Children of the Sea 01 - Sea Witch

her. To contaminate her. He could feel its contagion raging like an infection in his blood, taking him over, making him into something he hated and feared. He thought of what Whittaker had done to the selkie Gwyneth and shuddered.
     
    There are worse things than death .
     
    Yes. His head throbbed. But he would have liked to live. He would have wished to spend the rest of his life with her.
     
    “Gwyneth’s pelt is in the sea chest at the foot of Dylan’s bed,” he told her. “Take it, and be free.”
     
    “Don’t worry,” Dylan said. “I’ll take care of her.”
     
    Bastard .
     
    Maggie turned on him, eyes flashing. “Coward. Ass. Take care of your brother.”
    “I can’t,” Dylan protested. “He’s right. This is the best way—the only way—to defeat the demon.”
     
    “You cannot simply let him die.”
     
    “I have no choice.”
     
    At least his brother understood.
     
    Or maybe—the thought bit Caleb like a fly—Dylan was just glad to get rid of him.
     
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    Maggie stamped her foot. “When the demon leaves him, you must bring him up, out of the water.”
     
    “His body.”
     
    “Him,” Maggie insisted. “Save him.”
     
    Caleb shook his head. His vision flickered red at the edges. His skull felt squeezed. “No. We can’t risk Tan—”
     
    “I will deal with the demon,” Maggie said. “Let your brother do his part.”
     
    Caleb met his brother’s black, unfathomable gaze. “I need to die.”
     
    “I know.”
     
    “Don’t let him take me again.”
     
    “I swear.”
     
    Caleb nodded, satisfied. Gathering his strength, he shuffled the length of the boat, dragging his heavy limbs like the chain behind him.
    His skin felt close to bursting.
     
    “Caleb!” Maggie’s cry was anguished.
     
    He turned back to look at her. So beautiful. So achingly alive. The sun beat warm on his head. The air on his lips was salty and cool. For precious seconds, every sunlit detail— the blue sky, the silvery dock, Maggie’s hair lifting in the breeze—cut sharp and clear as glass.
    He didn’t shirk from what he was about to do any more than he would shrink from throwing himself on a live grenade to protect his squad. A man did what he had to do.
     
    Out of instinct.
     
    Out of duty.
     
    Caleb held Maggie’s gaze for one long, last moment. For love .
     
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    But he had to act now, while he still could. Before his body wasn’t his to command, before the demon took him over, before the sweetness of Maggie’s love tempted him past the limits of his strength.
     
    “I love you,” he said.
     
    He stepped off the boat.
     
    And the water closed over his head.
     
    Margred knelt on the planks of the dock, staring down at the gray-green water, trying to distinguish the last release of Caleb’s breath from the ocean foam. Her heart pounded in her chest, measuring time with each frantic beat.
     
    Two minutes. Three. Agony .
     
    How long could he hold his breath underwater?
     
    How long could he survive with his body wracked by a demon and his heart pumping his oxygen-bearing blood into the sea?
     
    She could not bear it. She jumped to her feet. “Now. Bring him up now.”
     
    “Steady,” Dylan murmured.
     
    Her lips pulled back from her teeth. “This is not working. Bring him up.”
     
    Dylan raised one eyebrow. “And waste his sacrifice? No.”
     
    She paced the rough boards, straining her senses, casting for a hint of Caleb’s presence. She could feel the demon raging beneath the surface, incandescent with hate, blazing with frustration. Beside that outpouring of elemental energy, Caleb’s life force was a pale flicker, a tarnished thread stretched almost to breaking point.
     
    He was dying.
     
    Alone.
     
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    While she hovered like a vulture above the surface, waiting for his body to shut down so she could bind the demon’s escaping spirit.
     
    She twisted her hands together. The reserves in Caleb’s lungs must be almost exhausted. How long before they were gone completely and his brain began to die? Another minute? Four?
     
    “ If you love me, you’ve got to trust me. Trust us .”
     
    But she had never done anything like this before.
     
    They had failed. She had failed, and Caleb and both their peoples would pay the price.
     
    Margred stared at the sun-glazed surface of the ocean, feeling Caleb’s courage rise to her in tiny bubbles like breath. “ You can do it .
    You have power in the water .”
     
    She had power in the water . .