The Sirens Gift

Chapter 20.

Addy slowly released my hand as we neared the surface. I was reluctant as always to let her go. My heart still pounded from her words.

“I know I belong with you…”

She belonged with me… I know she did…

But I knew she had to leave, like every time before, she had to go back to her world. A world which sat above the calm ocean, far away from the peaceful life I led beneath the reef.

But even still, as we came to the barrier, where air met water, where her world met mine, I hesitated. I flexed my fingers, catching just the tip of hers as she pulled and she looked back at me. Golden eyes questioned me as I stared on. The sun glinted off her eyes as she tilted her head in question.

“Cas…” she began as she stopped.

“Do you really have to go…?” I asked softly.

Her plump lip curled at the edge and she nodded sadly. “Same time tomorrow… like always.”

I smiled back at her and nodded. Then I pulled her back to me, catching her waist with my arm and leaning into her. I kissed her gently. Her sweet taste rolled over my lips once more. My heart thudded against my chest and I resisted letting her go once more.

When she pulled away she smiled and then pecked my cheek with her soft lips before we continued to the bay. We swam slowly into the protection zone of the Sirens Lighthouse, guarded by mer magic to protect us from untrustworthy eyes.

I wondered for the last few weeks how it was that Addy had even seen me when I had crawled to shore beneath the alcoves of the lighthouse to try to untangle myself from the fisherman Otis’ nets I had found myself trapped in. He had snagged me just outside the bay completely by accident. Perhaps I’d been too engrossed in getting to shore to see the mysterious girl who floated in the ocean daily to notice his net hurtling down on me from his fishing trawler. I was in a day-dream, imagining all the things I’d say to her had we been able to meet or communicate.

I’d caught a lot of grief from the elders when I came back covered in scratches and cuts from fighting my way off of Otis’ vessel. When I returned to the reef after Addy had cut me out of the net with her tiny pocket knife, I was scolded for hours while my cuts were stitched. I’d mentioned a human finding me beneath the reef and one of the elders within the healers gave me a funny look, then brushed me off as she continued stitching the slice within my tail.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” I said softly as I pressed her brown waves from in front of her face, leaving my final kiss for the day on her lips.

She nodded and we reached the surface. She took a step toward the lighthouse, then looked back at me and I paused. Tilting my head in confusion.

“What?” She asked.

I pointed to my eyes and she c****d her head.

“Eyes?” She asked. I rolled mine then grabbed onto her hand, pulling her back below water where her eyes shifted from black to the golden, honey brown.

“Your eyes…”

“What about them?” She asked with worry.

“They turned black…”

She gave me a funny look as the comment processed in her mind. “Black?”

“Like… how mine do when I come out of the water.”

“That’s impossible, I didn’t feel anything.”

“I never feel it. It just happens…”

She shook her head. “Are you sure?”

We breached the surface of the water again and as she blinked, the brown colour of her eyes deepened to black, blocking out her cornea again, and I nodded. As we slipped our heads back down, her eyes turned back to brown, just like they would for any siren when they left the water.

“I’m sure, Addy…” I said with a nod. “Sirens' eyes turn black to protect them from the sun… yours did it.”

“That’s… weird isn’t it?” She asked.

“Well yeah, I’ve never seen it happen…”

“Even with the Oceans Gift?”

I shook my head, “It’s only supposed to give you the ability to breathe and talk under the water… it shouldn’t affect your eyes…”

We pondered for another moment but she shrugged “Maybe… it’s just a coincidence, maybe the circumstances have to be right, or…”

“I could ask the Elders… they may know…”

She nodded. “That may help… Do you think it’ll go away?”

“If it works the same as mer it should if you go indoors out of bright sun…” I responded. “But if it doesn’t, let me know tomorrow so I can take you to the elders and have them look at your eyes. Okay?”

“Yeah…”

I caught her lips once more before she finally broke away from me.

“Same time tomorrow?” I called after her. She smiled and nodded.

“Like always.”

I brought my head from the water and watched her dry herself with her towel that was neatly tucked into her striped bag and then pull on her clothing. She wrapped her hair in the towel and stray strands spidrred out near her ears. She pressed her sandy feet into some old shoes before she hoisted her bag over her shoulder and turned back to me. She signed goodbye like she always did and then headed around the corner of the alcove after I signed it back to her.

I pouted as she disappeared. Breathing in fresh spring air, I sighed and watched after her for as long as I could. When she appeared on the other side of the Lighthouse Cape, I sank back into the water of the bay. Once she got too far for me to see, I turned tail and raced back to the Reef eager to talk to the elders about her strange symptoms…