Chapter 7

Noa climbed back aboard the little boat and pulled Robert with her. She threw him on the bottom of the dinghy and started to press on his chest and blow air into his lungs. His chest started to shake, and he started coughing up the water in his lungs. “What’cha think you’re doing?” Noa screamed at Robert. “They’re sirens! I know that you barely have half a brain cell, but by the Gods, even that should be enough to know that YA DON’T MESS WITH SIRENS!” Robert opened his mouth to defend himself but just ended up coughing up more water. “And what are you even doing here?! You should have gone home with Lord Davies!” Robert finally caught his breath and sat up. “There was a man who told me that the Princess was here.”

“And you trust a random man? Have you learned nothing, you moron?” She rubbed her forehead with her right hand. “You’re the biggest damsel in distress I have ever met in my life. How did you even manage to live this long?”

“Captain, we still need to-”, Morgan began. “Yes, right. Morgan, keep an eye on him. I’m going on my own.” Noa got up again and jumped back into the water and swam over to one of the little islands where the sirens lived. She stepped ashore and saw the siren that nearly killed Robert, transformed back into their natural appearance – somewhere between male and female, not one nor the other, ready to take whatever form they needed to, to attract their prey. “Are you back to kill me, because I tried to kill your boyfriend?”

“No. And he is not my boyfriend,” Noa said irritated. A sly smile spread on the siren’s lips. “He is not? Interesting.”

“I came here because I need your help. Well not just you, all the sirens.”

“Our help?,” they asked. Noa laid out her plans of defending Gaia’s Edge. “We are too weak on our own. We need your help. Please.”

“I will ask the others, but I cannot promise anything.”

“Thank you.” And with that Noa swam back to the boat and together they paddled back to the ship. They pulled the boat back up and Jack looked confused at the three of them. “What is he doing here?” He nodded to Robert. “Just passing through,” Noa gritted out between her teeth. They altered their route and set their anchor a couple of miles away from the kingdom. “Time for you to go home,” she said.

“Am I supposed to swim there?,” Robert asked. Noa pulled her mouth into a line and rolled her eyes. “Do you ever think before you speak, Damsel? No, obviously you’re gonna take the dinghy.”

Robert’s brows furrowed. “The ding-y?” She walked over to the edge of the ship and pointed at the small boat hanging from the side of the ship. “The dinghy.” Robert got in, they let him down into the water, and he started paddling towards the docks. Noa watched him becoming smaller and smaller and eventually disappearing. She thought this would be the last time she would see him. And her heart broke a bit at that thought. But it was the best for all of them.