Savage Melodies

Chapter 4: Angels in the Sea

Final part! Thanks so much for having the patience to get through to this chapter & reading my story!
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Chapter 4: Angels in the Sea

Fire should have known that Theo would never, never agree to ask Maxon for help.

At the mere suggestion, he'd lashed out, and stormed below the deck like a right hurricane. Fire hadn't ever expected anything to sail smoothly over the choppy ocean waves, but she had at least hoped that Theo might consider his options a little more carefully.

"He's just so wrapped up in this grudge of his," Fire groaned that night, weary as if she was carrying the burden of that resentment around in a basket. She had brought Brucie down to the rowboat and called for Rudy. He appeared just as Brucie was splashing into the waves beside him. "Thank you for your help, Rudy," Fire said, for what her brother didn't know was that Rudy had distracted the men aboard Arsen's ship so that Theo's men could land. Fire had known that Theo planned to attack the ship anyways, and had asked Rudy for his support.

"It was nothing," Rudy replied. "I'm just glad you managed to free the Siren aboard." He must have figured out what had happened, then.

"The woman we rescued was Lady Calla," Brucie explained, and Rudy sucked in an audible gasp.

"Huh? You two know her?" Fire asked.

Rudy nodded solemnly. "Lady Calla was one of the most promising of our kind. She had one of the greatest voices of her age group. Everyone thought she was a shoe-in for queen. Brucie and I were young when this happened, but one day she left the colony to live on the land with the earthens. She'd fallen in love with a human man and left to be with him. It was quite a shock."

"How do you think she was captured?" Brucie wondered aloud.

"Maybe she was just swimming offshore and the men found her?" Rudy suggested. "If there are more boats with captured beasts, perhaps...perhaps Lady Nerissa was captured?"

A cold dread spread through Brucie. It wasn't as if she hadn't considered it; the thought had been fraying the edges of her mind with anxiety.

"I was wondering if there might be other Sirens on Arsen's other ships," Fire said.
Rudy nodded grimly. "I should scout the area. I don't have the greatest voice, but I'm a quick swimmer. Maybe I can find another of the boats, or maybe even some evidence." He cast a lingering look at Fire before slipping beneath the water's surface. Brucie wondered for what felt like the hundredth time what exactly was going on between the two of them.

"I can try speaking to Jonas, since he seemed to know Nerissa," Fire offered, snapping Brucie from her thoughts. "He and I have a history, somewhat."

"I thought you only ever fought with him?" Brucie asked.

"Well, sparring and...other things," she finished with a wink before yanking herself up by the rope ladder. Brucie sighed and tilted her head back to fill her eyes with the light pouring down from the stars.

"So you do speak," a voice was pelted down from above. Her eyes flickered from the heavens to the helm. Theo stood at the ship's edge, his hands braced on the rail, staring down at her. Looking almost...bored.

Brucie tried to sink deeper into the water, so that he wouldn't see her scales, but she had a feeling that it was useless. He'd probably deduced it all when they had freed Calla. With that same dull expression, he swung himself onto the ladder and slid down unceremoniously. "So this is where Fire brings you. Tell me, just what do you think you're doing on my ship?"

"I'm not hurting anyone, that's what I'm doing." She crossed her arms. "Unlike you."

"I'm not exactly sure why Fire seems so infatuated with your kind, but I won't let her be hurt." No words said this exactly, but she could tell Theo was suspicious of her true form. Sensing this, she flicked her tail close to the waves' surface, close enough for him to see her glinting scales beneath the light of the night sky.