Sea Witch(72)

They’re going to think I did that.

Annemette’s grip tightens as she leans into my ear, as close as Nik just minutes before.

“You know what I think? I think you didn’t really want to save me. You didn’t want to save me any more this time than you wanted me to survive four years ago.”

A gasp escapes my lips. Anna. My Anna. But there’s a knife twist in her words that my Anna didn’t have.

Between Nik’s love and Anna’s resentment, my heart stops beating for a moment.

It thuds back to life, tears stinging my eyes as I try to grab for her face, her hair, my friend. I’ve missed her for so long. Even with all my personal loss, I can’t imagine her pain. But her grip only tightens more and I can’t touch her. “Anna. Oh, Anna, I wanted you to survive. I did a spell that day, but I—”

That smirk twists into a sneer. “Failed. You failed because you didn’t understand, and you wrecked that too.” Her teeth are bared—I don’t recognize her face anymore. The torque of her grip on my hands is cutting off my circulation. “Instead of protecting my life, you caused the black plague with that magic.”

The T?rhed. The minnows at my feet, faceup and inked black, flash in my mind. Dead by my tears. My black tears. The look on Hansa’s face as she saved me. The T?rhed didn’t just start that summer; it started with me that day.

I did it.

She’s right. I know she’s right. I’ve known it deep down for a while now.

“I tried to fix it. This year, the sea life has returned—”

“The sea life you’ve ripped from where they truly belong? The spells of abundance you unleashed on the sea, killing faster than the black death? If they aren’t dying in nets, they’re dying of famine. Because there are too many.” Her hands grip tighter, her cool magic ringing my wrists along with her fingers. “The sea can’t take more of your kindness, witch.”

“Let me try—”

“To fail again? Oh, no. No. Tonight is about success.” Despite the cone of water, a swimming soldier gets a hand on the sandbar, but with a lift of her arm, Anna sends him back into the deep. We can’t see the rest of the guards, but I can feel her magic surging forth, pushing them all back and out of striking distance with a mere word under her breath. She doesn’t even break eye contact. Her eyes flash, and the cut of her teeth finally resembles something of a smile.

“Tonight, Anna Liesel Kamp reclaims her life.”

I try to move, try to touch her, implore her, but she’s done something, and I can’t move my arms. My feet. Anything. Even my magic won’t budge, frozen in my veins. My heart begins to sink, the only thing Anna cannot control.

“Anna, please!”

“Oh, no, you will get no pity from me.” Again, she laughs. The sound is guttural, mirthless. “You stole my life. You stole it with your dare. You stole it with that stupid hold you have over Nik. He chose you. He saved you. He failed me. Because of you.”

“Anna—”

“Nothing you can say will give it back. Nothing you can do will give it back.”

She removes a hand from my shoulder and thrusts it out behind her in the direction of the rock that divides the cove. Though only one hand remains, I’m still powerless to move. My magic feels like sludge under my skin. If only I knew more about how it all worked. If only I’d studied harder. Practiced more. I’d felt so powerful moments ago, and now I’m completely helpless.

The wall of water surrounding us parts, and something bursts through into our space. Not a guard, no . . . it’s misshapen, gray, bloated, a dark hole through its middle.

But then in a blink I recognize it. I gasp and start to fight against Anna’s restraints. I need to touch him. I need to make sure. But I know when she starts laughing again that the nightmare before me is real.

The thing before me is my father. Was my father.

“While your solution was an exceedingly juvenile spell, the idea was right. A life for me to be here, a life for me to stay.”

I see it all so clearly now. True love was never going to save Anna—not with what she’s become. If it was even a solution to begin with. There’ve been so many lies.

There’s a rumble from somewhere in the clouds, and something surges deep within the water surrounding us. And I know my part in her revenge before I can see the outline of the wall of water.

Our sea didn’t claim me that day, though Urda’s choice was there. Now, Anna is giving the water another chance.

“And I’m to be the life you take to stay.” I force myself to look at her as I say it. My father paid the price for Anna’s vengeance and now I must do the same.

She smiles—the most soulless thing I’ve ever seen. “Oh, no. Your life isn’t valuable enough for that.”

Anna’s grip releases. Suddenly, I’m aloft, next to my father, floating. I’m still immobile. My muscles, fight, magic, all useless.

With a twist of her hand, a gust as strong as a cannonball strikes me in the chest. Father’s body and I shoot back through the wall of water, arcing toward the stormy churn of the cove.

As I fall, I inhale my last breath. Close my eyes.

And then I am one with the sea.





ON THE SURFACE


The little mermaid was smiling. Smiling and crying—salt water was the perfect cheat for tears.