He must have finally decided to play nice, because he was being good. Just rubbing her neck in soothing circles and it actually did begin to calm her. Trisha closed her eyes, losing herself in the touch, thinking of nothing.
The annelid began to move, and Hook was right. It was soft. Actually, it wasn’t bad at all. With eyes closed, it was easy to imagine it was the world’s smallest kitten.
“Now,” he nuzzled her hair, “pet it slowly, it must be lulled to weave its dream.”
Hypnotized by the sound of his voice and the movements of the glowworm’s furry little body, she played with the superfine fuzz. Seconds later, an image began to form in her mind, blurry at first, like a scrambled cable channel coming slowly into focus until the colors were rich and the image vibrant.
It was daylight, bright, with hardly a cloud in the sky. Birds were swooping and diving and she was resting on a large, hot rock—sunbathing. She loved sunbathing, and could so rarely do it. She hardly ever came to the Upper world. Maiven hated for her to leave the realm, said the humans could not be trusted, that her powers were only strong beneath the waves.
But it was only sunbathing, surely her grandmother worried too much.
Rubbing her hands down her pearl pink scales, she smiled as waves slapped against her rock. Nixie had chased her for hours today. It’d been fun, but now she was exhausted and needed a rest. Maybe if she just closed her eyes for a second she’d feel better.
She had no idea how long she’d lain there, but something jerked her awake. The sense that something, or someone watched. Heart trapped in her throat, she sat up with a cry of alarm.
A pair of black eyes stared down at her. Eyes as dark as volcanic rock, studded with flecks of silver. He was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen.
Sircco had proposed to her last night, she loved him as a brother and had accepted out of a sense of love and fealty. She was to be his consort. So why in that moment could she not even remember his features? All she could see was the onyx eyes rimmed in starlight, trapped by his gaze as a dragonfly in amber.
Stubble dusted his hard, square jaw. And when he smiled the world seemed suddenly brighter. “What is your name, maiden fair?”
“Talia,” she whispered, unable to say more, to even think.
“Talia,” he leaned over the rail of his great ship, “you do not know me yet, but someday you will, and you will fall as madly in love with me as I have with you just now.”
His eyes, his smile, they were all hers, had always been and always would be.
Then the vision shifted again. This time she’d crawled upon the shore waiting for her lover to arrive. Tomorrow was to be their wedding. All of Seren would attend. Plucking at a water flower along the bank, she smiled and held it to her nose. Its lemony scent made her hum. She was happy, deliriously, wonderfully happy.
“Who are you?” a tiny voice snapped her from her reverie.
Startled, she sat up. A young boy with dirt smudged cheeks and greasy hair floated in front of her. Dressed in green tights and a dark green holey shirt, he looked a fright and in desperate need of bathing. Holding onto a small dagger, he flicked at its sharp tip with his thumbnail. His eyes were wide and filled with a warning light.
An immediate sense of unease filled her bones. Why was the boy looking at her in that way?
“Who are you?” he asked again. “I see you cavorting with that mercenary Hook and I don’t like it.”
She clenched her jaw. “What is he to you?”
James had never mentioned this boy to her. Who was this child that seemed to know her lover?
“He stole something from me,” the boy sneered, “something valuable and precious. I want it back.”
What was this child talking about? Talia knew Hook was a pirate and knew he looted, as any proper pirate should, but even James had scruples and she’d never seen him steal from a boy. James had only ever taken from those who had too much. Those who could afford to share.
“My pearl. I fished it out of the sea; it was a golden, magic pearl that could grant one wish. He stole it from me. It is the only one like it and I want it back!” he yelled, advancing slowly as he eyed her throat.
Gripping the chain around her neck, the one with a golden pearl dangling off it, she shook her head. “Child, I am of the sea, golden pearls have no inherent magic to them, and if you look hard enough you’ll find another. But he did not steal this from you. I found this.”
She remembered it well. It had been the first time they’d made love. She’d felt so overwhelmed by the beauty of the moment that she’d swam toward a coral bed she’d known housed the precious golden pearls. Bringing it to him, he’d made love to her again before lovingly piercing the tip of the fat pearl. Threading a chain through it, he’d slipped it around her neck and told her a pearl so beautiful deserved to be worn by someone more deserving.
It was the day she’d fallen madly, irrevocably in love with her Hook.