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“I’m not sure how I can be afraid of you,” I said, “when I’m not sure what there is to be afraid of.”
“Then I guess you’ll just have to see it for yourself.”
He pointed behind me. I turned and looked over my shoulder to a rock cavern towering in the water, the red glow bursting from the center of the ceiling. I had never seen such a cavern above the water—as if Aladdin’s cave was floating on the surface.
Jacques ordered Luc to go straight into its mouth. The sounds of the ship echoed against the walls as the tips of the sails scraped the top of the cavern. As we went deeper, the sunlight was replaced with a furious red glow, its waving patterns on the walls and ceiling sparkling like gems were hiding in the crevices. Despite the red glow around us, it was somehow difficult to see ahead. I leaned forward to look, but there was only darkness.
Then the sea stopped.
I heard a voice shout my name right before the ship tipped forward, sliding into the darkness below.
Cold air burst against my skin, and I felt my feet lift off the ground, right before two arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me back down on the ship. The ship plummeted further then crashed against the water again, the sea spitting large waves into the boat and soaking me through. When the ship straightened and evened out, I rolled over to see the man who had rescued me from falling into the abyss.
It was a drenched and furious Jacques.
“Why the hell would you get so close to the edge?” he scolded me. “Did you even have the notion to step back from the edge of a waterfall?”
He held up his drenched clothes and groaned.
“Well, then next time keep your grubby hands to yourself and let me fall overboard!” I scoffed, coming to my feet. “No one asked you to help anyway,Your Honor.”
He threw a few curses at my back as I walked away, trying to wring the water out of my clothes. Was there anything worse than soggy, cold clothes? Hardly.
Except maybe finding out your friends hated you and that you may have been assisting them to their doom. That was possibly good competition.
“Are you all right, dove?” Luc yelled after me from the helm.
I walked up to meet him, as he steered the ship. “No,” I replied. “I’m not all right at all.”
It was silent for a moment.
“I know it’s still a lot to swallow,” Luc said, “but I didn’t lie to you about who you are. And now we can join our family. Ourrealfamily.”
My eyes narrowed at him. “My father and mother are my real family.”
“And Maria and her family were mine,” Luc replied. “I remember the feeling of it. But they’re gone now. This is our true family, Esmeralda. Our bodies may be human, but our souls belong to the sirens.”
“So what do you want me to do then? Just abandon my father?”
He shook his head strongly. “No. I would never ask you to do that, but you have to realize that you are far more powerful than you ever thought. What are you going to do with this knowledge? Go back to your arranged marriage and live a miserable life? Or use your power to create a balance in the world again?”
He stared at me for a long moment, then turned his eyes back on the sea. I took a deep breath, not knowing how to answer.
I couldn’t leave my father behind. I wasn’t going to abandon him. I wasn’t going to let his heart break like that.
Not again.
The glow continued to flow through the caverns, and Jacques shouted orders to Luc and the other men as we maneuvered through the crevices of the caverns. It was like an underwater maze, the boat hitting and scraping the sides as we got deeper and deeper. The cool air of the cave steadied my nerves, and for some reason, it felt like I was breathing slower and deeper than I had in my entire life. Blood streamed through me with ease and regeneration.
After some time of sailing, the cavern opened up even more, stretching long patterns of ruby glitter across the ceiling like night stars. I could only look up in awe as we pulled up next to a long slab of marble stone, perfect to hold a ship in place.
“Is this…a dock?” I asked.
But no one answered. Jacques was too busy looking at the ceiling to say a word. I almost jabbed him to ask him more questions, but when I heard the fluttering, I stopped too.
The ceiling was dark compared to the rest of the caves. I thought that the light should have reflected off the cavern ceiling, but it only seemed to get absorbed in the shadows.
Then the shadows moved.
