35. The Cold Detachment

Chapter 35

The Cold Detachment

The Pirate

T alia had been a force to be reckoned with, fighting Scylla without causing her any lasting harm, using her siren song to communicate our desires, continuously placing herself in front of me to shield me from harm. Even if she never spoke the words of her heart to me, her actions proved them tonight. I couldn't help but be in awe of her, and yet, at the same time, my heart had raced with unfathomable fear as I'd watched Scylla slam her head against the rock with such a force that I felt it throb within my skull. The thought of losing her had been unbearable, and it had fueled my rage as I'd jumped to my feet, brandishing my meagre sword against the beast.

As we moved through the darkened cavern toward the exit, with her at my side while we walked in silence, my feelings intensified with her nearness. She was like a drug that called to me, addictive and all-consuming. The treasure I'd searched for my entire life, but it seemed to have arrived too late. My own corruption pulled me farther away from her as I felt myself losing control of who I'd been. Every day, the darkness held me tighter within its grip, and I feared the day I lost myself completely to its hold.

I'd felt the pull of that darkness in the cave, begging to be unleashed as my sword hovered in the air near the tentacles that had held Talia in the air, choking the life from her as she pled our case to Scylla. I'd wanted to destroy the monster, and anyone else in my path, to feel the heat of their blood as it coated my skin. It had taken every ounce of my willpower to resist its call, to still my blade and let Talia talk the beast into giving us what we needed. My blade had shimmied within my hold, my muscles straining with the internal fight within me, as she and Scylla seemed to have a silent understanding while I'd stood idly by watching, ready to spring into action at a second's notice.

I didn't know how much longer I could hold the darkness at bay before it consumed me completely. The only thing that I knew was that time was running out.

We stepped out into the night, the icy waters washing ashore as we distanced ourselves from the cave. Talia stopped as she stared out at the sea. When she turned to me, a thoughtful look lifted her brow as she said, "I think we should swim back."

"Around the entire island?" I asked, skeptical. I doubted I'd be able to make that swim any faster than it would take us to trek through the woods we'd traveled to get here.

She pursed her lips together as she studied me, and then a smile stretched across her lips. "Don't even worry about it," she said, flicking a look toward the sea. "I'll pull you along with me, land-legs."

I nearly laughed at her teasing tone, but then the gash along her head caught my attention, the blood still fresh seeping from the wound. "You should let me look at that," I said, motioning toward her head as I pulled the pack from my back.

Talia stepped out of my reach, giving her head a shake as she shrugged off my concern. "I'm fine."

Her reaction stung like another rejection, and I shouldered my pack again with frustration. I followed her steps further away from the cave, toward the beach just a short distance away. The pounding of the waves along the shore echoed in my ears, mirroring the heated beat of my heart as I ground my teeth, unable to staunch the rage that seethed within me. "Fine," I muttered under my breath as I followed her, "bleed out then."

She sighed, her shoulders slumping as she turned toward me. "You don't understand."

"I understand that we both have responsibilities, and that both of our lives are on the line here," I retorted, feeling the heat in my face as my rage burned on. She was so god damned stubborn and it really was starting to piss me off. "None of that really matters to me though because I refuse to ignore what is going on between us." I paused stepping back as my feet sank into the wet sand beneath us creating needed distance between our bodies. My voice turned sharp, I was done pretending, "I have to be honest with myself, but you're right. I don't understand why you'd rather lie to yourself than to let us have what little time we have left together mean something. I know you feel it too. Why won't you just be honest with yourself?" I tapped my chest where my heart beat within, "be honest with me."

Maybe I was being selfish, maybe I'd become used to getting what I wanted easily. Either way, I knew what I wanted, and I wasn't about to make myself a martyr by ignoring those desires simply because it would have been what was right.

She didn't respond right away. Instead, she continued walking ahead of me until her feet hit the frothing waves. With the water dancing around her ankles, her scales glittered along her skin, but she held her human form as she lifted her chin to the sky. Her long dark lashes rested on her cheeks as her eyes fell closed, and she breathed in the salty air deeply as if the world fell from existence and only she were left. The soft ethereal glow of the moon highlighted her skin, painting her in a gentle light that made her look as if she weren't of this world.

When she turned toward me, my heart skipped a beat as she worried her lower lip between her teeth. Her beautiful eyes scanned mine in the dimly lit night, and a sadness consumed her features as she stared at me as if I were something she couldn't have.

"I know exactly how I feel, but it doesn't change anything, Kipp. We're only pretending at something that will never last, something neither of us can ever have. Prolonging it will only shatter us both more when we accomplish our goal," she said, her voice soft.

I'd told her to stop lying to herself, and as she'd told me how she felt, I realized she hadn't been withholding the truth from herself. Where I'd been consumed with the hunger of this moment, she'd searched ahead to the losses of our future.

"Bullshit," I said, running my hands through my hair as I walked ahead of her. As I passed her, I added, "Denying this moment right now is stupid, Talia. Tomorrow is never guaranteed. It is only now that we have with any certainty."

I continued further along the beach, my boots splashing in the shallow waves with every step. With the darkness consuming me from within, there was no telling how much time I had left with my mind left intact. I couldn't afford to look to the future in the same way that she could.

Talia stopped, bending to remove her waterlogged boots without a word. Holding my hand out for her boots, I shoved them into the pack before buckling it closed again. She eyed me, the tension between us heavy and awkward.

"We need to swim to the ship. I can get us there faster than if we travel through the island," she finally said as she untied the knot of her shirt, letting the fabric fall over her hips as she shimmied out of her pants.

I nodded, careful to keep my gaze on her face rather than all the skin bared to me. "Fine," I replied, keeping my tone flat. "How do we do this?"

"Follow me," she said, walking deeper into the water as she held the pants in her hands. "I don't want to transform in these shallow waters."

Once we were about waist deep, she paused, looping the pants around her waist and handing me the legs. "Hold onto these tightly," she instructed as her tail began to take shape beneath the surface. Her body sank lower into the water and gills formed along her ribs. When she glanced back at me again, she looked at me with the cold detachment of a siren.

"Are you thinking of drowning me?" I asked, holding back the nervous laugh that threatened to fall between us.

She grinned, her sharpened bite on full display as she replied, "Not if you do as I say."

The way her vicious eyes glittered with malicious intent had my heart thundering within my chest, and I smirked, unable to hold back my remark as I moved closer to her. "You know how much I like it when you tell me what to do, my vicious little creature."

"I know how much you enjoy it when I make you bleed," she taunted. Her hair floated on the water as she turned from me. "I'd hold on tightly if I were you," she said, the only warning I received before she disappeared beneath the surface, pulling me along with her.

The Siren

Circling the island, I stayed near the surface, leaping from the water in dolphin-like arches so that Kipp could catch his breath as we sped through the sea. The fabric around my waist worked perfectly to tug him along with me beneath the waves, and I pulled him as deep as I dared, sharing a glimpse of my world with him as I swam close to the island. Every time we'd broken through the surface, his laughter in the night sent an electric thrill through my blood, and my heart raced with the desire I continued to deny us both.

Yet, with every swish of my tail, I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. The water sluicing over our skin seemed to buzz with an energy, as if the entire sea watched my movements, ready to report all that it saw to my father. It was as if something came for us, something I couldn't see but could only sense.

I brought Kipp to the surface, having traveled half the distance needed around the island. He treaded the water next to me as his lungs heaved for breath, but he didn't lose the smirk until he caught the concern behind my gaze.

"I need you to hold your breath for as long as you can, Kipp. I need to go deeper so that I can propel us faster. We need to get to the ship now," I said with an urgency in my tone. "I will not let you drown, Kipp. Trust me."

He coughed, pulling in another gulp of air as his fists gripped the legs of the pants I'd looped around my waist. "Trust you?"

"Yes," I whispered, sensing the approach of something farther out to sea. "Trust me. We are being hunted."

Kipp's eyes darkened, the inky hue I'd come to know as his own monstrous self swirling within the depths of his gaze as it awakened within him. As if he readied himself for the approaching threat, eager for the violence of mayhem that came our way. He nodded, pulling in a deep breath as I turned and dove into the water.

I pulled Kipp down as fast as I could, pushing through the sea at my top speed as my senses screamed that danger closed in on us. I spun, swimming on my back as I stared into Kipp's face, watching as his skin stretched and tightened as I shot us through the ocean like a bullet. I refused to let this man drown, so I watched his eyes for sign of distress as I moved us closer and closer to where we'd left his crew.

Looking above me to where we headed, I noticed Kipp's ship already sat right side up in the waters. His crew had worked efficiently these past two days, readying the ship for the final leg of our quest while we'd faced off with Scylla. When I glanced back at Kipp, his face reddened and his eyes bulged with fear. My heart stilled as I raced us toward the surface.

We broke through the surface with a loud splash that echoed in the night, and I didn't slow our movements as Kipp sputtered at my back. I tugged him along as I swam closer to the surface, a massive amount of churning water frothing around Kipp as I pulled him toward his ship, where already his men lowered the plank to pull us from the sea.

We didn't have time to wait for that though, so I dove into the ocean again, tugging Kipp along with me as I arced, swinging our momentum back toward the surface at heightened speeds as I carried us both from the ocean and into the air as we hurtled toward the deck of his ship. Patton's gaze lifted into the sky, his line of sight following as we traveled through the air until we landed with a hardened thud on the planks.

A loud wailing signaled our attackers' arrival, and I shed my tail as I jumped to my feet. The ship had been surrounded, and I stood naked, balancing on the railing of Kipp's rocking ship, as I stared down into the sea. I'd let several of my purple and silver scales line my legs, and the gills still throbbed along my ribs as I glared at the sirens holding various weapons as their tails churned the water around the hull of the ship.

"How dare you attack us" I screamed into the night. "I am your queen!"

A male I'd never seen before scoffed, a golden trident held firmly in his grip as he hollered back, "Not anymore." He lunged forward, leaping from the sea like I had just a moment ago until he landed on the deck.

His feet formed instantly beneath him, and he jabbed the sharpened tips of his weapon toward me. I ducked beneath his swing, my hair flailing around my shoulders as I shifted sideways, my hand shooting out in a flash until I'd yanked the weapon from his hold, spun it, and sent it firmly into his chest. His eyes locked onto mine as the light behind them faded, his life trickling from him just as his blood dripped onto the deck as his body fell to my feet.

I'd just killed one of my own subjects. I backed away, horrified by the blood I'd spilled. How could I have done this? Everything I had been working toward had been for my people, to break the curse that had cost us so many of our numbers, and I had just taken one of us with my own hands.

The deck of Kipp's ship was alive with commotion as sirens fought the crew, fought Kipp. Blood spilled across the boards, painting the deck crimson. Kipp's crew had been thinned; they didn't stand a chance against the viciousness of my people. I had to make a choice. Kipp and his crew, or my own people.

"Stop!" I commanded. "I am your queen!" I tried again, but they didn't still their attack.

A female siren lunged for me, a spear jabbing toward my heart with lightning speed. I twisted just in time to throw off her aim, but I hadn't been quick enough as I felt the sting of the pointed tip as it sliced the side of my stomach. I heard Kipp yelp as the blood bloomed along my middle, and I knew he'd felt the pain of the wound as well.

"Poseidon crowned a new king, and he sent us to dispose of you," my attacker said, snarling at me as she clutched her spear tighter.

I narrowed my gaze at her, disbelief igniting behind my gaze as I kept a close eye on her weapon. "You dare to spit on my mother's memory and her throne by allowing a creature who isn't even a siren to sit on it?" I demanded, anger lacing my words like a red, hot poker.

She jabbed out at me again, but I easily dodged her, keeping enough distance between us so that I'd have the time needed to react.

"He promised to lift the curse," she said, hissing.

I laughed. "He can't lift a curse he didn't even create," I replied, shaking my head at their stupidity. "It has to be broken, you fool."

A moment of hesitation flickered within her face before she gripped her spear tighter again. I barred my teeth, letting the sharped points snap at the air between us. The fact that Poseidon was using the belief of lifting the curse to gain loyalty and turn them against me while I did all the work of breaking the curse enraged me. Even if I succeeded now, they'd still think it had been by his hand that the curse had ended.

"I don't want to kill you," I sighed, dodging another advance as she lunged again, "but I will."

I gave her one final chance to change her course, but she swung the sharp, silver point of her spear at my head, and I rolled forward, leaping to my feet and letting my claws tear through the flesh of her chest as I pulled her still-beating heart from her chest.

Holding the heart above my head, the blood of it sliding down my arm and dripping from my elbow, I pulled power to me, letting it fuel the rage within me as I shouted, "You idiots chose the wrong side!"

This crown had been forced upon me at such a young age, and it had always been promised to me until very recently. Yet, Poseidon had set me up to fail my people repeatedly, even now he still pulled the strings to this moment, setting me up to be the villain of my sirens, my mother's creations. He had never intended for me to take the throne; I could see that now.

I let the heart fall to the boards at my feet, a wet thunk sounding as it hit the deck. Power thrummed toward me, mine by right from my Titan mother and my Olympian father. As I felt it vibrate within me, a wicked smile lifted my lips as I realized something. Poseidon only wanted me gone because he feared me. Feared the creature that he had helped create that now held more power than even he.

And he was right.

The desire to rip them all apart ignited like an inferno within me. I lifted my hand to do just that, but then my gaze found Kipp, who fought a siren with such ferocious intensity. His skin had been shredded, and I glanced down at myself, noticing slight wounds that mirrored his along my flesh, though not as intense as the ones he'd suffered. The siren gripped her clawed hold around his throat, lifting him from the ground as she knocked his sword from his hand. The darkness he'd held at bay within his gaze consumed him, and he released it. His hands clamped around the wrist of the siren holding him, and the darkness traveled like ink along his skin until it connected with the siren, consuming her until she fell to the deck as nothing more than a husk of what she had been.

"Kipp!" I took a step toward him, watching as that inky darkness took him completely. "Fight it!"

My attention glued to him, I failed to notice the siren at my back until a golden trident pierced me through the back, its magical tips protruding from my chest as I recognized the weapon while my knees slammed into the deck. Poseidon's trident had speared through my back to my chest, just missing the fatal blow to my heart by mere inches.

A scream tore through my throat as pain lanced through my spine. My body collapsed to the deck, and Kipp stood above me in seconds, his inky gaze locked to the siren as she pulled the trident from my back, my blood and skin splattering the deck as I lay my head against the cool, damp boards. Kipp reached out, a murderous look behind his eyes as he ripped the trident from her hold, dropping it to the ground at my side.

I blinked up at him, watching dots of blood mar his chest. Three splotches that matched the wounds I'd taken, though not as severe as what had torn through me. Kipp ignored the injuries as he wrenched the siren apart with his bare hands, limb from limb.

The siren's dying screams and the violence of her death stilled the ship as both mortal and siren stared on in horror. I reached out, wrapping my bloodied hand around the shaft of my father's weapon, using it to climb to my feet. This weapon could kill me, and I knew Poseidon never went without it. He never allowed it out of his sight. I looked around and out into the ocean beyond, knowing he remained out there somewhere close, watching.

I slammed the trident's base into the deck, a resounding thud echoing through the silent night as I glared out at the remaining sirens. They stared at me, frozen in uncertainty. One hand held the blood welling from my chest, the other firmly held the trident. With a disappointed shake of my head, I sent the base of the weapon into the deck again, watching as the sirens turned into sea foam, splashing onto the deck as if they were no more than the remnants of a stormy wave as they mingled with the crimson stains this night had left.

Pain shot through my hand like lightning; the consequences of using the unclaimed weapon already throbbing within my fingertips. The weapon could only be claimed with the death of its current wielder, and I had yet to end the life of my father. Before I could use the weapon again, it was wrenched from my hand, and it flew into the ocean, disappearing beneath the surface.

I watched the waters where it had disappeared, my blood still dripping across my fingertips as I clutched at my wounds. My breath heaved from me as I readied for what I knew would kill us all. I waited for my father to show now that his minions had weakened us. Waited for a wave, or a storm, or for whatever he would throw at us to end us.

Yet, nothing came.

I turned, searching for Kipp and finding him knelt near the center deck. Blood and gore smeared every inch of the ship, and the bodies of several of his crew lay broken and shattered where they'd lost their fight against my people. I made my way toward him, my chest throbbing with pain as I knelt in front of him, watching the inky darkness behind his eyes as it consumed him. His body tensed, hunched slightly, and his fingers held the bloodied fabric of his pants as if he fought an internal battle that he didn't appear to be winning.

Placing my hands over his, I brought my lips closer to his, my breath hot on his face as I commanded, "Let it go."

"I can't," he answered, his voice strained and the cords in his neck throbbing with the effort of his unseen fight.

I lifted my hands to cup his face. "Let it go," I demanded again, imbuing more force behind my words.

The darkness grew, spreading along the lines of his face until there was nothing left. Still, I held onto his face, my forehead tipping to his as I stayed here with him. He squeezed his eyes shut, his teeth clenching so hard that I feared he might shatter them as his body trembled beneath my hold.

"Come back to me," I whispered against his mouth, my lips brushing softly against his as I kept my gaze glued to his closed eyes.

It felt like hours that we sat there, but then seconds later, he blinked open his eyes, and a darkened, muddy brown gaze stared back at me, the darkness held back once more. Every bone in his body relaxed as he sighed. His hands came up to cover mine.

"Next time, I won't be able to pull it back," he admitted, and then he kissed me, capturing my lips for all to see.

The moans of pain brought us back to reality, and we helped each other to our feet as we turned to assess the state of his crew together. He'd lost several of his men tonight, and I could feel his pain as he stood at my side. In the same way I'd felt the loss of the sirens who'd perished at my hand, I knew he faced the same pain. He held a sense of responsibility toward his crew, and his grief at these losses was evident in the crease that formed along his brow.

Salty ocean water coated the deck, mingling with the blood that had been spilled. I walked through it, my heart heavy with the weight of everything that had just transpired. My people, once loyal and fierce, now lay as nothing more than frothy water beneath my feet, and I had done that to them.

"Patton!" Kipp gasped at my side, rushing forward and kneeling at his first mate's side.

I followed him to Patton's side, slower as the wounds across my chest had stolen much of my strength. I stood at Kipp's shoulder as the healer desperately stitched up the deep gash that still spilled blood to the deck at Patton's side.

"I'll be okay," Patton said, a weak laugh on his lips as he clasped his captain's hand. "Don't you worry for me."

Kipp looked to the healer. "How many did we lose?"

"At least five." He nodded to another sailor sitting with his back to the mast. "I placed a tourniquet on his arm, but I'm afraid he's lost too much blood before I was able to get to him."

I followed his line of sight to where a man sat looking paler than the moon, his head leaned against the wood at his back as his breath came in jagged rasps. A bandage had been wrapped tightly around his shoulder, trying to staunch the flow of blood from the missing limb. I searched the deck, wondering where his arm had fallen.

Kipp nodded, his face flushed and a mask of indifference in place as he turned his attention back to the healer. "You take good care of him," he said, indicating Patton, then he stood, crossing the deck with his gaze lowered until he disappeared below deck.

Patton glanced up at me, pain obvious in his expression. "Take care of him," he said to me.

I couldn't respond. I could only nod as I turned from him. His words had been the first sign of acceptance I'd received since coming aboard this ship, and I didn't know how to react to that. So, instead, I made my way across the deck, heading toward the lower decks where I knew I'd find a shattered pirate.