The piercing blow of a horn jolts through the night air and under the star-filled sky that partners up with the full-lit moon. It illuminates the danger we’re in, the bad decision of coming here so soon after their treasure was dropped off because they’re back again.
But they usually don’t come back until weeks later.
Three pirates surround my two sisters and I as my father’s words repeat sternly in my head, forbidding us to come here. Alluding to the peril of what could happen to us in the warmer water that meant we’re heading too far south and into territory that doesn’t welcome my kind.
They shouldn’t have seen us.
The crystal blue water must’ve glimmered just right for them to see the glitch of our tails because the hollers of men have yet to cease.
Especially when my sister, Rohana, was taken first.
Thick netting wraps around her body as they hoist her up the tall wooden ship. My sister, Kali, hasn’t stopped screaming in terror with each staggered lift that leads Rohana closer to the deck. The blood-curdling wails and the shouts of men are the only two things I hear until Kali takes a staggered breath next to me followed by a loud creak of something behind us, whining against the waves.
“There’s another ship,” Kali stammers in the water alongside me, bumping into my side. “They’re going to throw their nets.”
I glance over my shoulder at the ship with a mermaid silhouette decorating the front of it, catching my next inhale and sending a tremor down my spine.
These aren’t just any kind of pirates—they’re Hunters.
Men who take my people and sell them for profit. Who, according to my eldest sister, do the most unimaginable things to us.
We’re called beautiful, toxic, a fantasy in the sea with the voices of death. These men, they forget the other parts of what makes up a Siren—power. And it’s fueled by the ocean, which they are currently sitting on right now.
“Make them turn the boat,” I tell my sister. “I’m going to make a jump for Rohana.”
“You can’t,” she screeches. “They’ll take you too.”
I fix her with a glare because we don’t have the time to argue like we always do. I didn’t want her to come in the first place, but for once, I’m glad she did because I’m not good at singing.
“We’ll all be taken if you don’t sing,” I retort, watching the ship sail closer toward us. Their nets are already prepped along their starboard side and ready to drop around us if we don’t make a move to stop them.
Kali hesitates for only a second before nosediving beneath the chilly water. I do the same, going straight to the ocean floor before flipping back around and barrelling through the crest of waves. The moment I breach them, my body is in the air, arms outstretched to clasp the web of ropes that holds my other sister.
Rohana’s hand covers mine instantly the moment my fingers wrap around fibers. “Let go!”
I don’t respond, too focused on securing myself and taking the risk of letting go with one hand so I can reach into my bag that’s wrapped around my body.
“Hold on to me,” I order, looking into her lavender eyes. “Don’t let me go.”
She nods, and I release my hold, dipping into my pouch filled with trinkets I took from Sunset Cove and searching for the knife I always carry with me. Metal and gems clash against my flesh as I shuffle around the numerous relics.
“Please just let go,” Rohana frets louder. “Please.”
I ignore her again, I’m good at that. But the listening to my father part could use some work. With six older sisters, I’m used to being picked on and told what to do. I’ve adapted to disregarding their thoughts when I don’t agree with them because they don’t see the world as I do. They don’t share the same fascination of there being more to life than the ocean. My books show me that, the castles and the piers, the fields of green grass and sand nestled up close to the ocean’s border called a beach.
I want to see more, to know more.
My index finger touches the familiar feel of the handle I am looking for, and I clasp my hand around it. But it’s not before I hear the shouts of deep male voices sounding uncomfortably close.
“Get her over the deck,” one bellows.
“There’s two!” another one yells. Rohana’s grip tightens around mine, and my blood sprints through my body and straight to my heart that’s barely able to continue beating.
I will never let my sister go, not now or ever. And not to a bunch of Hunters who will either butcher or peddle her off.
The net suddenly jerks closer to the ship, along with my attention, and lands on a young boy holding a stick that’s looped within the mesh of the net.
He looks around my age, sandy brown hair and dark eyes. Our faces practically align with each other less than two arm’s length away.
Too close.
Alarm sounds in my head mixed with the instincts that I always try to nudge and propel away from me. His eyes widen, fastened on me as I do the same, in a stand-still moment where nothing moves and all sounds mute around us.
Opening his mouth, no words come out, and I can’t help the shutter that shoots through my frame. I’ve never been this close to a human before, and he seems to share the sentiment because he’s frozen along the railing of the ship.
Suddenly, I hear the hollers of men around us, breaking the hypnotic state I’m in, and it appears to do the same for him because he finally makes a move.
Reaching for something at his hip, I don’t wait to see what it is—I just swing.
Cutting through the crisp air that dries my skin, I catch the side of his face with my blade. He drops his stick that keeps us close to the ship, his hands immediately going to the place where I sliced him while the net swings away.
“Get them overboard boy!”
“Swing the net,” I tell my sister.
“What?”
“Swing the net,” I repeat. “They won’t be able to bring us around easily.” Rohana uses her body weight, leaning forward and backward while still holding on to my hand.
As carefully as I can so I don’t accidentally cut myself, I begin my attempt to sever some of the rope. In the process, the unpredictable net goes in every single direction possible, pumping my adrenaline through my eardrums and increasing the burn coursing through the pads of my fingers.
Then my knife breaks through a piece of binding.
Trying to study the progress while being thrashed through the air, our reality slaps me in the face. With the number of men on this ship and just the two of us, we’re never getting out of this.
One small piece and it’s not enough to free her.
“Davina.” It’s a demand to pay attention, to accept the inevitable that I know has transpired between Rohana and I.
We’re the closest in age, the two sisters who like similar things, share our wildest dreams late at night, and delve into all the stupid things I want to do.
And coming this far south is by far the most brainless of them all.
I’m going to lose my sister tonight. Lose her over a stupid excursion because I wanted to add more to my collection of trinkets and dodads. Rohana wanted to come, she always does. This time around, Kali caught us, so that’s how she ended up here, but it was Rohana that never left my side. She was my other half, my confidant and best friend.