by Plum Pascal
“You,” he says finally, flicking a finger in my direction. “You’re called Hook, correct?”
The water between my body and Andromeda’s shifts, and she’s shoved off me though I don’t do the shoving. The second her hand is off the mark, I suck in as much air as it will allow, hoarding every precious molecule of oxygen like it might be my last.
“Aye,” I say at last. “What’s it to ye, mate?”
I don’t like it that Triton knows my name. True, it’s not as though I’ve gone out of my way to avoid being known. In the early days of my cursed immortality, I sought infamy, hunting for danger and courting poor company. It was the encounter with Septimus that truly set me on a new course. I’ll never see eye to eye with Pan and his ilk, and I’ll still bend rules to get the job done, but I don’t fuck around with evil any longer.
But perhaps Triton doesn’t know that.
The beginnings of a plan begin to take shape in my mind. My eyes flick very briefly around the room, now that breathing is no longer a chore. There’s a seating area behind the pillars where subjects likely gather when Triton holds court, and several smaller thrones are scattered in the shadowy alcove behind him. Shelves full of treasures ascend in rows to the vaulted ceiling. And beyond that, at the zenith of the room, whirls a fantastically complex orrery, its delicate moving parts done up in a metal that doesn’t tarnish. The spinning spheres within are represented by gemstones as big as my head. Topaz for Venus, a sapphire for the Earth, a ruby for Mars, and so on and so forth, with diamonds reflecting the light from above like stars.
A month ago, I’d have traded my remaining hand for a chance to loot this place—to collect even one of the stones and steal away, setting my crew up for life, then sail the sea until the world ended. Now? All I want is to escape this room with Aria and Andric alive.
I spy the trident in its glass case spinning at the center of the artificial universe. I need to get that blasted thing to Aria, and there’s only one way to do so.
I have to hurt her. Fuck it all.
“I’m surprised to see you’ve thrown in with my cunt of a daughter,” Triton continues, eyes barely flicking to Aria when he says the words. Hate echoes through them. The vulgar word causes my remaining hand to ball into a fist, ready to slam into the anvil-like side of Triton’s jaw. It’ll probably break my hand but fuck, it’d be worth it.
I push the desire down with a vengeance. I have to make this work. “Who says I have?”
Aria’s sharp intake of breath spears me, and I can’t bring myself to look at her face. If I see the anguish carried in that one small sound playing out in her expression, I’ll never be able to do this.
One of Triton’s brows juts upward. They’re thick and as enormous as the rest of him. “You bear her mark.”
“Aye, but I didnae ask for it, mate.”
“Then how did you come to get it?”
“One o’ yer beasties batted me ship into the sea. Woke up with this thing on me neck an’ the lass rubbin’ on me leg like a bitch in heat.”
“Hook!” My name comes out of Aria’s mouth on a sob. Gods, I can’t do this… what if she believes my words? What if she doesn’t realize what I’m doing?
She’s never going to forgive me.
Triton’s smile is shark-like, and his laugh shakes me down to my bones. “Is that so?”
“Aye, ‘tis true. Needed her to get off the damn island an’ thought I might get some loot so I could rebuild the Jolly Roger.”
“Your ship?”
“Aye, me ship. Yer feckin’ monsters destroyed it.”
He nods, a smirk hiding on his lips. “Apologies.”
“Ye have any idea how difficult it is to get fae craftsmanship now that the crazy feckers have wiped out the Seelie?”
“And you thought robbing my palace would endear you to me?” Triton asks.
“Wasnae aboot ye. Just lookin’ for treasure, an’ a good fuck to boot. Happy to take a pardon an’ an escape now, though.”
“I will kill you,” Andric seethes as he glares at me. “You say another fucking word about Aria, and I swear to all the Gods I’ll…”
There’s no warning, no fanfare, no speech, the way villains do things in the stories.
Triton simply turns slightly in his chair and raises a length of jewel-encrusted stone as long as my forearm and points the tip at Andric. In the same second, Andric recoils as though he’s been struck hard in the stomach and part of his flank simply disappears.
Blood billows into the water like a plume of scarlet smoke and Aria screams.
I’m frozen solid, staring in horror at the wounded prince. I’ve seen my share of battlefield injuries; the lad’s got minutes left to live. Probably less. Fuck!
Triton lowers the scepter and turns his implacable gaze back to me, those cold eyes fixing once more on my face even as a cruel smile alights on his lips.
“Sorry for the interruption, pirate. You were saying?”
It takes me several crucial seconds to collect myself. I can’t tear my eyes off Andric for long. The sirens holding him have let his body drop, trailing blood as he sinks toward the obsidian floor.
“Right. I was sayin’ I dinnae have a problem with ye, King Triton. Nor any o’ yer brood.”
“I have no argument with you, pirate,” Triton says.
“Aye, then keep the daft bint alive long enough for me to use her mark to get to the surface an’ I’ll never set foot in yer kingdom again. Just want a pardon an’ yer promise.”
“Only if you give yours first, pirate,” Triton says. “You will never return here?”
“I swear it.”
He shakes his head. “Swear it to me by your blood.”
As if blood means anything to this fucker. “I swear it to ye on me ol’ dad’s departed soul. If ye oblige me, I will leave here an’ never return.”
Triton considers me for a few more minutes before nodding to Andromeda. She approaches again, shoulders slumped and her full mouth set into a childlike pout that spoils her fair face. She’s like a petulant child. Her hands wander over my backside, squeezing it once out of Triton’s sight as she escorts me up to the throne.
“You will kneel at my feet and swear again, pirate. And you will kiss the scepter and then perhaps I’ll allow you your freedom.”
Aria’s screams are interspersed with sobs and cries of Andric’s name. I’m going to be sick all over the obsidian floors. Fuck, fuck, fuck. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Is the princeling still living? He should be screaming in agony with a wound like that. Has he already expired, or is he deep in shock?
I kneel at Triton’s feet when prompted, back stiffening when he leans over me with that scepter. He can blow my head off so easily. I’m tensed and ready for a killing blow, though every second I pray I get through this alive. Aria’s last memory of me should not be one of a cowardly escape attempt.
“Ye know,” I say conversationally, lifting my head as he begins to lean over me, “Ye’re nae too bright, ye bleedin’ bastard.”
He blinks, fat brows squeezing together in confusion.
“Me father was a fecker, a lot like yerself,” I tell him in a stage whisper. “Want an oath from me? ‘Tis me brother I swear by.”
And then I lunge up from my crouched position, scoring his face with my hook, turning those enormous, inhuman eyes into a ruin of blood and slurry.
Triton roars.
Andromeda lunges for me.
And I dive for Andric at the very second Kassidy and the others spill into the room, bringing light, thunderous sound, and the remaining eels with them.
Andromeda misses me by inches and I lodge a fist just beneath her impressive bustline, putting as much power as I can behind the punch. I hear something crack and the siren gives a breathless shriek that claws at every nerve in my skull. My muscles lock and I freeze solid, wasting more of my dwindling supply of seconds before the cry cuts off and I’m able to move again.
I reach Andric’s side just as th
e two sides clash above me. The fine cloud of blood—now alarmingly large—drifts lazily around Andric, and I can taste it on my tongue as I kneel by his side. It sinks into my clothing and will probably stain it. Good. I deserve to bear the stain of his death if this doesn’t work. Summoning the last of my strength, I use my bloodied hook to scrape a layer of the slime off my skin, recalling Aria’s earlier words.
“Applied topically, the mucus can extend life for many years. And injected or swallowed, it can put someone into a death-sleep.”
“Dinnae die on me, mate,” I growl before shoving the wad of the vile stuff into his mouth.
To my relief, he swallows thickly after a few seconds. Then, he goes utterly still, eyes fixed. For a horrible second, I think I’m too late. But then he blinks several more times, and his chest rises and falls, taking in air through Aria’s mate mark.
Thank the fucking Gods.
Blinding white light strikes the pillar nearest me. I barely have time to look up before a chunk the size of a croquet ball bashes me in the side of the head and my vision dims, the roaring in my ears dulls, and I barely feel it when my head hits the floor.
TWENTY-TWO
ARIA
When Hook’s head hits the ground with a crack and he settles limply beside Andric, I lose control of myself and scream as wild anger burns through me, combined with grief and worry the likes of which I’ve never experienced before.
I can’t lose them. I can’t lose either one of them. Not like this.
I scream loud and long, and with such intensity, it makes the water in the throne room froth in agitation. Andromeda’s surprised wail sounds like a whistled tune in comparison.
Every creature in the throne room comes to a stop. Every single one of them. My sisters, my stepmother, my newly arrived allies, and even Triton are fixed in place for a suspended moment. The swarming eels halt in place, their flaming colors strobing wildly in response to the sound. Even Lar’s eyes fly open wide. He’s the only one in motion.
He raises another finger and sends a jet of light streaking toward my father, before he sees my father’s shredded and useless eyes.
“Attack her, you blind fucking fool!” Lar yells out at him. “She’s…”
My father raises his scepter and looses a bolt of power that sizzles through the water and sends Lar through a supporting wall and into the antechamber beyond. Then, he spins around, faster than the human eye can track, and unleashes another bolt in my direction.
A scream sounds in my throat, though the fury raging inside me is far from satisfied. I dart upward as fast as my battered body will take me, feeling the burn in every single muscle. I keep myself moving forward through sheer, unadulterated contrariness.
The orrery has begun moving again, the spheres whirling round and round the center with metronomic precision. The light catches every stone as they pass the moon roof. It’s just as beautiful as I remember.
When I was a girl, I would sneak past the guards at night to lay on the cold obsidian floor of the throne room and stare up at the orrery. My mother had been something of an astronomer, and she’d had it commissioned before her death. At times, it felt like the orrery was all I had left of her. I’d stare up at the beauty of the dance of false stars and think of her.
And it’s thoughts of her now that push past my final resistance. Triton has taken everything from me, one way or the other. My mother, my home, my people, my birthright—and he would take the men I love if he’s able.
I can’t let that happen.
I reach the strut of the first sphere just as Triton releases another bolt. It collides with the mammoth topaz gem of the orrery and the stone flies apart in an incredible explosion, sending pieces of fractured gem and metal hurtling down toward the distant floor. It shreds many of the eels just below me into ribbons, leaving the few remaining in no shape to continue their pursuit. Another blast, and Neptune’s gem erupts as well. Triton is firing blindly, but correctly assuming I’m above him, questing for the trident. Probability says he’ll hit me soon.
I push my shoulder against the boulder-like shape of the ruby that symbolizes Mars, trying to heave it off its titanium ring. It takes me three tries, even drawing on the power reserves that I’ve been told I possess. I’ve always been too afraid to dip my toes into that particular reservoir, certain a monster lurks beneath. Now, I’m counting on that monster to end something far worse.
Finally, the ruby rolls free of the ring.
I spin, using my tail to bat the massive rock, with as much strength as I can muster, toward the box at the center of the orrery.
As I suspected, the damn thing is enchanted. The ruby sails past the wards and begins to shrink as layers of it flake off and disintegrate like tissue in water. Still, the momentum carries it forward. It’s about the size of my fist when it hits the glass, but it’s enough. The glass shatters, sending more deadly rain down to the floor. The trident floats free in the air. I reach my magic toward it and pull.
Now is the time of reckoning. If I’m not able to wield the trident, I will die and so will all the people I care about.
Please, let me be one of the Chosen, I whisper to myself. Let me hold the trident!
The trident spins once in midair, handle down, and streaks toward my outstretched hand. The metal warms on contact with my fingers and a sensation of intense joy settles over me, though it’s the last thing in the world I want to feel.
It worked! I can’t ponder what this means or the reasons why I’m floating here, able to hold the trident in my hands. I still have too much to do…
The power of the trident is immense and thrums in time with my blood, pulsing that feeling of absolute rightness through the rest of me.
I fear nothing, the power hums into my ear. I am a goddess. All mortals will bow before the might of the sea.
The thought is so alien, though the voice sounds like my own, that I nearly drop the trident. This thing is... aware. And evil? No... not evil exactly. But primordial. Arrogant. Beyond reason and capable of great destruction if wielded by the wrong person. It needs a strong and a level-headed master to curb that power.
How can I possibly be worthy of bearing it?
I don’t know but at the moment, I’m the only one capable of wielding it.
Triton aims his scepter upwards again and sends a current of power at me that blows twenty feet of the roof off.
It’s then that I see Bastion as he just manages to dive and seize Andric and Hook, moving them before the section of stone flattens them. Kassidy and her men quickly take the two injured men off Bastion’s hands and I barely hear him shout over the groaning of the ceiling. Triton’s strikes threaten to bring the ceiling down on all of us.
“Get them to Bridgeport!” Bastion yells and he’s right. It’s the only place I can think of that where they’ll be safe.
“Aria needs our help!” Kassidy replies hotly.
“What am I, three-day old chum?” Bastion shoots back. “I’ve got her. Go, before either one dies!”
I’m glad someone is thinking, because I’m far beyond the reach of reason at this point.
Finally, Kassidy seizes one of Hook’s limp arms and one of her bear husbands, though I can’t tell which at this distance, takes Hook easily into his arms and scissor kicks as hard and fast as he can out of the hole Triton blew into the ceiling. Another follows, bearing Andric, who’s still trailing blood. Gods, I hope they don’t attract any sharks.
Bastion brings a blade to bear. With its jewel encrusted scabbard, it looks at home in the formerly lavish interior of the throne room. I know it belongs to Hook, because I’ve seen it laid out among his things. I don’t think he’ll begrudge Bastion the use of it now.
“Get Andromeda, Piper, and the rest to safety, Bastion,” I say as he swims beside me.
“Fuck no,” he snaps back, glaring at the side of my face. “I’m not leaving you.”
I lean in, being careful of the trident and press a brief but fervent kiss to his lips
. “Please,” I beg. “I need you safe and my sisters don’t deserve to die.”
“They abandoned you.”
“Everyone abandoned me, Bastion. Everyone but you. And that’s why I need you to leave. I love you. If you die, I can’t...”
Grief strangles the end of my sentence and I trail off, a silent wail battering the inside of my chest. At the beginning of this day, I had three men… three men I loved—and if things continue the way they have been, I’m unlikely to have any by the time Triton is done with me.
Looking stricken, Bastion swallows hard a few times to keep himself from arguing, then finally nods.
“Don’t you dare fucking die on me, Aria,” he whispers. “Not when we’ve just begun.”
“I promise I won’t. Now go.”
With a sound of frustration, he whirls and dives once more, narrowly avoiding another blast from Triton’s scepter. My father tries to use sound to guide him but it’s a tricky thing in water, not quite as easy to locate as sound is on land. The blast blows apart his throne and shatters more of his treasures on the shelves behind it. Andromeda shrieks in fear as a weighted scale impacts her with incredible speed.
Bastion exchanges a few words with her I can’t hear, but they must be persuasive because, the next instant, she disappears down the hall with him, trailed by my sisters. A knot of fear in my chest loosens when I’m sure they’re gone.
“Where are you!” Triton roars when his most recent attack fails to hit me.
“I wield the trident, Father. I can end this here and now.”
He bares his needle-teeth in a snarl. “You? The trident would never accept you as a master, you mewling little bitch. Even self-righteous Cassiopeia couldn’t claim it.”
“Last chance, Father. Surrender to me now and I’ll trap you beneath the ice caps in the far north. Fight me, and you die.”
In answer, he thrusts the scepter up toward me, a furious spiral of foaming water at its tip as a whirlpool begins and spreads rapidly outward. It’s a favorite trick of his to use against hated foes—draw them near and crush their skulls between his massive hands until their brains slop out like sea slugs to the floor.
