by Starla Night
Cold seeped into her body. Icy water suffocated her.
It wasn’t working?
“Bella?” Balim’s arms tightened. “You are transforming back into a human. Let go of your fears and yield to the shift.”
She’d thought she was. She’d focused on becoming a mermaid, and knives stabbed her in the back.
“Bella…” His voice faded out as the sounds of the seawater blubbed into her brain.
She spasmed.
“…your eyes. Open your eyes!”
She forced herself to look at him. The ocean was dark and frigid and heavy. His face faded into the darkness. He pushed her. The surface loomed.
But she couldn’t rise. She had to save Jonah. She had to trick the Sons of Hercules into revealing themselves.
The ocean brightened as if stadium lights had turned on. And she saw a million miles in all directions with perfect clarity.
Balim’s worry shone in stark relief. He was kicking to the white water. The other warriors were shouting as they tried to keep him from being swept away by the furious currents.
“…not transforming! Quickly, Bella is human—”
“It’s okay.” Her chest vibrated the words, arresting him. “I’m fine now. Let’s continue.”
Sharp worry furrowed his brow. “When did you last consume elixir?”
“I don’t know.”
“It is only temporary.”
“Do you have any here?”
“The nearest is New York.”
Lotar appeared at his shoulder. “You must clip on the cable.”
“I must examine my bride and ensure she is fit to descend.”
“I’m fit,” she insisted, even though she wasn’t sure she was. But she didn’t have a choice. Jonah’s salvation lay below.
Lotar guided Balim across the underside of the platform while Balim checked Bella’s vitality.
The mass of the submerged platform was like an iceberg where a part was above the water but much more anchored underneath. Lotar hauled them down through a maze of cables to a central column where four other warriors hung suspended with Pelan and his bride. They had shifted to mer; Pelan grew long fins while his bride’s feet remained short and stubby like Bella’s. The current dragged them away from the cable.
Lotar had to fight hard to clip on a harness. But Balim wasn’t finished.
Nerves tensed in Bella’s throat again. “We should go.”
“You cannot change on our journey.” He nailed her with his serious gaze. “If you have a doubt, you must surface.”
“I don’t have a doubt. It’s for Jonah.”
Lotar’s gaze fixed on Balim’s. He seemed to be awaiting orders.
Balim released his frown and confirmed, “Concentrate on your son. And hold tight.”
The warriors watched her, round-eyed in fear.
She lowered her voice to a murmur, “Are they worried about me?”
“A bride is stronger with her husband. Your reversion in my arms frightened and disturbed them.”
Balim pointed down and kicked.
She held on to Balim.
Gleaming fish flitted and small crustaceans, worms, and wigglers adhered to the cable, tooting funny noises. Their chests glowed.
Her ears popped.
“Normally, we descend with the current,” Balim told her, kicking steadily after Lotar. “Descending this swiftly, our bodies must adjust.”
The oil platform shrank smaller and smaller as they swam away from it. But it was still crystal-clear to see it. She saw for a hundred miles. The rig, which looked so massive up close, was a tiny dot in a vast sea.
If Starr were here, she’d enumerate the vulnerabilities.
She missed her half sister talking in her ear. They’d gone years without speaking, first when Bella was ignoring her roots in the city with Chaz, and then again after Jonah’s illness knocked her sideways.
Starr’s calming presence, even as a young child, contrasted with Bella’s constant kinetic motion.
No camera could capture her mermaid view.
“This isn’t so bad.” Small, see-through shrimp danced on Balim’s broad shoulders like crustacean pixies. “A peaceful, if windy, war zone.”
“We are at risk below,” he grunted, kicking hard, “because the All-Council knows we use this column. They can attack us at their leisure. It is expedient but dangerous.”
Her worry panged.
Bella held on to Balim. She had to trust in him. Let go of her own power and trust that he and the other warriors of Atlantis would fix everything.
Her throat closed in protest.
She focused on her own fingers clenching Balim. I still have power here. I need to claim it. Helplessness was not something she tolerated, and ever since the Sons of Hercules had captured Jonah, putting her at the mercy of others, they’d pushed her off center.
She wiggled her human toes.
His long fins whooshed the water.
“What can I do?” she asked, crinkling her toes.
“Watch for danger.”
A shark swerved toward them.
She pointed. “Like that?”
He glanced in her direction and raised his voice by vibrating louder. “Lotar!”
The gray-eyed warrior unclipped from the column and floated into the current, legs splayed and arms out so his limbs formed an x with his trident stretched. He made himself look large.
Three sharks swerved and flew past, giving him a wide berth. They emitted a siren sound like emergency vehicles from a different country, impossible for her to ignore.
Balim focused on kicking.
Bella watched over his shoulder.
In Balim’s arms, destiny swept her away. The water felt right. She was at home.
What would she do about Jonah if she truly did belong in Atlantis?
The choking sensation returned.
Not now. The elixir needs to work. Just a little longer.
Lotar faced the sharks as they split, circling the group.
One dove at him. He thumped it with the sharp edge of his trident. It swerved away with a snarl. He rotated to the other two as though he understood their shark communication, positioning himself just before the second one swerved at him from the other direction.
He slashed.
The trident made a shink sound as it slid across the sandpapery gray skin. It did not penetrate.
The shark swerved away again.
In the distance, an inhalation sounded like someone gasping in shock. It made the hair on her neck stand up and shivers of primal fear run up her spine. A giant maw lumbered toward them.
The trio of sharks swerved erratically. The inhalation disoriented them, and so they darted back in the giant maw’s direction.
“Curse it.” Balim clinked their harness hook on the cable. “Diran, how secure is this cable?”
The warrior closest to Pelan, long-haired Diran, answered. “A Merman Warrior has not tested it.”
“Merman Warrior” was the mer name for a megalodon because it was the only creature in the ocean that could destroy entire cities—and the mer could do nothing to stop it.
He vibrated harder, calling out to Lotar. “Snap on.”
Lotar obeyed, his gaze never leaving the giant hissing mammoth.
“What is that?” Bella demanded.
“A megalodon,” Balim replied grimly.
The giant sharks, which scientists had long thought extinct, apparently lived on in the deep water the mer called the “Blacknight Sea” and occasionally emerged to torment the bottom-dwelling warriors.
They were significantly larger than scientists had thought too.
She tightened her grip. “What can I do to help you?”
A partial smile curved Balim’s lips. “Relax.”
“You’re joking, right?”
He gave his head a quick shake. “When our bodies move in rhythm, a warrior and his bride can move more efficiently than a single warrior alone. King Kadir discovered this w
ith Queen Elyssa. Relax.”
She tried to relax. Think relaxing thoughts. Ignore the massive, creepily inhaling megalodon hissing on a collision course.
This wasn’t the worst fear of her life. A visceral fear, but not the worst one. She let go. Gave in to Balim. Yielded her body to his, his powerful thighs swishing the water, his fins kicking between her stubby human toes while awareness of his nude, hard waist heated her blood.
They moved faster, sliding up to the warriors hauling Pelan and his bride.
The choking happened again. A tickle like a terrible, deadly sneeze gripped the back of her throat. If she let herself go, she’d shift back to human, and that tickle would turn into choking while the water transformed into shattered glass.
She stiffened, controlling herself.
Balim’s kicks slowed and grew heavier. “Relax, Bella.”
“I’m trying.”
His wide hand held her head, and his vibration turned into a private, sad question. “Can you not trust me?”
She couldn’t. She couldn’t. She couldn’t.
Because giving in to this enchanting world, and Balim specifically, would kill her.
“The All-Council has outdone itself,” Diran vibrated, glancing over his shoulder at Balim, unaware of their struggles. “Merman Warriors are creatures of the blacknight abyss and the vents. They cruise the ocean bottoms and should not rise to this column of the water.”
“This Merman Warrior is lost,” Balim vibrated flatly. “Want to give directions?”
Lotar eyed him as though to ask why he was resorting to sarcasm now that their lives were in immediate danger.
But Diran answered. “The All-Council has been attacking us with many distractions. We withstood their attacks, and so they have escalated to sharks and now a megalodon. When will their reign end?”
The megalodon came at them like an approaching blimp.
With her new senses, the blue column of water appeared to be vast sky, and the megalodon crossed it like a deadly Hindenburg.
One smaller shark flew too close.
The megalodon twitched. It vacuumed up the writhing shark. The shark had seemed so large close-up, but it was a minnow inside the massive jaws. The megalodon drifted toward them, crossing the miles of ocean with disconcerting speed.
“How far to the midpoint?” Balim asked, his chest vibrating with a sharp edge of fear. “Any shelter?”
“Some distance.” Diran slowed, released his grip on Pelan, and unclipped as he leveled his trident. “You continue.”
Balim snapped. “Do not be a fool.”
“I must protect the future queens of Atlantis.” He lifted his chin. “I will—”
“Diran.” Lotar’s tone ordered him to obey Balim.
Diran paused.
A new sound reached Bella’s chest, one of gravel tumbling in the washing machine, like when Jonah had come home unbeknownst to her with pockets full of rocks, combined with a scratchy record on top making a high-pitched “we-we.” Awful, tone-deaf, and yet somehow, a cheerfully defiant noise that greeted them from below.
“Praise the Life Tree,” Balim murmured. Everyone kicked toward that terrible sound as fast as possible. Then, he swore again. “This is not the midpoint.”
“No,” Lotar confirmed.
A gigantic octopus filled the ocean below them. Standing on top of the octopus’s head, arms out as if she were embracing them, was a human.
“Queen Lucy.” Balim’s vibrated worry mixed with awe.
“That’s a queen,” Bella repeated.
“She is your future.”
Lucy’s hands glowed with a white light that reminded Bella of the glow of the Life Tree blossom. The same gentle light glowed over them in a sphere of protection.
The octopus waved one arm in the megalodon’s direction and squawked. He curled his arm like a crotchety old man shaking a fist and shouting to get off his lawn.
Across the ocean, the megalodon checked itself and then it turned away. It disappeared into the far distance. The creepy hissing noise like inhaling snakes dissipated with it.
Around Lucy, the protective glow faded.
They descended to the level where the woman had stopped. The octopus curled one giant arm around the rope like it was hanging out, fist at the ready in case it needed to thump someone. Its noise changed to a satisfied gurgle-snort.
Lotar and the other warriors ringed Lucy. It became really noticeable that all the warriors were bristling with daggers, tridents, and blades while Lucy floated entirely nude without even a pin in her flowing hair.
Balim wielded his doctor’s implements. “Queen Lucy. This is not the midpoint. You will injure yourself.”
“I went slow,” Queen Lucy protested, obediently holding out her wrists for him, blinking and fluttering her gills on command while he conducted an exam with Bella still within his arms. Lucy smiled self-deprecatingly at Bella while she submitted to his orders. “Patrols swore they heard a megalodon, and when we found out you were coming down, I had to risk it.”
“What would you have done if your lungs had inflated?”
“Been shocked since I don’t have lungs right now,” the woman replied.
Flowing black hair swirled around her head like a halo as she stood with normal human toes on the generous head of the giant octopus.
“You know I used to scuba dive, Balim. I may be an idiot about mer things, but I’m more aware of the risks and symptoms of rapid decompression than you are.”
“You seem well,” he grudgingly agreed, bandaging a small wound on her finger. “Tell your young fry they must stop using your fingers to teethe.”
“That was Prince Kael. Stand back. I want to greet everybody.”
She drifted off the octopus and kicked her feet, grimaced, kicked a few more times like she was trying to kick-start a recalcitrant motorcycle, and then her feet finally morphed into long fins. She opened her arms to Bella and Pelan’s bride.
“Welcome to the middle of nowhere, the ocean! I'm Lucy. This is Octopus Kong, our resident giant cave guardian.”
The octopus curled his tentacles around Pelan’s bride and nudged Balim aside.
He released Bella reluctantly.
Octopus Kong curled around Bella delicately, with her safety harness still clipped to the cable. Despite his massive size, his control was expert. He held her with perfect care, the large suckers tightening and loosening.
Bella rested her hand on his rubbery skin. Aside from the raucous noise, he emitted a bright light like a lantern in daylight.
He released her, Pelan’s bride, and also the cable.
Balim examined the places the octopus had touched, ensuring that no sucker had marked her, and then entwined her again.
Octopus Kong stretched his massive arms. Flying out in an exploratory manner, he acted as if he had done his due diligence of greeting them and was now off to do octopus things, creaking and groaning the whole time.
Beneath him, a squadron of warriors rose.
They’d held back, cautious of the giant, and now traded greetings with the Atlantis warriors using a subtle hand gesture of two hands touching in the center of their chests three times.
“Second Lieutenant Ciran.” Lotar approached the leader. “The cable is not safe. The All-Council moves.”
Just as Bella remembered from meeting him months ago at MerMatch, the studious warrior paused his orders only long enough to gain information and then returned to his authoritative role.
“If the All-Council moves, then we must also move.” Ciran’s coffee-and-green tattoos tangled around his cheeks like twin plants. “Nothing will turn us away from claiming our brides and reuniting the air and water kingdoms. So says King Kadir.”
They repeated the gesture honoring the king of Atlantis.
Balim greeted the warriors rising to find their brides. They looked and sounded worried. Their view of Pelan, too sick and injured to greet them or introduce his own bride, gave them pause.
“An
d Queen Bella experienced a reverse shift after entering the water.” Lotar’s gray eyes met hers across the distance. He vibrated softly, as usual, but was too disturbed by the experience to stay silent. He turned his back on her and continued to Ciran. “Her transformation is unstable.”
“She must drink the Life Tree blossom nectar right away.”
No! No, she mustn’t. Jonah’s cure!
But the warriors separated into two groups.
Bella’s heart ached for them. They risked so much to go to the surface, meet their soul mates, and have a child. They escaped the traditionalist All-Council trying to crush them only to run into the Sons of Hercules forcing them back into the water at gunpoint. It was hard to see Pelan looking so ill. It was a terrible warning of what reaching for dreams could cost.
“Despite this setback, we must not give up until all warriors have found their brides.” Lucy’s voice vibrated with crisp hope.
The warriors straightened with her encouragement.
“We will not be cowed by fear. We will not be stopped by anger. We will not be hobbled by grief. Together, we will rise and claim our destinies. Just like Balim and Pelan have.”
The warriors relaxed.
Bella’s own heart lift as the fears fell away. She had already fought the Sons of Hercules. She’d made progress. Now she was relying on Starr. And somehow, she would continue to follow her destiny until she got Jonah back.
“You must be Bella.” Lucy exuded a motherly warmth. “I will escort you the rest of the way to your new home in Atlantis.”
“Thank you.” Bella’s chest twinged with the twin fears of excitement and worry. She was going to a mer city.
A sneeze threatened the back of her throat.
She swallowed hard.
And the vial of poison clinked in Balim’s bag. It brushed against her as he positioned her to continue their descent.
“You will love Atlantis,” Lucy exclaimed as she descended. “You’ll get your own octopus friend, your own castle, and rule the ocean as a queen. It’s awesome. You’ll never want to leave again.”
Which would be tragic when Bella poisoned them all.
Chapter Twenty-One
Balim felt Bella’s tension through the water.
“I can’t wait to see Atlantis.” She smiled at Queen Lucy with closed lips. “I’ve heard so much about it.”
