Dirty Lying Sirens

Chapter Forty Six: After

Caspian

Lounging on the deck in a pleasantly overcast day, a glass of last year's first barrel in hand, I was content to watch my beloved siren's creased brow of concentration as she stared at my laptop. There was a lot less worry about navigating the open ocean when you had a siren on board, and we were already making incredible time. Winding our way over seas and across continents as we explored coastal towns and islands on our way around to the western coast of North America. Three weeks into the journey, and only a little more to go on our plans to visit a luxury resort in California, graciously arranged by Caroline and the autumn court. The catch? Bring Nikkos with us, send him on ahead, and after our vacation is done we fly up to Seattle to meet him and enter talks with the fae to establish a point of contact for Atlantians who want to visit other parts of the world. Not a bad deal, and after seven months of negotiations, legislation, and petty bickering, Atlantis was finally in a stage of peace.

When she sighed and her shoulders sagged, I sat up.

"Everything alright?"

She groaned, leaning into the seat and laying her head back on the half-round sofa on the deck of the ship. "My Atlantian sucks."

My lips tugged upward, and I hid the motion with another drink from my glass. "It does not."

"It does, look." She angled the laptop screen where I could see the latest in a long string of emails between Madeline and Tanis. The two hadn't grown particularly close in the months after the artifact stabalized Atlantis. It took Calliope coming up with the idea to have them write to each other that began the development of a true bond between them. But since Tanis only spoke Atlantian, Maddie had more than a few moments like this where writing an email was challenging, frustrating, or both.

"I don't see the problem."

"Ugh! Right here." She jabbed a finger at the last words she had written. "I keep forgetting the right words, if I ever learned them in the first place, and I can't keep writing salt-water chicken instead of seagull and things like that."

I chuckled, leaning over to kiss her forhead. "Sagassul."

She sighed, pulling the laptop back to her and began typing. "Thank you."

"You'll get there. Nikkos is impressed by your progress, and he's not easily impressed."

That delicious bottom lip caught in her teeth as a slight blush crawled across the bridge of her  nose. "I'm almost done with my letter and then I kinda want to grab something for lunch."

"Nikkos said there were leftovers from dinner still."

"That pasta? Hell yeah, dibbs." She grinned, finishing the last few clicks of the keyboard. "And . . . send."

She closed the laptop, sliding it in to the protective bag and setting it on the seat beside her. "What do you think Caroline wants from all this?"

It was a popular point of conversation for the three of us. When she had first extended the offer of the trip for Madeline and myself, I was weary. Gavin had to provide more context for me, telling us a bit more about the odd fae and the court she called home. With some form of prophetic abilities, she apparently often made strange friendships and connections, but was mostly harmless if not confusing at times. Many times. After more back-and-forth and a lot of background checks, I agreed to the trip, and here we were.

"If there's a reason, she's not telling us. Though, from what Gavin said that isn't anything unusual for her." I shrugged. "She did help us get the artifact to Atlantis, and we can't deny that she was cooperative with our wordbinding and precautions."