The Mermaid's Blessing

Twenty Eight

Peter POV

As always, Erik had perfect timing, barging in minutes after Coralie had finished getting dressed. His eye had turned black, ruining the otherwise sleep-tousled look he attained through messy red hair and a carefully half buttoned shirt. On the other hand, he was pissed, absolutely abandoning the normally cheerfully polite demeanour in favour of outward scrutiny. I watched from my perch on the bed as he plodded immediately over to Coralie, reaching out without any hesitation to brush the hair from her face.

"Hey," he intoned dully, looking at me and ignoring the way she swatted his hand from her face, "you need to quit messing around."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm being perfectly serious."

"Oh?" Erik's eyebrows shot up, "Then why is she blushing like an idiot?"

"Erik, you need to be quiet," Coralie warned him, "or I'm going to ruin our already tenuous friendship."

"Whatever, princess. I'm tired and I'm not in charge of babysitting anymore. However," the conversation was redirected back to me with a steely glance, "I do still follow my captain's orders. So here's the deal. You need to get her off the ship tonight if you want to keep this our little secret."

"Has anyone told Ezra?"

"No, but they will. She knows one of your crew members is currently missing, and her people have been going through everything they took from the ship. They're bound to figure out soon that something's amiss, and our people won't have as hard a time lying if the thing we're hiding isn't still shacked up with you in your cabin."

I could see Coralie holding herself back, obviously fighting the urge to lash out at Erik. I doubted she appreciated being spoken about like this. Unfortunately for her though, everything Erik was saying made sense, and that meant we had bigger issues to consider.

"What do you suggest doing?"

"I'd normally suggest getting rid of the evidence, but she's more valuable than any of the other things we've stolen."

"There's no way we get our hands on a boat, let alone enough supplies to make it to the nearest coast."

"Yeah, well," he scoffed, "the obvious answer is that you have her follow behind us. Without a boat."

"No, no way."

Stubborn pride hardened in my gut, leaking into my response, which was met by Erik throwing up his hands in exasperation.

"Why the hell not? It's not like she'll drown."

"I'm not just leaving her alone, trailing us like a dog."

"We don't have another choice, Peter."

"Hey," Coralie interjected, "does anyone want to hear what I have to say?"

"Not now," Erik brushed her off, grabbing my attention again, "look, you can just use that vial of blood I gave you and she can't wander off so long as you order her not to."

"First off, I don't have that vial anymore. Second, that's not what I'm worried about. Third, I'm not comfortable with her out there on her own without any help. It's not like she's used to living in the ocean, plus there would be nobody to help her in an emergency."

A breathy gasp drew both of our eyes to Coralie at once, only to see that she'd sliced into her palm with the dagger I'd given her months ago. Blood dripped off of the metal, streamed down her arms and onto the floorboards, but she didn't seem to care. Coralie had squeezed her eyelids shut, mouth forming silent words as if she was in a moment of prayer. As soon as the initial shock wore off, I sprang off the bed and knocked the blade from her grasp, grabbing her shoulders as her vibrant green irises focussed on my face, resolve flickering in the set of her lips.

"What did you do that for?" I demanded, "Are you crazy? There are other ways to get my attention!"

"Jeez, you can be so self-obsessed, idiot..." My hands fell from her shoulders to her wrists holding them steadily, though she just rolled her eyes, "I wasn't trying to get your attention, I was solving your problem."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I was calling a friend."

Both of our gazes were drawn to the bloody dagger that lay near Erik's feet. The smugness of her tone told me that I wasn't going to like what happened next.