Under Murky Waters

chapter twenty-two

"WHO ARE YOU?"

Cordelia had to hide a shiver, suppress it back beneath her skin so that her fears would not be written across her face. The hooded figure was walking slowly towards her, drawing out each step so dreadfully slow that it became mocking.

"Some consider me a friend, others consider me a foe. Personally? I consider myself an assistant to poor unfortunate souls."

The closer the figure came, the more Cordelia could see. It was a woman with lips painted a dark purple. Beneath the hood, Cordelia caught a wisp of silvery white hair glinting under the moonlight. Her eyes were like molten gold, a bright dazzling yellow but her pupils were in slits that resembled a cat's or a serpent's.

"How do you know what I am?" Cordelia further prodded, taking a step back.

"Sirens will always recognize their own kind," the mysterious woman replied, that grin never fading.

"Sirens are water creatures."

"Aren't you on land right now as well?"

"Fair enough." Cordelia steeled herself, standing straighter than before. Her eyebrows were furrowed, her own irises sharp with caution like blades under light. "What do you want?"

"I am here to offer you a deal that you might be interested in."

"There's nothing you can say that will interest me. Sirens travel alone. Packs are for mermaids," Cordelia scowled. "Scram back into the waves and leave me alo—"

"Isn't your dearest father dying?" The hooded figure cut in, leaning closer to Cordelia. The latter could smell her breath, the warmth fanning over her cheeks unpleasantly. This siren reeked of death, a scent that Cordelia had long abandoned after meeting Zale.

This caught Cordelia's attention. Her eyes narrowed, raising a hand to grip the collar of the woman's hood. Quickly, she pushed the both of them into the shadows, pressing her victim against a stone wall.

"What do you know about my father?"

"I know that he is dying. And judging by how weak he is, I'd say that the stars aren't planning to let him live past the coming dawn."

It was as though being cornered to the wall was nothing. The woman continued to smile eerily, grinning widely from ear to ear that Cordelia wanted nothing more than to carve out that sickening smile of hers.

"I can save him," the woman continued. "But to save a life from the jaws of death, another life must be sacrificed. That's the rule of the world we live in."

It was then had the light in Cordelia's eyes disappear. Anything human about her was immediately wiped from the surface, darkness filling the holes left by her morals' disappearance. Every last shred of humanity was gone from Cordelia's mind and was replaced by the determination of letting her father live. After all, no one's life could be more important to her than her father's. If she had killed so many out at sea, there's no difference in adding another to the tab.

So, with her mind made up, Cordelia immediately agreed. "Deal. I'll kill another and exchange their life for my father's. Save him."

"Uh uh uh!" The woman shook her head as well as her index finger, chuckling under her breath. "You're too impatient! You've not even heard which life you are required to take in order to bring your father back into the pinnacle of health. Of course, you can sacrifice your own life as well but wouldn't that defeat the purpose? You'll never be able to spend time with your father that way."

With a new condition in place, Cordelia's grip on the woman's collar loosened. She took a step back, her frown deepening.

"Whose? Who do I need to kill?"

As if for dramatic effect, the woman grinned broadly, displaying her set of pearly white teeth. From such a close distance, Cordelia noticed literal pearls embellished on those teeth, catching the light of the moon and nearby street lamps. It glistened and shone but even though it might've been beautiful, Cordelia thought of it despicably ugly.

"That man you were with," she said, her tongue running over the pearls. "Kill him and your father will live." She leaned in, whispering venomous and cursed words right by Cordelia's ears as the latter stiffened in fright. "Take his life before the sun fully rises and all will be like it was once was before. Use this, a cursed dagger that will transfer the victim's life force into your father."

The woman's clawed hands took hold of Cordelia's delicate ones, pressing a dagger into the latter's palms.

"Why him?" Cordelia wasn't even simply frowning anymore. Her gaze had turned lethal and she was on the offensive. This woman — whoever she was, whatever her backstory was — now threatened Zale's safety.

"You have to take the life of someone you love," the woman shoved past Cordelia, knocking her shoulder roughly against the other, "in order to save someone you love."

When Cordelia turned around to glare at her, to retort and say that there was no way she would kill someone she knew, the woman was gone.

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