The pathway leading to Captain Rismak's estate was winding, and somewhat narrow. Tall pine trees towered over them, casting down their shadows and blocking out most of the sun. They'd shed their pine needles, littering them on the natural path and allowing them to mix in with the dirt.

Remi sighed happily, lifting her face up to embrace the shade and coolness of air. She stepped around anywhere that the sun had managed to wiggle through the canopy of the trees and create a sunny patch, and began humming a tune to herself.

Servants had taken their horses from them and promised to lead them back to the Goldridge estate. There was a good chance that if they kept the horses on Captain Rismak's estate, his sirens would get to them and have a midnight snack when they turned their backs. They were better off on foot at this point, and were nearly there. Besides, it felt great to stretch her legs.

In a swift burst of movement, Killure had picked her up and placed her a few feet ahead. She glanced at him inquisitively, and he simply shrugged. "You weren't looking ahead of yourself, and would have tripped on those roots."

Remi turned around, walking backwards now. Sure enough, a messy gnarl of roots were protruding from the ground, right where she had just been walking.

"Thanks," she looked up at him and smiled. He quickly looked away, creasing his brows in a frown.

She couldn't help but admire how his skin seemed so healthy and radiant, almost glowing, whether he was basking in the rays of the sun or being blanketed by the cool touch of shade.

All of a sudden, Remi noticed the absence of footsteps behind them. Only the sailer ambled slowly behind, while Bliss and Blue were both gone.

"Blue? Bliss?" she called, confused. All she could see were trees, trees, and more trees. And between them was dense greenery consisting of mosses, shrubs, and bushes.

No answer.

Remi was just about to ask Lars if he'd seen where the twins went, but Killure sniffed the air with another idea in mind.

"There," Killure nodded at a large spread of moss a ways behind them, leading her over to where the two siblings were both curled up on the soft moss, fast asleep.

Remi shook her head and laughed. Those two had always been able to fall asleep in an instant, and they've never been able to resist a comfy place to nap. Or uncomfy. To them, a nap was a nap.

Blue peeled one eye open. "Did we fall asleep?"

"You did," Remi confirmed with a breathless laugh, slumping down onto the grass beside her cousins and gently rubbing their backs. Bliss was snoring lightly, her cropped strawberry blonde hair falling across her eyes. "C'mon, we have to go."

Sighing dramatically, as though being disturbed from his slumber was a terrible crime, Blue stood up, swooping down and picking up his still-sleeping sister.

The pathway stretched on for a few more miles before slowly opening into the wide, circular clearing that Remi so vividly remembered.

It had been years, but she recognized the estate instantly.

A large, oval-shaped lake sat in the centre of the impossibly large clearing, and the lake stretched so far across the horizon that Remi could hardly see from the shore closest to her to the other side.

Killure tugged at Remi's sleeve. "Is that really a . . ."

She followed his gaze to the middle of the lake, where Captain Rismak lived. "A ship, yes. He lives in a ship here whenever he's not at sea."

The large, monster of a ship loomed ominously before them.

"He may be a bit obsessed," Killure noted lowly.

Captain Rismak had had his estate made this way in an effort to feel like he was sailing even while at home.

A sandy beach led into shallow, dark blue waters, which became deeper the farther a person went in. In fact, Remi had even heard that the captain had dug hundreds of feet into the ground in the middle of the lake to give his sirens more room to play.

A scantily-clad woman emerged from the waters, slowly sauntering up towards them. Her skin was pale blue, accompanied by patches of gills on her neck, and her fingers and toes were webbed. Vibrant, teal-coloured hair flowed down to her knees, wet and dripping, but still very beautiful.

"Hello," she murmured in a smooth, sultry voice that seemed to echo. "You must be the guests my master was talking about."

Killure eyed her suspiciously, and then glanced at Remi. "She smell like she wants to eat us."

"That's because she does," Remi replied with a slight frown. If only she could get the sirens could think past their bloodlust for a moment, she could get them to the floating mansion of a ship that lay beyond them.

The deadly siren's eyes snapped to Remi upon hearing her speak. "Ah, little bird, I hardly recognized you at first. How unfortunate that you're back."

Remi took a deep breath and put a mask of confidence on, striding over to the siren. "Ah, but Merri, shouldn't it be I saying that to you? The last time we met you attempted to eat my friend, didn't you? Or am I thinking of the wrong siren?"

As always, Remi's own voice surprised her with how strong it sounded. Were they truly hers? In her head, the words had sounded broken and faint.

Sirens were horrors of the sea that most sailors only dreamed of having on their sides. If sirens were on the ship, there were less chances of sea monsters attacking.

Meanwhile, the good captain had a small pod of sirens.

Merri's smooth, tilted smile drooped, and she crossed her scaled arms. "To be fair, beautiful one, she was intended to be my meal before you made her your friend."

At once, eight or nine heads emerged from the water behind Merri, and began shrieking so loudly that Remi couldn't even hear her own words.

Annoyed, Merri spun around and shrieked back, attempting to get them under control.

Blue jabbed Killure in the side. They were standing further back, and could talk easier. "When Remi was last here, she was only seven or eight, and we arrived during feeding time. Captain Rismak was tossing in live humans—a siren's preferred meal—and Safire was one of them. She was about the same age as us, at the time."

"The blonde Conda from the mansion?" Killure murmured, meeting Blue's eyes.

"Yes, the very one. Remi couldn't get to the other humans before they were torn apart and devoured—sirens are fast and vicious, you know—, but she managed to grab Safire, who'd only had her leg bitten off."

"Only her leg? To a slave, that's a death sentence."

"Yes. But Remi felt bad for her and gave her a new leg. Though, in the process of pulling Safire out of the water, my cousin's ear was sliced off, her eye was gouged out, and a siren had bitten off her arm, all the way up to her elbow. We fixed her, of course, and got even more money for the package we were delivering. My cousin truly is willing to do anything for her friends."

Killure raised an eyebrow. "You speak of her as if she's a hero, and yet, she jumped in there knowing that whatever happened to her in there could be fixed. It wasn't as if she risked her life."

"She did, though. Sirens eat every part of their prey, leaving nothing behind. If the sirens had pulled her under and drug her hundreds of feet below and devoured her there, we wouldn't have had a body to heal. We can't simply recreate a new Remi. We have to have something to begin with. Also, you're forgetting that she still felt all the pain that came with her injuries."

Killure scoffed to himself. "Still seems lousy to me."

Blue narrowed his eyes at the Icix. "Keep talking that way and I'll toss you in the lake to see what it really feels like to have your body ripped apart, then pull you out when you're on the brink of death to watch the life bleed from your eyes. I'd enjoy seeing that," he added as an afterthought.

Killure pursed his lips and was about to reply when the commotion with the sirens suddenly halted after one loud shriek from Merri.

She smiled devilishly at Remi, showing off her glinting fangs. "I had to convince them not to eat the lot of you. Some still aren't convinced. We're perpetually hungry creatures."

Remi smiled. "They're digging their own graves. Whatever twist you put on it, devouring humans alive is despicable. Now, we're here to deliver Captain Rismak's crewmate to him. However unconvinced your pod is, I'm assuming Captain Rismak wants us alive."

"Or perhaps he wants us to eat you all now so that we can deliver his prize to him and he won't have to pay you a rev," Merri said, a sneer twisting up her beautiful face.

Remi shrugged, sifting sand through her toes, which her sandals left open and exposed. "I'm only asking you out of courtesy. My Icix can fly us over unharmed, or you can simply let us have safe passage to the middle of the lake."

The only way to get to the ship in the middle of the lake without flying over was to swim—which would be a death sentence, or to ride a boat.

One such boat sat on the beach right now, two oars resting against its sides.

A pale blue siren with more scales than skin pulled herself up from the water near Merri's left, the sun glistening off her body and glaring right into Remi's eye. "While your Icix flies one or two of you over, we can still eat those remaining on the beach," she growled with a terrifying smile. Her teeth were stained yellow from all the blood she'd drank.

Remi burst out laughing, clutching her stomach and bending over. The sirens in the water shifted angrily, and Merri and the other one began to glare. They didn't like being laughed at. Remi finally stopped to breath. "Don't you think I've already thought of that? If worst comes to worst, my Icix will fly myself and Captain Rismak's man over to his house, leaving my two cousins behind. Do any of you know what their specialty is? The area they excel in?"

The sirens only stared at them blankly.

Remi grinned widely. "Deconstruction, my friends. Blue and Bliss specialize in ripping apart the innards of a body with only one touch. The second any of you get too close, your insides will become a bloody, twisted, destroyed mess, and you'll disintegrate into dust. With only one touch."

Though her voice was brave, and she seemed entirely in control, Remi's body was trembling. She'd tried to hide it from the siren's sharp eyes by laughing, and it had worked for now, but might not for much longer. In all actuality, the thought of standing in front of man-eating sirens terrified her and sent deadly chills up her spine. Also, she felt most uncomfortable in big groups, and this was ten or so too many for Remi.

Through all of her big talk, Remi had failed to notice the man standing back in the trees behind them, observing their conversation with his sirens with keen amusement.

She only noticed him when strode out boldly, clapping his hands together loudly as if they had just put on a magnificent play for him and outdid themselves.

He was strong and tall, built like a grizzly bear. He looked like one, too, with his wild beard that nearly covered his whole face and the mess of untameable brown curls on his head.

Remi turned her body slightly toward the man she knew to be Captain Rismak, but kept an eye on the sirens. She didn't trust them not to attack her from behind while she wasn't watching.

"Fantastic, truly fantastic!" he boomed with a sparkle in his one eye. The other was missing an eyeball in the socket, and had two jagged scars running across it from his eyebrow to his cheek. "You've grown into a fantastic young woman, Remi Goldridge. Last time I saw you, you were only a young child, and now you're easily holding your ground with my sirens."

Remi bit down the bout of anxiety that clenched her stomach and twisted it into a knot. Another new person? This was already enough of a crowd to make her queasy.

Forcing a tight smile on her face, Remi eyed him sharply. "It's been a while, Captain. You've added more sirens to your collection, it seems."

Captain Rismak laughed heartily. "Indeed! I have thirteen now, in total, and two mermaids—though mermaids aren't much to brag about. The sirens don't eat them though, unless they're starving, so they make my aquarium prettier. By the way, don't mind them—they're grumpy because they haven't been fed yet this week. We're bringing in something new—a group of slaves that were trained as swimmers, and think they're going to be competing in a terrain-ocean race. I'm sure they'll be shocked to discover that their training was only to make them more interesting pray for my precious sirens."

Remi glared at him, and he mockingly parted his lips in surprise. "My bad, I forgot you don't like hearing about that. Well come on then, I've decided to be hospitable and show you a nice evening."

The captain began walking towards the medium-sized boat laying on the shore. His sirens were compliant in helping him drag it into the water.

Remi motioned for the others to follow, and together they got into the boat with the captain. "I assume you're intelligent enough not to try anything," she murmured, giving him a sickly sweet smile.

The captain tossed her a toothy grin. "Likewise. Merri, Delilah—take us to the ship."

Remi leaned into the familiar comfort of Bliss. Being in the arms of someone familiar eased her distraught nerves a little.

Merri and the other outspoken siren appeared on either side of the boat, sending Remi quick glares before ducking under the water.

The boat lurched forward, and then they were off, speeding across the lake towards the ship in the centre of the lake, with the sirens as their propeller.

Remi glanced over at Killure, who sat on her other side, and had retracted his wings into the skin of his back in order to fit on the boat and looked a lot more human—that is, if you ignored his sharp claws, serpentine tail, and fangs. Until now, Remi hadn't known that he could retract his wings like that.

She also couldn't help but notice how uncomfortable he looked as they sailed, his back rigid and his muscles tensed. There was a tick in his sharp jaw when she finally caught his eye, and it became more prominent when he scowled at her.

"Lighten up!" she shouted over the wind, her long hair flying behind her. "It's just a boat," she added as she impulsively took his hand in hers.

To her surprise, Killure didn't pull away.

And yet, he still refused to look her way.