“—alive. Easy now.”
She beheld pale pink against dark grey lit by a blue glow, and pulled in another breath, just as painful as the first.
“I’ll be back.” A splash followed the musical voice.
Tink moved. She could—somehow. She tried to sit and failed, collapsing onto the rocky ground in a fit of coughs. Sharp rocks jammed into her back, just one more pain along with the searing burn in her wings, the throbbing headache, and her general state of shit.
A cave?Her sight cleared as she scanned her surroundings from her position on the ground.
Reality finally smacked her in the face. She’d drowned. She was dead, and this was some shitty afterlife. The elders always said the next life reflected the actions of the past one. Had she really been so terrible as to deserve this? She’d made her mistakes, but most of them were small: cutting out of class early, playing pranks on friends. Or her bad habit that lingered from childhood of stealing extra dew candy from the storehouse. Was it because she was cursed? All this for selling pixie dust?
A splash echoed through the cave, followed by sputtering and a heavy thump.
Tink sat up successfully this time.
“Smee?”
He lay on the rocky ground next to her, half his body still in the water. A naked, pink-haired woman leaned over him. A soft, blue glow illuminated them in the darkness.
No, not a woman… A navy tail flicked in the water below her. She sliced at the ropes around Smee’s wrists with her claws—swift but careful at the same time. She twisted to Tink. “Up. Good. See to him.” She backflipped into the water and disappeared into the depths.
“Tink,” he wheezed.
“You’re here.” Such a stupid thing to say, but it was all she could think of. He was here. That was a mermaid, one she’d seen before. They weren’t dead. She’d saved them.Holy fucking revered elders, I am alive.
No wonder she hurt so bad.
Tink scooted across the stones. They were on a small, rocky beach hidden within a cave. Some kind of blue coral grew on the walls and down into the water, providing soft illumination like the moon on a dark night. It was stunning really. That mighthave snagged her full attention if not for her revelation moments ago.
The ropes fell away from Smee’s wrists as he tugged the last bits apart.
“We’re not dead.” Tink just couldn’t stop staring at him.Real, he is real. And alive, just like her.
“No,” he said. “Captain…” He shook his head. “Never seen him like that. He thought you—”
James!He was still out there. She had to get to him. She had to save him. Tink tried to rise and stumbled, falling into the water. Her fingers clutched at the rock. Her boots kicked open water as she let out a panicked squeal.
“Got ya!” Smee grabbed her arms, pulling her with him onto the safety of land.
Her whole body shook with fright. One wrong move, and the sea had almost claimed her again.
“Shh, I got ya.” He wrapped his arms around her as if cradling a child—size-wise she was, compared to him. “So glad you’re alive. When you didn’t surface…” He shook his head.
Another mermaid emerged with a sputtering Barley. Smee released her and scrambled to his friend.Thank goodness.Another friend made it, but how many more?
“Take me back,” Tink demanded, voice raw.
The mermaid whirled on her. “No.” Not a mermaid, a merman, one with an angular face and dark green hair draping down his body like kelp.
Before she could say another word, he was gone, disappearing down into the deep water that had nearly drowned her a second time.
One by one, the crew appeared in their cave, hauled in sputtering or unconscious by the merfolk. Every time, Tink begged their aid, and asked to be taken back to theKraken. How could she leave James?
Each time one of the merfolk broke the surface, she hoped for one face. But he never appeared, and they never took her back with them.
“Where is he?” Tink demanded. She paced the rocks, near hysterical.
The pink-haired mermaid—Adella, Smee called her—had reappeared in the pool and, this time, did not leave to fetch another sailor. There were no more. All members of the crew of theJolly Rogerwere accounted for—except its captain.
