Treygan pulled me under and held my face in his hands. I’m so sorry about Sage, but we have to get out of here. Those things might descend again.
I nodded, unable to form a coherent sentence.
With one arm, Treygan held me tight at his side as we swam. With his other hand he sliced through seaweed with impressive speed.
~
We reached a cave and swam into it, surfacing and taking a moment to rest. The rock ceiling hid us from the beasts’ view.
“Sage,” was all I could mutter to Treygan.
He held my head against his chest. “I know. I’m so sorry.”
“She was part of me.”
“I know,” he whispered. He pulled back, lifting my hair and examining my scalp where she and I used to be connected. He leaned closer and pressed his fingers against my scalp. It stung, but it was nothing compared to the pain in my heart.
“Strange,” Treygan murmured.
I whimpered. “What’s strange?”
“There’s a slit, but it’s not bleeding, or even inflamed.” We exchanged worried glances. “Everything is wrong and unpredictable here.”
“I hate it.” I felt like I might puke. “Why did we come? We were idiots to think we’d survive this place.”
Treygan lowered his eyes. “I tried turning those creatures to stone. I tried turning the seaweed to stone. I couldn’t. Not even a crackle.”
My nausea got worse. “How can that be?”
“I don’t know.”
I pressed my hand to my mouth. “I feel sick.”
“Sick to your stomach?”
“Sick everywhere. That helpless and exhausting sick when you know how wrong and hopeless everything is.”
A loud roar sounded outside the cave. I turned slowly, afraid to see what was making the noise. My eyes widened.
A wave formed, flowing downward out of the sky. The water around us rushed out of the cave, pulling us with it, and rose up to meld with the huge wave forming above us. Treygan kept a tight hold of me, but I barely had any strength left to fight.
The beasts appeared in the rush of water, writhing as their teeth spun open and closed over and over.
My eyes met Treygan’s. I will always love you.
Never give up, he mentally shouted. We’ll get through this!
The wave ripped us forward and I was launched through the sky—flying without wings. I crashed, hard, onto jagged ocean rocks. I was sure every bone in my body was broken, along with my will to live.
We had been flying toward the mer side of Rathe. That was the last place anyone would look for me. It would give me and the sprites time to make the mirror work. But as we flew, a pain ripped through my head, making me buckle in the air.
I fell into the water, a tangled mess of pain and heartache. Jenna and Keeley pulled me back to the surface.
“Nixie, what’s wrong?” Keeley asked.
I was crying, clutching the back of my head, overwhelmed by grief. “It hurts.”
“Your head?” Jenna asked. “Like a headache?”
“No,” I groaned.
They each positioned themselves under one of my arms and flew me to land. When we arrived at the beach outside of Caspian and Indrea’s home, I couldn’t move. I just laid there in the sand, curled up in a ball and groaning in agony.
Jenna petted my hair as Keeley flew off to fetch Caspian and Indrea.
“Do you think it’s Yara again?” Jenna asked.
My mind wouldn’t allow me to accept that the pain couldn’t be mine. It hurt too badly. Maybe Stheno and Euryale woke up, discovered the broken mirror, and were punishing me with some kind of crippling pain only they could conjure.
Indrea’s feet thudded through the sand as she ran to me. Each of her steps caused my brain to rattle. She dropped to her knees beside me, rubbing my arms. “I’m here, Nixie. Try to take deep breaths.”
I felt calmer, but the pain wasn’t lessening.
“Can you tell me where it hurts?” Indrea asked.
I placed one palm against the back of my head, and the other over my heart.
“Your head and chest?” Indrea’s purple eyes looked so concerned. How could she care so much about me? I wasn’t even mer.
“Maybe it’s the silvery snake,” Jenna said. “Maybe Yara’s snake is sick.”
Keeley flitted side to side. “Maybe Stheno and Euryale are stealing her soul like we stole their mirror.”
Tragically, that was the more likely scenario given how much pain rippled through me.
“What?” Indrea asked, looking confused.
Keeley explained. “We did a bad thing. We broke the gorgon’s magic mirror.”
“And then we stole a piece,” Jenna said meekly.
“They did nothing.” I couldn’t hold my eyes open anymore. “I broke it. I stole it.”
Indrea took my wrist in her hands. “Her pulse is weak. Help me get her inside.”
~
Caspian dabbed my head with a wet rag while Indrea held her hands over my body, murmuring one healing spell after another. My wings were smashed between me and the table I was sprawled out on, but I didn’t care. The minor discomfort was nothing in comparison.
“They’re coming,” I murmured. I sensed them getting closer, moving faster than usual. “They’re furious.”
“Who?” Caspian asked.
I didn’t have enough energy to answer. They would be here soon enough, so why waste my breath?
“Keeley, Jenna,” I mumbled. “Hide.”
The roar of siren wings shook the table beneath me as my sisters landed on the stoop and kicked the door open.
“What the hell have you done?” Otabia snarled.
Caspian sprang to his feet and stood between us. “Keep your distance. Nixie is hurt and weak.”
“You’re damn right she’s weak.” Mariza leaped over him, landing on the other side of me. “And she’s an idiot!”
“You broke the mirror!” Otabia screeched. “How could you be such an imbecile? Stheno and Euryale will torture you until there’s nothing left!”
“Everyone, calm down,” Indrea ordered. “Nixie is no condition to be screamed at. She’s very sick.”
Otabia and Mariza’s wings kept rustling and fire raged in their eyes.
“She’s not sick.” Otabia pushed past Caspian as if he was light as a cloud. “It’s Yara again. You’re letting her pain and miseries affect you as if they’re actually happening to you.” She leaned close to my face, snarling at me. “Have we taught you nothing?”
Jenna’s voice shook as she tried defending me from her hiding place under the table. “But they’re connected. If Yara is hurt or sick, so is Nixie.”
Otabia squatted down, glaring at her. “Don’t explain the siren connection to me, you little cretin. I know how it works.”
“Don’t call her a cretin,” I managed to grumble.
“Oh, now you can speak,” Mariza snapped at me. “How convenient.”
“Get up!” Otabia commanded.
“She can’t,” Indrea argued.
Otabia rolled her eyes and grasped my wrists so hard I flinched. “Yes, you can feel Yara’s pain. So can we—somewhat—but that doesn’t mean you are sick and weak. Do we look any sicker or weaker to you? Get up!”
She yanked me to a sitting position. Mariza shoved me in the back so hard I slid and stumbled off the table. Indrea and Caspian caught me, and I managed to stay sitting up.
“This is not the correct way to go about this,” Indrea said sternly.
Otabia stepped forward, her black wings spread high behind her, rippling like a dire wave. She lowered her face so that she was almost nose to nose with Indrea. “Don’t tell me how to deal with my own sister.”
Indrea raised her chin. “Don’t disrespect me in my own home.”
Otabia growled at her then turned to me. “You are a disgrace to our kind. Stheno and Euryale will be enraged when they see what you’ve done.” Otabia’s talons curled under my chin as s
he lifted my face to look at her. “Now you’ll never see your precious Yara again.”
“I kept a piece of it,” I said.
“A piece? What good will a piece do? You destroyed it!”
“It might still work.” It sounded crazy even as I said the words, but deep down I believed it.
Mariza laughed menacingly. “Such a fool you are.”
“What if she’s right?” Indrea said. “It doesn’t hurt to try.”
“We can’t try, you idiots!” Otabia swept one wing across her chest. Black feathers rained around us. “Only a gorgon can see into the mirror. And none of them would ever help us, knowing the consequences and the wrath they’d face from Stheno and Euryale.”
A smug smile spread across my lips. “You’re wrong. I know one gorgon who would do anything to help Yara.”
My eyes met Indrea’s. “We have to visit Lloyd.”
I crawled down the jagged rocks, back into the water. Everything was dark, except the glowing green crests of the waves. The ocean looked sickly and contaminated. Every bone in my body felt splintered. Electrical spasms shot through my muscles, causing me to twitch and whimper in pain. Through it all the stinging spray of water crashed against me.
I remembered the soul suckers, Sage, and being catapulted against the rocks.
Where was Treygan? I fought against the roaring current. I couldn’t allow myself to be carried too far or I would never find him.
I plunged below the surface, searching for him, but underwater I couldn’t see anything. I tried activating my underwater vision, but it didn’t work. A new wave of fear rushed through me.
What if Treygan was dead? I sobbed, accidentally ingesting water. It tasted so horrible I threw it right back up again.
Everything hurt. Physically, emotionally, mentally, it hurt to exist. Why couldn’t this place just kill me and get it over with?
Calm down, I told myself. You have to calm down. I thought of Indrea, sending her calming waves. I would have given anything to be back in Rathe or Earth with the merfolk again, and to have Treygan by my side.
A speck of blue and silver flashed in the distance. I shook my head and wiped the water from my eyes. I squinted, focusing so hard my head ached. I found it again, far away and being carried away too fast, but that shade of silver was Treygan’s skin and the dark blue was his hair.
“Treygan!” I screamed for him and my mouth filled with water. I spit it out then dove beneath the waves, swimming as fast as I could, but my suit and gear were hindering me. I stripped off my jacket, along with the packs and holsters attached to it. I struggled through immense pain as I wiggled out of my pants, freeing my legs from their bindings.
For half an instant I worried my tail wouldn’t form, but it did. Pumping my tail and body with all the desperate energy I had left, I swam as fast as I could to Treygan. I got close enough to see his limp arms whipping around him with every motion of the waves. He was floating, but the raging ocean was carrying him away so fast.
Please don’t let him be dead. Please, please, please.
My body screamed in agony with every move I made. I dug deep, through the burning and stabbing pain, and gained speed. Harte would not win. I refused to let it separate us.
Treygan was a little more than an arm’s length away. I stretched for him, calling out his name, but I couldn’t reach him. I pumped my tail harder, using my arms to propel me forward. I reached for him again, willing my fingers to stretch longer. They momentarily grazed his hair, but I couldn’t get a grip on him.
Then his body buckled in half and something yanked him underwater.
I didn’t shout, or even think, I dove down, desperately trying to grab him.
Underwater, the only reason I could still see him was because of the huge, glowing, enchanting eyes of a kraken.
Never would I have thought a kraken—the giant squid-like monster I had read about and seen in movies—could have enchanting eyes, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. He was breathtaking.
The ocean calmed as if the kraken kept the water and everything around him tranquil. Treygan looked like a toy doll, wrapped in one of the kraken’s massive tentacles. As horrifying as it should have been to see Treygan unconscious and caught by a monster of Harte, I was rendered motionless with envy. I wanted to be held by the kraken too.
He did not have the head of an octopus. He didn’t have deadly jaws of razor-sharp teeth. He was the most exotically gorgeous creature I had ever seen. Dozens of tentacles of all lengths and thicknesses gracefully danced around him in translucent shades of black, blue, and silver, stemming from his sculpted torso which was the size of a mountain. And what a majestic mountain it was. Covered with etchings similar to my own hallmarks, his steel-gray pecs and abs were chiseled so perfectly they could have only been sculpted by the gods. Or maybe he was a god.
Atop his head were long, antler-like branches of black and blue coral. I longed to swim into them, to feel them against my skin, but I kept still, held in a trance by the kraken’s glowing eyes. He blinked, and the bright blue light dimmed enough so his black pupils could be seen. His alluring eyes left me breathless.
His black lips parted and I drifted closer, pulled toward him by his tantalizing gaze. My eyes struggled to close as millions of bubbles kissed my skin, but I fought to keep watching him. Every tilt of his chin or bat of his seaweed eyelashes made my heart leap. The tip of one of his tentacles grazed the back of my tail, gently inching its way up, wrapping itself around my hips as another tentacle traced along my spine. A third tentacle brushed my cheek and caressed my neck. I arched my body, my chest aching to be touched by him too.
His mouth opened wide, taller than a cave entrance. It was filled with white light. I coasted in, finally closing my eyes and letting his warmth and beauty spread over me.
I woke up face-down, groaning with bliss. I assumed I was lying on a bed of silk, but when my eyes fluttered open I found myself on a beach. The sand felt like rose petals, and it smelled like them too. Waves of ecstasy flowed throughout my entire body as someone behind me ran their lips and tongue up my back and breathed softly against the nape of my neck.
“More,” I murmured.
He flipped me over in one swift movement. I gasped as I came face to face with the kraken. We weren’t underwater anymore. He wasn’t a massive, towering, creature of the sea. He was human, not much bigger or taller than me, but his eyes were still enchanting, and my gods, he was still breathtaking.
He hovered over me. One of his muscular arms was braced in the sand while the other was wrapped around my waist, his strong fingers kneading my hip. I ran my hands through his long dreadlocks, pulling him closer to me.
“Enjoy this,” he whispered. “I will do things to you no mortal ever could.”
I nodded and his warm lips closed over mine. His physical form might have been proportionate to mine, but his power was larger than life. His tongue circled mine so masterfully that I didn’t have to make any effort. He was in full control of our kiss. He teased my lips with the tip of his tongue then traveled down to my neck.
I sighed, closing my eyes. I don’t know how, but gradually he kissed me in multiple places at the same time. His hands were everywhere: my lips, face, neck, shoulders, wrists, fingers, chest, stomach, hips, and thighs. It was as if he had invisible extensions of himself that could pleasure my entire body simultaneously. I needed him closer to me. I needed so much more of him. I raked my fingers down his back and he bit my shoulder. We clawed, kissed, and rolled around together.
“More,” I begged again.
He pulled my hair, yanking my head back. He sucked on my neck until I felt like we were floating.
I whispered the only thought in my hazy mind. “I’m in heaven.”
My eyes snapped open. No. I’m in Harte.
My fingers were tangled in his dreadlocks. I pulled them free and stared at my hands as the kraken continued kissing me. What was I doing? I loved Treygan.
“Please stop,
” I gasped, but I didn’t sound convincing.
The kraken grinned at me as his hand crept between my thighs, making me moan and thrust my hips again.
Just a few more minutes, I thought. It felt too good to stop. It wouldn’t be fair to me or him. We wanted each other so badly. We were already so worked up. We had to finish what we started.
His deep voice dripped with passion. “I can give you everything you desire.”
I purred in response.
“Yes,” he whispered, snaking his sinewy body against mine. “Give yourself to me, angel mermaid.”
Mermaid. I was so much more than a mermaid. And I had a name. A name he didn’t even know. Why was I letting a stranger do these things to me? I had never been so out of control with lust. I had to pull myself together.
I tried pushing him off me, but his dozens of invisible tongues and fingers whirled into action more intensely. My head spun. My toes curled. My loins ached, screaming for more of him. I wanted it. I wanted him. It was time to take what I wanted.
I sang. My siren song spilled out of me like a damn breaking.
He pulled back and gaped at me. A momentary wince of confusion swept across his face, but then his eyes glassed over and I saw my own reflection in them. My hair rose like flames around my head and my eyes glowed white. A ring of fire circled us, formed by my own burning desire.
I wrapped my legs tightly around him, yanking him hard against me as I lifted us into the air. In an isolated, quiet place in my mind, logic reminded me I had no wings, but my siren power pushed the limitation away. I didn’t need wings to fly. We were fueled by rapture.
I had a kraken locked between my thighs. And I was going to feed on his soul.
I sang another seductive riff and lifted his chin. He was so dark, so delectable. The taste of him still lingered on my lips, reminding me how satisfying his soul would taste.
“What are you?” He dipped his head forward, trying to kiss me again.
I smiled seductively. “I’m a sea monster who is about to devour you.”
Dangerous Depths (The Sea Monster Memoirs) Page 21
