by Ellie Margot
Riette thought of the blue-eyed man, how it made her feel, or parts of her feel. Her tattoo tingled again.
“Yes, but I’m not turning into one of them,” Riette said.
“Would you tell me if you were?” Cassian said.
Riette stayed silent.
Running a hand through his black hair, Cassian laughed. There was no humor in it. “One night? We make it not one night before this turns into a fucking shit show.”
When Riette stepped back, Cassian looked over at her and stopped. His face changed.
“No, I’m not saying... Come here.” He came to Riette and hugged her again. “I’m not trying to say you did anything. When I think about you being up here alone and having to fend off some—”
“Fuckwit,” added Mekhi. His anger showed in his words too.
“Yeah, fuckwit, I could—”
“You don’t need to do anything,” Riette said. “I did it already.”
“But that’s the problem. You shouldn’t always have to.” Cassian let her go and looked out at the sea. His shoulders drooped as he looked at the water that had almost claimed her.
Maybe she didn’t, but maybe that would always be her job. To save herself.
Chapter 11
The first thing Cassian did when they went back downstairs was take the light jacket that he’d brought with him and put it over the window. He pounded it onto a nail, ripping the jacket in the process. No one fought him, least of all Riette, but Mekhi caught her looking at the window and frowned.
The last thing she wanted to do was see that thing again, but it didn’t change the fact that she felt like he was just outside the window, waiting for her to look at him again. It was disconcerting, and chills formed on Riette’s arms thinking about it.
Yes, the man was the hottest thing she had ever seen so far, but being a siren was a death sentence. And the chills, headaches, and blood out of her fucking ears? She couldn’t help feeling like she had lost all control of her life.
With very few exceptions, Riette kept herself busy and below in the lower part of the ship. The other men on board didn’t look at her. Period. Riette knew they knew about Lefty. His bunk was noticeably empty for the rest of the trip, but his belongings hadn’t lasted the night. Others took what they wanted, but no words were spoken.
“Fuck,” screamed a man from above on the top deck. It was the morning of the next day.
Riette sat playing with Bark with her back turned to shield him from view from everyone else. She tensed but didn’t leave her spot. It couldn’t be anything good. Then, she realized Cassian and Mekhi were both above her on the main deck, and with that thought, she put Bark back into the bag, with him protesting, and slipped upstairs.
The main deck was quickly turning to chaos. People were running from side to side, pulling at ropes, and some were praying. Jeffery moved quickly past her, and each one of his footsteps shook the planks beneath her feet.
She saw Mekhi before Cassian.
“What is happening?”
Mekhi shook his head, not taking his eyes off the water.
She shook his arm. “What is it?”
“You know that thing, that sea monster shit we saw from the cliffs?”
“Yes.” Riette turned to look at the sea, but she didn’t see anything.
“He’s been following us since Jeffery got rid of the body of that guy.”
“Shit.”
“Are you okay?” asked Cassian. He ran up and put his hand on her chin.
She saw the same look in his eyes that Jeffery gave her and stepped back, breaking the contact. She didn’t want Cassian seeing her as weak. She wasn’t broken. “I’m fine.”
Cassian backed away, questions written in the lines on his face.
“Where?” Riette asked.
“There,” said Mekhi. He pointed out.
“I don’t see it.”
“You do. See that thing that looks like a light sticking out of the water?”
Riette peered forward. She moved closer to the edge of the ship, but Cassian grabbed her arm to pull her back.
“Not too close.”
“Cassian, I’m not going to fucking break.”
“I’m not saying you are.”
“Then trust me. When have I ever been a damsel in distress with you? With fucking anybody?”
“Never, but—”
“Then stop. Please.”
“Uh, guys.”
“What?” both of them asked in unison to Mekhi. He was pointing out to sea, though.
“Uh, that light I was talking about is part of the monster.”
“What?” Riette turned and looked at the little thing Mekhi was calling a light. It looked almost like a lamp post of sorts, something Riette had only heard of, but it didn’t make sense out here.
Then Riette saw what it was attached to. Her mouth dropped open, and she stepped back from the edge. The fish was something that should never be off the sea floor. It belonged down there because it should never see the light of day.
But now it was going to.
It started to come up and break the tension of the top of the sea. It kept coming. Scale after scale, and the mouth came first. There were rows of teeth, and things were swimming out of its mouth just as fast as water was rushing into it.
“Fuck me. Sea monkeys. People, man your fucking stations. Now!” Georgette’s voice boomed on the deck, and people did move. All of them. All at once.
Riette grabbed Mekhi and Cassian and ran to Jeffery. “How do we help?”
“You all got something special, don’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
Jeffery looked at each of them again. Riette knew he was referring to what he had seen of her before.
“You mean the powers?”
“Yes, you all are something else. I could see the air shifting around you guys when I first met you, especially this one.” Jeffery gestured to Riette. “If you do have something, and I pray to God that you do, you need to use it and use it now.”
He swallowed and nodded before backing away and running to grab the ropes that were giving four men working together trouble.
Riette turned to each of them. “Mekhi, can you work the sea? Maybe if it’s choppy, it’ll throw the thing off.” She took a breath. “Cassian, you need to work the shit out of the wind. Pick it up something fierce, and aim it at this fucker. Hard as you can.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Mekhi, automatically in soldier mode.
Cassian shot Riette a look she couldn’t interpret and nodded the same.
They went to the side where even more of the beast was coming out of the waves. The sea was eerily calm, as if it was eagerly awaiting the monster’s arrival. Riette closed her eyes. She summoned her power, and the wind shifted around her. It tingled, just like her tattoo.
She didn’t know which strings inside of her to pull. Her strength would only work if the thing was close enough to touch or on ground to shake. Fire could just piss him off, but it was all she had, so she was going to use it. Her palms started to heat. More and more, the flames licked her fingertips.
She felt Cassian beside her, and the wind blew her hair. Cassian and Mekhi might not have the same level of power as she did, but Jeffery was right. They were all something special.
She opened her eyes. She had full flames on her hands, and she saw the eye of the monster who wanted to eat them or at least wanted them dead. The first thing Riette noticed was that the monkeys were different sizes.
“Holy shit, they’re real,” said Mekhi.
Riette looked down. Some were the size of dogs, and some were as small as tiny birds, but regardless of size, they were all blue in color and had too many teeth to not be taken seriously.
“Forget them, and work the water,” said Riette.
Mekhi closed his eyes, placing his palms up by his side, and the waves began to get choppier. A quick look at Cassian told her his eyes were closed too. She could feel the heat coming off him as she stood there.
/> Riette turned her attention back to the beast. An impossible amount of it was out of the water. The eye she could see was fully exposed, and it looked black from the small distance they were from it.
The terrifying thought struck her that there could still be more of it. It could be big enough that there was still an unseen amount under the boat as they stood there waiting to be toppled. It was more than a fish. It was like a nightmare had taken an aquatic shape. The beast was bigger than the ship.
Riette watched the flames that were a full six or more inches off her hands. She was used to the sensation, but that level was blinding. Taking a breath, she aimed for the eye, ignoring the sea monkeys getting closer, ignoring the chaos on the boat, too, and all she smelled was the sea.
She shot the fire out of her hands, focusing on sending it to the eye. The fireball was traveling to where the beast was. It landed to the right of its eye, and it opened its mouth wider at the contact.
She couldn’t tell what damage had been done, but it shifted, and more monkeys were spat from its lips. It didn’t seem to have any effect besides letting more sea monkeys leave it.
“I think I’m making it worse,” said Riette.
Georgette ran up beside them. “More force. Now, preferably.”
The sea monkeys had breached the ship. Each little body hurled itself over the railing and ran over the deck like water lapping against the shore. Riette couldn’t keep track of the numbers. It was like the boat was being filled with biting, terrible sand.
Mekhi hadn’t opened his eyes, but the water was moving. Waves rocked against the boat. Jeffery ran by, grabbed the edge of the boat, and looked beneath.
More waves, pushed by Cassian’s wind, splashed on the monster, and part of it dipped below the sea as if it were retreating. Riette sent more fire to its form, and she could hear the sizzling of scales burning from here.
Something akin to seasickness ran over her just as a monkey got close enough to bite at her legs.
“Riette,” said Cassian. He kicked one of the monkeys, punting it out to sea.
Riette sent flames to burn a line of them, and they scattered like cockroaches. They had red eyes and light blue fur, and with so many of them being there, they were terrifying.
“Fuck, they’re everywhere,” said Mekhi. He kicked a few off himself but turned to Riette to see what to do.
“Cassian, blow them off the deck.”
“I—”
“Now. We can’t fight them all.” Riette’s voice was gruff. She was handling the ones near her, but the whole boat was overrun with them. They were climbing on every surface, on everyone. They clawed at the people on deck, tearing and pulling their skin off in small chunks. Some paused to eat the chunks; others bit and tore just to kill.
“Now!”
Cassian closed his eyes. Sweat formed on his brow. His arms shook, and he swallowed again. Riette wanted to help him. Everything around her was too much at once, and he would pay for it after. But there needed to be an after, so it had to be done.
The wind picked up. It was focused. A gust shot over the surface of the boat. The smaller monkeys were the most susceptible, and then, they were airborne, hurtling into the sky. The crew would have to send the bigger ones back the hard way.
Riette went to the cluster closest to her. Jeffery stood nearby with Georgette beside him. They weren’t above ripping the little things apart and tossing the bodies overboard, but Riette couldn’t do it. The idea of not hurting creatures was deeply ingrained in her still. Was she going to let them bite the shit out of her? Hell no, but she thought the best option was to let the sea deal with them.
Her tattoo burned on her back, and she pulled the strings inside of her to gather the strength from the earth. It took longer to access, but after precious moments were lost, it came. The powers thundered to life, shaking the people closest to her as her power shook the boat.
Some of the monkeys ran when they felt the shift in the air. They sent a large quantity of the rest the old fashion way—by hand, one by fucking one, until Riette had cleared the area around her.
Men screamed in agony on the deck. The floor was slick with blue blood mixing with the blood of the crew. Everywhere Riette looked was destruction. Some monkeys were ripped in half and discarded; others were eating the crewmembers that had died or were on their way there.
One of the monkeys was climbing up Mekhi, and Cassian was fighting it off. Riette tried to get to them, bypassing crew members all involved in their own battles. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw blue disappearing to the lower decks, but there was too much to fight in front of her to worry about that.
“It’s gone under,” yelled Georgette.
Riette didn’t turn. She was too busy grabbing the monkey off Mekhi. It was a bigger one and had latched onto his ear. She squeezed it, and it went limp, releasing him. It didn’t feel right to do it, but she didn’t want Mekhi to be minus a body part for her morals.
She tossed the still creature into the sea. There were hundreds of broken tiny bodies on the deck. A few straggled, but others jumped off without being forced. They knew they had lost the fight.
Jeffery stomped one under his large foot with a grunt.
“Did I mention I hated these little shits?” asked Georgette. She was covered in blood that looked blue in the light.
“They aren’t my favorite,” said Jeffery.
Riette turned to the guys. “Are you okay?”
Mekhi grabbed his ear and looked at the blood on his hands from doing so.
“Fucking fantastic,” he said. He smiled a second after. “You see the water move, though?”
Riette shook her head, trying not to smile. “Cassian?”
His hair was out of place, and his skin had a grayish tint to it. “I’m okay,” he said. His voice was strong, but he had shadows under his eyes.
“You look like shit,” said Mekhi. Cassian shot him a look, but Mekhi continued. “You’re still prettier than any dude has the right to be, but also shit. You look more shit than I’ve seen you.”
“Mekhi, what the hell?” Riette said. She pulled on Cassian’s shirt sleeve. “You killed it. The wind saved the whole operation.”
“Excuse me? I believe if I hadn’t made the waves a fuck-ton higher, we would have had a lot more little monsters all around us.”
“You’re both fine,” said Georgette. “You saved our asses.”
Jeffery came by with her, alongside another man from the crew.
“I mean, if your girl hadn’t killed Lefty, we might not have been in this situation, but you all held your own when the shit show started, so that’s something to be proud of,” said Georgette.
Riette settled for taking that as a compliment.
Chapter 12
“Sleep, now,” said Riette. Her voice wasn’t overly soft, but then again, she wasn’t used to being the mothering type.
Cassian shook his head.
“Not a question. Not a request. Not sugarcoating it. Mekhi didn’t have the best way with words, but you need to rest it out. Preferably right this second and not after you’ve fallen to sleep and I have to drag you downstairs.” She paused for a breath. “Please?”
“Stop being a hard ass,” said Mekhi. He picked up another monkey carcass and threw it overboard.
“Wait, Jeffery,” said Mekhi. Jeffery was close enough to their group. He was busy hurling a pile of monkeys off the side of the ship.
“Yeah?”
“If we’re not supposed to drop bodies off the side to stir up the fishies, why are the monkeys being chucked out there?”
“It’s like they belong to them. They’re the little minions of those monsters. The monkeys do the monster’s bidding. They eat the leftovers. The monsters don’t eat them.” He paused. “You understand?”
“About shit, or less,” said Mekhi. He shook his head, and his reddish hair caught the sun.
“You’re not lying,” said Jeffery. He chuckled, and the laugh boomed i
n his chest. Hell, Riette felt the laughter, too, in her own chest.
“I’ll be back after getting him settled,” said Riette to Mekhi. She looked to the captain across the way. Georgette was in full form. The men around her listened intently, even the ones who were bleeding from little tiny bite wounds.
“Come on, Windy.”
“Don’t call me Windy,” said Cassian. He swayed a little when he turned quickly.
“See? You need to sleep.”
Riette grabbed his arm and led him under. There were a few guys down there, but Riette ignored them all. She pushed Cassian onto the bed and onto his back. He turned to shrug her off at first, but then he was gone to the world.
She shifted the almost completely threadbare blanket up to his shoulders, but the action exposed his feet. Settling for a happy middle, she left him to it and turned to sit on her own bed for a minute to gather her thoughts.
She looked down to where she left her bag, but it had shifted over, closer to being almost underneath her cot. Scrambling, she bent down to grab it and saw something blue move inside.
“Crap,” she whispered, tossing the bag to the far side of the bed. It shuffled on its own.
“Bark?” she asked, but she knew it wasn’t him. He was used to playing stick when needed, and she knew the thing she’d seen was blue.
Riette took a quick breath, grabbed the bag, and looked inside. A small monkey, not much bigger than a rock the size of her hand looked up at her with its big red eyes.
It wasn’t hissing, though, nor was it showing its teeth.
“If you bite me,” Riette said, and she tested it by putting a hand close to the opening.
It peered at it and then sniffed her palm. Looking up at her, it licked her hand, and she pulled her hand back quickly.
“Are you a baby? Are the babies nicer?” Riette remembered how one of the smaller ones had bit her calf in the chaos of the fight.
“What are you—”
“What?” Riette asked. She closed the bag quickly and turned to meet Mekhi.
“Were you talking to someone?”
“Do you see anyone here?” Riette asked. She stood and brushed off her clothes. At the action, she touched a small amount of blue bloody goo, and she jerked her hand back quickly.