I was stuck in an impossible dream, unable to shake off her song.
The sea, though, had no such issue.
The waves grew, and just like that, the sky darkened. An ominous sort of air breezes past us.
“They are the harbingers of the deep, the ones who bear her tidings. To harm one is to anger the mysterious deep, itself.” Dilly said, stepping away from the edge. “You only grazed her, maybe it won’t be–”
“Enough to kill us?” Oscar finished.
“Yeah,” Dilly said.
“You’ve got her?” Bash said to Oscar.
“I’ve got myself,” I snapped, realizing that as the ship rocked more, we were in trouble.
“Says the woman who was just trying to crawl over the ship,” Oscar said. “Yeah, I’ve got her.”
Bash squeezed my hand once and was off, shooting off orders like lightning trapped in a glass.
The sky darkened more, and the tempest grew.
“Let’s go inside,” Dilly said, threading her arm through mine.
“I can help,” I said.
“This is how you help,” she said. “I need to write down everything while it’s still fresh.”
Blackbeard jumped down and stretched between my legs, making for the cabin, but just like that, the sea stopped its rage and the sky cleared to golden sunlight.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Dilly shook her head.
“I’ve never heard of it forgiving,” she said.
Yet I knew with everything that I was that it had. The deep wasn’t ready to claim me yet, but it would. The merrow's song inside my mind told me that this wasn’t done.
I caught Bash’s eyes and registered the paleness on his face, the way his chest rose and fell.
This was a warning.
A warning that only the most foolish would ignore.
“Steady and keep our heading,” Bash ordered.
That was the thing about death sentences–they made fools of even the most rational of people.
Chapter thirty-one
Goddess Adjacent
Bash
Though accounts vary—Ama-no-Ko in the Eastern Isles, Tideborn along the Western Reaches, and Sea-Claimed among Nordic fishers—nearly every seafaring society shares the same conviction: a child delivered upon the waves is not happenstance. It is selection.
— The Mysterious Deep: A Comprehensive Understanding
“Maybe next time ask questions and shoot second?” Oscar said.
