Salt In An Open Wound
Salted Series: Book 5
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Life isn't better under the sea. It's worse in the Abyss.
Kellen Winstel welcomed his death. Enslaved by Selkies and forced to fight for his life, he never expected to swim or breathe again after being crippled and left to drown.
*Life isn’t better under the sea. It’s worse in the Abyss.* His saviors had other plans. An ancient race long feared and shrouded in mystery, the Sancul rescued Kellen and took him into their deep domain. They believe Kellen is one of their own and that he’s returned to lead them in the ascent to reclaim their former glory throughout the Salt. Kellen knows he is not the savior the Sancul think him to be, but he also once swore that prophecies and mermaids weren’t real either. Everything is different now. The only thing Kellen can be truly certain of is that he must play along and convince the mystical Sancul to heal him…or else he’ll be condemned to the Abyss forever. To Be Released
November 14, 2018 |
EXCERPT
**WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW***
CHIDI
Where is Bryant? Chidi scanned the loading dock for him. She could not remember when he had slipped away, but his disappearance set the hairs on her neck to tingling. Where are you, Silkstealer?
The other newly-freed slaves did not seem to notice his absence either, too consumed with arguing amongst each other. The elation of freedom had not lasted an hour after the Nomad brothers left before the Selkies started in with opinions on where they should go and what they should do. Their in-fighting rang in Chidi’s ears all day long, each argument pettier than the last.
“We should stay here!” one called out. “As I’ve said a thousand—”
“Here? Are you soft in the head? You saw the Selkies they kept trapped behind the glass!”
But they weren’t trapped. Chidi recalled her exchange with the Silkie kept in the seal exhibit of the Indianapolis Zoo aquarium. They thought we had come to Salt away with them.
“Quiet down, all of you!” A haggard, female voice shouted the disagreements silent. “Quiet!”
The crowd cleared away for Ms. Morgan and several other Merrows. Guardians, Chidi guessed by the look of those surrounding the ancient Merrow. Though the Merrows came unarmed, their watchful eyes warned of distrust for the gathered Selkies.
Chidi did not need to look far to understand the misgivings ran both ways. This will not go well, she thought as Ms. Morgan cleared her throat to speak.
“As I understand it,” said Ms. Morgan. “You were all granted your freedom earlier this morning.”
Do you mean to take it away? Chidi’s gaze flitted to the fluorescent green exit sign fifty feet away, a familiar panic rising in her.
“While you have our sympathies for all you have been through,” Ms. Morgan continued, “the fact remains that we here cannot support the steps you took to achieve it.”
The old Silkie, Millie, shoved to the front with Silas’s daughter, Hope, trailing her. “What were we supposed to do then, eh? Not all of us was born lucky enough to swear some pretty words and leave the Salt with no one to chase after us.”
One of the young Merrows at Ms. Morgan’s side started forward. “You think it was easy what we swore to do before coming ashore? To leave our—”
“Peace, Uriah.” Ms. Morgan called him back.
Uriah refused. “None of us here can ever return to the Salt.”
Nor can we, Chidi thought. Unless we would rather be enslaved again.
Uriah’s lip curled as he glared at Millie. “At least our pretty words did no harm, Silkie.”
“You and your lot coming ashore did more harm than our knives this past evening,” Millie replied. “Any trapped animal will fight for its freedom. Aye, some of them chew off their own leg, if need be, and lash at any who come near. It takes nothing to walk away from a trapped and frightened beast. Heartless I name it, to leave a creature suffering and starving. What’s that say for you and yours abandoning human souls to the same, eh?”
Uriah stepped closer to her. “Are you calling me a coward, Silkie?”
“I’m calling you a runner. Same as us,” said Millie flatly, her gaze working over Uriah’s smooth chest, devoid of the scars and brands that littered the skin of all the Selkies among them. “Only difference being you’ve never been trapped as we have, blowhole.”
Uriah reached to grab hold of Millie.
The old Silkie produced a hidden dagger faster than Chidi’s eyes could follow, the glint of the blade catching the light as she whipped its point to Uriah’s throat, forcing him to halt.
“Aye,” said Millie, holding him hostage with the tip of her blade. “And here be proof of my claims.”
Ms. Morgan puttered forward. “All right, all right. Enough of this. There’s been more than enough bloodshed for one night. Can’t say as I’m eager to see more spilt.”
Because your side might lose? Chidi wondered, noting the nervous looks the other Merrows gave as some in the Selkie group shuffled away, drifting behind them. We did take this place once already…
“You see?” Uriah asked, his neck craned back, the tip of Millie’s blade still pointed at his throat. “Already this one proves my argument—”
“And you’re proving hers with every fool word that comes stumbling out of that yap of yours,” said Ms. Morgan. Her lazy eye fell on Millie, a quiet look shared between them before Ms. Morgan spoke again. “None of us here can know what the lot of you have been through. No more than you can understand why we made the decisions we did to come ashore.”
An olive branch, then, Chidi thought, as Millie nodded and lowered her dagger, pocketing it inside the sleeve of her Silkie suit.
“But the fact remains,” Ms. Morgan went on, her voice unflinching, “none of you can stay here. My people won’t stand for the murderers of their friends and family to hang about.”
And there it is, Chidi thought. No matter where we go in this world, Selkies are not welcome.
Ms. Morgan gave Millie a lingering look. “No more than I expect any of yours would allow such a thing were our situations reversed.”
Chidi’s gaze swept over the crowd, finding not a one of the Selkies would deny the claim. She also noticed Bryant had not returned. Where are you, Silkstealer? Slipped off during all the arguing? She swallowed the lump in her throat, continuing her scan of the room. But where? Why?
Ms. Morgan sighed. “Truly, I wish circumstance had brought us together in a different manner. But death and open wounds require time to heal. I fear we should only invite more discord if you were to linger here.”
“So what, then?” Millie shrugged. “Where would you have us go? Just toss us and the wee ones out on your doorstep, eh?”
Ms. Morgan stood resolute. “It was not us that brought you here unbidden and then abandoned you, my Silkie friend.”
No… Chidi followed Ms. Morgan’s wandering, lazy eye toward the Selkie children, huddled around the bulky foreman driver who safeguarded them. But you would be the same as Quill and Watawa if you pitched us out now.
“You call me friend,” said Millie. “And all while you tell us you’re about to chuck us back out into the bleak and the cold without a second thought.”
Ms. Morgan clucked her tongue. “Twenty-four hours, then.”
“What’s that?” Millie asked.
Uriah balked. “Morgan, you cannot mean—”
“One day.” Ms. Morgan silenced him with a look, before turning her scowl on Millie and the rest. “You can have the day to decide amongst yourselves where to go from here…but you will not be staying.”
“Thank you kindly—”
Chidi whipped around at hearing Bryant’s voice as he strode into the room.
“But we won’t be needing it.”
We? Chidi thought as Bryant maneuvered through the Selkies, closing the distance between he and the Merrows.
“How’s that?” Ms. Morgan asked as he approached.
“That,” said Bryant when standing before her, “is Selkie business. Don’t see why it should matter much at all to Merrows, especially ones looking to get rid of unwanted company.”
“Watch your tone, Selkie,” said Uriah.
Bryant chuckled. “Or what? You gonna kick me out, hoss? See, ‘cause I thought ya’ll was already aiming to do that.”
Anger flashed across Uriah’s face.
“Go on, friend,” Bryant cooed to the young Merrow. “Try something. Already seen that ol’ bitty take you down a peg. How you think you might come out when tangling with a man, son?”
Uriah glanced in Millie’s direction, then retreated a step back.
He won’t try his luck, Chidi knew. Not again, anyway.
Ms. Morgan nodded stiffly to Bryant. “Tend to your Selkie business, then. Whatever that may be, see it concluded and off these premises by tomorrow morning.”
“Won’t be here tomorrow,” said Bryant easily. “Count on it.”
What game are you playing at, Silkstealer? Chidi wondered as Ms. Morgan tugged Uriah away and waved the other Merrows to follow her out of the loading dock.
Selkie arguments reclaimed the silence the moment the Merrows were out of the room, all clamoring for answers to Bryant’s assurances their people would be gone by the next morning.
Millie called them all silent, wheeling on Bryant. “What was that, Silkstealer? You’ve gotten us—”
“A way out,” said Bryant. “If you’d gimme a—”
“You don’t speak for us,” said Millie.
“Seems like I just did,” he said casually.
You did. Chidi inched toward the rear of the crowd before they looked to her for answers again. But that doesn’t mean the rest of these will listen.
“Lumped us in with you, aye,” Millie said to Bryant. “And for what? A day’s worth of time to figure out where we ought go and what we ought do? We’ve been at it all day with no end in sight to that question.”
“Then I reckon it’s time ya’ll oughta listen to someone with an actual plan, ‘stead of fighting amongst yourselves,” said Bryant. “’Cause it don’t need a day to figure out.”
“Aye, we’ll need far more than that,” said Millie. “Getting most of these here to agree on anything be harder than herding cats.”
“It won’t be,” said Bryant. “If ya’ll would shut up and listen to me for one minute!”
You have a voice, Chidi. She could almost hear Quill’s voice in her head, urging her step forward into the mix as the other Selkies murmured and whispered to one another. Casting lots, it seemed to her, on which party they should side with. Speak up…
No, she argued with herself, hugging the wall and trying to make herself as small as possible as she slunk toward the exit doors. Don’t get involved, Chidi. Not if you can help it. They’re not your problem.
“Millie,” said the foreman, “maybe we ought heed him? Or hear out his plan, at least.”
“Heed him?” Millie shouted back. “He’s the bloody Silkstealer! Just as soon skin us females as look at us now that the Nomad brothers are gone to keep him from it!”
Bryant fumed. “If I wanted you dead, woman, I could’ve—”
“Try it.” Millie showed him her blade. “And see if I don’t gut you first.”
Keep going. Chidi winced as others jumped into the fray to voice their objections and opinions. Reaching the back wall, she scurried toward the same exit door the Merrows had used. Don’t get involved, Chidi thought as her fingers closed on the door handle. Just get away.
“Wait!” a young girl’s voice rang out among the rest. “What does Chidi have to say?”
Chidi glanced back at the speaker. Her hair was dark and dirty as her father’s, her face chiseled, and her blue eyes searching.
Silas’s words rose in Chidi’s mind: You see her on for me, Miss Chidi. You’ll do that, won’t you? You’ll keep to your word?
Chidi’s breath caught in her throat, panic swelling at the promise she had made Silas. The memory alone echoed of another failed oath made in a time long past.
Take her, Miss Chidi…take my Sasha…
No. Chidi winked her eyes shut, trying to push the memory back into the recesses of her mind, knowing she could not keep it locked away forever. Cold sweat dripped down her back as she forced her eyes open, her eyes locking on Silas’s daughter among the Selkie crowd.
I weel find you, Chidi…
“No…” Chidi whispered to the phantom promise of her owner, Henry. Not again. Never again.
Take her, Miss Chidi…take my Sasha far from here and don’t look back.
Tears streamed down Chidi’s face, remembering how she had looked back and what her actions had meant for little Sasha, for Racer, and so many others.
No… Chidi’s fingers clenched on the door handle. She ripped it open and flung herself into the darkened employee hall. She barely heard the door slam shut behind as she sprinted down the corridor, trying to outrun the ghosts of her past, training her ears on the sound of her footsteps slapping the concrete floor.
No matter her attempts, no matter how hard she ran, Henry haunted her always.
Because you are mine…
No! Chidi screamed at the voice as she neared the end of the hall.
You are my Chidi…
A door slam echoed behind her, the thud of it reverberating off the concrete slabbed walls.
The knowledge she was no longer alone bade her run faster. Reaching the end of the hall, Chidi launched herself against the double-wide doors and spilled into the dolphin pavilion’s covered hall and waiting area.
The Selkie dead had since been cleared away, but Chidi’s eyes were drawn to the spot where she had comforted a wounded stranger in his final moments after their battle for the zoo.
We are free, she recalled him saying at the last. What more could anyone want?
Answers. Chidi wept, glancing away from the spot he had died. What does one do with freedom? Where do you go when you know you’ll be forever hunted? What place is there in this world for someone like me?
To her left, she glimpsed the underwater dolphin-viewing room, the familiar blue Salt water calling her attention. Chidi looked through the windows. Blue and white dazzles ran along the pool sides, shadows of the lights from above the surface, but she saw no signs of life.
“Chidi?”
Chidi shrank at her name called out, turning slowly to face Silas’s daughter. She can’t be much older than when I was taken, Chidi thought as the girl dared venture closer, though careful to keep a fair amount of distance between them. But she is already wiser than I was at her age.
“What do you want, Hope?” Chidi asked.
“Why did you run away from all of us?” she asked.
A single glance at the girl warned Chidi the answer would not be enough to buy her off. “I…I wanted to be alone is all.”
“The others want to hear from you,” said Hope.
Why me? Chidi wondered. “They have Millie. Let her—”
“They won’t listen to her,” said Hope. “Not all of them, anyway. Especially the foreigners. I don’t think they trust her.”
“Bryant, then.”
“No,” said Hope. “They trust him even less. Millie will convince them he means to lead us into a trap of some kind, I’m sure of it.” She slumped. “Everyone’s arguing and no one is listening, Chidi.”
And so it goes…on and on and--
Hope looked on Chidi with shining eyes. “But I know you will speak sense. Please, Chidi… come back with me and help us.”
I weel find you, Chidi…
Chidi shuddered. “I can’t.”
“Please,” said Hope. “When you talk, Chidi, the others listen. I swear it.”
Chidi wiped the wet from her cheeks. “Well, they shouldn’t. I’m no leader.”
“But you are,” said Hope. “And they do listen. I told my daddy the same when you first spoke to us back at the Crayfish’s warehouse…I told him I would follow you anywhere.”
And keel ze ones--
Chidi tensed. “No…”
“What’s wrong?” Hope asked.
“Nothing,” Chidi lied. “Please go away, Hope.”
“But—”
“Please,” said Chidi. “Please go away and leave me be.”
Hope turned to head back down the employee hall. “All right. Sorry.”
Not yet you’re not. Chidi watched her go. But you will be, if you follow me anywhere. The only thing that follows me is death. Chidi turned to the underwater dolphin-viewing room. And his name is Henry.
But the blue water beyond the acrylic panes was no longer still or devoid of life.
“Oh…” Chidi gasped, stepping back upon seeing the elderly Merrow, Wilda. She was poised on the opposite side, fifteen feet beneath the surface, her silver hair floating around her.
Wilda smiled. Come to me, child, her stately, Southern voice echoed across Chidi’s mind.
Chidi glanced behind her, thinking perhaps Hope had returned. Seeing no one, she turned back to Wilda and pointed at herself. Me?
Yes, you, Chidi Etienne. Wilda chuckled in Chidi’s mind, then pointed toward the dolphin pavilion. Come inside and sit with me a spell. You look like the whole world’s ‘bout to come crumbling down around you, girl.
Is it not? Chidi’s earrings vibrated as she sent the thought.
Wilda’s grin broadened. No, child. Matter of fact, I think it might just be starting to come together again.
Warmth spread in Chidi’s soul at the old Merrow’s confidence. It took off like a wildfire when Wilda gave a gentle flick of her tail, slowly ascending, and her voice spoke to Chidi’s mind again.
You come on now, said Wilda. Come sit with me a while.
Chidi turned from the window and ran for the pavilion.
The other newly-freed slaves did not seem to notice his absence either, too consumed with arguing amongst each other. The elation of freedom had not lasted an hour after the Nomad brothers left before the Selkies started in with opinions on where they should go and what they should do. Their in-fighting rang in Chidi’s ears all day long, each argument pettier than the last.
“We should stay here!” one called out. “As I’ve said a thousand—”
“Here? Are you soft in the head? You saw the Selkies they kept trapped behind the glass!”
But they weren’t trapped. Chidi recalled her exchange with the Silkie kept in the seal exhibit of the Indianapolis Zoo aquarium. They thought we had come to Salt away with them.
“Quiet down, all of you!” A haggard, female voice shouted the disagreements silent. “Quiet!”
The crowd cleared away for Ms. Morgan and several other Merrows. Guardians, Chidi guessed by the look of those surrounding the ancient Merrow. Though the Merrows came unarmed, their watchful eyes warned of distrust for the gathered Selkies.
Chidi did not need to look far to understand the misgivings ran both ways. This will not go well, she thought as Ms. Morgan cleared her throat to speak.
“As I understand it,” said Ms. Morgan. “You were all granted your freedom earlier this morning.”
Do you mean to take it away? Chidi’s gaze flitted to the fluorescent green exit sign fifty feet away, a familiar panic rising in her.
“While you have our sympathies for all you have been through,” Ms. Morgan continued, “the fact remains that we here cannot support the steps you took to achieve it.”
The old Silkie, Millie, shoved to the front with Silas’s daughter, Hope, trailing her. “What were we supposed to do then, eh? Not all of us was born lucky enough to swear some pretty words and leave the Salt with no one to chase after us.”
One of the young Merrows at Ms. Morgan’s side started forward. “You think it was easy what we swore to do before coming ashore? To leave our—”
“Peace, Uriah.” Ms. Morgan called him back.
Uriah refused. “None of us here can ever return to the Salt.”
Nor can we, Chidi thought. Unless we would rather be enslaved again.
Uriah’s lip curled as he glared at Millie. “At least our pretty words did no harm, Silkie.”
“You and your lot coming ashore did more harm than our knives this past evening,” Millie replied. “Any trapped animal will fight for its freedom. Aye, some of them chew off their own leg, if need be, and lash at any who come near. It takes nothing to walk away from a trapped and frightened beast. Heartless I name it, to leave a creature suffering and starving. What’s that say for you and yours abandoning human souls to the same, eh?”
Uriah stepped closer to her. “Are you calling me a coward, Silkie?”
“I’m calling you a runner. Same as us,” said Millie flatly, her gaze working over Uriah’s smooth chest, devoid of the scars and brands that littered the skin of all the Selkies among them. “Only difference being you’ve never been trapped as we have, blowhole.”
Uriah reached to grab hold of Millie.
The old Silkie produced a hidden dagger faster than Chidi’s eyes could follow, the glint of the blade catching the light as she whipped its point to Uriah’s throat, forcing him to halt.
“Aye,” said Millie, holding him hostage with the tip of her blade. “And here be proof of my claims.”
Ms. Morgan puttered forward. “All right, all right. Enough of this. There’s been more than enough bloodshed for one night. Can’t say as I’m eager to see more spilt.”
Because your side might lose? Chidi wondered, noting the nervous looks the other Merrows gave as some in the Selkie group shuffled away, drifting behind them. We did take this place once already…
“You see?” Uriah asked, his neck craned back, the tip of Millie’s blade still pointed at his throat. “Already this one proves my argument—”
“And you’re proving hers with every fool word that comes stumbling out of that yap of yours,” said Ms. Morgan. Her lazy eye fell on Millie, a quiet look shared between them before Ms. Morgan spoke again. “None of us here can know what the lot of you have been through. No more than you can understand why we made the decisions we did to come ashore.”
An olive branch, then, Chidi thought, as Millie nodded and lowered her dagger, pocketing it inside the sleeve of her Silkie suit.
“But the fact remains,” Ms. Morgan went on, her voice unflinching, “none of you can stay here. My people won’t stand for the murderers of their friends and family to hang about.”
And there it is, Chidi thought. No matter where we go in this world, Selkies are not welcome.
Ms. Morgan gave Millie a lingering look. “No more than I expect any of yours would allow such a thing were our situations reversed.”
Chidi’s gaze swept over the crowd, finding not a one of the Selkies would deny the claim. She also noticed Bryant had not returned. Where are you, Silkstealer? Slipped off during all the arguing? She swallowed the lump in her throat, continuing her scan of the room. But where? Why?
Ms. Morgan sighed. “Truly, I wish circumstance had brought us together in a different manner. But death and open wounds require time to heal. I fear we should only invite more discord if you were to linger here.”
“So what, then?” Millie shrugged. “Where would you have us go? Just toss us and the wee ones out on your doorstep, eh?”
Ms. Morgan stood resolute. “It was not us that brought you here unbidden and then abandoned you, my Silkie friend.”
No… Chidi followed Ms. Morgan’s wandering, lazy eye toward the Selkie children, huddled around the bulky foreman driver who safeguarded them. But you would be the same as Quill and Watawa if you pitched us out now.
“You call me friend,” said Millie. “And all while you tell us you’re about to chuck us back out into the bleak and the cold without a second thought.”
Ms. Morgan clucked her tongue. “Twenty-four hours, then.”
“What’s that?” Millie asked.
Uriah balked. “Morgan, you cannot mean—”
“One day.” Ms. Morgan silenced him with a look, before turning her scowl on Millie and the rest. “You can have the day to decide amongst yourselves where to go from here…but you will not be staying.”
“Thank you kindly—”
Chidi whipped around at hearing Bryant’s voice as he strode into the room.
“But we won’t be needing it.”
We? Chidi thought as Bryant maneuvered through the Selkies, closing the distance between he and the Merrows.
“How’s that?” Ms. Morgan asked as he approached.
“That,” said Bryant when standing before her, “is Selkie business. Don’t see why it should matter much at all to Merrows, especially ones looking to get rid of unwanted company.”
“Watch your tone, Selkie,” said Uriah.
Bryant chuckled. “Or what? You gonna kick me out, hoss? See, ‘cause I thought ya’ll was already aiming to do that.”
Anger flashed across Uriah’s face.
“Go on, friend,” Bryant cooed to the young Merrow. “Try something. Already seen that ol’ bitty take you down a peg. How you think you might come out when tangling with a man, son?”
Uriah glanced in Millie’s direction, then retreated a step back.
He won’t try his luck, Chidi knew. Not again, anyway.
Ms. Morgan nodded stiffly to Bryant. “Tend to your Selkie business, then. Whatever that may be, see it concluded and off these premises by tomorrow morning.”
“Won’t be here tomorrow,” said Bryant easily. “Count on it.”
What game are you playing at, Silkstealer? Chidi wondered as Ms. Morgan tugged Uriah away and waved the other Merrows to follow her out of the loading dock.
Selkie arguments reclaimed the silence the moment the Merrows were out of the room, all clamoring for answers to Bryant’s assurances their people would be gone by the next morning.
Millie called them all silent, wheeling on Bryant. “What was that, Silkstealer? You’ve gotten us—”
“A way out,” said Bryant. “If you’d gimme a—”
“You don’t speak for us,” said Millie.
“Seems like I just did,” he said casually.
You did. Chidi inched toward the rear of the crowd before they looked to her for answers again. But that doesn’t mean the rest of these will listen.
“Lumped us in with you, aye,” Millie said to Bryant. “And for what? A day’s worth of time to figure out where we ought go and what we ought do? We’ve been at it all day with no end in sight to that question.”
“Then I reckon it’s time ya’ll oughta listen to someone with an actual plan, ‘stead of fighting amongst yourselves,” said Bryant. “’Cause it don’t need a day to figure out.”
“Aye, we’ll need far more than that,” said Millie. “Getting most of these here to agree on anything be harder than herding cats.”
“It won’t be,” said Bryant. “If ya’ll would shut up and listen to me for one minute!”
You have a voice, Chidi. She could almost hear Quill’s voice in her head, urging her step forward into the mix as the other Selkies murmured and whispered to one another. Casting lots, it seemed to her, on which party they should side with. Speak up…
No, she argued with herself, hugging the wall and trying to make herself as small as possible as she slunk toward the exit doors. Don’t get involved, Chidi. Not if you can help it. They’re not your problem.
“Millie,” said the foreman, “maybe we ought heed him? Or hear out his plan, at least.”
“Heed him?” Millie shouted back. “He’s the bloody Silkstealer! Just as soon skin us females as look at us now that the Nomad brothers are gone to keep him from it!”
Bryant fumed. “If I wanted you dead, woman, I could’ve—”
“Try it.” Millie showed him her blade. “And see if I don’t gut you first.”
Keep going. Chidi winced as others jumped into the fray to voice their objections and opinions. Reaching the back wall, she scurried toward the same exit door the Merrows had used. Don’t get involved, Chidi thought as her fingers closed on the door handle. Just get away.
“Wait!” a young girl’s voice rang out among the rest. “What does Chidi have to say?”
Chidi glanced back at the speaker. Her hair was dark and dirty as her father’s, her face chiseled, and her blue eyes searching.
Silas’s words rose in Chidi’s mind: You see her on for me, Miss Chidi. You’ll do that, won’t you? You’ll keep to your word?
Chidi’s breath caught in her throat, panic swelling at the promise she had made Silas. The memory alone echoed of another failed oath made in a time long past.
Take her, Miss Chidi…take my Sasha…
No. Chidi winked her eyes shut, trying to push the memory back into the recesses of her mind, knowing she could not keep it locked away forever. Cold sweat dripped down her back as she forced her eyes open, her eyes locking on Silas’s daughter among the Selkie crowd.
I weel find you, Chidi…
“No…” Chidi whispered to the phantom promise of her owner, Henry. Not again. Never again.
Take her, Miss Chidi…take my Sasha far from here and don’t look back.
Tears streamed down Chidi’s face, remembering how she had looked back and what her actions had meant for little Sasha, for Racer, and so many others.
No… Chidi’s fingers clenched on the door handle. She ripped it open and flung herself into the darkened employee hall. She barely heard the door slam shut behind as she sprinted down the corridor, trying to outrun the ghosts of her past, training her ears on the sound of her footsteps slapping the concrete floor.
No matter her attempts, no matter how hard she ran, Henry haunted her always.
Because you are mine…
No! Chidi screamed at the voice as she neared the end of the hall.
You are my Chidi…
A door slam echoed behind her, the thud of it reverberating off the concrete slabbed walls.
The knowledge she was no longer alone bade her run faster. Reaching the end of the hall, Chidi launched herself against the double-wide doors and spilled into the dolphin pavilion’s covered hall and waiting area.
The Selkie dead had since been cleared away, but Chidi’s eyes were drawn to the spot where she had comforted a wounded stranger in his final moments after their battle for the zoo.
We are free, she recalled him saying at the last. What more could anyone want?
Answers. Chidi wept, glancing away from the spot he had died. What does one do with freedom? Where do you go when you know you’ll be forever hunted? What place is there in this world for someone like me?
To her left, she glimpsed the underwater dolphin-viewing room, the familiar blue Salt water calling her attention. Chidi looked through the windows. Blue and white dazzles ran along the pool sides, shadows of the lights from above the surface, but she saw no signs of life.
“Chidi?”
Chidi shrank at her name called out, turning slowly to face Silas’s daughter. She can’t be much older than when I was taken, Chidi thought as the girl dared venture closer, though careful to keep a fair amount of distance between them. But she is already wiser than I was at her age.
“What do you want, Hope?” Chidi asked.
“Why did you run away from all of us?” she asked.
A single glance at the girl warned Chidi the answer would not be enough to buy her off. “I…I wanted to be alone is all.”
“The others want to hear from you,” said Hope.
Why me? Chidi wondered. “They have Millie. Let her—”
“They won’t listen to her,” said Hope. “Not all of them, anyway. Especially the foreigners. I don’t think they trust her.”
“Bryant, then.”
“No,” said Hope. “They trust him even less. Millie will convince them he means to lead us into a trap of some kind, I’m sure of it.” She slumped. “Everyone’s arguing and no one is listening, Chidi.”
And so it goes…on and on and--
Hope looked on Chidi with shining eyes. “But I know you will speak sense. Please, Chidi… come back with me and help us.”
I weel find you, Chidi…
Chidi shuddered. “I can’t.”
“Please,” said Hope. “When you talk, Chidi, the others listen. I swear it.”
Chidi wiped the wet from her cheeks. “Well, they shouldn’t. I’m no leader.”
“But you are,” said Hope. “And they do listen. I told my daddy the same when you first spoke to us back at the Crayfish’s warehouse…I told him I would follow you anywhere.”
And keel ze ones--
Chidi tensed. “No…”
“What’s wrong?” Hope asked.
“Nothing,” Chidi lied. “Please go away, Hope.”
“But—”
“Please,” said Chidi. “Please go away and leave me be.”
Hope turned to head back down the employee hall. “All right. Sorry.”
Not yet you’re not. Chidi watched her go. But you will be, if you follow me anywhere. The only thing that follows me is death. Chidi turned to the underwater dolphin-viewing room. And his name is Henry.
But the blue water beyond the acrylic panes was no longer still or devoid of life.
“Oh…” Chidi gasped, stepping back upon seeing the elderly Merrow, Wilda. She was poised on the opposite side, fifteen feet beneath the surface, her silver hair floating around her.
Wilda smiled. Come to me, child, her stately, Southern voice echoed across Chidi’s mind.
Chidi glanced behind her, thinking perhaps Hope had returned. Seeing no one, she turned back to Wilda and pointed at herself. Me?
Yes, you, Chidi Etienne. Wilda chuckled in Chidi’s mind, then pointed toward the dolphin pavilion. Come inside and sit with me a spell. You look like the whole world’s ‘bout to come crumbling down around you, girl.
Is it not? Chidi’s earrings vibrated as she sent the thought.
Wilda’s grin broadened. No, child. Matter of fact, I think it might just be starting to come together again.
Warmth spread in Chidi’s soul at the old Merrow’s confidence. It took off like a wildfire when Wilda gave a gentle flick of her tail, slowly ascending, and her voice spoke to Chidi’s mind again.
You come on now, said Wilda. Come sit with me a while.
Chidi turned from the window and ran for the pavilion.
Thank you for reading this excerpt from Salt In An Open Wound. The book will be released on Wednesday, November 14th. You can also pre-order your copy by clicking on any of the following links to be redirected to your favorite retailer. Purchase your copy today and be among the first to learn what happens to your favorite characters!
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Apple
Barnes & Noble
Google Play
Kobo
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Signed/Autographed Copies (Paperbacks)
Add Salt In An Open Wound on Goodreads!