by Holly Hook
“You hide, girl.” Camellia pointed to Leslie and then down the hall. “Janelle, you find a room and barricade yourself in it. I’ll buy you some time.”
“I can't leave you.” She couldn't just go cower somewhere and let everyone else decide her fate. That had happened enough. And there was no way she was going to let Camellia fight by herself.
“Go!” Camella took her arms and pushed her towards the door. “You need to protect your friend. Don't worry about me.”
Leslie stood against the wall, so pale she looked like she might pass out. Camellia was right. Leslie wouldn't last long in her state.
Janelle bolted to her friend and took her arm. “Come on, Leslie. Snap out of it!”
Leslie shook her head and stood without a word. All the color had gone from her face.
Camellia pulled herself up by taking hold of the booth. She hurried over to the closet and spread her arms across it. “I said hide. They’re almost here.”
“Janelle?” Leslie asked, looking out the doors.
Janelle followed her gaze. The brown hull of the fishing boat drifted up alongside the yacht and stopped with a splashing sound. A wooden ramp descended from it with a bang. Andrina would board any second.
“You’re not taking her!” Mr. Deville shouted from outside.
Janelle darted into the pale blue bedroom, pulling Leslie along and slamming the door behind her. “I’ll barricade the door. Here,” she said, gripping a bedpost. Within seconds, she had the bed on its side up against the entrance. “Now shut off the light.”
Leslie ran over to the switch. A click later, near-darkness filled the room. It wasn’t dim enough to hide Leslie’s slack jaw or her wide eyes. “Wow. I guess you weren't kidding about the strength," she managed.
At least she was starting to talk again. It was more like the Leslie she knew. The Leslie she needed to protect. Andrina had no reason to let Leslie live now. Janelle had disobeyed her. If Janelle got thrown into the ocean now, Leslie wouldn't see the end of the day.
Janelle shushed her and held her breath. Her legs threatened to go out from under her. Muffled voices and thumps sounded from somewhere. A fight. Someone cried out as footfalls thudded into the boat and grew louder. Her stomach dropped. What if it was Gary? Or her dad?
“They're coming,” Leslie said. “Janelle—you're still my best friend. I don't care what species you are.”
“And you're still mine. I don't care what Kevin forced you to say. We're going to get out of this.” She couldn't help but feel a moment of triumph. Andrina was wrong after all. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
They hugged.
Maybe it was for the last time.
Another thump sounded from outside. Janelle steeled herself and looked around the room. There weren't any windows for Leslie to climb out of. Janelle thought about breaking down a wall, but that might sink the boat. They only had a cubby for a bathroom nearby.
“Leslie,” she said, letting go. “Hide in there. Go. I want you to survive today.”
“Janelle--”
“You can't help me this time,” she said, staring at her. “Those people out there are not like me. They'll kill you if they see you.”
Footfalls grew closer. They were inside. Janelle faced the door.
“You’re not taking my granddaughter!” Camellia shouted.
“Move away from the closet, Camellia. Let’s not be unreasonable,” Andrina said. She was right out in the hall. “I don’t want to spill any Tempest blood if I don’t have to, especially yours. It would be a shame to waste your great power, but I will act if I have to.”
So Camellia was making Andrina think she was in the closet. It would buy them maybe two minutes. Leslie had vanished. She'd taken her advice and hidden inside the cubby, squeezing in next to the toilet. She pulled the curtain and waited.
If Leslie made it, that would be something.
“No. She’s not a weapon to be used. Your plan’s barbaric, Andrina. You have no regard for the Natural Law. I’m not going to be quiet about it any more.”
“You are calling me barbaric?” Andrina broke out laughing. “You, the killer of over five hundred people?”
Silence fell for a few seconds.
Camellia’s voice rose. “You're right about me. I won't deny it. But at least I love my family. Don’t try to help me, Janelle.”
A sick feeling blossomed in her stomach. No!
A crash followed with the creaking of hinges. Andrina let out a grunt of triumph. “She’s mine.”
They were hurting her grandmother. The words exploded from Janelle’s mouth before she could stop them. “Leave her alone!” The world blurred. Everything seemed to fall away. She yanked the bed away from the door, letting it crash against the wall.
The door flew open a second later. Andrina stood behind it, smiling.
Behind her, Camellia slumped against the closet door, gasping for breath and holding her throat. Her eyes bulged like a frog’s. Her skin had turned gray. Andrina had actually hurt her.
“Janelle Morgen. It’s time.” Andrina took a bold step into the room.
"That isn't my last name!" She had to get to Camellia. Janelle charged, pushing past the Tempest High Leader.
Kevin and Ivanna crammed into the hallway, blocking her. Hands clenched her arms like steel traps.
“Let go of me!” She tugged against their grips, trying to aim a punch at Kevin. It was no use. She couldn't fight two Tempests, even if she was the strongest. Her grandmother—
“Now how are we going to do this?” Kevin asked, gripping her arm tighter. “She’s going to fight.”
Andrina backed away, coming very close to stepping on Camellia. “Well, I was counting on the fridge to keep her weak, but thanks to my ex we can’t do that. We’ll have to use the cage and the ice cubes.”
Janelle stopped thrashing. Cage? Ice cubes? A cold rock seemed to settle in her stomach, as if she’d swallowed a bunch already.
“Now keep a good grip on her and quickly bring her over to our boat. We don’t know if the others will break free,” Andrina ordered. “Though I don’t think it’s likely. And we'll find the human girl later. It's not like she has anywhere to go.”
Andrina moved to the side to let Janelle’s captors to pull her through the doorway. Camellia lay slumped against the wall, arms limp against her suit. Her head had lolled down onto her chest. Was she still breathing? Janelle couldn't tell. A horrible pang she hadn’t thought possible squeezed her heart.
Ivanna and Kevin pulled her past before she could look closer. “What did you do to her?” she yelled.
But Andrina didn't answer. She walked ahead through the yacht's living room, keeping her nose up.
“Why can’t we just shove her off the boat?” Ivanna asked. “That’s easier. I’ve done enough in the past few days.”
“You want to be standing right there when she changes?” Andrina stopped in the doorway outside. “Curtis still has a broken arm from when Gary did. And I don’t want any of you injured at the start of our takeover.”
Janelle hung her head. She couldn’t breathe. Operation Reckoning tightened around her like a noose.
Andrina yanked the sliding door open and they stepped out into the morning air.
They were outnumbered. Bad.
The two black-haired men who worked on Andrina's yacht stood on the deck, holding Gary by both arms. Joey lay up against the side of the cabin, and blood ran out of his crooked nose. He stared into the air, stunned and blinking.
“Janelle!” Gary lurched against his captors. “Let her go. Let me do Operation Reckoning instead. You wanted me to make up for my failure, didn't you?”
Andrina smiled at him. “Oh, you know that's not possible. You're nowhere near strong enough.”
“Come on!” Gary thrashed again.
Andrina nodded at the two men, and one of them clamped his ha
nd over Gary's mouth, muffling the rest.
“Leave him alone!” Janelle yelled, pulling against Ivanna. At least Gary was unharmed. Joey didn't look like his life was in danger, at least. But what about--
“Dad?” Janelle searched the deck, all the hope inside her flattening like roadkill. At least a dozen men and women in pajamas held Mr. Deville and Deon prisoner against the wall. Farther down, four suited Elder Council members stood around her father, forming a tight square around him. She glanced closer. All four of them held his arms.
“Is this necessary, Ma’am?” an older man in front of her father asked. His suit clung to his skin like a wave had hit him head on.
Andrina jabbed a finger towards him. “Yes, it is. Now bring the others on deck so we can make sure they don’t try anything funny. And we’re towing this boat back to Alara. We will need a replacement for what we lost."
Her dad’s gaze fell on her. “Janelle!” He thrashed against the Council members, hair wild and eyes wide. “Fight! Do what you have to do!”
His words rang in her ears. Fight. How, with two dozen Tempests against her?
“This way,” Andrina ordered, striding up the wooden ramp to the fishing boat. Ivanna tugged Janelle’s arm and sidestepped up the ramp while Kevin pushed her from behind. The ocean rippled between the boats. She felt dizzy.
Janelle stumbled over the end of the ramp and onto the soaked deck of the fishing boat. More feet thudded against the ramp behind her.
Fight. How?
A shark cage sat on the other side of a puddle, waiting for her. Its thick steel bars dripped and its door stood wide open. A cable connected it to one of the yellow pulleys, and a huge bucket of ice sat next to it.
If they got her in there, she and thousands of others were doomed.
Andrina walked across the puddle, sending little ripples across it with her heels. “Bring our captives over here,” she barked, pointing to a dry space between the water and the railing. “I want them to watch my success. Especially Lucas. Put him near the front.”
They were going to make her father watch this. Up close.
She couldn't let that happen.
Figures paraded up the ramp, Deon and his three captors the first among them. A wiry man in pajama shorts nudged him from behind and said, “I didn’t get rudely woken up to dawdle around here all day.”
Gary came next. He didn’t even look up as his captors led him along. He'd given up hope. A pang shot through her at the sight of him staring down at the deck, bangs hanging in his face. Would he even look at her ever again after the Operation?
Joey dragged his feet and groaned as Alec and a middle-aged woman pulled him along. Mr. Deville and her father came up in the rear, guarded by the suited members of the Elder Council.
Janelle turned away as far as Kevin and Ivanna would allow her. Their grips tightened on her arms, but she barely noticed the pain. She couldn’t face her dad now, not when this was all her fault. She should have listened to him. Maybe he really had kept her in his thoughts after all.
“A part of me was hoping that you could join us for this moment, Lucas,” Andrina said in her sugary voice, but underneath it was hurt, anger, and revenge. “Oh, why the tears?”
Janelle squinted at her father. She couldn’t help it. Tears streamed down his cheeks. She’d never seen him cry before. Bile rose in her throat like he might vomit.
Andrina began pacing past the small crowd in front of her. “I have one last word before Janelle begins her work. I would like to thank Gary Plankett for making this wonderful moment possible.”
Janelle felt her jaw go slack. Gary? What?
She faced him, expecting to see some recognition on his face. There was none. His mouth had dropped open, too. He stared up in terror. Looked at her. Shook his head.
“Oh, don’t look so shocked, Gary.” Andrina stopped in front of him. “Time was short and it was necessary to find my daughter. I knew her time to change was close, and that Lucas would move her back to the coast before it happened. So I made a special tape for you to listen to before your transformation and played it while you were sleeping. You never knew. In it was my instructions to seek out Janelle and change back right in front of her.”
“What?” Gary leaned forward against his captors’ grips with huge eyes. “That isn’t true!”
“Oh, but it is.” Andrina grabbed his chin. “How else was I going to find her? I knew Janelle would see your birthmark and visit you in the hospital. It was only a matter of waiting, and she accepted the bait.” She took a few steps back into the puddle. “You didn’t think everything falling into place like this was mere coincidence, did you?”
The Tempest High Leader stared at the crowd. Scattered applause rose up.
Gary had gotten all this started?
It made sense now. A horrible sense.
Gary sagged. Looked down at the ground. Janelle felt no anger towards him. It hadn’t been his fault. But he wouldn’t look at her. The guilt weighed down on him like a cruise ship strapped to his feet.
Andrina whirled around and smiled. “You’re going to make me very proud, Janelle. Here, I’ll get the door.” She made for the shark cage and held the door open.
Icy terror raced through her veins. Another tingle started to spread through her limbs. “I…I can break out of that,” Janelle stammered. She needed to try something to stall. Anything.
“Sure you can, when the ice we pour on you wears off.” Andrina waved her closer. “But by then you’ll be dangling over the ocean. And I’ve had this model specially reinforced as it was only designed to deal with sharks. Now, I suggest everyone stand on the other side of the boat as we lower her into the water.”
Gary’s voice met her ears. “Janelle, I’m sorry! I never meant for this to happen!”
Ivanna and Kevin dragged her closer to the cage. The door stood open like a mouth ready to swallow her. All the strength went from her legs. She couldn’t walk. She couldn’t scream. She—
“Andrina!”
Everyone stopped. Janelle jumped in place. It couldn’t be.
Camellia stood by the ramp, one arm slung over Leslie’s shoulder for support. She wobbled in place. Balling her fists, she glared at Andrina with eyes filled with raging clouds. “Be sure you finish the job next time.”
A growl escaped Andrina’s throat. “Are you challenging me?"
“No! Get out of there!” Janelle’s voice rang high in her ears as she thrashed against her captors’ grips. Her grandmother stood no chance in her condition. And neither did Leslie, period.
“Don’t look, Janelle.” Camellia advanced, eyes locked with Andrina’s.
But Janelle couldn't look away. Leslie backed down the ramp. The crowd on the other side of them cringed. Mr. Deville blanched. Janelle tried to look away. But she couldn’t.
Her grandmother ran forward to meet Andrina, who raised her arms to block the attack. No use. Andrina came off her feet and flew back into the side of a pulley with a loud clang. She crumpled to the deck and lay still.
Gasps erupted from the crowd, but nobody came forward to help the Tempest High Leader up.
Camellia staggered towards her, grimacing with each step. “As a member of the Elder Council, I call for you to step down from power. You’ve got no right to harm your own kind.”
Andrina lifted herself from the deck and wobbled in place. The gray in her eyes spun around her pupils. “Camellia, please. Now is not the time for this. Follow me, and I’ll spare your life.”
No. Camellia wouldn’t back down. She needed help. Janelle lurched forward against the grips of Ivanna and Kevin. No use. Her left hand started to go numb as Kevin gripped it even tighter.
Her grandmother faced her, eyes spinning and churning. “You’re the strongest of us, Janelle. Act like it.”
And with those words hanging in the air, she charged at A
ndrina once more.
But Andrina was ready this time. She reached up with one hand to catch her. Janelle squeezed her eyes shut as she took Camellia by the throat and lifted her off the deck. She couldn’t watch.
A gasp. And then there was a snap and a heavy thud.
Chapter Twenty
