Free Dangerous Depths (The Sea Monster Memoirs) by Karen Amanda Hooper Page B

triangle around the tip of his finger.
    “Oh, dear gods,” Pango gasped.
    I read the tiny words handwritten above Joel’s chewed fingernail. The Devil’s Triangle.

The worst part about having the same dream over and over was that I always woke up and felt the loss all over again.
    The dream felt so real while it was happening. My dreams were why I slept so much while we were trapped in Earth’s realm. I always gave in and allowed myself to be pulled into memories of Vienna.
    I would never forget our wedding. Dreaming about it was almost as good as the real thing had been.
    Vienna was covered from head to toe in snowflakes. Her skin looked like it had been covered in a glistening, frosted fishing net. Behind her, the pulsing colors of the aurora borealis lit up the dark December sky. She took my hand and stepped into the water.
    “You put those snowflakes to shame,” I whispered to her. “They aren’t half as beautiful as you.”
    She blushed and wrapped her tailfin around mine beneath the surface. “I wish we could skip right to the kiss.”
    It took all of my willpower not to pull her underwater and swim away with her right then and there. 
    All of our selkie guests were circled around us in the icy water. Merfolk lined the shore, like a midnight rainbow. The High Priestess hovered above me and Vienna, giving her spiel and making our union official. Our mothers swam forward to wrap sea kelp around our wrists—a symbolic gesture to solidify our eternal bond. 
    But that’s where the memory ended and my dream turned into a nightmare.
    All of our guests sank into the black water. The High Priestess screamed like a banshee. Hissing snakes grew out of her head. Long fangs tore through her bottom lip and her jaw stretched down to her feet.
    Vienna screamed. I turned to see the sea kelp branching out and moving, creeping and crawling up our arms and around our torsos. I tried to break my hands free, but the plants were too strong.
    A long vine wrapped itself around Vienna’s neck, strangling her and gagging her screams. I flailed and fought with all my might, trying to rip free of my restraints, but they were like boa constrictors that wouldn’t stop squeezing. Vienna’s eyes bulged out of her head as the seaweed pulled her under and out of my sight. Then it pulled me under too. Beneath the surface, the water was pitch-black. I couldn’t see anything, but it was so hot my skin burned. A fire ignited in front of me. The raging flames momentarily blinded me, but then, in the middle of the fire, I saw my beautiful bride. Her face was flawless and she kept calling my name, but the rest of her skin was charred to the bone.
    I bolted upright.
    Vienna was gone. The flames were gone.
    I was sitting on a beach on the selkie side of Rathe. My tail was in the water, partially buried in the sand. A calm indigo sky stretched out above me. Stars twinkled and the moons shined.
    “Just a nightmare,” I told myself.
    Vienna and I had sat on this beach, and so many others in Rathe, more times than I could count. I turned my head and the glittering sand turned into a mirage of a young Vienna. I wasn’t delusional, I knew it was just me reminiscing, but there she was, skipping down the beach several yards away. She saw me, waved, and ran over to me.
    She looked so real. My mind retained every detail, right down to the sand in her black, windblown hair. “Have you seen all the shells that washed ashore?”
    Of all the conversations we ever had, this one was my favorite. One of the first times we discussed being more than friends. “Yeah.” I smiled. “How many have you collected?”
    She bent down and picked up a piece of sea glass, holding it up and admiring it in the moonlight. “Only one. The rest belong here, on the beach—or in the ocean, if the tide chooses to carry them away.” She tossed the sea glass back into the sand and sat down beside me. “I don’t keep them. I just like admiring them, holding them between my