What did his father do to deserve that honor? Leo never heard the story, no matter how many times he’d asked for it. Probably because it was so underwhelming, his father was ashamed.

And now, here Leo was, definitely old enough to be considered a man, yet no tooth rested on his chest. Had he not earned the right to have it around his neck? Was providing for their family since he was big enough to hoist a net not enough?

And now, his spineless father had the gall to suggest Leo would abandon them.

“How dare you?” Leo hissed. “How dare you even say that?”

The image of long curly strands falling to the floor pierced his brain like an iron poker. Leo turned away, intending to stomp home and lock himself in his room. He paused.

“Don’t come home. Stay with Signore Cicco again tonight. Make sure to drink enough for me, too.” He walked away, leaving his father behind.

All night, blue eyes raked over Leo’s body, appraising him like a pig at auction. The memory alone staved off sleep, dread rooting itself in every layer of his skin. Alvise tried once or twice before to coax Leo onto his ‘guest list.’ His collection of human pets who frolicked around his estate, wearing jewels and silks. Leo didn’t know if it was his golden hair or the unique shade of his eyes; all he knew was he’d caught the attention of the most dangerous man on the island.

Instead of giving him the shark-tooth necklace, his father helped Alvise slip a jewel-studded collar around Leo’s neck.

Now, all he could do was wait for Vincenzo to pull on the leash.

When sleep finally accepted him in its hold, Leo dreamt of dark water and flashing lights in the sky. Of crunching metal and sinking into the abyss.

Smoke-filled eyes.

Green scales.

Claws and fangs.

Leo gasped awake, sweat rolling down the side of his face.

It’d been over a week since the accident, and still, he woke every morning this way.

I need to talk to someone about this. Get this idiotic idea out of my head.

There was only one person he could rattle off his nighttime delusions to. Leo quickly dressed, not bothering with the bandages on his head. He hardly felt dizzy anymore and didn’t care if anyone saw the stitches. What Leo needed was to talk. For someone to tell him he was being crazy and put these visions of sea monsters to rest.

Was monster even the right word?

He didn’t understand what his dreams were telling him. But monster didn’t feel right. Because when he lost himself in that otherworldly face, Leo wasn’t scared.

“Nyel, is Atreus around?” Leo hollered up the hill to the sorting bins.

“I saw him walk to the beach, probably taking a break. Everything, okay?” Nyel shouted back, and Leo snorted in his effort to hold back a laugh. Nyel had the newspaper stuffed up his nose again, and he sounded like a duck with a head cold.

“Yeah, it’s all good, just want to talk to him.”

All week, Leo had done everything in his power to stay away from Nyel. But the odd jobs he’d managed to scrape usually involved dirty work on the docks; thus, he and Nyel saw a lot of each other.

He was kind.

Kind in an innocent way that called Leo in, like a lighthouse beacon guiding his ship to port. There was something about him. Maybe his eyes? The golden flecks mixed in a background of honey brown were familiar in a way Leo couldn’t explain.

He tried not to ponder it as he searched the shoreline. Finding Atreus’s footprints in the sand, he jogged, spotting his friend right away.

“Hey, Atreus, I’ve been meaning to talk to you,” Leo said, then spotted a second figure. A dangerous tension pulled at the air, and the wind fell still between the two men as they stared off at one another. The stranger was tall and built like a warhorse. A hood covered the majority of his face, but Leo was able to spot one detail—a single milky eye.

“Leo, I’ll meet you at the docks in a minute,” Atreus said, and the warning in his voice only made Leo plant his feet. He wasn’t about to leave Atreus with this guy, whoever he was.

But it didn’t come to that because the stranger turned on his heel and was gone behind the rocks in seconds.

“What the hell was that about?” Leo asked, unable to shake the palpable heaviness in the air.