Ninnette had fallen asleep to the sound of Kazi's voice. He was talking about his first trip to the Floating Market--something about one of his curse breakers having the same idea as Ninnette to break the cursed bangle with a hammer. It was entertaining for a time, but her lids became heavy as her body grew weary, and sleep came to sprinkle its dusty relief.

Though she passed between waking and slumbering, she'd been fully conscious of every moment of it, almost as if she had just walked through a door from one location to another. But she had no control of this one, and instead of entering an area, she stepped into nothingness--into the abyss that summoned her.

Ninnette. Ninnette. Ninnette. The calling came loud.

She peered into the blackness. "What do you want?" she asked, and as soon as she did, the answer came to her mind.

Like an echo that received her question, the darkness responded with a pulse that reverberated through her body.

"I know what you want," she said, the words slipping from her lips, the abyss planting itself in her head. But though she said the words with conviction, the true answer was still muddied like a seabed filled with fine sediments.

She heard the clicking of gears from the bangle on her wrist. Each whir and whine was a part of the resolution. It was all there like a puzzle she needed to piece together--a contraption she needed to tinker and fix.

"I know what you want," she repeated, but a part of her refused to believe she did. What did it want? "I know what you want!" she shouted as if doing so would make it clearer.

She reached out into the darkness. She had not intended to, but her hydrostrinjerie rose from her chest. The power excitedly surged through her arms and fingers like a fishing net thrown into the sea, hoping to catch whatever the abyss wanted her to receive.

"I know what you want!" she screamed as her strinjerie seeped into the shadows, and a blink of light in the distance appeared.

"Ninnette!"

She jolted awake, the hands on her shoulders shaking her. Her eyes opened to Kazi's worried face.

"Wake up!" He looked down on her with furrowed brows.

"What?" She fluttered her eyes. It was still dark. Too dark. "What time is it?"

"How should I know?" he answered, releasing her. "You were screaming."

She felt cold then. Her head was spinning. And her body was a heavy rock.

Kazi pressed the back of his hand to her forehead. "You're burning up." He glanced behind him toward the helm. "I think there's some rainwater left. Hang on."

When his shadow left Ninnette, the brilliant stars of the night sky became visible. And she remembered the blink of light. Though on its own in infinite darkness, it was brighter than the shimmer brushed across the expanse of the universe.

"I know what you want," she said. She felt like she knew, but she still didn't know.

"What?" Kazi asked, his voice coming from a distance. "Where did I put that can?" Clattering sounds came from whatever he was doing at the bow of the skiff.

"I know--" Ninnette weakly pushed up, grabbing the railing for support and pulling herself to stand. "--what you want." She stumbled as the boat hit a wave and swayed. "Alright," she said like the wave was an urge from the ocean for her to hurry.

Turning to face the water, she saw her reflection. She should not be able to see it as clearly as this, but she did. Her cheeks were flushed, her damp hair matted on her forehead, and her lips parted as if she wanted to speak--to say the answer out loud, the one that lingered in her mind, the one that she knew but didn't know.

A splashing sound came. Her vision dimmed. The world became colder, freezing and entering her body fast through her nostrils and lips, the cold wanting to possess her.

Her throat burned. Panic took hold of her, and she flailed her limbs around. Darkness consumed her. A loud whooshing impaired her hearing.

As pressure built in her lungs, fear spread through her mind. For the past two days, she had been running from death, trying to fight it, to survive, and to escape what seemed to be inevitable.

Somehow, she knew it would end this way.

Somehow, she knew.

The panic faded.

She'd stopped fighting.

The last thing she thought about was Kazi's devious grin, seeming to tell her, 'I told you so.'

But when she had accepted the end, hands pulled at her. Arms looped under her chest. Someone was shouting her name but it sounded dissolved.

The water fought for her, tugging against the arms that tried to save her. It roared, exerting strength to keep her below. But somehow, the hands that wanted to keep her afloat resisted--efforts declared, 'she's mine.'

She gasped for air and coughed out fluid as her body was hauled over the railing, finally releasing her from the water's grip.

Every breath was fire in her throat, but she was desperate for oxygen.

"It's alright." The same hands gripped her, crushing her against something strong and stable. "I've got you. I've got you."

"Ka--zi." She could barely say his name through her coughing as if her lungs had malfunctioned.

"I'm here. Don't speak. Keep coughing. Focus on your breathing," he commanded her as he supported her to sit and lean forward.

Though his hands were cold, he rubbed her back and shoulders for warmth. And she did as he said, focusing on the air that came in and out of her lungs.

When she could finally breathe better, she opened her eyes, realizing she'd had them tightly closed the whole time. "What happened?" she asked, shivering.

Kazi removed his shirt. "You almost drowned." He tugged her top off next, and she let him, leaving her in only her sleeveless chemise for an undergarment, exposing her shoulders and the top of her chest. "Come here," he said as he pulled her into his embrace.

Though he was shivering too, his heat came like a welcome solace. He coiled not only his arms around her but also his legs.

She closed her eyes and pressed her cheeks flat on his bare chest, listening to his heart and breathing him in until her shaking had gone. For a long while, they were still as statues, only their slow heaving shoulders proved that they were alive.

Lazily, she opened her eyes and found him watching her. Her lips parted at the intensity of his stare as if he wanted to own her. To protect her and hold her and never let go.

One of her hands pressed on his abdomen. She dared to shift her finger across his stomach, eliciting a satisfied murmur from him.

"Ninnette," Kazi whispered, touching his lips to her forehead and dragging them down to her cheek near her lips.

His hand over her shoulder slid lower to her back, to her waist, to her hip. His fingers glided up and under her chemise, but he stopped before he could touch her stomach.

Ninnette lifted her chin, inching her lips to his. "Go on," she urged. "Touch me."

And he wasted no time. His fingers traced circles on her skin as they climbed under the thin cloth, making their way higher.

She gasped at his touch. Her whole body burned. The cold of the night and of the sea had gone. She leaned closer to him, wanting more.

Kazi breathed hard. "Sea Mother, I want to kiss you right now." He sounded pained.

"Why don't you?" she asked, closing the distance between their lips again and waiting for him to do so.

"You're delirious and feverish," he said. His hand steadied on her stomach.

She almost laughed. "Feverish, yes. But not delirious, no."

"I know," he said, his voice turning grave.

"What do you mean?" The shift in his voice had turned hers cautious. He had so many secrets she still didn't know of, though she felt like she'd already known him his whole life--his previous life and three-day lives, centuries past.

"I mean, you knew what you were doing when you jumped into the water," he said. His finger on her stomach receded. He looped his hand around her once more, tugging her closer.

She blinked hard. So many thoughts swirled in her head. For a moment, his touch had guarded them away, but they came rushing back now. And she knew he was telling the truth, that she had known to dive in and not fall in.

Dive in. If only it were that easy to fall in love, that she could just jump, arch her back, and plunge headfirst. It would save her from the curse.

"You never told me--" she said, breathing near his mouth, "--how the bangle will kill me on the third day."

Kazi clenched his jaw like her question was a revelation she should not have discovered. "It doesn't kill you," he answered hesitantly.

"What do you mean?" A faint hope blinked inside her, wishing that all of it was a jest, that the bangle would not kill her after all. But something in the way Kazi's lips curled smothered that hope.

"You kill yourself," he said, spitting out each poisonous word.

"The calling," she realized. That was what it wanted. Her.

Kazi nodded, shivering like he was about to shake his head instead.

She thought she'd been running from death for the last two days, when death was herself all along. She swallowed a stone in her throat and asked, "Is it always through drowning?"

"It seems to be what all of you prefer, but--" he stopped and bit his lip until blood dripped from the same crack she'd given him before. "I tried to stop them. All of them. But they had always found a way to die." His voice filled with centuries' worth of regret and guilt.

She held on tighter to him. She still wanted a kiss, but she desired to relieve him of his pain more. "Why go through all this trouble to keep me alive when you know I'll die anyway?" she asked, but she already knew the answer.

"I will keep you alive for as long as I can."

And then she understood what love was. It didn't make sense of anything other than what it wanted. And right now, all Kazi wanted was her.

Alive.

🐚

Aleja clutched her locket as she watched the blinking dot on the map from the filigreed box. Her eyes widened in anticipation. Their ship was gaining on the bangle.

Her lips curled with satisfaction as she imagined how she would kill the demon and his curse breaker.

She then closed the lid of the box and the light of the map vanished, and she was in her small cabin, facing a window that gazed out to the dark sea.

She glanced down at the locket she had been twirling between her fingers. Unlocking and opening it, she viewed her mother's photograph. The image of the woman in a red robe had a disappointed frown. Though the water surrounding her was serene and delightful, her eyes were hard, and her lips were pursed. Everything about the portrait was pleasant except for her face.

"I'll show you, mother," Aleja said to the photograph. "I'm better."