When Whitley winds up on the top of a pirate hit-list thanks to her con-artist father, she must hide her identity and board another pirate ship, trusting in one shape-shifting pirate named Bluff to help her escape. Too bad you can never, ever, trust...
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Water fills my everything. At first, it's the exact comfort I've been longing for. It's what I've needed.
But soon it's pushing and pulling at me, pressuring me to move this way, not that. Then the sounds come. The melodies, eerie and distant. Those are the sounds of my nightmares.
I wanted to join the sea so I'd be away from the pain. Away from the confusion and hopelessness. But images of those creatures pulling me under, as I struggle to get away, suffocating in their grasp, sends a panic through my whole body. They're memories perhaps I shouldn't have. But I do. And I will use them.
More memories—her face, the queen of the sirens, smiling as they taunt him on the deck of a ship. Pain stabs my stomach. I swallow and quickly push away from the pull. I know it's her on the other end. I know those sounds will lead me back to the Siren Queen.
She only wants to use me.
She wants me to hurt someone I love. Even if he hates me now, I won't let her do it.
So I use my power and bolt—flying through the water at a speed that surprises me. The cool of the salty liquid drifts over my body, filling me. It soaks in, healing my thirsty skin.
I'm able to move the way I want to, and it feels good. It's so freeing to be what I am, but not submissive to someone else's command. They can't control my mind. They can't control my body—not if they don't catch me.
So I keep moving. I keep swimming. Away from any melodies I hear. The whoops and the calls that I can only barely understand.
