All the Stars and Teeth(58)
I always wanted to sail, and I love it even more than I thought I would. But gods, I miss my family.
Are my parents worried about me? How is Yuriel dealing with everything? And what do my people think of me now—am I not only a monster to them, but also a traitor for fleeing?
Vataea leans back on her hands, sporting a soft smile. “You’re not the first to tell me of its beauty. So long as you can promise that it will come with plenty of royal perks, I suppose I wouldn’t mind a trip to Arida. It must be quite the place, if you miss it so much. You’ll have to promise to show me around.”
“I’d be happy to,” I tell her, trying to ignore the weight of her words as they fight to burrow into my skin. All my life I’ve wanted to journey from Arida. And as much as I love the ocean, I can’t help but miss my parents. My home. Gods, even my bed.
“Arida is an amazing place,” I admit, swallowing down my longing. “But I can’t go back there, yet. Kaven isn’t the only threat to Visidia. If I can’t figure out a way to earn back the trust of my people, Visidia will be in danger.”
“So you made a deal with a pirate for help?” she snorts. “He might be charming, but you don’t strike me as someone so easily lured.”
“He was the best option I had,” I argue, quietly, “Do you really think Bastian’s charming?”
“Of course he is!” Vataea’s laugh throws me off guard. I sink into the sound, chest warming. I can’t remember the last time I was able to just sit and chat with another girl. Growing up in Arida, my closest friends were Casem and Mira. While I care deeply for them both, the fact that everyone who lives on that island is employed by my family isn’t lost on me.
I never knew how much I wanted this—how much I was missing it—until now.
“You must think he’s charming as well,” Vataea teases. “Otherwise you would have drowned the poor boy.”
I’ve no control over the strange face I make at her. “What are you talking about?”
“You think a mermaid’s enchantment can really be broken so easily?” Vataea angles herself toward me, laughing. “The kiss only works if the enchanted one has romantic feelings toward the person who kisses them. I figured you’d snap one of them out of it if you were lucky. You are far luckier than I thought.”
I lean back on my hands. After our kiss, Bastian said he’d been thinking of Vataea, not me. But I broke his enchantment all the same.
The pirate is a dirty liar.
“It was a gamble,” I say. “You expected one of them to follow you.”
Though Vataea presses her lips together, the expression she wears is smug. I was right to think she’s dangerous.
“I would’ve brought him back to the boat once I was finished,” she says coyly. “Or tried to. Call it a calculated risk.” She’s as confident in her actions as I am lucky.
It’s so easy to like Vataea, but if legends are true, she’s the most dangerous one on this ship. I’ll have to remember this the next time I decide to blindly follow her instructions.
“I want you to know that I truly appreciate you helping us,” I tell her, because I see the longing in her as she stares out at the sea, raw and palpable. Vataea doesn’t need a ship to travel; she could swim to any of the islands in half the time it would take Keel Haul. And yet here she remains, agreeing to help the same people who have destroyed her home and family. “I’ll pay you however much you need for your travels, of course, but know that we would have helped free you from Blarthe regardless of your decision to help us.”
A thin smile crosses her lips. “My kind have been hunted since long before I was born. My mother was killed by poachers, and many of my sisters suffered a similar fate, stolen for our scales or for our bodies. This is no new problem, but your father was the first to recognize us as members of Visidia. He gave us his protection when no one else seemed to care.” She brushes her fingers along one of the figurehead’s barnacles, chest heaving with a sigh. “It’s not about the money; you are his daughter, and you need help only I can provide. I know what that’s like. A mermaid remembers those she’s indebted to, and she always repays.”
My chest warms, disregarding the cool air on my skin. I’m glad to know that, at the very least, Father has done well by these people. That there’s at least one person who still loves their king.
“That said,” Vataea continues, her lips stretching into a wicked grin, “I’ll certainly be taking the money. I’ve places to go and plenty of food to try, after all.”
I laugh, about to ask more about her home and the place she most wants to visit when a squelching noise pierces the silence and something in the water causes the ship to jerk violently to the side. I grab on to the rail to steady myself, but Vataea has nothing but the figurehead to cling to. She gasps, trying to dig her nails into the rough barnacles as the ship rocks again. Keel Haul groans through its masts as it fights against a sea that was perfectly fine only moments before.
One look at the horizon shows the waters are tame everywhere but beneath Keel Haul. The noise grows louder; it’s like the base of a waterfall, vicious and thrashing. But there’s no waterfall in sight.
“Hang on!” I yell as Vataea grips the figurehead as tightly as possible, struggling not to slip. I stretch over the bow, reaching until my arms ache, but there’s too much space between us. Without risking a fall, I can’t grab her.