I was already gone, my horse turned toward the cries of pain. We plunged together into The Forest, following the lyrical, mournful melody of a creature in distress. It might be a trap, but maybe it wasn’t, and that chance propelled me onward.
My horse skidded to a stop as we came to a small clearing. The trees formed a circle around a watering hole. The patch of azure felt out of place in the middle of this darkness, as if the sun’s lights were still glinting off the surface of the water despite the shadows crawling around us.
A pile of rocks sat around the watering hole in a makeshift border. On the rocks was a beautiful creature—a mermaid, if I believed in that sort of thing.
I blinked.
Apparently, I now believed in that sort of thing, because I was definitely staring at a mermaid. Long tail ofluminescent scales. A woman’s figure above the waist, naked. Endless hair that shimmered like it had been infused with mercury.
“Stop,” Silas said, slightly out of breath. “Do not approach.”
“It’s a mermaid,” I whispered, half to myself, half to him. “She’s bleeding.”
I could see the gash on her forehead, blood pouring onto the rocks. The amount that had pooled there, the way her cries were weakening, told me she wasn’t in good shape.
“It could be a siren,” Silas said. “They are mermaids who have turned to evil.”
“She’s hurt. I need to help her.”
“If it’s a siren, then this is a trap. She’ll eat you alive,” he said. “She will not hesitate to murder you the second you get close.”
I was already dismounting from my horse. “Thank you for your opinion,” I informed my Hunter. “Now you can stop giving it. I’ve made my decision.”
“Alessia. Please.”
“You can support me or you can leave,” I said. “Those are your options.”
Silas looked worried, fearful, and frankly, exasperated. Without another word, he dismounted. He stood, his hulking presence beside me, and waited, his head everso slightly inclined toward me in a bow, as if in deference to my choice.
I approached the woman slowly. When Silas rested a hand on my shoulder, several paces away from the mermaid, I whipped around, a scowl on my face—ready to send him packing and tell him what I thought of this display in toxic masculinity. I had a real feminist speech prepared, but when I saw the look on his face, the whole spiel died on my lips.
Silas’s jaw was set. His eyes hard. His body stiff and unforgiving.
But he simply extended a hand. In his palm sat a dagger. Embedded into the dagger’s handle were gems the same color of sapphire as the gems in my circlet ring, and he was extending it toward me as a token of unity. Its blade was sharp, catching the light, and I wondered if it had killed before.
“Just in case,” Silas muttered roughly. “It doesn’t hurt to be prepared.”
I nodded. I was hopeful, not stupid. I took the dagger, and the moment my fingers closed around the handle, I felt a shudder go through my body. It wracked me from head to toe, causing me to tremble beneath the ensuing rush of power.
“Is this magic?” I asked Silas, my words a notch above silent.
“No.” He tipped my chin upward with two fingers, forcing eye contact. “But you are.”
I stood there, feeling that initial surge of power spread through my body. It did not dissipate but settled as if it had found its way home. Like this magic belonged to me.
When I pulled myself away from Silas’s gaze, it was like something between us snapped, a rubber band breaking and causing a twang of pain between us. As if we weren’t supposed to part.
A breathy cry rang out behind me.
“Help,” the mermaid gasped.
I approached the creature slowly.
“My name is Alessia,” I told her. “I’m a doctor.”
“Human,” she gasped, her bare ribs heaving with effort. “You smell like a human.”
“I am,” I said. “Or I thought I was until just recently. What happened to you?”
