Chapter 13

I'd fallen into a fitful sleep. Lulled by the rock of the boat, the warmth of the siren at my back, and the commotion of the pirates and the storm. No one locked me away, no one paid much attention to me at all. So I slumped into fatigue, and my mind played tricks on me as I dreamt. As I dreamed, I remembered.

"You're getting married?" My mind spun. There was no other woman Rummy had kissed or been with but me. I didn't understand.

"At sunset, on the dock."

"I don't understand… I thought we were?—"

Rummy took my hands. "We are great friends."

Pain stabbed my heart. "Friends? Who—who is she?"

With a furrowed brow, my friend dropped my hold. "He is a lord… I will be running a household, I won't have to work at the inn, I can have children--- please, you must see how this is best—how you should find the same?—"

"A man? You—we—how could you? We were to run the inn together for all of our days. You said you loved me. We have made love, Rummy."

"I'm sorry… you are only a friend to me."

Only a friend. A friend.

She'd married him that evening, as I watched on sobbing. Afterward, I stumbled back to the inn where they were to have their feast and their first wedded night. I grabbed the discarded men's linens, changed from my dress into sailor pants and a button-down shit. Then, I'd struck a match, and lit it all on fire.

I'd watched it burn. The rooms we'd made love as friends in. The kitchen we'd kissed as friends in. The stairwell she told me she loved me as friends in. It was all gone. And so was my life.

I wanted to die beneath the waves rather than watch her become a lady of a house and marry and have babies with a common man.

Now, I'd get my wish for a watery death. Now, I felt I never loved Rummy at all, or at least, I'd never known true love with her. The kind that's felt back, the kind of love that isn't one-sided desire but mutual adoration and care. It was what I felt with my siren of the sea. The very ocean I wished to drown in now sent me its angel to consume me with love—but the most wicked thing of all was I'd never be able to be with her.

How could a girl of air and a siren of sea be together? We were more doomed than Rummy and I ever were—or maybe less—knowing that there was a chance my siren loved me, too. Would I ever find out? Did she leave me for dead? No matter, I'd use my last days to make sure her sister swam free. Captain Calico was sharper and more perceptive than what I'd imagined a pirate to be. Maybe these were a different breed of pirates—not in search of gold—but in pursuit of tales of the sort even sirens knew of their conquests.

My natural inclination was to run away and hide… but now… things were different. This time, I would find another way. For my siren, I would find another way. Could I best the surly sea captain? I'd sure as hell try.

"Ye want me to move them aboard, Captain?" The hairy pirate asked. We were the only ones remaining on the captured ship, and the others, men and women, I noticed, were manning the dark grey pirate ship. It was more worn and weathered than this vessel, though larger and more sinister looking.

Captain Calico eyed me and the siren thoughtfully before responding. "Somethin' tells me they should stay here—and me with ‘em. You go man the main. Shouldn't be but a few days before we're out of these cursed sugar seas."

A few days before we left the sugar seas? Panic and sorrow clawed at my heart. I couldn't leave my siren. What if I never saw her again?

Chills rose the hair on the back of my neck and arms as I recalled the pirates spearing the waves. What if my siren was hurt? I slumped onto the slippery deck next to the pristine siren within her net. The rain pattered to a misty drip around us as I idly watched the surly sea captain tie ropes and adjust sails.

"You should go with them," the beautiful siren said softly next to me. Her voice like melodic wind chimes on a cool summer breeze. "They're your kind. They can get you to land."

"Pirates are not my kind."

"Humans are."

"Well, I don't claim them anymore. And I'm not leaving you. I'll find a way to set you free if it kills me."

The siren tilted her head, and I allowed myself a faint moment of getting lost in her rose and turquoise eyes. "I'm Cupida, that is my name. And do not dismiss your mortality so quickly. I have spent many sopping, swimming days wondering what a life on legs might be like." She smiled, her rose colored hues twinkling before adding. "My sister loves you. I feel it in my gills."

My cheeks flushed. "I love your sister and that means I love you, too, by default. I'm not leaving you to a bunch of asshole pirates."

The siren shrugged. "Something will come for us, perhaps the mer, perhaps the sea… perhaps something far worse. But Captain Calico will die with a lungful of saltwater from my seas."

She seemed so calm, so unworried, that her assured words shivered me to my bones. And apparently, I wasn't the only one, as Captain Calico dropped something heavy, noting us when we looked over, before quickly tucking her wild red hair behind her ears and securing another rope.

Clearing her throat, she walked over, taking a sip from her flask and offering it to me, which I denied. The Captain then eyed the siren and offered the drink, which to both of our shock, she accepted. We watched in fascination and horror as the siren opened her mouth wide, unhinging her jaw like a serpent and baring her sharp fangs before swallowing the flask whole.

She licked her lips with a pink, forked tongue. "Disgusting."

Captain Calico doubled over with laughter, putting two hands on her knees as she howled. I bit my lip to hide my smile as she dried her tears and knelt before the siren. "I like you. What's your name?"

"I don't have one."

"You won't be freed by lying. I know lies, I know truths, I am a story keeper." Calico replied evenly. "And I'm finding myself inclined to keep you alive."

"The feeling is not mutual."

Again, the captain laughed, lowering to sit cross-legged. I inched backward, content to pretend to be asleep while the two talked. I had to find a way, hatch a plan, to get us both back to where we belonged… and… where did I belong again? That was the question, wasn't it? I'd figure it out with a lungful of air or… like the siren sister said, a lungful of saltwater.

Buzzing rock music and men laughing from the other ship galloped over the waves. The siren chimed, "I'll use your bones to pick my teeth. You think I've never tasted story keeper pirate before?"

Captain Calico arched a half smile. "It would be an honor to have you taste any part of me."

"It would seem as if your little music box of nonsense doesn't work against my song, then, Captain." She reached a long, slender arm through the netting, beckoning the pirate closer. Despite her claws, the captain crawled forward, and it was an effort to pretend my eyes were closed and my middle wasn't heating at the sight.

Would Cupida take the opportunity to cut the captain's throat? Her long claws cupped the pirate's jaw, bringing her closer. "A taste, you say?"

The pirate's eyes hooded and her lips parted in desire as the pink siren cupped her face, claws tangling in Calico's red curls. I half expected blood and half expected sex. A tantalizing combination.

Even though the ship shook abruptly and I wobbled right onto my butt, I couldn't take my eyes off the two of them. For a moment, it was like staring at me and my siren from the outside in. Is that what we looked like? Though I doubted my own beauty even came close to the surly captain or the serene siren, they were lovely to look at on their own, yet together… they were a stunning sight to behold. They reminded me of a sunset over the ocean. Captain Calico, the bright and burning sun and the pink siren, the fuchsia waves beneath the ruby light.

It was wrong, because the red-headed woman currently in a lip-lock with the beautiful blond siren was our captor, but I liked the two of them together.

Suddenly, the pirate captain drew a knife, holding it above the siren's head. I screamed in warning, trying to get steady on my feet before lunging forward. But it was too late. Captain Calico sliced, and the siren fell to the ship deck, the net splayed around her as she still clutched to Captain Calico's neck. The pirate had cut the net, not her lover, and still held her by her pink finned hips.

"You've bewitched me— and I've let ye." Captain Calico purred into another kiss.

Cupida flicked her long tongue playfully against Calico's neck before shimmying out of the webbed netting that blanketed them. "Now, it's only fair you allow me to drown you and feast upon your flesh."

The siren made it sound as if her words were a seductive promise and not a threatening and horrific fate. Somehow she spoke to the same fate I looked over the bannister and into the depths at. There were no other options for me. I could die in the sea with my siren or I could live a half life on land.

Captain Calico only seemed excited by the idea of death as she pressed her body closer to her siren and they began to move together. I felt I shouldn't watch, so instead I looked over the ship's edge, content to jump if I saw my own purple, raven-haired beauty.

An unfamiliar pair of eyes met mine. Glowing turquoise in the deep, as if she were lit from within, she spoke to me. "It would be better if you gave yourself to me. I could make a necklace of your bones to give to her, my sister, whom you desire… but Cupida needs to be freed. If any harm comes to her, I will kill you most painfully, sailor girl."

I swallowed. Another sister of my siren, though this one seemed… fiercer, angrier. The boat rocked again and instead of lulling forward, it slammed to an abrupt halt. Captain Calico appeared next to me then, Cupida at her side, pulling up onto the edge of the ship's banister by her elbows. Her mighty tail swished calmly. Despite her sweet exterior, I had a feeling that this pink siren was just as crafty as the clever sea captain.

"Another siren? It's as if you're all obsessed with me." Captain Calico tossed her red curls over her shoulder. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Give us our sister back now, or later, you die either way." The blue siren snarled from where she waded in the dark waters. Men from the other ship shouted, touting their spears, but the captain raised a hand to silently stop them.

She ran a tender hand through Cupida's long blonde and pink hair. "What if I like her? I do enjoy collecting beautiful things… and the stories she could tell…"

"Brizo," Cupida said in a sing-song voice. "I'm having a bit of fun. Don't be so worried. A female pirate. How delightful. I've never seen one before."

Brizo crossed her muscular arms. "Playing with your food is about to get us in a load of trouble."

Just then, my siren appeared, and my heart leapt. Each time I beheld her, she was more stunning than the last. I wanted her. I knew in that moment, no matter what. If only it meant a lungful of water ushering me toward my death.

Swimming closer, glowing from black to her glittering shade of purple. Opening her mouth to speak, I gasped at what happened next. Even the pirate captain shouted and Cupida shrieked.

An enormous tentacle shot from the tide— wrapping my siren in its coils before dragging her beneath the surface.