Siren - Hazel Grace Page 0,12
end because he sailed the Black Sea a million times over and had no concept of the real world on land anymore.
Hunters were just superstitious pirates that liked the quest of something challenging and alive. Sirens were worth quick gold on the market, though, again, I’d never seen one at Port Royal, where I grew up with my Uncle Declan. Half the time when he got word of sightings, he would leave me alone with some money to fend for myself, and while I spent a lot of my time at the fishing docks, no magical creatures ever showed up dead or alive at the pier.
Until the night Davina and her sister, Rohana, hung from that net, I didn’t believe they existed.
Then there was the slice on my cheek Davina landed that really set in the reality that they were real.
Looking into her eyes, I felt the fear. She looked around my age, determined and strong while hanging onto the net, attempting to cut through the thick threads of the rope.
It was the evening everything changed for me.
Sirens were real, not a made-up drunken tale my uncle believed, and I wanted to protect them.
I wanted to conserve her.
I never would’ve stayed with my Uncle Declan if Lorne hadn’t disappeared. Three years younger than me, my uncle fed me a line of bullshit that he got up and left me behind, wanting to search for treasure and a new world.
He’d never abandon me.
Lorne disliked my uncle probably more than I did and never in a million years would he leave or desert me.
Someone kidnapped him, I was certain of it. Pirates were always looking for deck boys and forcing young children into their trade. I’m afraid my brother fell victim to it, and I’ve been following leads for years only to come up short.
He’s a grown man now, and I fear with the amount of time that has gone by, I won’t recognize him anymore. His face is starting to dim with time inside my head, and I beat myself up with more years that pass. But until the leads dry up, I’ll continue to search for him and try to hold on to the thread of hope that still dangles within me.
“We’re ready to board when you are, Cap'n.” I glance over to my skipper, Ashton, an older gentleman who used to run with my uncle. The gray hairs on his head display all the close encounters of death he’s almost succumbed to, while the wrinkles on his face tell stories of how many years he’s been at sea.
He’s like a father to me, the only other person besides my uncle who remembers my brother. Even though he didn’t see him but a few times, his knowing reminds me that I’m not imagining things.
Port Royal is a busy trading town, and this isn’t the first time my brother has been mentioned being here. The stories about him range high and low, that he’s a merchant, a Hunter, a dirty pirate who’s running from the Banishian Navy.
While all of these could be true, they don’t bother me as much as thinking that Lorne is no longer alive.
I want him to meet Davina.
I want to know if he’s met a woman and if he’s happy.
If he even remembers me.
As every wish and fantasy starts to build in my mind, the moment I step off the ship they crash just as quickly.
The minute the informant tells me that this alleged Lorne lookalike left last night on a ship heading south, my heart falls for over the hundredth time, igniting the repetition of anger and frustration.
I’m tired of coming to this port, where everyone knows his name. Not because he’s famous around the sea but because I come here practically once every three months searching for him.
“One day, lad,” Ashton conveys, the moment he recognizes my obviously fallen face.
He slaps me on the back as I make my way into my corridors, knowing the repetitious drill when I come back empty-handed—leave port as quickly as possible and don’t fucking ask me where we’re going until I come back out on the deck.
My bottle of whiskey is the first thing I reach for the moment my door closes. It’s enough to know that he’s gone, but with every glimmer of promise to find him, I’d rather stop looking altogether because it only ends in one conclusion—self-loathing.
How can someone like me find Davina every time on an invisible island that no other man can see, but