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Myheartfeelslikeit’s caught in a vice as I look at Sebastian, teetering on the fragile edge of the ship’s railing. The sea wind washes over me, whipping my hair in the wind, pulling it free from the braid I made this morning. Yet, all I can think about is how I’m never going to get to see his face again. I’ll never get lost in his kisses or his touch.
The ropes that bound me moments ago now lay broken and scattered on the deck. The cool metal of the daggers still rests in my palm and my lips tingle, waxed raw from the tape that muzzled my cries as he sliced open mortal wounds. I can still taste the adhesive and feel the sting as salty tears stream down my face and over my freshly freed lips.
“No,” I breathe, watching him waver on the railing. “No!” As if I’ve found my voice, my scream pierces through the chaos unfolding around me. I hardly recognize my own voice.
Desperation surges through me as I reach for him, fingers splayed wide. My magic floods my veins so quickly that it permeates the air. The seconds feel like minutes as my translucent threads glimmer into existence but refuse to attach to him.
I’ve never tried to control him... I never needed to. Even when I was Sebastian’s prisoner, I trusted him. The bond... It has to be. It’s the only thing that makes sense. The same thing that has connected us all this time is about the be what tears us apart and seals his fate. It’s a cruel twist of destiny that the one time I wish to control him, I can’t. Not even to save his life.
His foot lifts, hovering in the air for a moment as I struggle to get to my feet, desperate to reach him, to stop him, but there’s not enough time.
His weight shifts and tears sting my eyes, clouding my vision, and he plunges into the dark sea below. An ache unlike anything I’ve felt before fills my chest to the point of bursting. All the noise vanishes along with him, except for the chaotic beating of my heart.
My heart doesn’t just break—it shatters, shards of pain plunging deep into my very soul, ripping it apart from the inside. I’m unable to move, or think, or breathe. He’s gone...
I’ve seen people float and their lives ended within a minute or two of going over that edge. It can’t be true for him... I can’t do this without him.
The roar of something crashing into the water hits my ears, yanking a sob from my lips. My lungs stop working. They don’t expand or even attempt to draw air. They’re frozen in time.
The edges of my vision blur, panic threatening to choke me from where I sit. My legs, weak and trembling, somehow find the strength to push my body from the ground and propel me forward into a dead sprint.
This can’t end here. I won’t let it.
“Scarlet!” Zephyr’s booming voice rings out, but it’s as if I’m hearing him through a thick veil. He’s reaching for me, his hands stretched out in a futile attempt to reel me back. To keep from going over that edge after him. The raw force of my magic lashes out, a wild tempest, tossing aside any who dare stand in my path.
Without a final glance or a single thought, I soar over the railing, letting the wind and the waves claim me. The only coherent thought that flits through my mind is the fact I can’t swim, but I don’t care. All I know is if something comes to swallow him whole, he’ll be helpless to stop it without me. Everything else I’ll have to figure out as I go.
It’s sort of euphoric, the falling. Having read a chapter in Smee’s romance book, where a character goes over the edge, I can only hope that it’s accurate. I shape my body as she did, pointing my toes, and keeping my arms close to my chest as I plummet feet first, toward the waves.
Pain shoots up my legs as I connect with the water, sinking deep beneath the surface. My magic crackles around me, helping dampen the blow, and I hold my breath. The moment I slow my descent, I flail, trying to move within the water but going nowhere. The dagger is still in my hand, clutched in my grip as I scramble toward the surface, lungs screaming for air.
I close my eyes and focus, drawing on the last reserves of my power to reach out into the depths of the ocean... There are dozens of heartbeats, of souls to control. So many of them I can’t count. I have to find him before something else does. Daring to open my eyes, the murky greenish-blue water is thick and cloudy, but there’s a light. Something orange glowing from below. His necklace... He put it back on.
My skin tingles like a thousand needles press into it, my legs the worst. I need air. My vision starts to close in, unable to hold my breath any longer, but I can’t swim up to reach it. The fight starts to leave me and I fear I’ve made a terrible decision.
Instead of saving him, I’ll be joining him in the dark depths. My mouth opens as my lungs try to inhale the water, knowing this is the end. My heart screams, battering into the bone so hard it’ll bruise. I suck in deep, but it’s not water that invades my lungs. It’s air. I can breathe...
The prickling on my legs continues to intensify, and I kick off my boots, hoping they won’t weigh me down. My fingers undo the button of my pants, pushing them off, and my eyes flare wide as I take in the scales on my skin. I’m not part siren...
I’m part mermaid.
With the clothes gone, my legs transform into a long jade green tail. The scales collect the light, scattering it around the water. I try to move, finding it easier to move within the water. It’s still clumsy at best, but it’s better than flailing.
Sebastian...
I search below me, finding the orange light, and dive, doing the best I can to catch up with him. My muscles burn, using pieces of me I’ve never used before.
Everything else becomes a blur as I focus on reaching him, my heart pounding in my ears. I swim deeper and deeper, desperate to reach him before he’s lost forever.
Finally, I spot him — floating beneath the surface. His arms are loose and his chin is tipped back like he’s looking at the sky above him. There’s a buoyancy to his body despite gravity forcing it down, something keeping him afloat when everything else tells me he should be under by now. He looks so peaceful, even though death looms around us.
Perhaps there’s something to this witch-floating business after all. Maybe it’s the lack of a soul that keeps them from sinking. Maybe that’s why I’m able to, even though I’m marked. Sebastian is missing half of his, and it allows him to sink, but yet maintain some stability in the water, preventing the abyss beneath us from taking him.
His hair floats aimlessly in the gentle current, his limbs weak. Blood tinges the water, painting it crimson like a cloud of smoke.
I reach him and wrap my arms around his chest, pulling his weight into me. He’s not breathing, but there is still a little warmth left in him. Crushing my lips to his, I blow, pushing the water from his lungs and giving him the air he needs to survive this. He has to...
I start to kick my legs, or tail-thing, trying to raise to the surface, but I just stir the particles in the water. Large eyes the size of me blink open directly below us and I freeze, clinging to Sebastian with everything I have. Yellow rings and slanted pupils stare at us, unmoving, with an air of curiosity. I lift my hand, letting the translucent strings form between my fingers and it. It opens its mouth at my command, and I breathe a sigh of relief when I don’t find razor-sharp teeth staring back at me. It’s all gums... There aren’t any teeth at all. I let it close its mouth, watching as it blows water through the hole in its back.
