To Kill the Dead (Hollowcliff Detectives Book 3)

by C. S. Wilde

  “What is it?”

  “Can’t you feel it, akritana?” He spread his hands atop Bast’s chest, almost as if scanning his very soul. “His darkness is fighting a strange force from the inside, a force that doesn’t belong to him. This is ancient magic.” He swallowed, his tone falling to a whisper. “Forbidden magic. I think my brother has been cursed.”

  A punch to the gut, but Mera couldn’t hesitate.

  “How do we help him?”

  “Do I look like someone who has a clue?”

  “K-kill me,” Bast croaked, his gaze unfocused like he was talking in his sleep. “Mera won’t be safe.” He let out a long, wheezing breath. “Kill… me.”

  Never.

  She took his hand. Miraculously, in one of his fading moments of awareness, he turned to her.

  “I love you.” Her voice mixed with a cry. “I love you, Sebastian Dhay. You’re my moon and my night sky, and I won’t fail you.”

  Bast hissed as if he’d been stabbed, then let out a sound that could be a chuckle, or a whimper. Hard to tell.

  “Come to your senses, min hart?”

  Before she could answer, he roared in pain; a gut-wrenching sound that made Mera lose her grounding.

  “Bast!”

  His head drooped to the side, his consciousness lost. She shook him, but Bast wouldn’t wake up. His body still tensed, and his face contorted in pain.

  The curse was killing him.

  “Let’s take him to the hospital,” Ruth urged from behind. “They’ll know what to do. Maybe Doctor Stone can help.”

  “A hospital?” Corvus scoffed. “This is forbidden magic, human. It’s taboo in Tagrad! Doctors and healers won’t be able to help him.”

  He had a point.

  Dr. Stone wasn’t a specialist in the unspoken arts so she certainly couldn’t help, but one healer in particular had assisted the good doc in the very beginning. One healer who had been studying dark magic for a while, especially curses.

  After all, how was one supposed to fight a disease without studying it first?

  “We don’t need any healer.” Mera held Corvus’ gaze. “Just one.”

  Utter fear shone behind his eyes. “No. Not her.”

  Yes, her. His half-sister, Stella.

  “Fuchst ach,” Corvus grumbled. “I killed her mother, Detective! I could never face—”

  “Stella doesn’t care about you. She’ll do anything to save Bast, and right now I could give a rat’s ass about your issues with her.”

  Corvus stared at her for a moment, then at Bast. “If we must.” He laid a hand on Mera’s shoulder. “This won’t be a pretty reunion.”

  “Leaving so soon?”

  Ariella Wavestorm stepped out of the forest, stomping toward them.

  Tendons moved clearly behind the gap on her left cheek, and an empty socket occupied the space where her right eye should’ve been. Three of her ribs showed behind her red, tattered bodysuit; the bodysuit Mera had buried her in. Half of Mother’s left arm was nothing but bones. The remaining skin appeared gray and sickly.

  The queen had been dead for the past fifteen years. She should be a skeleton, not this rotting monster approaching them. A strange locket hung around her neck, one Mera didn’t recognize. It was shaped like an egg with odd inscriptions carved on the surface.

  Falling back, Mera scrambled on the sand. Her survival instinct took over, urging her to put as much space between her and the queen as physically possible.

  Her worst nightmare come to life.

  The irrational terrors that woke her late at night, screaming and drenched in sweat, suddenly engulfed Mera, stealing her common sense.

  Her bravery, too.

  She’d heard Mother’s voice through the bond, but seeing her there in the flesh—or what remained of it—changed everything.

  “No,” she whimpered, feeling once again like a helpless child.

  The bitch had risen from the dead to drag Mera back to hell, or the trenches. Hardly any difference, really.

  The queen licked her lips with a purpling tongue, her one eye glaring at Mera. “Regneerik is here, weakling.”

  Chapter 27

  Mera couldn’t get up, couldn’t fetch her gun. Couldn’t even breathe.

  Queen Ariella lifted her hand, her spidery fingers moving swiftly as a mad grin stretched in her rotting face. In response, water spiraled up from the waves, forming a thick cylinder that rose ten feet high.

  Shit! The dead bitch could still waterbend.

  “Danu in the prairies,” Corvus muttered in terror before the tower crashed down on him, leaving Bast unscathed.

  The water swallowed the Night King entirely, lifting him up as it jerked left to right, like a snake trying to swallow its prey.

  “Holy shit!” Ruth raised her gun to shoot at the bitch, but the queen was faster.

  She flung water into the muzzle, quickly turning it to ice. Ruth grabbed a dagger from her belt and began picking at it, but the queen would soon reach them.

  Her mom would never get the weapon ready in time.

  With one swift move of Ariella’s hand, the water worm—only way to properly describe it, really—sank back into the ocean, taking with it a thrashing Corvus, until they both disappeared under the surface.

  ‘Help him!’ her siren urged, which would have been easy if Mera could move a freaking finger. ‘Get up!’

  She couldn’t.

  Her bones chilled, her breathing rushed as she stared at the approaching dead queen.

  Ariella Wavestorm had birthed Mera, yet she’d taken her life in every single way. She’d abused her, stolen her childhood. Forced Mera to see and do things no merling ever should.

  It had always been about survival with Mother.

  Survival of the fittest.

  And Mera had survived.

  Taking a deep breath, she remembered she wasn’t thirteen anymore. Mera wasn’t the merling Ruth had found on that beach, alone, scared, and ready to die.

  She had survived Mother, and she would do it again. She was Mera Maurea, daughter of Ruth Maurea, and she never went down without a fight.

  Get your shit together, she ordered herself, ignoring the urge to run and never stop. With shaking legs she forced herself to get up, facing the dead queen.

  Ariella watched her with disdain. “So weak. So soft.”

  The cock of a gun came from Mera’s side, followed by a blast. Half of Mother’s torso disappeared with the blow, but the queen didn’t seem to be in pain. She merely stared at the missing chunk, then glared at Ruth, her brown teeth gritting.

  “Who do you think you are?” she barked.

  “Her mom, bitch!” Ruth shot again, this time hitting Ariella’s left thigh. “Cookie, help Corvus!”

  Mera nodded, but before she could get to it, a water comet rushed from the ocean. It hit Ruth violently, dragging her toward the mainland.

  “I won’t underestimate you again, human,” the queen spat.

  Stretching her arms and then pulling her hands toward her chest, Mera tried to slow down the comet. “Let her go!”

  Ariella’s magic was strong—too strong.

  But how?

  Waterbreaker power came from life, and Mother was dead. It didn’t make any sense.

  Ice spheres suddenly thwacked against Mera’s body, forcing her to let go of the comet, which then dragged Ruth out of sight and straight into the mainland. Each sphere hurt like a motherfucker, but when the next ones zinged toward Mera, she burst them with her magic.

  Icy powder snowed around her. Had the situation been different she might have found it pretty.

  “I’ve been given a second chance,” Mother hissed, facing her. “I shall use it, dear daughter.”

  The macabre sizzled in Mera’s veins, but since the corpse’s blood was stale, blowing Ariella to pieces wouldn’t work.

  Waterbending it was, then.

  At Mera’s silent command, the waves washing up the shore retreated to form a thick wall of water. It r
ose several feet then fell into an arch, creating a small tsunami that crashed on the queen.

  “You should have stayed dead!” she roared as Ariella struggled against her magic, holding the rumbling waters inches above her head.

  The monster’s bony arms shook, but Mera kept pushing. She’d never stop, not until the queen was finally, and truly, gone.

  “I did not choose to come back, merling. Least of all to you.”

  A long time ago the words would have hurt, but Mera had stopped craving Mother’s love the moment she’d shoved a triton through the bitch’s body.

  “Why did Azinor bring you back?”

  The queen gritted her browning teeth, struggling to fight off Mera’s magic. “I didn’t want a merling, but he planted you in me anyway. Now he’s come to collect us both.”

  She froze, remembering the times Mother had claimed she’d been born of Poseidon. The gods weren’t real and Ariella was known as the Mad Queen for a reason, so Mera had ignored it. Another of Mother’s countless delusions of grandeur.

  Yet after so many years, here she was, chasing a criminal who called himself Poseidon. A very real criminal. Considering her equally real dead mother stood straight ahead… Maybe the crazy bitch had been telling her the truth.

  Her throat dried, and a flurry of thoughts flashed in her mind.

  If Azinor was her father, what did he want from her? Why could he suddenly raise the dead? And most of all, where was he so Mera could shove a bullet in his brain?

  Taking advantage of the distraction, the queen shattered the tsunami into a thousand droplets that rained down on her. With inhuman speed, she boosted toward Mera.

  The punch the bitch threw smacked her jaw and sent her spinning. The blow reverberated through Mera’s skull, and her vision went white for a second.

  Were the queen’s bones made of iron?

  Mera balanced herself swiftly, but Mother sucker-punched her in her stomach, then her face again, sending Mera flying until she crashed on the sand.

  The cruel asshole stomped toward her.

  Before Mera could regain herself, Ariella grabbed her by her hair, the undead’s breath slamming against her face. “You should count yourself lucky, merling. Your father isn’t done with you, but once he is… Killing you before then will be a mercy. Beg me and I’ll do it.”

  “I don’t need to beg. You’ve been trying to kill me since I can remember.” A line of blood trickled from the corner of Mera’s mouth, and her face felt numb where she’d been hit, but she didn’t hesitate two seconds before spitting on that bitch’s face. “I’ll send you back to hell, Mother. That’s a promise.”

  “We do not believe in hell, weakling. Have you been on land for so long that you forgot our faith? Perhaps you’ve accepted their ways because of the weak human who looked after you. Your mommmy.” A scornful laugh twittered inside her hollow chest. “Pitiful!”

  “Go fuck yourself.”

  A mighty water jet smashed against the queen, swallowing her whole. Mera’s magic dragged her through the beach in a reverse whirlpool that pushed and pulled her in different directions. The Crown of Land and Sea dropped on the sand as the thrashing waters shoved the bitch into the forest where Mera had buried her fifteen years ago, but it didn’t stop there.

  Ariella screamed inside Mera’s raging power, yet the whirlpool kept dragging her through the length of the forest, hauling the mad queen out of sight.

  Shaking in between rushed breaths, Mera stood and turned to the water. Closing her eyes, she tried to catch Corvus’ presence, but he wasn’t there.

  The ocean showed her everything—the fish breaking through the currents, the corals near the shore—but she caught no sign of Bast’s brother.

  As if on cue, the air next to her ripped open into a void and Corvus jumped out, soaked and heaving for air, but still alive.

  Mera sighed in relief. The Night King could be a dick most of the time, but she would hate to see him dead.

  “Detective!” He gasped, struggling to balance on his feet. “Water does NOT behave like that!” He pointed to the spot where the water worm had dragged him under. “I couldn’t winnow until the magic disappeared!”

  Mera couldn’t explain it either, though she suspected a magic block might be involved. Professor Currenter had told her about it when she was younger, back when Mera still lived in Atlantea.

  Looking around desperately, she tried to find Ruth. When she spotted her mom limping toward them but in seemingly good health, she breathed out.

  The Cap smiled as soon as she reached them—a silent message that assured Mera things would be all right. It made this entire mess feel better, at least a little.

  They were safe, they were together. Now, they had to help Bast.

  “Take us to Stella,” she told Corvus.

  “Cookie!” Her mom suddenly yelled, raising her gun and firing at something that came from behind Mera.

  One moment Ruth was there, the next her body swelled and burst in a red flash, leaving an empty space next to her.

  Mera couldn’t understand what had happened.

  Corvus was drenched in red. Pieces of brain and flesh stuck to his skin and clothes. His yellow eyes stood out from the liquid tainting him, his mouth hanging open as he glared at the blood coating every inch of his body.

  When he stared at the direction Ruth had fired, he yelled something that might have been “Detective!”, but Mera couldn’t hear his voice amidst the continuous beeping that flooded her ears.

  Corvus bolted forward, a sphere of darkness swirling on his palm.

  Ruth wasn’t standing next to her anymore.

  Why?

  Glancing down at her hands, Mera realized they were drenched in blood. Her whole body was.

  Ruth’s blood.

  “No,” she whimpered as bile thrashed violently in her belly. “Not like this…”

  She should have anticipated the macabre, and because she hadn’t, she’d failed another innocent.

  The most important one of all.

  Mera tried to reach the water, but bent over and threw up before making it, crying and coughing as she emptied the contents of her stomach next to shards of bone and teeth. A wail that seemed to come from a wounded animal escaped her throat. “Mom!”

  She couldn’t breathe properly, only cry. Ruth had been by her side throughout Mera’s entire adult life, and a good chunk of her childhood. Always there, ready to catch her if she fell.

  “Detective!” Corvus bellowed once again.

  Mera turned to see him battling Ariella fiercely. She sensed Corvus’ darkness blocking the queen’s macabre, but he couldn’t keep it up for long. The moment he got distracted…

  Fight, cookie, Ruth’s voice echoed in her memory.

  The void in Mera’s core morphed into something harder; something burning and fucking furious. Something thirsty for violence and pain, but most importantly, hungry for revenge.

  ‘Kill. The. Queen!’

  Speeding toward them, Mera pulled ocean water behind her with a swift move, shaping the water to her will as she transformed it into ice.

  “Move!” she roared, and Corvus immediately jumped aside, glaring at her and at the thousand icicles and ice daggers that pierced through the air, following after Mera.

  “Danu in the prairies,” he muttered.

  Half of Ariella’s face was missing, her tongue dangling from the left side of her cheek, thanks to Ruth’s final shot. A sense of pride filled Mera’s chest. Her mom might be gone, but she didn’t go empty handed, like the badass that she was.

  The badass Mera had always strived to become.

  The queen gurgled, trying to speak, but she failed since half of her jaw was missing. Through one lime-green eye, she gawked at Mera before fighting off her magic. She turned one, maybe two daggers into ice dust, but Mera quickly rebuilt them.

  Right then, she was a hurricane of rage and hurt, and she wouldn’t stop until she killed that bitch. Permanently.

  A horri
d, savage shriek rushed from Mera’s throat as she hurled the first icicle forward. It pierced through Mother’s thorax, leaving a gaping hole.

  The queen didn’t utter a sound; she merely stumbled back. Moving her arms in a circle, Ariella created a wall of ice that stretched from the line of water to the beach’s drift lines.

  Mera stopped before the wall and looked over the top. She then focused on the smudged creature who ran away on the other side.

  ‘Not so fast.’

  Something wild and ravenous possessed Mera, urging her to scream.

  So she did.

  The shriek that left her throat shattered the wall into a million pieces. It blew sand up and rippled through the waves, breaking the air itself. Her screeching power hit Mother with a fury, sending her toppling to the sand.

  “Stop!” Corvus yelled from the upper drift lines, both hands on his ears, his voice nearly mute against Mera’s own.

  She closed her mouth.

  Mera didn’t know how or when she’d acquired the siren’s shriek, a rare ability amongst waterbreakers. Mother certainly hadn’t given it to her.

  She didn’t care.

  Ahead, the queen tried to stand, so Mera shot two long daggers forward, their icy blades as sharp as knives. They cut through Mother’s thighs with one swipe, separating them from the rest of her body with surgical precision.

  Ariella didn’t scream as she dragged what remained of her body on the sand, clearly trying to put some distance between them.

  Cocking her head left, Mera watched the rotting flesh, the browning bone on display, and the sticky black goo that flowed from the open cuts.

  Ariella had taken everything from her: Mera’s childhood, her throne, her happiness. Her life in Atlantea. Now that Mother had returned, she’d put Julian in the hospital, cursed Bast, and killed Ruth with the macabre.

  The dead asshole was only getting started, of course. Pain and sorrow always followed Ariella Wavestorm.

  Overtaking the crawling undead, Mera stopped before the queen and raised her arm. “It ends tonight, Mother.”

  The rotting monster glared at her, gurgling words Mera couldn’t understand. Maybe she cursed her to the trenches. Maybe she begged for mercy.

  None of that would change her fate.