by Amy Bearce
And then Mina would goad Phoebe until she did it. Without Mina, she might never have fully healed.
Now it was Phoebe’s turn to do the helping, but she was running out of time. Pulling herself from the bed, so defeated her skin didn’t even glow, Phoebe ached in the general area where her knee should be, at the bend of her tail fin. As if the human parts of her were buried, not gone forever. Panic flared at even the phantom memory of the pain. Her hand spasmed around the comb, the spiny ridges pressing into her skin, reminding her of the present moment. She wasn’t that girl anymore. She was here.
She tried to slow her breathing, still her panic, lock down all her bad memories that hissed and slithered from their dark corners when they scented fear rising. But her throat tightened despite herself.
She was here for Mina, she reminded herself. To find Mina. Failure was not an option. Focus, Phoebe, Focus.
Phoebe willed herself to relax. She needed to be fully present to get this job done. Things were different now. She was different now. Maybe she could finally let go of those memories.
Settling into her mission, she squeezed the comb again, picturing Mina’s dark locks and sweet smile. Phoebe held her breath and imagined sending her magic into the ocean, a magnet seeking Mina.
Nothing.
No spark of Mina’s vivacity touched Phoebe. Despite the strong presence of the merfolk in her mind, Mina wasn’t among them. And Phoebe had no idea where the mermaid was.
Phoebe bit off a yell of frustration and threw the comb across the room. It somersaulted lazily through the water, far less satisfying than a crash against her wall on land. She screamed again, tugging at her hair. Why couldn’t she find Mina? The meeting would begin soon, and without a known destination and firm plan, no one could help with a rescue even if she convinced them to. What good was sensing all the merfolk if she couldn’t use the power to help her friend?
But wait. Maybe, if she could get away from all the merfolk clogging up her newly awoken senses, she could locate Mina more effectively. It was easier to find a tiny flame amid darkness than in blinding sunlight.
She needed to swim away from the village. Not far. Just a little bit. As Odessa’s “guest,” Phoebe thought it would be prudent to let Odessa know. She didn’t want any misunderstandings. As much as Phoebe hated to approach the mermaid, there was no time to waste.
Phoebe found the elder in her study room of the cliff apartment. Odessa looked up from shuffling through piles of shimmering opalescent shells with strange rune carvings on them, an expectant look upon her face. Phoebe didn’t think this mermaid was used to accepting failure, on anyone’s part.
“I’m sorry to intrude, milady.” The honorific for Tristan’s mother still tripped awkwardly over Phoebe’s tongue, but she didn’t want to offend. Especially not now, asking for something the other mermaid might not want to allow.
Phoebe continued, “I need to be alone to find where Mina is. I’ll swim only as far as I need to in order to sense her.”
“I can understand your need for space, but you cannot go alone.”
“Milady, I promise you, I can handle a short swim away.”
“And if you get taken, Mina would be lost to us forever. I won’t risk my daughter because of your pride. Tristan will be your guard.”
Phoebe’s breath hitched.
Not Tristan!
ust hearing Tristan’s name hurt. Phoebe couldn’t forget his look of shock at their last touch, knowing he must finally fear her ability to control his emotions, his behavior. He’d said the sensations they shared were all ‘so much’―she’d clearly been unable to contain her powers. And then he didn’t reach for her, even when terribly upset. Now he might not even believe that he ever truly cared for her on his own, yet he had to keep working with her for the sake of his sister and family. The situation was just too painful.
“Milady, a guard is not necessary,” she said, just as a much subdued Tristan approached them, fiddling with his clam knife. He’d obviously heard Phoebe’s refusal of his company. His face was paler than usual, except for the flush along his cheekbones.
He glided to Phoebe’s side, offering her a little shrug without a word.
“I just need to get a bit farther away from all the merfolk to listen for Mina. I won’t be in any danger,” she insisted. Anger bubbled up. She was trying her best, and they weren’t helping.
Maybe if she just stayed focused on the immediate crisis, they could get through this. She couldn’t even begin to think what she’d do when this was all over and done.
“Tristan has a special tie to Mina, too, as siblings, twins no less. Whatever has got your tail in a twist, I suggest you fix it. I think you will find his presence familiar enough to not distract you from seeking Mina. I believe, in fact, the link they share will most likely boost your power.”
There was no arguing with Odessa. Her lips were smashed to a line. There was a darkness to her eyes that had nothing to do with magic and everything to do with grief.
“Fine,” Phoebe said.
Phoebe and Tristan swam off in silence, leaving Odessa gazing after them with a face like stone.
The sun must have been setting above. Phoebe could detect subtle differences of light levels in the water. Her new, improved vision also allowed her to see far into the distance. Such magical clarity disconcerted her. How could the merfolk ever rest in this underwater world if their sharp vision rarely dimmed?
They swam to an old garden of some kind along the last edges of the village. Sea cucumbers and tubers trailed over a few half-hearted stakes. At the center was a boulder with a seat worn away like a cupped hand.
“Sit there,” he said. “I’ll be at the edge of the garden, close enough to keep watch, but hopefully not close enough to bother you.”
The words stung. “Tristan, you don’t bother me.” She hadn’t meant to hurt his feelings.
“That’s not what I meant.”
The two stared for a long moment. Then Tristan backed away and took up his post, little clam knife at the ready.
Phoebe tried to focus, but all she could sense was Tristan. He wove through her mind, images flickering, nerves jangling.
“This isn’t going to work,” she said. She slapped the rock beside her. “Why can’t I feel her?”
Tristan sighed and floated over. They sat in silence for a long moment.
“What am I going to do?” she whispered.
Looking down and tracing patterns on the rock, he said, “You need to reach unity with the ocean.”
He was so close, his presence warm like the sun against her skin, but so far away in all the ways that mattered. How ironic to have so many of her dreams realized only to lose the one that had become most important to her. His refusal to even look at her snapped her patience.
“I don’t suppose it would involve connecting through a hug and a kiss?” she said sharply.
He flinched. “Phoebe, I should never have―”
“Well you did, didn’t you? And now what? I’m truly stuck as a mermaid and not acceptable to you? Or are you really afraid I’m manipulating you, like everyone else?” Anguish cut off her tirade. She could feel more from the others than she could from him. His presence was clear, but his emotions were guarded as if behind locked doors. Why? Was he fighting harder to keep her out of his heart and mind?
He looked stricken.
“No! No, of course that’s not it. I… I just don’t want you to think I kissed you because of your powers,” he stammered, flushing pink. His glow faded to a dim light.
She stared at him. His eyes remained trained on the sea floor, and his green hair floated over his shoulders like a cloak.
“You mean you don’t regret kissing me?” Phoebe couldn’t keep herself from asking.
He swallowed hard. His gaze finally met hers, and he touched her hair. “I’ve never regretted anything less―or more.”
She pushed herself away from him with a cry, but he rushed after her.
“Y
ou must understand, Phoebe. My mother would never allow me to court you, even if you remain here. She’d be too afraid of you; she doesn’t like to share her power. You deserve better anyway. We need to find you a way back to being human. It would be selfish of me to seek you as a bondmate and keep you here forever.”
Now she knew: even a broken heart was not enough to produce a mer-tear.
“Why do I have to go home?” she said. “Even if I could, which I don’t think I can, it’s never called to me like the sea does. Sierra understands. She told me so. Here I can at least help.”
“Here, you could die!”
“I almost died there, too. Or don’t you remember?”
The memories pierced her, and this time she let them. The swollen knee that kept her from running. The bruises along her arms, the whip marks on her back. Worse, the feeling that her life would never be hers again. All her hopes had been destroyed in one fell swoop. No magic, not for her. Her sister hadn’t come in time, was maybe even dead. Stunned, Phoebe hadn’t even put up a fight when they took her. For those few dark days, she believed she would be a slave, apart from her sister forever.
But here, for the first time, those memories didn’t reach so deep. Phoebe studied the delicate merfolk tattoos that danced along her skin. Miraculous. She was no longer that scared girl. Those men could never reach her. Here, she belonged to the first thing she ever loved besides her sister: the sea.
“Don’t you see?” Phoebe whispered, placing her hand on his chest. She let everything she felt for him shine from her eyes, no holding back. “This is where my heart really is.”
She looked up, and her jaw dropped at the wild intensity on his face. He looked almost wounded, torn between the most outstanding grief and the most ecstatic joy.
With a small gasp, he pulled her in his arms and held her. He buried his face in her hair. The new warmth she felt twice before spiraled through them both, connecting them closer than ever.
“You are my heart, Phoebe Quinn. Always,” he murmured in her ear.
At last. Relief and happiness sketched a song in her mind. Blue lightning flowed between them and filled the water with its power. In her mind’s eye, the light of her magic coiled into the currents in the ocean, its powerful light spiraling out, seeking like reaching fingers.
Then Phoebe froze as her vision exploded in blue light, followed by a series of images. Mina’s hands tied. Mina in a pen shrinking away from a taunting wraith. And Mina looking out from far inside a deep trench, in a stone building with an intricate carving of a dragon-headed beast with tentacles.
Then, in her vision, darkness came, something slithering inside a thick soupy lake on the bottom of the ocean floor lined with clams opening and closing like hundreds of eyes staring… and the dark, dark shadow belonging to a many-armed beast, stirring like a waking giant.
Phoebe reeled back with a gasp. “Did you see that?”
Tristan shook his head.
“I saw Mina! She was in a ravine or a trench of some kind, and I think it was a temple to Baleros because there was a carving of a giant sea beast I’ve never seen. I think it’s the evil shadow from before. There’s a colossal amount of magic down there, and the strangest thing was there was a lake inside the ocean floor. How is that even possible?”
Tristan groaned and dropped his head into his hands. “She’s deep in the forbidden midnight realm. They took Mina to the Abyss, the most feared place in the sea.”
“Why is the Abyss so terrible?” Phoebe asked, shocked at how pale Tristan became.
“It’s the source of the worst legends of our people, stories of dark magic and certain death. My mother believes all the stories are true. Most merfolk don’t, but superstition has always been enough to keep everyone far away. Add in the very real, deadly creatures already known to live there, and no sane merfolk would venture near.”
“But what was that lake I saw? How could that be?”
“That had to be the Lake of Dragons. It continually separates itself from the rest of the ocean, sinking below it, and is deadly to most sea creatures. Our histories say that’s where the water wraiths and sea dragons hid during the golden age of the merfolk, drinking in the sulfur and brine, surrounded by boiling water vents.”
“That’s pretty bad.” Phoebe gulped.
“The legends also say that Baleros demanded sacrifices at his altar in the Abyss. Mina must be a planned sacrifice to Baleros, who must be rising very soon, as we feared.”
“We have to get her out of there!”
He shook his head, “You don’t understand. No merfolk in living memory has ever gone in there and come out alive. The merfolk do not fight.”
Resolve firmed inside Phoebe. “They will today. Take me to the elders.”
In the great hall once again, two hundred pairs of eyes had locked onto Phoebe and weren’t letting go. Her stomach quivered, full of flitting sea horses, but she kept her head high. Giving her testimony was intimidating. What if she was wrong? But the vision had come on so suddenly, the image so clear. No, she had to trust herself, or at least the magic inside her.
“So, let me see if I understand you, Phoebe Quinn,” Odessa’s voice rang out. “You had a vision of my daughter, trapped in a domed temple with a carving of Baleros in it, near a sulphurous lake beneath the ocean?”
Tristan said, “She saw the Abyss. Do you not believe her?” He looked mutinously at his mother, who glared back.
“I do. We must go there to rescue Mina.”
“The Abyss is forbidden for a reason! We’ll die! We will all die!” said someone from the gathered tribe in the great hall.
“Not if I lure the wraiths far away from there first,” Phoebe shouted, calling up her magic and letting it flow through her veins. Blue light shimmered from her scales, from her skin, even from her hair.
The crowd exclaimed and surged backward.
“They won’t be able to resist me when I call,” she said. She had to prove it to them. They were as stubborn as old tortoises, every one of them. Fine. So be it. She remembered what Odessa had said, about telling them, compelling them to do her bidding. It would certainly be convincing.
No. No matter what, she couldn’t force everyone to do her bidding. It would be hideously wrong, even if she could manage it. But she could force one of them if it meant proving that she had enough power to lead this mission safely. Even if Tristan never looked at her the same again. She squared her shoulders.
“You. Elder Seamus,” Phoebe said, beckoning to the angry merman.
His glower matched his aggressive shark tattoos. He’d certainly make her point best. If anyone here wanted to harm her as much as the wraiths, it’d be him.
“Come here.” She spoke simply, softly.
He shook his head, paling.
Phoebe pictured the blue lines she had seen swirling through the currents and pulled on one that ran alongside the merman. He wasn’t tied to it, but she could use its strength to force his movement. She imagined hauling it hand over hand, pulling the merman to her. She hummed a little tune to calm herself and then broke out in song, imagining him coming closer and closer. She used the power of her singing―something she had always felt inside―to boost the power of the magic, and it worked. His fin began to move―jerky and stiff at first―and he swam to her side, cursing all the way.
The crowd remained still and silent. Phoebe glanced at Tristan, who looked… Was that horror on his face? Shock? She almost cried out, “I take it back!” but it was too late now. And she had a job to do.
Phoebe shook her head. “While I would never call you somewhere you didn’t want to go, I believe I can and will call those water wraiths away from their guard duty. I can defend myself from them in a way that you cannot. If we can get to Mina before the dark shadow stirs again, we can figure out what to do about the beast later. Right now, we must save Mina!”
Tristan swam to her side and clasped her hand. “She has my trust.” His voice carried through the water, deep and su
re, but his hand shook in hers. Whether or not he really did trust her after seeing such a display of power, he acted confident. Mina needed the merfolk to take action. He squeezed Phoebe’s hand, and she held on for dear life.
“Who will go with us?” she called out. Her voice echoed in the chamber like a bell. She let the magic release Seamus, pulling it back into herself so it wouldn’t charm the crowd. Yet hands rose, and a crowd of merfolk came to them, came to help, came to her. Came to Phoebe, because she had called. Whether they came because they respected her, feared her, or were compelled by her, she didn’t know. Maybe she’d never know.
he plan was simple, almost too simple. Phoebe would swim into the rift ahead of the merfolk and use her magic to charm the wraiths to her side and send them away like she did the sea dragons. In the meantime, the merfolk would descend into the Abyss to find Mina.
Odessa and other scholars poured over the ancient maps in her study before agreeing on the exact location and path to take. It would be easy to get lost once they entered the midnight realm, but they were as prepared as they could be.
The journey was a stilted, silent one. Phoebe led the merfolk, along with Odessa and Tristan. Phoebe barely noticed the kelp, the fish, or the colorful shellfish. Each flick of her fin brought her closer to when the ocean might very well claim her for the last time. Her pulse thundered in her ears like the surf she might never hear again. She said nothing and kept swimming. Mina needed her.
As the crowd of silent merfolk soared over the old city, their fins swished stronger, jerking up and down without their usual smooth flow. Some pointed at parts of the city below, in low conversation with each other. Did they long for the old ways, or was it just Odessa who wanted the old power back? Maybe they were just worried about the upcoming mission.
They moved quickly, their natural luminescence doused. Dread rose in Phoebe as they reached the far edge of the city, along the drop into the midnight realm where she and Tristan had seen the dark shadow slipping into the Abyss.
