by Dee J. Stone
Three sea serpents are killed. I want to dance around—er, not that I can because of tail. We can do this. We can actually do this!
A sea serpent that looks like Sheila spits venom at the blue whale. It doesn’t seem to have an effect, probably because his body is too large. She hisses angrily before leaping onto him and opening her mouth. The blue whale tosses her off like she’s a tiny fish.
Another sea serpent leaps at him, but the whale throws him aside, too.
The sea serpents look at one another like they don’t know what to do. Then they disappear.
We all spin around slowly with our hands out in front of us. The blue whale and others wait patiently.
Suddenly, Damarian lets out a cry as he clutches his chest. I cry out, too, when I feel like someone is stabbing my heart. The sea serpents appear out of nowhere and each one of them targets the blue whale. They slash him and bite him and spit large amounts of venom on him. His skin starts peeling away. His wails are so loud I think my ears will pop.
“No,” I croak.
“My power,” Damarian’s weak voice says. “They are drawing from it.”
Is it because Cassila is fighting to the surface? Maybe she’s making them have an easier access to Damarian’s power.
The sea serpents continue their assault on the blue whale, as well as the sperm whales and other larger mammals.
“We need to help them!” I say, heading to them.
Both Syren and Kyle hold me back. “There is nothing we can do,” Syren says. “Attempting to aid them will be suicide.”
I shove them aside and zoom toward the whales, staying a few hundred feet away. I take a deep breath and once again reach into my very core, calling on every bit of energy I have. Damarian’s hand slips into mine. I turn to give him a thankful nod, and then I feel his pulse passing through me, providing me with more strength. Electricity once again engulfs us, but this is the strongest it’s ever felt. Our hands fist in front of us and our tails lift in the air. Together, we punch the area before us, as though we’re hitting the sea serpents. Every one of our blows crackles with electricity.
The sea serpents cry out as burn marks appear on their bodies. I dig even deeper and thrust out my hands with all the force I have, Damarian’s pulse fueling me. A large pop is heard and two of the sea serpents’ bodies explode, their guts flying all over the place. I’m thrown backward into Damarian’s arms, my chest heaving.
The whales now have the upper hand and waste no time giving the sea serpents a piece of their minds. I’m beyond relieved to learn that while they’ve sustained some pretty nasty-looking bruises, they don’t seem too terrible. And it certainly has not slowed them down. I’ll try to heal them as much as I can once we win this thing.
I take Damarian’s hand and give it a squeeze. It’s enough to revitalize me. Together with the whales, we continue our attack. While my mind is focused on annihilating the sea serpents, it also merges with Shoney. I don’t know how it’s possible to be in two places at once, but I am. Maybe it’s because of the power Damarian and I are accessing. I don’t know. But what I see is Shoney battling a great white shark that is larger than her. Something is weird, though. It doesn’t appear like Shoney is actually fighting him. It looks like they are arguing about something and are taking out their frustration on one another. It’s obvious this shark belongs to the rebel side because I see its master a few feet away.
Shoney, I call out to her.
Cassie. She snaps her mouth at the shark, only inches away from his skin. She had a clear shot, but didn’t take it.
What’s going on? I ask as I land another punch on a sea serpent.
The shark makes a move to chomp off Shoney’s fin, but she dodges instead of attacking. He is confused, she says. He is ordered to follow his master’s commands, but he feels it is not right. She dives upward to avoid another attack. He understands the sea serpents are the enemy. He does not know what to do.
A memory attacks my mind, when the sea serpents met up with the rebels and their sharks before attacking the merpeople. I remember how I, as Cassila, didn’t trust the sharks. My father told me that by nature, they view the sea serpents as the enemy, which is why Fiske and the others were so hostile toward me. They are loyal to their masters and abide by their wishes, though. But maybe with some help, we can convince them to disobey their masters and join us in the fight. We don’t want to spill unnecessary blood.
Damarian and I, with the help of a humpback whale, kill off a sea serpent. There are only five left. I take his hand and pull him away. “I need to go for a few minutes. You’ll be okay here?”
He touches my cheek. “Yes. But to where do you go?”
“Trust me, okay?” I give him a quick kiss before swimming behind the battlefront. Shoney meets me a few seconds later. I don’t need to tell her what I want to do because she knows. I take her fin and I close my eyes. I focus my energy on her and the five species of sharks that serve the clans. Damarian must sense I need some more power because I feel him flow inside me.
I see little dots in my head, the colors of sapphire, violet, emerald, ruby, and diamond. These must be the sharks. Even though Shoney can’t sense her fellow sharks like the merpeople can nor can she connect to anyone other than her master, I guess Damarian and I are making it possible for her.
I’m reaching out to you because we need your help, I tell them. Your loyalty belongs to the children of the sea, but your masters no longer wish to be part of us. They are associated with the sea serpents who want to take control of the sea. You’re sworn to protect the children of the sea. And right now, they need you. Please join us.
At once each one of the sharks on the opposing side stop attacking and just float there, looking bewildered. The ones on our side stop, too. They also must have heard the message.
Some of the rebels shout at their sharks while others seem to order them through their minds. A few of the sharks start fighting again.
Yes, I say. The masters you serve want to hurt the children of the sea. They’re corrupted. We need your help.
Shoney tries to convince them, too. But none of them budge. They just look confused.
Your queen has just given you an order, Damarian’s voice says in my mind.
I cringe at the thought of me being “queen.”
And I am commanding you as well, Damarian continues.
The shark Shoney was battling slowly turns to his master. He looks like he has betrayal in his eyes. I don’t know what he’s thinking, but it must be pretty bad because his master starts moving back, pure terror in his eyes. The shark swarms toward him, and it looks like he’s about to snap his face off, but he just brushes past him and zips toward one of the sea serpents, helping the sharks on our side.
Some of the others head for the sea serpents, too, leaving their masters totally defenseless. Many of them try hiding behind the sea serpents, but they don’t give a damn about them, they just focus on protecting themselves.
I lock onto Damarian and pump myself up with as much of his power as I can. “You can still join us!” I call to the rebels. “It’s not too late! Don’t die in vain.” I know they won’t be able to just join the colony like nothing happened once the war is over, assuming we win—no, we will win—but they don’t have to die. As queen—ugh, still not liking this—I have a duty to save as many children of the sea as possible.
“Yes,” Damarian says. “There is no need for you to perish. We welcome you back.”
They’re still trying to hide behind the sea serpents, but they really don’t need to because we’re not going to send our sharks at them. One of the sea serpents seems annoyed with the young-looking female Ruby who’s hanging onto its back. She can’t be more than sixteen, and she has the most terrified expression on her face. Just by looking at her, I’m almost positive I know this mermaid’s story. She was pressured into joining the rebels, maybe by her family or maybe by her friends. But she never signed up for this.
I concentrate on
her. “Come back to us. That sea serpent won’t protect you. We won’t hurt you.”
Her eyes dart around anxiously.
The sea serpent hisses and flings her off its back, launching her toward a wall of rock. I thrust out my hands and stop her before she crashes into it. Kyle hurries over and wraps his arms around her middle, pulling her away just as the sea serpent slams its tail into the rock, cracking it into pieces. Just like I knew, the sea serpents don’t care about her—none of them care about any of the rebels. Who knows if they even plan on keeping their promise not to enslave them? Two Guards take the Ruby by the arms and swim away with her, probably to the palace prison.
Gyron, leader of the rebels, starts yelling at those who flee to our side, but they don’t look back. His tiger shark—the one that attacked Kayla—hasn’t left his side. I’m about to raise my hands and give him what he deserves, when all of the sudden, all five of the sea serpents stop attacking and gather in a circle. I look at Damarian who raises confused eyebrows. We hold out our fists, ready to stop whatever they’re cooking. The ocean is completely still as each and every merperson and sea creature watches them, waiting to see what they have planned. Callen and Syren shake their heads to the others, probably telling them to stand their ground and wait off on attacking until we know exactly what’s going on. The sea serpents raise their claws upward, and a few seconds later I hear a yell, followed by another and then another.
“Cassie!” Damarian shouts.
Chapter Eighteen
I turn my head to the left and see something with tentacles shooting toward me. In the split second it takes for my brain to register what’s going on, I’m tossed to the side as though someone yanked me with a hook. Damarian. The tentacles—which I realize now belong to a jellyfish—go right past me and hit the water instead. When I scan the area, I see that the sea serpents have taken control of the jellyfish and have expanded them, wrapping their tentacles around many of the merpeople. One by one, their bodies swell up. They must have been injected by their venom. Their bodies continue to get swollen until they look like balloons. I grab Damarian’s hand and feel my nails dig into it as their bodies explode.
Together, we charge at the sea serpents with our sharks, the Guards, and the whales by our side. We punch and slam our tails into them, and it might be me imagining at, but it appears as though the sea serpents are weaker. As though their attack with the jellyfish was their last straw.
The two smallest sea serpents—Ruthie and Bobby, my brother and sister—are bloody and look like they’re going to pass out. Syren is about to send his shark at them.
“No!” I yell, surging toward him and grabbing his arm. Both he and his shark gape at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Please don’t kill my brother and sister, Syren.”
Now he looks at me like I’ve lost my mind and have grown an extra head instead.
“My father said they’re not fully-formed sea serpents. There might be a chance to save them.”
Syren shakes his head. “That is not a risk we can afford.”
“Please.” I clutch his arm. “They’re just kids. They’re innocent in all of this.”
He looks unsure.
“They’re my brother and sister.” My voice cracks.
His gaze moves to Damarian, who inclines his head. Syren looks at Ryter. He swims over. “You are the sole being with knowledge on these beasts,” Syren says. “What do you advise?”
Ryter’s gaze flits to Bobby and Ruthie, who are whipping their tails at the merpeople and sea creatures. A look of disgust engulfs him. “A sea serpent is a sea serpent.”
“Please,” I say, throwing Damarian a pleading look. “We can at least try.”
“Heed your queen’s request, Father.”
“They’re my family.”
Syren pats my hand that rests on his arm. I look up at him, surprised. “Very well,” he says. He nods to the other Guards. “Spare the smaller sea serpents.”
Ryter gets another look of disgust before swimming away with his shark. But he follows my words and doesn’t hurt my siblings. It doesn’t take too long before they are knocked unconscious and lay on some rock, guarded by four large merpeople.
Only three sea serpents remain, including Sheila. I swallow hard. I hadn’t known her for very long, but I liked her a lot. I know I’ll have no choice but to kill her, just like I had to kill my dad. I can’t save her.
“Leave my stepmom to me,” I tell Damarian. I need to be the one to do it.
I sweep my hands to the right, yanking her by an invisible string and separating her from the other two sea serpents. She gets a smug look on her face. “Just you and me, then?” she says before laughing.
I swallow again. “You leave me no choice.”
She bares her teeth and swoops toward me. With Damarian’s energy fueling mine, I hold out my palms and push them forward, creating a strong pulse that surges right at her. It hits her in the chest, causing burn marks to appear all over her body. A look of horror passes over her face as her body turns all red, as if she’s an erupting volcano. She shakes for a few seconds before exploding, sending her guts all over the place, her excruciating screams scratching the insides of my ears.
My heart drops to my tail. Sheila is dead.
Now only two sea serpents remain.
One of them twists its body as it avoids attacks from the others and heads our way, landing a few feet in front of me and Damarian. I charge at him and am about to attack, but then I hear, “Please don’t kill me, Cassie!”
Both Shoney and I make a short stop. That’s Jace’s voice. Not sea serpent Jace, but human Jace. I hold out my arm to Damarian, blocking him from moving an inch closer. Syren, Kyle, and the others stop as well, though some of the other sea creatures try to attack. They must realize something is amiss, because they focus their attention on the other sea serpent.
“Jace?” I ask.
He lowers his head and backs away, as though he’s scared.
I look at Damarian and Syren. They seem just as confused as me, but they don’t look as hesitant or sympathetic. I’m about to move closer when Damarian grabs my hand. He doesn’t say anything, just keeps his suspicious eyes on Jace, but I know he’s telling me to be careful. He doesn’t want me to get too close to him.
“Jace?” I say again.
“Cassie.” His voice is low and squeaky.
“Damarian, it’s the human Jace. He wants to—”
A sinister laugh echoes throughout the ocean. The next thing I feel is myself being tossed a few hundred feet away and then colliding into a wall of rock. In the few seconds before I hit the wall, I realize Damarian and many of the other Guards have been thrown aside, too. My entire body aches. Shit. He tricked me. The bastard tricked me.
Not even giving myself time to heal, I pump my tail and propel myself at him. I don’t need to see Damarian behind me—I feel him. And Shoney and Fiske, too. I make a fist and ram it into Jace’s side, though he manages to divert himself and my punch is more like a tap. Many of the others have recuperated and are storming at Jace. The other sea serpent has been killed by the whales, and sinks toward the bottom of the ocean.
We deliver blow after blow at Jace, hard and fast before he has a chance to fight back. Blood spurts out of him.
An ear-splitting cry escapes my mouth when I feel a heavy punch to my side. Then another one to my stomach, my tail, my face. It’s as though I’m being attacked by an invisible entity. A sea serpent? Could it be one that’s cloaked? I cry out again and I sink down.
“Cassie!” Damarian yells. He hurries after me and catches me in his arms. “What is the matter?”
I cry out again as I feel a fist ram into my side.
“What is hurting you?” Damarian nearly shouts, his voice frantic.
The thing that’s attacking me can’t be a cloaked sea serpent because I’m in Damarian’s arms and he’s not getting attacked. Whatever’s happening, it’s happening only to me.
Damarian lays me down on a
rock with a flat surface. My body flails around as I continue getting attacked, and my eyes close, my body ready to shut down.
“Father,” Damarian nearly weeps. “What is happening?”
A hand touches my arm. “I do not know. This is very strange.”
“Cassie.” Kyle’s voice. “Don’t close your eyes. Stay with us!”
My eyes flutter open.
“Stop this instant!” Ryter’s voice bellows. Even though I’m seconds away from blacking out again, I force my eyes to remain open. Ryter grabs a Guard who is about to land another punch at Jace. “If you kill that sea serpent, your queen will perish as well!”
The Guard just blinks at him. My eyes are heavy, but I see how Jace uses the opportunity to knock out some of the Guards. The blue whale stretches out his tail and slams it down on Jace.
“I should have realized this sooner,” Ryter says as he swims over to us. “The beasts are one unit. They cannot function without the other. At least two must be alive.” He gestures to Bobby and Ruthie who are still unconscious on the rocks. “They are not fully-formed, therefore they are not as connected to the others as the rest of them. But your mate.” His eyes pin on Damarian. “She may be a child of the sea, but there is a sea serpent inside her.”
“If the sea serpent within her dies,” Damarian says quietly, “Cassie will die as well.”
Jace has managed to knock the blue whale aside and pounces on some sperm whales. A group of sharks bolt at him, their eyes open wide, their sharp teeth ready.
Damarian holds out his palm. “Subdue the beast, but do not kill it,” he commands.
The jellyfish, who are no longer being controlled by the sea serpents, barricade Jace, and when he tries to move, they poke them with their tentacles. Now that Jace is no longer being attacked, I’m not either. But I feel so weak. Jace appears weak, too, and manages to release a small hiss, his eyes holding nothing but fury.
Damarian’s hands tighten on mine, and I feel his life force enter me. Every cell in my body is recharged, and it doesn’t take long before I feel like new. He helps me to a sitting position and hugs me. “Forgive me, my sweet Cassie. Are you all right?”
