by Dee J. Stone
Damarian’s arms come around me. “We cannot lose hope, my love. We need to try.”
I lower my hands and bury my face in his chest. “I feel like the worst person in the world. I can’t…” I hiccup. “I don’t think I can do anything right now.”
“You are strong, my Cassie. We are strong together. We have the ability to overcome the sea serpent that has taken control of you. You must believe this.”
Back when Damarian and I went into my mind to fight off the sea serpent inside me, I was so determined to get rid of her. But right now, I feel helpless. I’m the one who caused this mess. What if I make it worse? All I’ve done since I met Damarian is brought him one heartache after another. I want to curl myself into a ball and just disappear.
Damarian lifts my hands to his lips and kisses the back of my fingers. “I do not hold you accountable for all of this. You are my mate, the being I love with all my heart, and I know the real you would not do this. You are possessed by a beast you cannot control. Please do not despair. You and I are the sole beings who can defeat the sea serpents.”
I run my hand across my eyes. “I don’t know if I can even get out of here. I was pushed back when I tried to get to you. Maybe the sea serpent is just too powerful.”
Damarian shakes his head. “I will not surrender without trying. The Cassie I know and love would not, either.”
As I stare into my merman’s blue eyes, I see how much he believes in me. He’s right—the old me wouldn’t give up without trying. The old me would have done everything in my power to stop those monsters. The sea serpent might have taken control of my mind and body, but I am still here. I am not dead. As long as I’m alive (or whatever I am), there is still hope. The entire race of the merpeople are counting on me and Damarian to save them. Because we are the only ones who can.
“You’re right, Damarian. I’m sorry for being so doubtful.” I look past him toward the exit of this tiny cave. “Is she out there?”
“I do not know. When I connected my mind with yours, I awakened right outside this cave.”
“It’s the only way out,” I say, crawling toward it. When I reach the opening and try to stick my hand through, I’m pushed back again. But this time it’s with so much force that I crash into Damarian and knock him into the back wall.
“I’m so sorry, Damarian. Are you okay?” His eyes are closed. I touch his cheek. “Damarian.”
He moans as his eyes flutter open. “That was not a pleasant feeling.”
“I’m trapped in here.”
“One moment.” He drags his body toward the opening and sticks his hand through. Then he pulls the rest of his body out. His tail sways in the water and his golden hair flows behind him. He looks back at me with a worried expression.
I crawl back to the opening and try to put my hand through. Again, I’m shoved away. “I can’t get out.”
Damarian puts his hand in the cave. “Take my hand.”
I move closer, and just when our skin is about to make contact, we’re pushed apart.
“I will not accept this, “Damarian says. “I will release you from here.”
He disappears from my sight, and a second later, he swoops into the cave, his arms wrapping around me. He uses his tail to kick off the back wall and sails toward the entrance. It’s like we’re moving in slow motion. The opening comes closer and closer, and I brace myself for the pain I’m sure I’ll feel once Damarian passes through and I’m thrown back. He twists his body so that he’s covering most of mine, and just as we’re about to pass through, we’re surrounded by electricity. No, the electricity is coming out of Damarian. Glancing up at him, I see his eyes are lit silver, just like the other times. We pass through the opening with so much force that the entire cave blows up.
Damarian’s body still cradles mine, his chest heaving. When I look down at myself, I realize I have my sapphire tail. “I’m out,” I say, not believing what just happened. I lock my arms around his neck and gaze into his eyes. “You got me out. How did you do that?”
He shakes his head. “I am not certain. I was determined to liberate you.” His eyes scan the area. Mine do, too. We’re in the ocean—well, the ocean in my mind—except it doesn’t really look like the ocean. The water is murky and green and everything around me is dead. There are no fish or any ocean life.
“This must be her domain,” I say. The whole area has a desolate, gloomy feeling.
Damarian takes my hand. “Come. I believe it is time we subdue her and allow the real Cassie to regain control.”
Chapter Eight
We must be swimming for hours. The place gets more desolate the further we go, and it smells like death. This is how my sea serpent side sees everything now—just death and destruction. There is no light, no beauty, no happiness. No life.
The temperature of the water is freezing. Sometimes it gets so bad that my limbs lock in place and I can hardly move. I feel pressure in my ears and a distant sound of voices. Just like the voices I heard in my dreams when the sea serpents were starting to awaken.
“I don’t get it,” I whisper to Damarian. “Where is she?” I’m pretty sure we passed the same area three times already. “Is she hiding? Trying to screw with us?”
Damarian opens his mouth to answer, when a serpent tail wraps around him and chucks him into a wall of rock. “Damarian!” When I look up, I come face to face with her. The sea serpent that has stolen my body. My mind. My identity.
She hisses. The weakling.
That voice. It’s so deep and menacing, and like the last time, I feel like every hair on my body stands on end. Not that I have bodily hair as a mermaid. I shrink back at her intimidating voice, but then I straighten up. No, I will not let this monster continue to control me. She’s done enough damage already and I’m going to fight her until I’m the one in control.
When I look at Damarian, I find him getting up from the ground and swimming back to my side. He doesn’t seem to be hurt, which is odd because he hit that rock pretty hard. Could it be due to his power?
I focus my attention back on the ten-foot sea serpent floating before me. She hasn’t changed since the last time we met. She still has the same dark gray body with blue, green, and gray scales. Her eyes are yellow, she has two nostrils on the edge of her face, and she still has the fin on the top of her head.
Balling my hands into fists to keep them from shaking, I look right into her eyes—though it’s a little difficult because it hurts and makes me want to turn away—and say, “I’m not the weakling. You are.”
Her sinister laugh echoes throughout the ocean. Me? A weakling? She continues to laugh. The humans are the weakest race, followed by those wretched children of the sea.
I take a hesitant step closer. “Listen here, sea serpent—”
Cassila, her voice hisses in my head. You will address me as Cassila, you filthy human!
Cassila? Oh, nice to know the monster inside me has a name so similar to mine. “I’m Cassie,” I say.
She makes a disgusted sound. A lesser race does not deserve to be called by its name.
Her tone is so ominous that I falter back. But then I square my shoulders and glare into her eyes. “The weak race is the one who thinks it’s superior to the others.”
Spoken like a true human! She lifts her claws. It’s time I return you to where you belong. She thrusts out her hands. I’m thrown back with so much force that the entire ocean zips by me. With my peripheral vision, I see I’m headed for the small cave I woke up in. She must have rebuilt it. She wants to lock me up in there again. All the progress that Damarian and I made…it’ll all be for nothing.
Strong arms wrap around me and snatch me just as I’m about to rocket through the opening of the cave. Damarian. He swims back to Cassila and lowers me from his arms, pushing me behind him. He holds out his fists. “No one injures my mate, you filthy beast!”
Her eyes look amused. A puny child of the sea believes he can challenge me. She rockets forward until the tip of her
nose is only a few centimeters away from Damarian’s. He swallows. You think I don’t know who you are? You think I don’t know you’ve taken the throne? Her eyes flick to mine. Do you honestly think you’ll make it out here alive? In just a few short moments, there will be nothing left of you but bones. No, not even that.
“I do not believe we shall make it out alive,” Damarian says. “I know we shall.” He reaches behind him to take my hand. “Because our bond is stronger than anything else in this sea.” He kisses the back of my hand. “You do not know love. You do not know loyalty. All you know is death and destruction.”
I swear steam shoots out of her nostrils, even though we’re in the water. It looks like she has murder in her eyes. I swoop in front of Damarian. “This is my fight,” I tell him.
“You are mistaken, my love. This is our fight. Our future.”
She bares her fangs. You are mistaken, puny Sapphire. I do know love. I do know loyalty.” She laughs that evil laugh again. You won’t find a species any more loving or loyal than the sea serpents.
“Yeah, but you’re only loyal and loving to yourselves,” I say. “You think your race is above everyone else’s. You think you’re entitled and everyone else should bow to your feet. Uh, tail. But that’s what makes you and your kind weak. Because the beauty in accepting different species is that you can learn so much from each other.” Now I kiss Damarian’s hand. “You feel things you’ve never felt before. You discover things you never imagined you’d learn. It opens your eyes to things you never thought you would ever experience in your life.”
Cassila is quiet. She just stares at me, and for a second, I think my words might be getting through to her. If I can convince her that we can live peacefully together, maybe she can convince the others. And then the war can be over and—
Cassila swats her claw at Damarian, slicing his throat. Blood spurts out of him.
“Damarian!” I bound toward his sinking body as Cassila’s laugh reverberates throughout the ocean. I catch up to him just as he’s about to hit the ground. I tuck my hands beneath his head so that when his body hits the floor, his head is protected. I touch his throat. “Damarian.” Even though I’m in the water, my eyes well up with tears and I can’t see anything. “D-D-Damarian.”
He tries to talk, but that causes more blood to squirt out of him.
“Stop. Don’t talk.” My hands shake as I press them into his neck, trying to stop the blood. If only I had a cloth or—who am I kidding? We’re in the middle of the ocean. “Stay with me, Damarian. Don’t you dare go anywhere.”
His eyes roll over and his head slumps back.
“No! Open your eyes, dammit! Open your eyes or I swear I’ll—!”
Cassila’s laughs grow louder. My head whips toward her and I feel my entire face blaze with fury. “You, bitch!” I storm toward her and slam my fist into her jaw. She catapults backward like a canon. Her form grows smaller and smaller until it’s gone.
I rush back to Damarian’s side. “Damarian.” I grab hold of his shoulders. “Please don’t be dead. You can’t be dead.”
No response.
I squeeze his shoulders tighter and yell a bitter yell. Light shines out of my palms and sinks into Damarian. The cut on his throat fades away. Color returns to his cheeks. I stare at my hands. I healed him, just like I did back when he and I faced Cassila the first time. Except, now I can do it in my mind. Maybe because of Damarian’s power? Or could it be because of Cassila? Damarian told me she’s healing the other sea serpents. Unless Cassila stole the power from Damarian.
My thoughts are interrupted by movement from Damarian. A moan leaves his mouth as his eyes slowly open. “Cassie, what has happened?”
“It was her. She—”
“Cassie!” he yells, his wide eyes staring at something behind me. I twist around and see Cassila charging toward us, her eyes bright red.
“We need to move.” My hands wrap around his arms and yank. Damn, he’s heavy.
“Cassie…” He shakes his head.
“We need to move right now!”
He opens his mouth, but no sound comes out.
I can feel her coming closer. I only have two seconds. I can’t let Damarian die. If he dies here, in my mind, he’ll die outside, too. Just like he almost did when he and I fought Cassila the first time. But it’s more than just losing the love of my life—I can’t let the sea serpents take his power and cause even more chaos and destruction. I throw myself over Damarian and shut my eyes.
Nothing happens.
I slowly open my eyes. Cassila is not here. In fact, nothing familiar seems to be here. It looks like we’re in a different part of my mind. It’s still the ocean, but I don’t recognize anything around me. It’s like we…teleported.
Damarian moves underneath me. I lift myself off and see he has completely regained his energy. His eyes fill with silver light. “If it is a fight she desires,” he says, his voice low and deep. “Then it is a fight she shall receive.” He grabs my hand and swims back to our previous location.
His eyes continue to crackle with that electricity, and to be honest, it kind of scares me. What if he’s being possessed by something? Maybe his mind is not his anymore. But then he gives me a sweet, reassuring smile, and I relax.
“Cassila!” he yells, his strong voice vibrating in my ears. “Reveal yourself and fight! You imprisoned my mate, you attempted to kill me. You have taken control of Cassie’s body and mind and have killed hundreds of my kind!”
Nothing. The area is dead quiet.
Damarian turns from right to left, backward and forward. “She is cloaked,” he says.
Cloaked. As in invisible.
His hand slips from mine as he raises them to defend if needed.
“Wait,” I whisper, reaching for his hand. I clutch it tightly and feel my own eyes fill with electricity. More of it crackles between us. I narrow my eyes and study every single part of this area. And then I see her on our left, her claws outstretched, her serpent tail raised. Ready to fight.
Damarian must see her, too, because he surges away just as Cassila pounces. Her eyes fill with shock as she realizes that we can see her. Then they fill with humor. The true king’s gift. I can’t wait to feel its power coursing through my veins. She opens her mouth and spits out that green venom. I whirl around and cover my face to protect myself. But I don’t feel anything. No boils, nothing peeling my skin off.
I open one eye. Damarian’s arms are raised before him, the electricity in his eyes so intense it almost blinds me. His sapphire tail whooshes so fast and strong it sounds like a washing machine that is about to break. The poison didn’t hit us because we’re encompassed in a shield, one Damarian has created.
Cassila hisses, clearly not happy. She opens her mouth wide and spits more of that venom. It splats against the shield before sliding off and mixing in with the ocean water, creating little acidic bubbles that fade away after a few seconds. But the venom breached the shield. Cassila notices, too, because a triumphant smile captures her mouth. She opens her mouth wide again, gathering a crapload of venom into her mouth. Damarian groans as he tries to strengthen the shield. I don’t think it will hold.
I zip behind him and wrap my hands around his middle, pulling him tight against my chest, my tail coiling around his. I feel the energy flow from me to Damarian, and the breach in the shield gets sealed.
The crapload of venom smacks hard into us, shoving us a few feet back. But the shield holds.
An enraged hiss explodes out of Cassila. She vaults toward us faster than the speed of light, and before I know what’s going on, she’s only a few inches before us. The next hiss she releases is so profound that it rings in my ears. It causes Damarian’s concentration on the shield to drop. We’re exposed and vulnerable.
Cassila slashes her claw at us, but something weird happens. She never makes contact with us—her claw goes right through us. She tries again, and once again, the claw goes right through. It’s like we’ve faded ourselves.
You fools! You can never defeat me! I am a sea serpent!
“And we are bonded for all eternity,” Damarian says. He reaches for my hand, and together we aim our other hands at her.
Before we have a chance to shoot, Cassila uses her tail to fling a large rock at us. Damarian quickly swims to the left, yanking me with him, but we’re not fast enough and the rock hits my tail. I yelp and let go of Damarian’s hand, twisting and turning in the water as the pain shoots throughout the rest of my body.
Cassila whips her tail at me, throwing me into a large stone.
“Cassie!” Damarian yells.
Pain explodes in my head and I taste blood. For a few seconds, I just float in the water with my vision spotty and my head ringing as though someone’s blowing a whistle in my head. Biting down hard on my lower lip, I fight the pain and turn around to glare at Cassila. “You’re not going to win. You might as well give up.”
She snarls.
Damarian rushes over and touches my head. “Are you all right?”
“Look out!”
Cassila whips her tail toward Damarian, wrapping it around his waist and plucking him away. She swims between two large rocks and smacks Damarian into one and then to the other, back and forth, back and forth.
“Stop!” I yell. I pump my tail to speed over, but pain shoots throughout my body again. I glance down at my tail and see it’s bent in an unnatural shape. “Shit.” I touch my tail and instantly feel the pain go away. It straightens out and looks as good as new.
The next instant, I’m right in front of Cassila, watching in horror as she continues to bang Damarian against the two rocks. “Let him go!” I yell. I want to punch her or do something, but I’m worried I’ll hurt Damarian.
She just laughs that evil laugh and continues to ram him into the rocks.
I pump my tail as hard as I can and swim upward until I’m above her head. I dive down to the fin protruding out of her head and grab it. It’s hard, rubbery and slimy. My hands almost slip off when Cassila shakes her head, trying to toss me away. I tighten my hold and narrow my eyes at the fin, the image of Damarian being thrown around like a rag doll flashing in my mind. A spark of electricity shoots out of my hands and shocks the top of her head. She releases a deafening roar and shakes her head so hard I’m tossed off and nearly collide into another wall of rock. Her tail no longer holds Damarian. I see him sailing a few hundred feet away.
