Marina Dre's Arc

Chapter 3 of 14

The lantern burned low when Marina heard the brush move. She stayed still. Someone was out there, past the ring of stones. Not Mia. Mia would have called their sign. This one crept slow, testing each step. Marina slid her hand to the blade in her pack and waited. She could not rush out blind. If it was a hunter, she would lose the only advantage she had. She needed to know the stranger's heart before she showed her face. Marina pulled a bundle of seaweed from her pack, dried fronds she had gathered for the fire. The old stories said this weed read a person true. Its smoke bent toward good will and curled away from harm. She held it over the lantern flame until it caught. The smoke rose thin and gray. Then it leaned. Not away from the brush, but toward it, soft and steady, like a hand reaching to greet. Marina let out her breath. Still, smoke was smoke. She needed proof she could touch. "Come out," she said. "Slow. Hands where I can see them." The fronds parted. A mermaid pulled herself onto the stone, teal hair dark with water, a shell tucked behind one ear. She was young, near Mia's age, and her eyes were wide with fear and hope both. Marina knew the face from Mia's stories. Melody Coralwave. Mia's closest friend since they were small. "Mrs. Dre," Melody said, breathless. "Mia sent me. She's hiding. She couldn't come herself." Marina did not lower the blade. Words were easy. "Prove it." Melody's hand trembled as she reached to her wrist. She held out a thin gold bracelet strung with tiny charms. A star. A bear. Small blocks spelling out a name. Marina took it and turned it in the lantern light. She had clasped this on Mia's arm the year Mia turned six. Only her daughter had it. Only her daughter would send it. The blade went back in the pack. "Where is she?" "There's a cabin. Old smuggler's place, up past the water line." Melody's voice dropped. "But they're watching the shore now. Men with the anchor mark. Mia said the sinkhole isn't safe anymore. She said to bring you to her." Marina's stomach turned cold. The meeting place was burned. Their whole plan rested on that sinkhole, and now it was watched. She snuffed the lantern with her palm. No more light to draw eyes. "Then we move," Marina said. She shouldered the pack and closed her fist around the bracelet. "Lead. Stay low. If I say stop, you stop." Melody nodded and slipped back into the brush. Marina followed, quiet as the tide. The stranger was a friend. But the safe ground was gone, and every step toward the cabin now took her past men who wanted her daughter found.