by Dee J. Stone
“NO!!!” I zoom toward them just as his claw comes down on her. She releases an ear-splitting, excruciating yell that causes my blood to turn cold. I slam my hands into the sea serpent, sending it to the other side of the ocean. I fall down in front of Zarya.
She’s still yelling in pain. Blood flows out of her fin. Actually, I should say what’s left of it. The bastard sliced off half.
“You monster!” I yell, my tone bitter. I touch her fin, putting everything I have into healing her. The blood stops, but the fin doesn’t grow back. I swallow hard before turning around to face the sea serpent. It floats before me with a smug smile on its face.
“An eye for an eye,” my father’s voice says.
I stare at him until his words make sense. An eye for an eye. One of the merpeople hurt his daughter, Ruthie. Now he hurt the daughter of the merpeople.
I launch at him, my fists colliding with his jaw. He’s knocked backward and does a somersault, then charges at me. I evade his claw, keeping my eyes on Zarya who is sobbing on the floor. The small distraction gives my father a chance to wrap his claw around my neck and yank me toward him until his eyes bore into mine. “Say goodbye to Cassie.”
No! He’s going to try to bring Cassila out.
His eyes continue to bore into mine, causing me to grow dizzy and see spots. My head falls back.
Cassie! Damarian’s voice says. Do not submit, my love.
His life force crawls into my body, reviving me. I open my palm toward Zarya’s fork lying next to her at the floor. I hurl it at my father’s back with so much force that it goes right through him.
He roars so loud I lose my hearing for a few seconds. He sends me tumbling down toward the ocean floor. Keeping my hold on the fork, I hurl it through him again, again and again, over and over. Blood squirts out of him and his body flails in all direction, his tail whipping into rocks and throwing bits and pieces everywhere. Zarya, still sobbing, manages to drag her body out of harm’s way.
I continue to stab the fork into my father. Until he plummets to the ground and lies still. I swim toward him and hold the fork out, but then I see something different in his eyes. They aren’t yellow anymore but brown, the same color they were when he was human. The same color as mine when I’m human. As I gaze into them, I understand the human part of him, whatever is left of it, is sending me a message. Fight, Cassie. Don’t let the sea serpents win. Fight for the merpeople and other sea creatures. Fight to keep the ocean alive. I love you.
Then his head slumps back. He’s dead.
My throat chokes up. I killed my dad. Even though he was never really human and had always wanted to return to his true form, there was a part of him that was human and believed in good, peace and harmony. The man who raised me until the age of ten. The man who taught me how to ride a bike and kissed my cuts and scrapes and told me I was going to be okay. The man I thought was my hero.
And now he’s dead.
I need to tell myself that my father would never have been the person I wanted him to be. It just wasn’t his nature. He was destined to shift back into a sea serpent and try to take over the ocean, no matter what I did. It was inevitable. But my father is in a better place now. I know he is. I liberated him from the chains of the sea serpent. And now that he’s dead, it will be easier to take the rest of them down.
I hurry over to a silently weeping Zarya and gather her in my arms. “It’s okay, sweetie. I’m taking you home.” I try not to look at her fin because I know it’ll crush me. “It’ll be okay.” I kiss her forehead. “Just hang on.”
Chapter Ten
Zarya’s nails dig into my shoulders and her head buries in my chest as I zoom toward Eteria. I don’t think I’ve ever swam this fast before. I know she’s in a lot of pain—she’s constantly crying out and sobbing—and that makes me put everything I have into getting her back home to her family.
“You’re going to be okay,” I say over and over as my lips brush her temple. “Be a strong little girl, okay?”
Since she’s in no position to give me directions to the palace, I’m on my own. We got knocked off track when my father attacked us. A lump grows in my throat. My father, dead. I know it had to be done and that I was probably the only one who could do it, but it still sucks. Still stings. He was my dad.
The rest of the sea serpents don’t seem to be around. Maybe the death of my father has weakened them. I hope. Maybe they need to focus all their energy on the battlefield and not on their sea sister who has shifted back into her true form.
Even though I have no idea where I’m going, something seems to be guiding me in the right direction. Maybe it’s Damarian’s energy. I wonder if he senses that his little sister is hurt. Since they have such a strong bond, I’m pretty sure he feels that something happened.
I can’t bring my eyes to her tail. I don’t want to face the reality. I feel responsible for it. Even though she was the one who left the safety of the palace, she’s only a little kid. All that mattered to her was finding out if her new sister was okay. I feel horrible.
“Cassie,” her weak voice says.
I hug her close. “We’re almost there.” I press my cheek to her hair. “Just hang on a few more minutes.”
I managed to stop the bleeding, but I don’t know mermaid physiology. Will Zarya be able to survive with only half a fin? It’s equivalent to a human losing one of her feet. Does this mean she won’t be able to swim?
I can’t think about this. I need to be strong for her. I need to get her back to her family.
Just when I’m about to give up hope and reach out to Damarian—something I want to do as a last resort because I’m worried how he’ll react when he finds out the news, assuming he doesn’t know yet—I see the cave in the distance. I bolt toward it and slip inside.
At once, hundreds of sharks swarm at me. They don’t even stop to see who I am. They just try to snap their large mouths at me. “Wait!” I yell as I dodge their attacks. “I have an injured child of the sea!”
They don’t seem to be listening to me. Maybe they’ve been ordered to attack anyone who enters the palace. If they keep this up any longer, I’ll lose my grip on Zarya. Or worse, they’ll kill us both.
“Stop!” I yell.
A large bull shark slams its tail into me, throwing me toward a group of blue sharks who seem eager for a bite of my flesh.
“WILL YOU JUST STOP!” My yell is so loud that every single shark in a one hundred foot radius is blasted away as though I threw a grenade at them. Zarya slips from my arms, but I tighten my hold on her.
My tail propels me toward the palace, where more sharks are patrolling. The bomb I threw took up so much of my energy, and I’ve spent a lot of it by rushing to bring Zarya here. I don’t know if can deal with these.
Like the others, they swarm at me. I lift Zarya in my arms before they can move any closer. “This is Zarya of the Sapphire clan!” I yell, my voice booming through the ocean. “She’s the little sister of King Kiander, the king of the merpeople.” No…Damarian is the king now. The sharks are under his rule now. “She is the little sister of King Damarian,” I yell even louder. “Your king. And she’s hurt! Let us pass so I can bring her inside to her family! She needs them.”
The sharks stop and just float in the water, their eyes moving over Zarya’s body. Some of them exchange glances. Then a large great white swims forward and nudges its head into Zarya’s little hand. At first, her hand just lies limply on its head, and every part of me fills with dread. Is she unconscious? But then her fingers start to move and her hand flattens on the shark’s head. I take her other hand and try to infuse her with my energy or my healing or whatever I can. That seems to give her more strength, because she lifts her head and looks into the shark’s eyes.
After a few seconds, the great white nods and faces the others. Allow them to pass.
I give them a grateful nod before dashing toward the entrance to the palace. I stop for a second and marvel at how exquisite it looks, covered i
n sapphire crystals. It hasn’t changed since the last time I saw it, but it looks like a black cloud hovers over. Now that the sharks are out of the way, I see many members of the Guard guarding the palace. Merpeople of all different colors, though most are Violet and then Sapphire. As soon as a burly male Violet catches sight of us, he waves his hand at us and a hammerhead shark appears at his side.
“Please,” I say, holding out Zarya. She seems to have lost the energy I provided her. I don’t know if she’s dying. “She’s hurt. You have to let us get inside. Shen needs her parents.”
The Violet’s eyes widen in alarm. “The king’s sister.”
“Please,” I say urgently. “I don’t know how bad it is.”
He straightens up and narrows cool eyes at me. He snaps to a female Violet on his left. “Bring this fry to Kiandra of the Sapphire clan. Do not inform either King Damarian or former king Kiander of this news. We cannot allow them to lose focus.”
“Wait. What are you—”
The female Violet snatches her out of my arms and heads for the entrance to the colony.
“Hey!” I yell, swimming after them.
The male Violet holds out his arm, blocking me. “You are not welcome in here.” He twists my arm behind my back, then does the same with the other.
“Ow! Zarya! You can’t—dammit, ouch! You can’t take her like that!”
“Cassie!” her frantic voice screams. “Cassie!”
“She needs me,” I stress to the male Violet. “She was just attacked.”
“Quiet, you filthy beast.” He bends my arms even more, causing me to wince. His nose is only a few inches from mine. “Betrayer.”
“I’m not…” Tears choke my voice. “I haven’t…”
But I have. Even though I’m Cassie the human/of the Sapphire clan, I am still Cassila. Or I was. I’m the one responsible for the sea serpents’ rise to power. I’m responsible for this war, for all the bloodshed. I don’t know how many merpeople, sharks, and other ocean life were killed because of me.
I don’t know if I’ll ever be welcomed back here.
“Cassie!” Zarya continues to yell, her voice growing fainter as she’s taken into the palace.
I feel tears enter my eyes. Nothing will ever be the same.
The Violet shoves me back and nods to his shark. It moves forward along with a tiger shark and a bull, and they close in on me, forcing me back. Until I hit a wall of rock. I swallow the saliva gathering in my mouth. Are they going to kill me?
“Please,” I say to the Violet. “I need to get into the palace. My mate is there.”
He whips his head and glares at me. “How dare you speak of the king!”
“But he’s my mate.”
His nostrils flare. “You are nothing but a human who has stolen the king from the throne. You are responsible for all of this.” He waves his arms around. “You are responsible for the destruction of the Ruby colony!”
It feels like the air gets knocked out of me, even though I don’t breathe in air as a mermaid. “What do you mean?”
He folds his arms over his chest and scoffs. “You are not aware?”
I move closer to him, but the sharks snap their teeth at me. I shrink back. “Violet, what are you saying? The Ruby colony is gone?”
“Yes, and we have you to thank.”
Oh my God. From what I remember when I journeyed here, the Ruby colony is the one closest to the entrance of the entire merpeople colony, followed by the Sapphires. The sea serpents must have hit them first, obliterating everything in their path. It must have happened while Damarian and I were in my mind trying to get me back, or when I fled the area after I changed from a sea serpent to a mermaid.
“Are all the Rubies gone?”
He glares at me. “Many have perished, but fortunately most have managed to escape.”
“Where are they now? Are they safe?” I doubt everyone is hiding here in the palace. There’s not enough room. I assume the families of Kiander and Flora have taken refuge here.
He scoffs again. “Do you honestly believe I would tell you, a sea serpent, where the Rubies have fled to? You are a fool.”
“Please.” I try to swim closer to him, but once again the sharks block me. “I’m not a sea serpent anymore. You have to believe me.”
“I believe nothing.”
My gaze drifts to the three sharks holding me prisoner. “What are you going to do to me?” I ask.
“I do not know. I am awaiting instructions from Syren or Callen of the Sapphire clan.”
For a second, hope engulfs me. Syren will tell them to let me go! Then I’ll finally be able to reunite with Damarian and see if Zarya is okay. But then I remember how Syren and I parted ways. He wanted me killed.
Great.
I don’t know how long I remain out here, with the Violet giving me the stink eye and the sharks appearing like it would give them no greater pleasure than to sink their razor-sharp teeth into me. I don’t understand why they still have such hostility toward me. Fiske sensed the sea serpent inside me and saw me as the enemy. But Cassila is now subdued, locked in my mind. I guess they can still sense her. Like Damarian said, she’s part of me and I can’t survive without her.
“Cassie!” I hear someone call.
My body perks up. It sounds like Doria.
A moment later, she emerges out of the palace. As soon as she sees me, she rushes over, but the Violet holds out his arm and two other sharks surge in front of her. “What is the meaning of this?” she demands.
“I have been instructed to not allow any being to enter or leave the palace,” the Violet says. He flares his nostrils. “Especially her.”
Doria looks furious. “Who has given such instructions to not allow Cassie to enter the palace?”
“Syren of the Sapphire clan.”
Doria’s face slowly changes from fury to dejection. She looks over at me with guilty eyes. My heart feels heavy. So much for having even an ounce of hope that Syren would forgive me and welcome me back into his life.
“I am here to claim her,” Doria announces.
The Violet shakes his head. “I cannot allow you to do so.”
“It is by the order of King Damarian!”
King Damarian. Hearing them refer to him like that is so…odd.
The Violet shakes his head again. “King Kiander and Queen Flora have given full warfare control to Syren of the Sapphire clan.”
Doria throws her hands up. “Kiander and Flora are no longer our rulers. Release Cassie at once! By order of King Damarian.”
The Violet doesn’t budge. “I apologize, but I have received my orders directly from Kiander and Flora, through Callen. Unless I receive them directly from King Damarian or Callen—”
Doria shoves past him and hurries to my side. A blue shark swoops in and pushes her away with its head while the ones guarding me force me back, until I hit the wall again.
“What nonsense!” Doria yells.
“I implore you to return to the palace,” the Violet tells her. “You will be safe there.”
“Cassie is my sister, Violet.” Her deep blue eyes shine with defiance. “I will not leave until she is by my side.”
“You trust a sea serpent?” he asks, appalled.
Doria’s eyes move over me, first unsure, and then totally sure. “I do not see a sea spent. I see a child of the sea.”
“Your ruling family will cause the annihilation of our race,” he mutters.
“You will withdraw your words, or you would have committed treason.”
“I only speak the truth. It is my duty to protect my fellow children of the sea.”
“You are a fool,” Doria nearly spits.
“Enough!” a voice yells from inside the entrance to the palace. Every part of me lights up. Damarian.
Chapter Eleven
As soon as Damarian emerges from the palace with Fiske behind him, every single merperson in the area, including Doria, raises their arms and brings them together, lowering th
eir heads. The merpeople bow. I just stare at Damarian with my jaw practically sweeping the ocean floor. He looks so different. His entire body glows, making him look even more magical and ethereal than I’ve ever seen him. On his head sits a crown made out of sapphire, violet, emerald, ruby, and diamond crystals. The king’s crown. Four Violets flank him on either side.
It suddenly dawns on me that if Damarian is the king, then I am…the queen.
Holy shit.
“Cassie,” Damarian breathes, rushing toward me.
The Violet and sharks block his path, just like they did with Doria. “My king,” the burly Violet says, lowering his head again. “I ask you not to move any further. That monster is dangerous.”
“That beautiful creature is my mate,” Damarian says, his tone dead serious, his face even more furious than Doria’s was.
“But my king—”
Damarian holds up his hand, silencing him. The Violet shrivels back.
At each move Damarian makes, the four Violets move along with him, their eyes scanning the area. I notice Morteran is among them. He was Flora’s personal guard, sworn to protect her. I guess he serves Damarian now, since he’s the king. Fiske floats behind Damarian, his hostile eyes pasted on me. I remember how he treated me back when I was in the ocean, because he was able to sense my sea serpent side. I guess he, and the rest of the sharks, still see me as the enemy. My eyes scan around the area, looking for Shoney, wondering if she’d see me as the enemy, too. But then I remember she was assigned to another Sapphire. A memory of me, as Cassila, flashes in my mind, of me dodging an attack from a large great white shark. Shoney. She’s at the battlefront. She didn’t know it was me she was fighting—how could she? Every one of my organs plummets to my tail at the realization that I could have killed her.
