Chapter 1
Heart thudding in my chest like a fist on a door, I pump my tail as quickly as I can as I head to the trenches, my newfound knowledge helping me navigate. Without it, I don’t know where I would start with trying to find it. I think the only problem I’m going to have once I reach the trench is figuring out where exactly the merman is.
When the mountain we live on was nearly submerged by the flood, it had been a part of a mountain range, which explains all the dips and curves under the water around us. It happened one-hundred twenty-two thousand three-hundred and seventy-six years ago. The distance in time makes me feel so insignificant, only being alive twenty-two of them. Then there are those like Morgiana and Cern who lived for two to three-hundred years at a time. Makes me wonder if they ever knew each other, even just in passing. The timelines seem about right.
‘Well, you aren’t wrong.’
I startle at the voice beside me. Morgiana swims next to me in her octopus form, only this time she has a mouth. I slow my swim and she does too, eyeing me as her dark hair swarms around her.
‘The mouth thing makes it easier to communicate since I’m just an essence and you can’t hear my thoughts. Actually, I guess I’m more of a spirit. If I was an essence, I’d be gone after delivering my message. But it seems as though I can’t go anywhere outside of a ten-mile radius of you, so I have to be a spirit, a soul trapped in the in-between until you die or something.’
‘How did you get one, then?’ I ask, gills filtering water as I attempt to keep my breaths deep.
She shrugs. It looks like death has knocked a few years off her. She seems to be closer to my age than before. ‘Call it a miracle.’
Or a curse, I think to myself. The last thing I want is to hear her go on and on about things. She seems rather talkative.
‘I heard that,’ she tells me, tapping her forehead as her lower appendages contract to keep her at my level. ‘Remember I’m connected to you and your thoughts now. You can’t think anything without me knowing, so know lewd thoughts about that husband of yours, or Damian, for that matter. You’re the one who screwed him up in the first place.’
I make a face. Is this what it’s like to have a normal conversation with Morgiana? She reminds me a lot of Mariana, which I guess is unavoidable.
‘You don’t even know where you’re going, do you?’ she asks, rubbing her hands on her bumpy shoulders and pulling attention to them with her eyes. ‘You’re headed to the trenches, but do you know which one?’
‘Yes,’ I exhale, shivering as a cold pocket of water passes us in the current. ‘It’s called Kanashomi Trench and it’s just past Noelani.’
‘Look at you, your brain really has expanded,’ she smiles guilely. ‘So what does your brain tell you about me?’
Her grin turns dark in the brightening waters and I shake my head.
‘I need to get going. If I don’t stop, it’s a twelve-hour swim.’
‘You can’t swim for twelve hours straight, girlie,’ she comments, crossing her arms over her chest. ‘It’s physically impossible.’
I snort. ’I’m physically impossible.’
She nods. ‘Touché.’
I turn to keep swimming, my white hair catching my eye. I don’t think I’ll ever be the same, physically or mentally.
‘Be careful, girl,’ Morgiana says one last time before I drift too far out of earshot. ‘The darkness still lingers inside you and will fight against the light. What you do with it is your choice, but you will feel it and it will fight you for dominance.’
I grasp at my chest as another chill escorts itself through my body. My mind automatically flicks to the animal I’d felt, the one that merged with me when I stopped fighting it. Is that what she means?
The necklace I wore comes loose at my touch, pulling itself from my cleavage. The bag is worn and torn as if I’d carried it for a century, and the shell Damian had given me is in pristine condition, only there’s a slight green tint to it now.
‘My, my, my, you’re bringing things into this between-world you aren’t supposed to. From what I’ve learned about those trapped in my life, they cling to anything that they connect with the living, just like those who live cling to anything that will keep them from death.’
‘Why are you telling me all this?’ I ask, suspicious. Does she have a plan? Can she have a plan when she doesn’t even have a body or a breath of life to spare?
’Not because I have a plan, stupid girl,’ she spits, her tongue running over the front of her teeth. ’Believe it or not, I’m actually a nice person, and because of that, you’re still here. More or less, anyway. The only thing I ever did wrong was yelling at my sister in our last moments on Earth. Revenge is empty, pfft!’
She’s acting so childish.
‘And you aren’t?’ she quips. ‘That’s all the information I’ll give you because the rest is on a need-to-know basis, and you aren’t on the list. However, we can make a deal in exchange of information.’
‘I don’t think so,’ I spit, crossing my arms over my chest. ‘Besides, what would you want anyway? You can’t do or touch anything.’
‘Why would I tell you what I wanted if you weren’t interested in making a deal?’ She chuckles.
I sigh. ‘Are you trying to help me or confuse me?’
Her face darkens as she lifts a finger to her lips. ‘That’s my secret.’
Like fingers, her skin stretches over her mouth and closes the gap once more, her eyes glistening with chaos as she dissipates into wisps of smoke, disappearing from sight.
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