Page 4 of Unmoored

I searched her face, hoping that against all odds she was still alive. She was young and beautiful and had clearly been a victim of whatever mess those sailors had gotten themselves into. But what would I do with her if she was? The closest human settlement was far away, nestled in the rocky waters around Akala Island.

The island where they sent humans they no longer wanted to deal with. Surely she wasn’t headed there,was she?

I leaned down to place my ear against her chest, the fins along the side of my ear fluttering as they made contact with her body. Herwarmbody. And sure enough, after a few seconds, I detected the faint thump of a heartbeat.

Sitting up, I cursed myself for ending up here in the first place. In no world was I, a Talassian Warrior, one to pick up responsibility for a human. I didn’t even like shifting into my human form! What was I supposed to do with this helpless, tender little thing?

Before I could make any more terrible decisions, she abruptly sat up, coughing as a torrent of water projected from her mouth.

Unsure how, exactly, to help her, I placed a gentle hand between her shoulder blades to steady her. She kept coughing and heaving, trembling against my fingertips as more water exited her body.

“You’re alright,” I said, moving my hand up and down as she wretched.“You have to get it all out.”I tried to keep my expression neutral, though watching her expel her insides was not something I ever desired to see again. It was quite disgusting, if I’m being honest.

By the grace of the spirit of the sea, she eventually stopped, holding her face in her hands until she caught her breath and looked up. When her gaze met my face, she let out the most blood-curdling shriek I’d ever heard in my life, and I threw my hands over my ears to stop the grating noise reverberating through my body.

“Who are you?!” She rasped, eyes wide with terror.

3

HAZEL

Vibrant, emerald green eyes peered into mine, searching my face as I tried to make sense of my surroundings. The man’s hard, angular jaw was only inches away from my face, his breath coasting over my neck as I tried to stop shivering, unsure if it was from the cold or from the panic surging within me.

From what I could tell, I was seated on some type of hard surface in the middle of what I assumed was the Atlantic Ocean, and averymuscular shirtless man knelt beside me.

“Who are you?!” I demanded again, pressing a hand against his bare chest, trying to put some space between us. His skin was soft, slightly warm to the touch, and he gently laid his massive palm over the back of my hand.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, furrowing his brow as if the sight of me amused him. “But I am wondering who you are, as well.”

I shook my head, looking down at my lap. The terror I’dfelt moments before was dissolving into anguish, and I shook my head as I tried to hold back a sob.

“Hey, hey,” the man said softly, reaching to brush a strand of hair away from my face before resting his palm on my shoulder. My limbs were heavy, my throat was dry, and my head was pounding so hard I could have sworn I felt my heartbeat in my temples. I was freezing, scared, and every inch of my body was screaming in pain, but for some reason unbeknownst to me, I leaned into the mysterious stranger’s touch.

We sat in silence for a moment, studying each other. Moonlight glistened off his shaggy, pitch-black hair and olive-toned skin, sculpting the silhouette of a strikingly handsome man. Faint scars laid across the sides of his neck, and the tops of his ears almost resembled translucent fins.

Fins?I must have swallowed far too much ocean water.

Panic began to set in as I realized I might have been hallucinating things, and my breathing came in rapid bursts as I felt my chest tighten.Where the hell am I? Who is this man? What happened to me? Where is the ship?!Drops of rain pattered against my bare shoulders and neck, and I felt the wind pick up around us yet again.

“The storm!” I exclaimed, my eyes darting in all directions as my mind grew clearer. “I was on a ship! There was a storm! We have to get to shelter!” I pushed back at the man again, trying to gain my bearings as the gravity of our situation weighed down on me. We were huddled on a small island made of smooth rocks with nothing but the vast, angry ocean around us. It was a surefire death sentence if the storm caught up to us.

“We’re going to die!” I cried out again, pushing to myfeet. Which turned out to be a terrible idea, as my vision swirled in all directions and I nearly collapsed forward.

The strange man caught me, and as quickly as the panic had permeated through my body, it started to dissipate.How peculiar,I thought, resting my head against his bare chest, the rumbling of his heartbeat bringing me an unexpected sense of ease. He didn’t seem to mind my closeness, and we stood for a moment as his smooth hands caressed my shoulders.

“You’re alright,” the man said calmly, guiding me back to a seated position. “The storm is long gone, and so is that ship full of wretched sailors.”

“Oh,” I said, my memory slowly becoming clearer. “They tossed me overboard.”

“So I gathered,” the man replied, his beautiful face pained with pity. “You were underwater for hours. I don’t know how, or why, you were able to survive, but I’m afraid I can’t help you any further.”

His hands left me abruptly as he stood, and I realized that he was, thankfully, wearing black linen pants.

“You’releavingme here?” I exclaimed, throwing my hands in the air. “At least take me with you! Where is your boat?” I stood up to follow him, though it was only a few short steps before the rocky island dropped right into the ocean.

“I don’t need a boat,” he replied, pausing at the edge of the rocks. Muscles rippled over his back as he moved, and for a moment I wondered if I faced more danger from him or the sea.

“What do you mean you don’t need a boat?!” I shouted back. I did not survive ashipwreckonly to be left by some… inhumanely strong-swimming man on a rocky island in the middle of the Atlantic! My thoughts were racing so fast that I didn’t know what to make of this situation. I was starting to wonder if I was already dead, whether this was some sort of test before God or the universe sent me into another life.