The Unwanted Brothers Read online

  Brutus’s demeanor gave her little hope for such measures. He had pushed the throttle as far it would allow, his knuckles white as he gripped the captain’s wheel.

  The monitor continued beeping, the other dot steadily creeping in.

  Sydney glanced over her shoulder, seeing only the white V’s left in their wake. Where are they? She wondered, turning back to the monitor and trying to figure out how best to read it. How far behind?

  An hour later, she glimpsed the spotlight from the other boat. At first, she thought it a trick of the moonlight reflecting off the water. But the chasing light stayed on and grew brighter too.

  “Brutus . . .”

  “I see them,” he said, muttering curses under his breath.

  Amelia paled. “Wh-what do we do?”

  Sydney looked to Brutus, but the big man’s expression warned her not to speak. We can’t outrace them. She understood then, her stomach twisting with the realization. He’s known this whole time that we can’t outrace them.

  Thirty minutes later, the engines sputtered over and again on fumes until the boat’s fuel tanks had nothing left to offer.

  And now we’re out of gas, Sydney thought when Brutus cursed and pounded his fist against the wall. No longer needing the monitor to signal how close the others were, Sydney looked out the back window at the approaching light in the distance.

  Owens asked the question Sydney had been wondering. “How long until they catch us?”

  “An hour, maybe,” said Brutus. “Less, once the engines stall.”

  It won’t be an hour, Sydney knew. She kept the thought to herself. Amelia was putting on a brave show, but Sydney recognized the nervousness in her eyes and the way her friend clutched to Owens’ midsection. Should I be afraid too? She wondered then, her thoughts drifting to her other friends. Were you afraid when the Selkies came for you, Garrett? Sydney turned toward the front, looking out across the open ocean ahead. Are you afraid now, wherever you are?

  No. She argued with herself. You would be brave, wouldn’t you, Weaver? Just like I should be.

  The engines gave a final spasm of fury, then died with a whimper, leaving them adrift in the open ocean.

  Brutus slumped over the wheel. “Lass,” he said to Sydney. “Think it’s time you and your friend here start swimming again. Me and the lad’ll stay behind to draw them off.”

  “No,” said Sydney, even as her mind bid her to accept such an offer. “We’re not going anywhere.” She looked to her friends and smiled to cheer Amelia. “Whatever happens next, we all stay together. Right?”

  Owens pulled Amelia closer, rubbing her shoulder. “Yeah. Three musketeers style.”

  No matter what. Sydney thought when Amelia nodded in turn.

  Brutus sighed. “Noble words, lass,” he said, stepping away from the wheel. “Though I doubt we’ve much choice in what comes next. No real choice, anyway.”

  “What does that mean?” Sydney asked, following him out on the boat deck, leaving Amelia and Owens to their own discussion, closing the door behind her. “No real choice?”

  Brutus sat down on the boat’s edge, his gaze cast in the distance to the other ship that tracked them. “It means exactly what I said, lass,” he said quietly. “You just don’t understand it cause you’re new to the Salt. You’re a Merrow, sure, but you’re not Salted as my kind would say.”

  “Salted?” Sydney asked.

  “Aye,” said Brutus. “The scales have yet to fall from your eyes, as it were. You being a Merrow and a royal, might be you live long enough to see the world as it truly is. My kind though? Either we refuse to see and the Salt breaks us for choosing blindness . . . or else it shatters us on account of we do see and understand this hard world for what it is. Either way, it’s a sorry end for my lot. Still . . . better you choose to see rather than ignore it, eh?” He looked at Sydney then, not unkindly. “Reckon that’s why your mother and father kept me locked away from the world all these years . . . to keep me from helping others to see.”

  Sydney inched back, toward the cabin quarters. “Locked away?”

  “Aye,” said Brutus, noticing her retreat. “And you’ve no need to flee or fear me, child. I’ve nothing against you personally. It’s your mother I’m trying to make see and understand now.”

  “Make her see what?” Sydney asked.

  “The things she’d rather not,” said Brutus before again looking out again over the water, back toward the boat headed their way. “Aye, things no one should have to see . . .”

  Sydney’s left hand drifted behind her back, reaching for the cabin door handle. “Brutus . . . you’re scaring me.”

  Brutus looked on her again, a reserved sadness in his gaze as they locked eyes. “Might be that’s for good, lass,” he said. “Good that you face me and say it’s me fearing you just now too. Fear forces hard choices on a person. Either they face it and grow, or else you run from it all your life. Both ways leave you scarred, but, if you face it, least it was your choosing the matter.” He sighed then, nodding as he did, his gaze never breaking from hers. “So you keep facing such things, lass. Stare down all that strikes fear in you and put a name to them if you can. Because the harsh truth is if no one ever faces what they fear, then nothing ever changes.”

  Sydney’s fingers grazed the door handle. Still, she let it slip away when Brutus turned away from her once more, seemingly content to look out over the water in patient wait for the approaching boat. “What is this, Brutus? Why are you telling me these things?”

  “You’re more than just a Merrow, lass. You’re a princess too,” he said. “Which means you can make a stand where others can’t. Change things for good and all, as it were.”

  “Change what?” Sydney asked. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

  “Aye,” said he. “All the more reason I brought you out here when you asked it of me, rather than turn you back to your mother as most would’ve.” Brutus reached over his shoulders, bringing his hood to lay across his chest, his fingers playing at its edges, wrinkling it. “Whatever comes next, I’m sorry it came to this, Princess. Truly, I am. It were never my intention to involve you and your friends in this rotten world. In truth, I’m grateful to you. Grateful for the gift you gave of letting me face such fears as I’ve held all these long years. Aye, and the need to face them by swimming in the Salt once more before the green waters call me home.”

  Sydney looked at the black water again, lapping against their boat sides. “You were afraid of swimming in the Salt?”

  “Aye,” said he. “Ancients knows how many years I spent trying to escape my place in this watery world. Thought my life would be better once your mother took me upon the shore, offered to keep me safe from those what wanted me killed.” Brutus snorted and shook his head. “Now, I see that truth for what it is too.”

  “Wh-what truth?”

  “Told you already, lass,” said Brutus. “Nothing changes while those of us who’ve some fight left in us turn away from such things as we need to face.”

  Sydney watched him don his hood. “Brutus . . .” she said. “What are you doing?”

  “Like I said.” Brutus grinned. “Nothing like a nightly swim and a taste of freedom.”

  Then Brutus threw himself backward over the edge, splashing into the water.

  Sydney ran for the side, leaning out over the water. “Brutus!” she shouted. “Brutus, come back!”

  But the big man was nowhere to be seen as the Salt continued to rock her boat back and forth.

  “Brutus!”

  Owens and Amelia came rushing out of the cabin. “What’s going on? What happened?”

  “H-He just fell over the side,” said Sydney.

  “He fell?”

  “Well, no,” Sydney corrected herself. “He jumped or, I don’t know. He did it on purpose. Said he wanted to swim in the Salt one more time before whatever happened next!”

  Owens looked off and away. “Before those Selkie catchers get here, you mean.�
�� He swore, then stepped upon the boat ledge.

  Amelia grabbed at him. “What are you doing?”

  “Going to get him back,” said Owens. “He thinks he can swim off and leave us here out in the open to get kidnapped, he’s got another thing coming. I’m gonna drag his sorry—”

  A walrus surfaced ten feet away from the boat, snorted a quick breath, then grumbled at them.

  “Brutus!” Sydney shouted. “What are you doing?”

  The walrus gave no reply, but neither did he swim away or dive again. Instead, Brutus swam around the boat, circling it over and again, but always visible to them.

  He’s not leaving us, Sydney understood then. But then why is he down there? Why just swim around?

  Amelia stirred. “Maybe we should get in the water too . . . like he said? Swim as fast and deep as we can.”

  “Wouldn’t be the worst idea,” said Owens. “I could go full-on Orc mode. No way a group of Selkies take any of us then. Not in the open water, at least. And if it is just Selkies, then I doubt any of them are bigger than Brutus in his walrus form. Bet the two of us could take them all on and give you girls a chance.”

  “No,” said Amelia. “We stay together, like Sydney said. Besides, Sydney and I are fast. We could help too. Distract them, maybe?”

  Sydney stared at the approaching light, thinking on all Brutus had said. “Or we could try talking to them,” she suggested.

  Owens scoffed. “Talking? You serious?”

  Sydney shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. I’m just saying we could try it. We don’t know what they want.”

  “Us, Syd,” said Owens. “They want us. Okay? You saw them chasing us back at the docks. You’re ‘Tanny’s girl’, remember? Why else would they get a boat and chase us all the way out here if they weren’t coming for us?”

  “Maybe we should ask them when they get here,” said Sydney.

  “You ask away then,” said Owens. “Meantime, I’m gonna be in the water and ready to crack some Selkie skulls the second they try to put hands on either of you. They try anything, you give me a head’s up and I’ll jump them from behind.”

  “Me too,” said Amelia. “We’ll all stay in the water.”

  And leave me up here alone? Sydney wondered. She nodded anyway, telling herself that neither Owens or Amelia would truly leave her. Just that they would be out of sight to whoever showed up.

  You can do this. Sydney told herself, shivering when her friends jumped into the ocean and disappeared beneath the surface. The wind howled around her, shuddering her further, the boat swaying faster in the rising waves. Sydney retreated into the captain’s cabin and locked the door behind her.

  The engines were dead, but the boat’s battery still worked. Brutus had silenced the monitor beeping, but the blinking dot continued to draw Sydney’s attention as it closed in on her position. Sydney forced herself to turn away from the screen, looking out the rear window at the spotlight drawing nearer with every passing second.

  You’re going to be okay, she reminded herself. The others are close by. They won’t let anything happen to you. They won’t leave.

  Her thoughts turned again to Garrett then, wondering how he reacted when discovering Selkie catchers came for him. Did you fight them, Weaver? Or just go along? A thousand more questions rattled around her brain, Sydney playing out all kinds of scenarios, if only to distract herself from the approaching spotlight.

  After twenty minutes, the brightness of it bathed her in yellow light.

  Sydney raised a hand to her eyes to give her some measure of view. They’re here, she said to her friends in the water, picturing them as she spoke to their minds.

  We know, said Owens. You can feel the boat engines stirring up the water down here. This Orc mind’s crazy, man! Tells me all kind of stuff, except the one thing I want to know.

  What’s that?

  How many are there on that boat?

  Don’t know, said Sydney, squinting to try and ascertain the answer. They have their spotlight on. Can’t see much of anything else.

  All right then, he said. Well, we’re ready down here. Keep us in the loop. Dive off, if you need. We got your back.

  Will do. Sydney took several deep breaths as the other boat slowed its speed upon approach. While she continued trying to estimate how many had come for them, several more spotlights turned on, all of them aimed directly at the water. Though she could barely see anything off the edge of her boat, Sydney glimpsed several shadows leaping off the other boat and landing in the water.

  Sydney hurried to the window. Owens! They’re not coming on the boat! They’re jumping into the water! They’re coming for you!

  The other boat pulled alongside hers, the spotlight swiveling in its aim at Sydney, blinding her entirely. Sydney shut her eyes to it and fell to her knees, fumbling around the captain’s quarters, her hands searching for anything she might use as a weapon, finding none.

  Outside the cabin, someone thudded onto the boat deck.

  Sydney wheeled toward the door, peeking her eyes open. The spotlight from the other boat remained fixated on the windows. From her low position on the floor, Sydney watched the shadow of someone approaching the door.

  Owens . . . Sydney spoke to his mind, her skin prickling as the intruder outside jiggled at the door handle. Owens, they’re here. Someone’s at the door!

  She received no response from him.

  Owens? Sydney said. Amelia?

  The door handle jiggled again. Harder.

  Sydney crawled backward toward the corner of the cabin, trying to wedge herself in as small a spot as possible to make it harder for the intruder to grab her. Owens, are you okay? Answer me!

  Again, she received no response.

  The door handle jiggled. When the lock held once more, the intruder shattered the glass.

  Sydney cowered as the window shards rained down upon the floor. She dared to peek away from her position and discover who had come for her.

  The hooded vagrant from the Atlantic City docks was leaning through the window and using the thick, long sleeves of his Selkie coat to clear away the glass remainders.

  Sydney covered her mouth to keep from screaming when the Selkie reached to unlock the door from the inside. Owens! Amelia! She called, tucking back into her hiding spot. It’s the Selkies from earlier. It’s him! The one who called me Tanny’s girl!

  The intruder spoke, loud and clear. “Princess Sydney? Are you in here? Is anyone in here?”

  Don’t say anything, she told herself, even as she questioned how the Selkie knew her name and title.

  The intruder stalked into the cabin. “I’ve come to help you, Princess. We’ve all come to help you.”

  Fat chance. Sydney thought, clenching her fists, telling herself to bite, kick, scream, anything to get away when he eventually found her.

  The intruder’s feet stopped in front of her position. “I know you’re under there, Princess,” he said. “I can see your foot sticking out . . . and we already have your friends out of the water and secured upon our boat.”

  He’s lying, Sydney told herself. Trying to scare you into moving . . . and if he had Owens and Amelia, they would’ve said something by now.

  Unless they’re dead. Her conscience argued.

  All her earlier thoughts of asking the Selkies what they wanted vanished then, replaced by the instinctual need to fight or flee. Her back and right side pressed against the interior walls, Sydney took a deep breath in preparation to launch herself at the intruder the moment he reached for her.

  The Selkie intruder chuckled. “Suit yourself.” His left foot turned away then, stepping back as he called to someone outside the cabin. “She’s in here, my Queen! She’s hiding . . . or thinks she is, rather.”

  Queen? Sydney thought as someone else thundered into the cabin to join him.

  “I think she’s afraid of me,” the Selkie intruder was saying. “She’s just under there.”

  Sydney glanced over at his feet again, seei
ng the newcomer’s shadow. Both of the intruders knelt down, revealing themselves to her.

  Sydney gasped then, staring into a face she had known all her life . . . and the angered look she had come to know all too well in recent years. Mom?

  Nattie Gao frowned in response. “You have some explaining to do, Sydney Ann.”

  Thank you for reading this episode of The Salted Series.

  The adventures continues in Episode 9: THE SELKIE OWNERS

  Head over to Amazon now to purchase your copy (or read free on Kindle Unlimited) and find out what happens next!

  THE SELKIE OWNERS

  The Salted Series: Episode 9

  Now, here’s a sample chapter of the next episode in

  Aaron Galvin’s Salted Series

  1

  Excerpt

  KELLEN

  Kellen leaned his head against the cold, rough bars of his cage. Marrero shifted behind him. The cage would have fit the pair of them comfortably enough. Grouping the three older men—Edmund, Bryant, and the beefy gas station attendant—inside with them voided the option of lying down. Kellen’s muscles ached from sitting in the cramped quarters. His attempts to stretch only led to more rubbing shoulders with Edmund.

  Unlike their human counterparts, Kellen’s seal opponents slept piled atop one another in the neighboring cage. He caught whiffs of their dank, wet fur each time one moved to shuffle the pile. Kellen plugged his nose. His eyelids felt heavy. Chin nodded.

  Kellen slapped himself awake. Each time he closed his eyes, dead faces swelled in his mind. He thought he would gladly trade his sadness for fear of the unknown again. At least there had been action when Tieran brought me down the Gasping Hole and into the pits. Better than this waiting.

  “Kid,” said Edmund. “Did you hear me?”

  “Mmm?”

  “I said you did well today. Might even make it outta here alive, so buck up.”

  “What are you, my freaking dad or something?” Kellen asked. “Trying to coach me up? I don’t need your praise, old man.”