She matters more than any pirate, more than any treasure. And I’ll be damned twice over before I die letting her think I despise her.
Iloveher.
I love the way she slips in beside Otto, serving plates to folk she’s only just met, like they’re family already. I love how she can read me better than I read myself—knows when to press a glass of whiskey into my hand before my thoughts spiral too far. I love that she never tries to tame me. She fights at my side instead, blades bared, standing against the likes of Reid as if my crew were hers all along.
She is the ocean to my parched soul.
I have to keep going.
My head tips forwards as I open my eyes. There in front of me—on the opposite wall—as if it’s been there the whole time, is a symbol etched with crumbling lines, so faint with age that I hadn’t noticed it. It’s been years since sirens used them, but suddenly I find myself grateful for the hours in the royal libraries being forced to a princely level of education. I scurry for it, tracing the lines without thinking twice.
The floor answers with a trembling roar. I dart out of the way as a hole tears open beneath me, dragging everything with it in a violent rush. There is no choice given as the water rips me down in a spiralling pull, the whole chamber twisting like a gigantic, murky whirlpool.
I’ve gone and done it now.
Sharp pain splits my chest in half as I land with a violent thud on a stone platform, water churning on either side until it drains away in a sucking rush.
That’s going to hurt later.
My fins scrape uselessly against damp rock, so I force the shift, breath wheezing through my lungs as I clench my teeth through the pain stabbing daggers into my ribs.
Gingerly, I stand. My feet feel numb, like they don’t know how to carry me forwards, yet there is no other choice. It’s an empty room with a dry tunnel that leads into another chamber, and I know if I keep following it I’ll soon find a way out.
The walkway is narrow and thin as I stumble down the incline and into the room. Once inside I’m met with the scent of dank moss, and earth. Smells a lot like the land above. Surely I’m close. The left wall looks like it’s been riddled with holes, dark little mouths gaping at me. I spinto face the right. It gleams, sheer glass from floor to ceiling. The kind that makes you feel watched even when nothing stares back.
Something steps from the shadows on the opposite side of the glass, sending my heart into my throat. I rush for the partition, slamming my palms flat against the smooth surface.
“Odi!” I bellow.
WHAT I NEEDED
34
ODELIA
“Rune!”
The door had sealed behind me when I made it in here, and though I watch it do the same behind him, the tension in my shoulders eases. We may be trapped, but it seems we've both passed the first part of the test.
From across the glass, Rune studies me and I return the favour—he looks unharmed. His hair is soaked and dripping in rivulets down his shirt, which clings in interesting enough ways to send my thoughts in directions that won’t help us now. “Did it send you underwater?” I ask, clearing my throat. The space between us has been strange, strained, but his eyes are bright and pinned to mine in a way they haven’t been for days.
His voice is muffled by the glass when he speaks. “Yeah. I guess it didn’t for you since—” he waves his hand over the top of his head. “You shifted?” There’s a strange pride in his voice.
I reach up on instinct, and find the soft antlers on my head. The tunnel had dropped to a cavern that was pitchblack. I had to shift to have any hope of seeing. I’d actually managed to keep her grounded.
Mostly.
It was shaky at first, but it was easier when I wasn’t in the hold of a ship or being pursued by a seven foot man with claws. She and I had eventually come to a tentative understanding, and we’d made it this far. It was more than I’d hoped for, considering the swinging boulders I’d barely avoided. Then the wall arrows. So many wall arrows.
“I guess the animal has its uses,” I shrug, too relieved we’re okay to try hiding the smile that spirits over my face.
He grins wide, making my stomach flip, and presses his hand to mine on the glass, the sudden softness in his eyes confusing me further. “I’m so fucking proud of you. I was worried I’d lost—”
A crunch vibrates from his side, making us both move to look behind him.
The wall is spiked.
He turns his head to me, brow pinched as if confused. It wasn’t spiked before. I’d studied every inch I could while I was stuck in here. I open my mouth to speak, but in another teeth-grinding crunch, the wall leaps towards him again, closer to the glass like it would like nothing more than to crush him, and every nerve ending in my body zaps in a shock of electricity, sending my pulse sprinting and my hands over the glass, the sides of the walls. The corners—anywhere I haven’t checked—but I’ve checkedeverywhere.
