From Tormented Tides (From Tormented Tides, #1)

by Val E. Lane

“Remember the mermaid story? And the curse?” He paused and took a step toward me. He leaned in, his lips mere centimeters from my ear. He tickled my earlobes with his whispers. “What if I told you, it was all true? What if I told you that I’m one of those cursed to die at sea every day for eternity?” He pulled away. As if to drive his point home, he held up his hand in front of his face, and without even blinking, as if on command, his forearm became entirely transparent. “So, you—” I took a step back from him, my every muscle tensing. “I’ve been dead for 300 years, Katrina.” We stared at each other, as if there was an

CASPER???

“What exactly is this hell?” My eyes drilled into him with a desire to understand. “Being frozen in time. Never aging, never dying, never feeling the simple pleasures of life though they are right before us each night. Reliving the same end over and over. Begging for death from these tormented tides until the night takes pity on us.” “Okay so let me get this straight.” I put my fingers to my forehead, trying to decipher the rules of being a pirate ghost. “You and your ship come up at night?” “Yes, with the evening tide.” He used his hands to make rising and falling motions as he talked. “When the moon rises and calls up the tide, we rise with it. And then when morning comes, we return to our fate, like the first time it took us down in the storm she sent. Our ship, our bodies, our souls. It’s a never-ending cycle.”

Because I couldn’t feel just one thing for Milo. He was dangerous, but I had never felt safer than when I was with him. He was dead, but I’d never felt more alive than when he touched me. He was temporary, and yet nothing else had ever felt so permanent. “But what good is the promise of a pirate?” I asked, the edges of my lips forming a smirk. “A pirate's word is everything when it involves his treasure,” he whispered, leaning closer to me. Treasure?

His gaze returned to mine, and with his opposite hand, he reached up and slid his fingertips across my cheek. I could no longer resist his touch and let myself draw forward into him until our bodies were no more than an inch apart. I reached up to take his hand that was now tenderly tracing my ear. “Can you feel me?” I asked. “Almost.” he breathed. “And it’s enough.” “Enough for what?” “To make me want you.”

“Whatever is there between us, we have to ignore it, because if you break the curse, I’ll be gone. Forever. And if you don’t break the curse, I’m still just a ghost of the man I was. You will get hurt no matter how this ends. It just isn’t meant to be.”

“I get it,” I muttered, “You’re not wrong. But it’s just so unfair.”

“In another life, I have no doubt you could have been mine, Katrina. But fate has decided against us.” Milo crept forward across the bed to where I lied, pulling the blanket up over me and settling himself next to me with his elbow propping up his head. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll leave you tonight. I said I’d protect you, and that means even from nightmares.” The last thing I remembered was closing my eyes, resting against Milo as he gently twirled a lock of my hair between his fingers. For the first time in days, my sleep was peaceful.

I wouldve been crying all night long

“I’m not interested in world domination. But I want to stop the nightmares plaguing my mom and me. So, if you know how to use the scale, by all means, tell me. My family has been trying to figure it out for decades.” I scowled. “Milo said he’s never actually seen anyone figure out how to use mermaid magic except mermaids themselves.” “Exactly,” Bellamy uttered. “Exactly?” I repeated.

“Think about it, Katrina. Why would you have the scale? Why would this all be happening to you? Unless...What if…” he looked around the room as if to make sure no one could hear, then leaned in close enough that I could feel his breath on my ear, “…you’re a siren?”

Exactly What i was thinking

“I know it’s crazy. I know it doesn’t make sense after everything I’ve told you. But I can’t deny what I feel for you any longer.” As he spoke, he closed the space between us. I remained captive to his emerald gaze. “Since the night I first met you on the island, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. And when I found you again, I knew I had to protect you. I’ll admit I did want the scale, but not at the cost of you. Yes, I wanted to end my curse as much as the rest of the crew, and that’s what I tried to focus on. But then it became more and more difficult each time I saw you. And now...” He grasped my hand with both of his, holding it close to his chin. “Now I can’t lose you. If our curse breaks, I’ll die for good. And I can’t let you go.”

“Katrina, I’d die a thousand deaths over again if it meant I could be with you. You’re the one I’d endure hell over and over again for. You are the one that I can’t stop seeing when I look up at the night sky. You are the first thing that guides me when the tide rises. You are my North Star.”

“You have no idea the depths to which I care for you.” He breathed, drawing his face an inch from mine. His dusky pink lips tempted me, but I resisted, fighting to save us both the heartache.