The Sea Witch’s Offer

HOLLY

I burst through the door of the beach house.

My hair was still dripping seawater, but I didn’t care.

I saw the back of Bambi’s head in her usual spot on the living room couch and ran over to her.

“You won’t believe it!” I shouted.

Bambi jumped.

“Oh, sorry,” I winced. “I found somebody who can restore your sight!”

With that, I plopped down on the couch beside Bambi and took her hand in mine.

“What?! Who?” she demanded.

“Her name is Freya,” I began. “And she is ~so cool~. You’re going to love her. She has this intense ~mythic~ energy to her and—”

“This better not be that sea witch.”

The voice boomed from the kitchen, and I turned to see Rose standing in the doorway.

“Come here, Holly,” Rose ordered.

“She’s like a mermaid, but ~better~,” I pressed on.

~“Holly!” ~

I couldn’t ignore Rose anymore.

When I entered the kitchen and saw her expression, I almost giggled. Not that her anger was funny…but Tyler never would have looked at me that way.

Plus, my meeting with Freya had left me a little tipsy…and giddy.

“Look, Holly,” she began, her arms crossed over her chest, her whole body practically scowling. “I’m sure this sea witch is beautiful and beguiling…but she’s bad news.”

“That’s not true! She has nothing to gain from helping Bambi,” I protested.

Rose sighed.

“Holly, sea witches are different than us. They are as ever-changing as the tides. They’re unreliable.”

Her expression softened.

“Sea witches don’t give,” she went on. “They only ~take~. I don’t want you to be fooled.”

“I won’t,” I replied.

I felt her eyes on me and knew she was waiting for something.

“Well, I want to take Bambi to her,” I finally said.

Rose glared at me with all the intensity of an ancient, powerful witch.

“I absolutely do not condone that idea, young lady.”

I knew Rose’s advice was not something to take lightly, so I nodded innocently.

Really, nothing would stop me from seeing Freya again. And if Bambi wanted to join me, that was her own decision.

“Now will you teach me the spell with crushed-up foxgloves?”

EKON

“Hunter, could you ~please~ focus?” I asked with a sigh.

“I haven’t seen the internet in ~days~, Ekon! I just wanted to find out who got the cover of GQ instead of me.”

I cracked my knuckles under the table. Sure, I also thought it was good that we finally had a secure connection.

But for different reasons…like survival. And the recovery of my pack’s compound.

Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised. Hunter had always been as excitable as a pubescent boy.

I grabbed the laptop from in front of him.

“Why can’t we contact Ela at the Summit?” Hunter asked. “They must have realized we’re not at the compound anymore.”

“Any contact is too great a risk. If they know where we are, we’d only jeopardize their safety.”

“Then could I at least check out the tabloids?”

“No! Hunter, I don’t know why I even bother consulting you for strategy.” Just five minutes with this bird brain was enough to drive me crazy.

“Maybe because I’m the best military strategist on the East Coast. And the West Coast, for that matter.” He smiled smugly.

“When you stop sniffing cunts for ten minutes then you’re half decent,” I grumbled. “I’m surprised you haven’t tried to lure all the women in this house into your bed since Ela’s not here.”

My smile disappeared as I saw a new side to Hunter. A serious side. Seriously angry.

“Only your mother,” he replied.

“That’s it, Hunter. You’re on thin ice here, not only as my advisor, but as a guest in this—”

“Alright, alright.” Hunter threw his hands in the air. “I’m kidding. I’m really a changed man now. Because of Ela. But no one will let me forget that damn nickname.”

I exhaled a long breath through my nose.

“Can we discuss strategy now?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to do!” Hunter leaned forward onto the table. “So, what do we do?”

“Well, we have to defeat Devina,” I began. There was no other way. “And my mother is the only one who can do it.”

Hunter narrowed his eyes.

“You think she’ll kill her daughter? We’re in this mess because she wanted to kiss and make up.”

I nodded gravely. I had thought about this long and hard.

I only needed to talk with someone else before bringing the idea to my mother…

“I think she’ll change her mind.” I stared at my folded hands as they rested on the table. “She can still decide to do the right thing. It’s not like she hasn’t made hard decisions like this in the past.”

I trusted my mother would be capable of making the difficult choice when the time came.

BAMBI

When Ekon was busy, I dashed outside and shifted into my wolf.

As I took off for the woods, I drank in the world around me through my eyes.

~How I missed this.~

I wanted to see everything…to remember everything.

Though the sex the day before had made me feel hopeful, and even optimistic about my situation, I couldn’t deny that I longed for more.

That I missed being able to see.

And it was deeper than the need for navigating the world…

I missed that, too, of course.

But being blind taught me just how much I relied on my vision.

And not only to learn…and get around…

But also to ~be happy~.

As an artist and designer, I relied on my sight.

I was able to see beauty everywhere, and that did more than just inspire me. It fulfilled me because it allowed me to access my creativity.

And without it, I was floundering.

But I had an idea…

I found a clearing in the trees and began to move the sticks out of my way.

~I’m going to make a design.~

When the space was cleared, I began to gather my materials.

I ripped green leaves from branches with my teeth and began to assemble them in swirling lines…

I first used large maple leaves, then small ferns, all of which tasted terrible to my carnivore’s tongue. But I ignored that.

When I had arranged a large swirl, I stood back to admire my work.

It was—uh—rudimentary. To put it kindly.

~It’s your first try,~ I said to myself, trying to ease my disappointment.

Then I realized what it needed…more color!

I searched the area until I found large, red berries. I held them carefully in my jaws and headed back to my clearing…

But when I arrived, I found that the wind had blown it away.

I knew I shouldn’t have felt so bad. The project wasn’t really a failure.

But I couldn’t deny my disappointment.

This was my one big idea…my one way to exercise my creativity without my sight.

And it was nowhere near comparable to what I could do with my human hands.

I hoped it would make me feel better about my situation, but it only made me more depressed.

I curled up in the clearing and rested my head on my tail.

A whine escaped my throat as my vision began to blur with tears.

My logical mind knew it would get better over time. I knew I was just being impatient.

Ekon told me he would teach me to read braille. And I could learn to sculpt with clay.

But I was exhausted.

I was trying so hard to remain hopeful for everyone so that they wouldn’t worry about me.

But I was running out of hope…

HOLLY

~Her smile.~

~The way she licked the rum from her lips after she took a drink.~

~Freya.~

~I’d had crushes before. But no one had excited me quite like Freya.~

~Maybe because we lived in such different worlds…~

~She was exotic. Her magic felt foreign to me.~

~She stood up from the low table in the throne room and held out her hand.~

~“Dance with me.”~

~It wasn’t a question. She knew I would follow.~

~I took her hand. As we spun, she was all I could see.~

~Her blue eyes, so light they were clear as ice.~

~Her light blonde hair, flowing with the current, nearly exposing her breasts…~

~When I looked up once more, we were outside the shipwreck.~

~It was just her and me, twirling through the deep.~

~As we spun away from the wreck, it began to decay…breaking down until it collapsed onto the ocean floor.~

~Her kingdom was gone, but still we danced.~

~My world was just the two of us, spinning through the vacant deep.~

~The stars above caught my eye.~

~They twinkled, bright and clear, as if leagues of water didn’t separate us.~

~“Here,” Freya whispered, calling my attention away from the light.~

~As I stared into her eyes, tendril-like seaweed rose from the deep and wrapped around my ankles.~

~They dragged me down…deeper…~

~We danced, going deeper still…~

~Stuck in limbo between the light and the dark.~

***

I awoke with a gasp.

A lone candle burned on my bedside, casting shadows on the wall.

I was just in my bedroom at Rose’s beach house.

Not so far underwater that the sun couldn’t reach.

~So then why is darkness shrouding my heart?~

“Holly.”

The whisper frightened me in my already delicate state, and I stared anxiously at the cracked-open door.

When Bambi pushed through, her milky eyes open but unseeing, I let out a sigh of relief.

She didn’t hesitate for a moment before she said what she came to say.

“Take me to Freya.”