The guard shoved David toward the steamer wreck. “Find cover,” he said. “My job is to escort you back to the other humans in one piece, and that’s what I plan to do.”
“I’m not leaving you here to fight alone.”
“Oh, yes you are,” Luna said, swimming up behind him. She hauled him into the ship seconds before the monster attacked.
David yanked his arm away. “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve come to take you back to Seneca with me.”
“We can’t just leave him out there!”
“This is what he does,” she insisted when David barged past her. “He started training to fight these creatures when he was twelve.”
David gripped the edge of the entrance and uttered a declaration he knew could be his last. “I’m not leaving him.”
The ambush ensuing just beyond the safety of the boat stopped him from swimming out into the open. Just as David had predicted, a pack of sea demons swarmed the guard; now it was six on one. The beast who had initiated the attack grabbed the mer from behind and spun him around to face her. She grabbed him by the throat and sunk her claws into his skin. It was amazing how courageous the guard was. Like the warriors who had fought and died outside the gates of Pandora, he lacked fear. Before David could look away, the monster snapped his neck. Where there had been a living, breathing mer only seconds earlier, a cloud of sand floated.
“There’s a human around here somewhere,” the head sea demon hissed, glancing around. “I saw him with my own eyes.”
David ducked back into the wreck, but he could still hear their thoughts.
“He’s long gone,” another answered. “Suri is waiting for us.”
That was the last thing David heard. After many minutes of silence, he poked his head back outside.
“There was no way we could have taken them all on,” Luna said, swimming up behind him. “There were too many.”
David could feel the rage building up inside of him. It bubbled beneath the surface, and when he pictured one of those fiends hurting Faren, it exploded. “Take me to Seneca,” he growled.
* * *
When they made it back to shore, the madness was immeasurable. The mob of fighting and dying souls was so thick David could not see through it, but he couldn’t look away either. The stench of death hung thick in the air, filling his lungs with its toxicity, making him feel as if he were drowning in the remains of the dead. He couldn’t break his stare even when Luna demanded his attention.
“Look at me!” she cried again, tearing him away from the vile exhibition. “Can you do this? Are you willing to fight for a civilization that hates you?”
“Faren needs me,” David answered without thinking. “How could I turn my back on her?”
“Then go find her,” Luna said. “I need to look for my brother.”
When she turned to run, he stopped her. “Be careful. And thanks for coming to get me.”
“What can I say? You’re starting to grow on me,” Luna added before disappearing into the carnage.
Before David could follow her, a massive sea demon stepped from the throng, hefting a thick spear. Without a weapon of his own, David knew he was in trouble. He grabbed the spear with his good hand, and rather than trying to pull it away, pushed hard. The butt of the spear hit the demon’s face, bloodying his nose.
The monster staggered back. “I’m going to kill you slowly,” he croaked.
David tackled him like a linebacker, knocking him to the ground, but his enemy was a step ahead. The beast wrapped his appendages around him, stinging his already bruised and battered body.
David’s salvation came in the form of an injured sea demon crawling by with a dagger stuck in her back. He ripped the weapon from her body and rammed it so far into his attacker’s neck it came out the other side. The monster was dead before he hit the sand.
David moved on, but he didn’t get far before another demon charged him. He hurled the dagger at the monster, hitting his target the first time. The creature howled, and his face twisted into a mask of pained rage. He ripped the weapon from his stomach and jumped on top of David.
David lost his breath as he was slammed into the sand.
“Why are you here?” the fiend asked, above him. “You’re not wanted here.” He drooled as he spoke. “Die!” he screamed, lifting the dagger over his head.
Before he could plunge it into David’s face, a spear pierced him from behind.
Tristan kicked the dead demon aside and pulled David to his feet. “Watch it,” he said, “or I won’t have that friendly rival thing that keeps my life interesting.”
“Where’s Faren?”
“I don’t know,” Tristan said, more subdued. “The last time I saw her she was taking her sister into the forest.”
“And you didn’t stay with her?”
“I lost her almost immediately after she left the beach.”
“Thanks, I’ll find her.”
David left Tristan to start for the tree line. Up ahead, an unarmed teenage mer fought a sea demon twice his size. His body bore superficial wounds the monster had inflicted upon him in a torturous game of cat and mouse; large gashes covered his stomach, and bruises and scratches crisscrossed his face.
When David got closer, he could hear the demon teasing him. “Do you really think you’re a match for me, you poor pitiful creature?” she asked. “Do you think I should take it easy on you because you’re a child?”
David could not make it to the boy’s side before the demon plunged the spear deep into his heart. His body jerked as the steel weapon sliced into his flesh, and before he took his final breath, the demon yanked him close. “Don’t worry about your friends. We’ll take good care of them.”
“No!” David screamed, slitting the demon’s throat from behind. He kept running, never stopping to witness the creature’s final moments.
Everywhere he looked, sea demons yanked mers from their horses and slaughtered them. If the monsters didn’t have weapons, they beat their victims to death or strangled them with their tentacles. David never imagined he would witness bloodlust of this magnitude first hand. Through the mob, he saw Servio fighting off three sea demons. He dashed toward the scuffle and plunged his weapon into the back of the closest beast. Servio took care of the remaining two with a single jab of his spear, pinning them together chest to chest.
“Thank you,” the council member said and slipped away.
Still gripping his spear, David continued his search for Faren.
* * *
“Tristan, I’m so glad to see you,” Faren cried, hugging him. “Have you seen Cindel? I left her in the woods, but when I went back to check on her, she was gone.” Faren was on the verge of losing control. Her eyes jumped from one battle to the next, hoping to see the disobedient mer.
“No, I haven’t,” he said, “I’m sorry, but…”
Faren didn’t stick around to hear what he had to say. All she could think about was Cindel.
“Faren, wait, I need to tell you…”
She could still hear him shouting for her to stop, but horrid images of Cindel’s mutilated body blocked him out. All around her, struggles pursued. One fight blended with the next, making it difficult to see anything but bloodshed. Life no longer existed–only death remained.
A familiar flash rushed past, but as quick as she appeared, Cindel vanished into the sea of clashing bodies.
“Cindel! Cindel, wait!” Faren screamed, chasing her through the carnage. She could see her far ahead, dodging demons, but the younger mer never looked back.
“Cindel! Cindel, stop… oomph.” Faren tripped over something soft, landing in a pile of gore. She sat up and looked back to see Harmony lying on her stomach in a pool of her own blood, her ravaged body riddled with fresh wounds. Against all odds, she was still alive.
“No, no!” Faren wailed. She crawled over to her friend and knelt down beside her. “Harmony, look at me.”
When Faren turned her onto her
back, Harmony gazed up at her, groggy from blood loss. “Faren, I want to go home,” she whispered. “Take me home.”
Faren grabbed her hands and began dragging her toward the forest, leaving a bloody smear behind them. She could hear her friend calling out to her mother and crying when the pain became too much to bear.
“Harmony, hold on,” Faren sobbed. The tears welling up in her eyes made it hard to see. They streamed down her face and dripped from her chin.
Harmony took one final gasp of air and closed her eyes. Her skin became brittle, like a woman in her nineties, before she turned to sand and blew away in the breeze.
* * *
A sharp pain struck David in the leg, taking him to his knees. He looked down to see a dagger sticking out of his calf. Blood gushed from around the silver handle and formed a thick puddle on the sand.
When the demon charged, he staggered up and took off through the forest, forcing his injured leg to move. He knew the mers had set traps around Seneca. David was in luck. Off to his right there was a small brush pile, marked by three vertical sticks planted in the soil. David limped past it, circling, praying the creature would go straight for him as it got close. The demon took the bait and plunged through the thin layer of vegetation; the eight-foot spikes buried underground impaled him with a sickening, tearing sound.
Good job, guys. I’d better watch where I walk.
He pulled the dagger free with a cry of pain, gritting his teeth, and loped back to the beach. He held his leg, trying to staunch the blood.
David left the forest in time to see the forces from Pavire storm the beach. With Thaden leading the charge, they leaped from the surf to face the demons head on. The massive wave of mers overpowered the monsters’ dwindling numbers.
A sea demon attacked David from the side. She took him to the ground and straddled his chest.
“Die, human!” she shrieked, wrapping her hands around his throat.
David grabbed the monster’s face, ignoring the pain in his broken fingers, and tried to push her away, but she was too strong. She strangled him and slammed his head into the ground. David’s world shrank; the black void crept toward him, blocking out the light and his attacker’s face.
There was a flurry of movement as a mer flew up behind the sea demon and plunged a spear through her shoulder and down into her chest. The monster screeched and fell to the sand.
David gasped for breath, thankful to see the light of day return to his dark surroundings.
“I’m guessing you belong to Faren. You’re David, right?” the mer said, helping him stand.
“That would be me.”
“I’m Teegan. I’m one of Faren’s closest… look out!” he shouted, stabbing the sea demon sneaking up behind David.
Even amidst the gore, Teegan was on top of his game. “I visit my grandmother in Pavire for a few days and this is what I come back to.”
David smirked at his out of place comment. “Welcome home.”
The boys joined forces to take down an attacking sea demon. While Teegan fought the beast from the front, David assaulted her from the back. With the odds two to one, the wench never had a chance. The creature cried out when David yanked her head back and slit her throat.
A familiar scream shattered David’s confidence. Pushing his way through heaving bodies, he saw Faren lying on the sand, cowering from a sea demon brandishing a bloody spear. The monster brought back his weapon and plunged it into the soft flesh of her shoulder.
With his blood boiling, David forgot about the pain in his leg and bolted toward them, Faren’s high-pitched cries for help ringing in his ears.
Chapter 15
Cindel’s Gift
AS THE DEMON YANKED THE SPEAR from Faren’s violated flesh and sank it into her other shoulder, she screamed in agony.
A cry of rage stuck in David’s throat. He pelted the last distance to the creature and buried his spear in its back. As the creature contorted in its own agony, David kicked it aside.
He wanted to keep kicking it, to keep impaling it forever, but the sight of dark blue blood pulsing from Faren’s wounds stopped him. David lifted Faren in his arms and staggered away, his only instinct to get her away from the madness surrounding them.
As he looked for some safe place to carry Faren, he saw Teegan was gone, but the dead and dying were all around them. Their shrieks engulfed the island in a warped, surreal aura. It felt as though their cries could bring the sanity of the world crashing down. Hell was not a strong enough word to describe Seneca this day.
A demon rose before them with a cruel snarl. Almost without thinking, David slashed her face with his dagger. Faren began to slip from his arm. When he brought his hand back to catch and secure her, the hot streak of throbbing agony shot through him. He gritted his teeth to muffle his own cries.
Faren was still shaking in pain. But she squirmed out of his grasp, as though knowing he couldn’t fight this way.
“We have to get out of here.” David said.
Faren nodded and put her legs under her, testing them, nodding that she could walk.
The creature was still writhing beside them, and another raced toward them with his dagger raised high.
Faren shouldered David out of the way, then crumpled in agony.
When David hit the ground, his knife fell from his hand. He scrambled in the sand after it, seeing a selkie seize it for his own battle and run. He turned to defend Faren with his bare hands.
Tristan flew from out of nowhere and tackled the beast, knocking him several feet away. David jumped in, determined to help. They grappled with the powerful demon, doing all they could to subdue him, but still he rose.
He managed to get his tentacles around Tristan, picking him up by his shoulders and shaking him. David searched the surrounding sand for anything he could use as a weapon.
Sand, more sand, seaweed, pebbles–yes!
A few feet away, a bloody dagger glistened in the sun. He crawled over, grabbed the weapon and stabbed the demon in the lower back. He kept stabbing. The monster grabbed Tristan’s neck and held him high, moaning while his victim tried to fight him off. It was amazing the beast was still standing. David had already stabbed him a dozen times. It looked as though the monster was too preoccupied with killing Tristan to give in to the pain inflicted on him.
With his back still turned, the creature smacked David with a ten-foot appendage, knocking him far from the fight. He never took his attention away from Tristan, who was still dangling above the ground.
* * *
Faren was desperate. She had to do something. The pain in her shoulders had subdued quite a bit, stifled by the adrenaline pumping through her, allowing her to jump on the mutant’s back and strangle him from behind. But her enemy paid her no mind.
“Let him go!” she screamed, hoping to steal the sea demon’s attention long enough for her friend to get away. Faren felt her way over his face, until she found his most vulnerable spot, and dug her nails into his skull. His eyeballs squished between her fingers and seeped out of their sockets, but he never gave in.
“Faren, get back!” David cried. “Back off!”
Faren jumped off the beast seconds before David buried the dagger in the back of his head. The beast finally toppled dead to the sand.
Tristan didn’t move.
“Tristan,” Faren sobbed. “Tristan, can you hear me?” she cried, and when he didn’t answer, “Don’t leave us.”
David cupped the back of Tristan’s head and eased his body into his lap.
Tristan looked up at Faren. “Do you forgive me?” He coughed. Blood leaked out the side of his mouth and ran down his chin. The stings he had sustained during the struggle were severe enough to damage him internally. The venom wasn’t the only thing killing him; Tristan was bleeding to death.
“Do you forgive me?” he asked again.
“Of course I do,” Faren cried. The tears flowed freely down her cheeks. “You’re one of my best friends.”
“
Tristan?” Luna screamed. “No, no!” She dropped to her knees beside Tristan and laid her head on his chest. The sobs that racked her body came in uncontrollable waves. “No,” she whispered again. “Not you, not you, not you.”
Tristan reached out to her and touched her hair. “I love you,” he said before closing his eyes for the last time. Within moments, he was gone.
Luna lay on the ground, her hands digging into the sand. Her tortured cries mixed with the tormented screams of the dying.
“Luna,” Faren cried, “we have to get out of here.”
Luna looked up, her eyes already red and swollen from crying. She said nothing.
Faren grabbed her shoulders. “You need to live for your brother. He wouldn’t have wanted you to give up like this.”
Luna looked at Faren as if she didn’t know where she was anymore. It was obvious her grief was winning her internal battle.
Faren closed her eyes, knowing she was losing her friend, as she had lost her father, Tristan, so many others. She grasped for something to hold onto. “We need to find Cindel.”
“Luna, we have to go!” David said, looking around.
With a not-quite-there expression, Luna nodded. She allowed David to help her to her feet. Her legs trembled, but she didn’t fall. David looked to Faren to make sure she could walk, too.
“Hurry!” Faren said. She had seen what he hadn’t–a pack of sea demons, hurrying through the fighting, eyes on them.
“Run, run, run!” Faren screamed.
Luna snapped back to reality. They sprinted across the beach to the forest and ducked into a clump of ferns as the demons raced past.
“We have to stop the bleeding,” David said, gesturing toward Faren’s shoulders. “You can’t go on much longer like this.” He grabbed a couple of large leaves and pressed them to her wounds.
“There’s a healing tree close by,” she suggested with her eyes scrunched tight. “The sap will stop the bleeding and take down the swelling. It looks like you need it, too,” she mentioned, motioning to his calf. A whimper escaped through her clenched teeth as David put more pressure on her injuries. When she looked down at her wounds, she could see the blue liquid smeared down both arms.
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