Heart of Oceans

Chapter 3

"What in the..."

Seleine braced herself, hands balled into fists at her side as she breathed through that temporary pain and took in her surroundings. Directly across the deck were two hulking Fae males. Teeth bared, their bare torsos gleaming with sweat, they whirled towards her, the heated intensity of being mid-sparring now directed straight at her. Seleine flinched, but their raged expressions eased into a cold stare, one that made her insides shrivel up. The two males were unnaturally attractive, even for the Fae. They mirrored each other in their height, deeply tanned skin, and lengthy golden-blond hair. The one on the right had a tattoo that started around his neck and encircled the entire left side of his upper-torso in stark relief. Whirls and swirls of the dark ink reaching over his heart and scrawled in some ancient text.

The male's wise, tawny-eyes cast an almost unnoticeable glance towards Seleine's left, where she caught a glimpse of a golden-haired man who had paused his honing of a bone-pummeled sword. At the sight of her, he stood up from his seat at the base of the staircase to the quarter deck.

Seleine looked at the other fae male before her, who mirrored the first in all but his wicked, night-dark eyes. This one turned his gaze towards the bow of the ship, where the fiery Queen and a silver-haired male had also turned towards the sound of her landing on the deck. Seleine quickly assessed the rest of her surroundings, the rest of the ships inhabitants included a small handful of sailors—who wisely continued their various duties—a short, stout female captain, and a slender, dark haired-man who stood with the captain at the helm.

Aelin Ashryver-Galathynius was now stomping towards Seleine, the tall lithe male a silver shadow behind her, violence gracing his every movement. Seleine noticed the golden, dark-eyed male return his gaze to her as the corner of his mouth curved upwards. He readjusted the sword in his hand, clearly eager for whatever mayhem was about to erupt from the golden woman.

"Now who, pray tell, are you?" Aelin clipped, as the pair added themselves to the semi-circle of deadly individuals now gathered around Seleine. The Queen was a firestorm, not just with her magic, but her very being crackled with wildfire and energy. Seleine took a nervous, shaky breath and tried to push past the awkward transition to speaking. Her voice didn't cooperate.

"M-my name is Seleine," she swallowed past the lump in her throat. "I wish to fight with you. I wish to fight like you did against them..." Seleine trailed off, not fully knowing how to name the dark creatures in the human tongue.

Aside from the initial awkward croak, Seleine's voice was smooth and rich. Her words were coated with the common accent of the continent but tinged with something unplaceable, borne from the ability to converse with other oceanic species. Her people were born with the ability to communicate with any sea creature with a large enough brain. But even with this ability, she had not been able to speak the common tongue of the land people underwater. She had spent many years as a child pouring over their ancient texts, learning to read and write in multiple land-languages. But her Mer language did not translate to human sounds. It wasn't until four months ago where she had surfaced for the first time and was able to try speak. The three months she had spent in a quaint fishing village along the coast of Fenharrow had been enough time to become fully fluent, but not without some imperfections. She still struggled greatly with words whose pronunciation was nothing like how it was written, stupid land language.

Maybe it was the slight Fenharrow accent, or the very words she spoke, but no one seemed to know how to reply to her declaration. Aelin had gone completely still, her eyes a bit distant. The others had tensed as well. Perhaps the battle from yesterday was still very fresh in their minds.

"Why."

It was more an accusation than a question. It came from the stone-faced silver male in a deep growl that made even her fishy-blood turn cold.