Lost at Sea

The woman let Jasper go as soon as they surfaced. He turned to thank her, for whatever it was worth, but stopped. She was unbelievably gorgeous, with shimmering blond hair and eyes the same endless blue as the sky. Her pretty lips parted and the most delicious sound he’d ever heard met his ears.

Suddenly, he wasn’t freezing in the Atlantic with creatures that shouldn’t exist eating the men who had saved him once anymore. He was back in his old house that his father had built with his bare hands, hammering a piece of iron into submission. He felt the content in his heart as he shaped it into the most glorious sword he’d ever seen in all his life. Despite the fact that they were mostly obsolete now that muskets had come into being, they were still his favorite thing to make.

He looked up with joy to show his Eleanor what he’d created, but she wasn’t there. His blood ran cold again as the image melted away. In its wake he saw instead the gaping maw of a siren mid-feed, toothed tentacles spilling from her mouth as attempting to rein him in. He took a sharp intake of breath and wondered how his life had gotten so psychotic.

A sharp piece of the ship floated past. He snatched it, blessing his luck, and rammed it directly into the siren’s mouth. There was an inhuman screech as she died, tinging the water pink.

He took a deep breath to calm his shaking hands. The rain was still leaking into his eyes as he stared at the scene around him. All of the sailors he’d been with just moments before were being devoured like a mid-afternoon snack. Massive waves churned the ocean’s surface and monsters he’d never even heard of before were circling the siren’s feeding ground in dark, hulking shapes that writhed against the water. His heart was beating out of his chest, but he managed to tighten his grip on his makeshift stake.

It may have been hopeless, but he would rather drown than let Eleanor lose that battle beneath the waves.