by Michelle Fox
I would let the songs distract her, dive off the platform and swim out of the mountain. Once I left the deep sea, I would stir a current at my back that would move me through the water faster than the witch could give chase.
It might not work, but it was the only option I could see. I refused to give her any songs she could use, and she'd made it clear I would be left to die in the cave if I didn't cooperate. The question was, were the fish Niall had spoken about in my dream real? Or was I alone? I stared down into the sea below, searching for any sign of the beautiful rainbow fish. The water disappointed me, remaining murky and still, as if nothing lived under its placid surface.
Allies would've been a good thing right then.
But I was alone.
Well, not precisely alone.
Niall's dead body still lay across the cave, but it wasn't like he was going to sit up and talk to me. I would probably have to leave him behind when I made my escape. I hoped Alec wouldn't be too angry with me over that. Mermaids send their dead into the deep sea where the abyss starts, but I knew humans had other traditions. They kept their dead with them, burying them in dirt close to where they lived and visiting them regularly. As a child, I'd spent time watching a cemetery that bordered the sea curious about what the two legs were doing.
Picking up the bottle, I pulled out the stopper and started to sing the hardest, strongest, meanest notes I'd ever sung in my life. I wanted them to be sharp enough to cut through bone with the strength to take on something as massive as the witch. Her tentacles were strong, but I'd brushed up against her belly once and knew it was soft. I wanted to cut through that softness and then shred the heart underneath. The music marched out of me, heavy and deep, thick with power. Those would be my strongest punches. I added a flurry of small high notes. These would bombard the witch, cutting her one after the other and keep her off balance so she couldn't see the bigger hits coming. I poured everything I had into it.
Then I twined in a second, then third octave for the stumble song. Humans can only sing one melody at a time, but mermaids sang entire chords. I twisted the stumble song around the first one, scattering the notes so fast the witch's tentacles would trip over themselves trying to keep up. I went high, then slid down to a low note. I blasted out hundreds of notes in just a few seconds, making them skip in all directions. These would feel like something she had to defend herself from, but their power lay in confusion, not physical contact.
When it was done, I lay on the ledge, limp with exhaustion, the bottle clutched tightly in my hands. The songs inside made it quiver, and I worried it would explode. The magic the witch had done to turn it into a vessel that would hold my voice was nowhere near as strong as what I'd sung. I could feel it in the tiny shivers rippling through the glass.
Now it was just a question of how long it would take for the witch to come.
Chapter Fifteen
Sleep must have claimed me because a noise startled me out of a velvet darkness. I checked, relieved to find the bottle still in my hands. Blinking, I scanned the cave, wondering what I'd heard.
The cave glowed green, the algae that made the light covering every inch of the cave. Below the water remained still. As did Niall across the cave. They hadn't wakened me.
I rose up on my tail, arching my back to release the kinks from lying in one position so long. A light breeze swooped into the cave, somehow dancing through the magic walls of my prison to stir my hair.
When I heard a soft sucking sound, I knew the witch was coming. Her tentacles squelched their way into the cave, searching the walls for the best rock to anchor themselves on. They pulled her forward and a scraping sound joined the squelching as her massive girth entered the cave.
I waved the bottle at her. "You win. I sang for you."
The witch smiled and sent thin tendrils in my direction.
I held the bottle out of reach. "First, you let me go."
"How do I know the bottle has a song?" she asked, folding a pair of tentacles across her belly.
"I guess you'll have to find out. But I'm not stupid. I want out of here, and I don't want to give you a reason to come after me."
"True. If I had to come after you, I would take you apart, piece by piece."
"Yes. I know that."
"Very well. I will let you go." The witch made a series of elaborate gestures with her tentacles, forming what looked like sigils or maybe runes with them. She followed that with a few words in a language my ear couldn't place, something I found so stunning, I didn't move when the invisible walls of my prison made a soft popping sound as they disappeared, falling away like a collapsed bubble.
"What did you say?" I asked.
Putting a tendril to her lips, she said, "That secret is not for you, mermaid. Now. Come. You have your freedom, give me my songs."
She reached for me, but I ducked and jumped from the ledge, wanting to be in the water before my songs attacked. I lost the bottle as my body plunged into the pool and scrambled to grab it before it disappeared. Swimming up, I broke the surface and offered the bottle to the witch.
Three tentacles stretched to retrieve it, delicately supporting the glass at the bottom and on the sides. "It feels light. Did you lie to me?"
Treading water with my tail, I frowned at her, certain my songs had given the bottle heft. "Open it and find out."
The witch cocked her head considering my words. "What's inside? More lullabies?"
"No. I gave you something different. Something stronger."
"What does this song do?"
"It saves people," I said, figuring that was close enough to the truth.
"Hmm."
"See what you think. I didn't lie, but there's only one way to be sure," I said carefully edging my voice with a quiet note of compulsion. I had no way to know if she was susceptible to my song, but it wouldn't hurt to try. If she caught on to me, though...well, that's why I had jumped into the water first. I would dive and hope I could swim away fast enough.
When she removed the stopper, I almost whooped with delight. Biting my lip to keep myself silent, I held my breath and watched. She put her ear to the bottle and frowned. Lifting it up she peered at the bottle and then shook it.
"I don't hear anything." Her bigger tentacles headed my way and I backed up.
"Try again," I said.
She put the bottle to her other ear and then smiled. "There it is. So much song. This is good. Very good." Several pairs of tentacles clapped with glee.
"You can make it stronger," I said. "You just have to know the note. Like this." I sang the trigger, and she joined me, her voice hoarse but in tune.
It took a second for my songs to shoot out of the bottle and descend upon the witch. At first, she didn't realize what was happening, but then the notes began to cut her, releasing a black ooze from inside her. It made an unpleasant 'squicking' noise as it spread across the cave floor.
"What is this? Betrayal!" She shrieked and threw all her tentacles at me, casting them like a net.
I prepared to dive and swim for it, praying that my magic would be strong enough to buy me enough time to get away. At that moment, I realized I might have created a bigger problem for myself. If the witch lived, she would come for me. I could leave, but she would just follow me and make good on her promise to rip me apart.
I hesitated at that, unsure of what to do. If I stayed, it would be a fight to the death between us. If I left, the fight would follow me, but maybe I would have time to rally some help. Running appeared to be the better option and I dove as deep as I could, but as I headed for the crevice that would take me out of the mountain, two fish arrived.
The same rainbow fish I'd seen in my dream—that apparently were now real.
Surprised, I reversed course and followed them. The fish swam in a seamless circle, touching nose to tail. They rose up in a little whirlpool that went round and round, and then spun toward the witch, kicking up waves as they went.
Jumping out of the water, they slammed int
o the witch, knocking her back into the cave's wall. She screamed as both my singing and the rainbow fish attacked her. I'd never seen fish do anything like that. These weren't sharks, but reminded me of groupers or tuna, both fish that would run before they would fight. These two fish, though, used their teeth and bodies made of hard muscle to go after the witch, jumping up and hooking their teeth into her gut over and over again. She howled and thrashed, trying to hit them with her tentacles.
More and more black liquid dribbled out of her wounds, making a pool of its own on the cave floor. I watched transfixed as the witch seemed to shrink in front of my eyes, her body folding in on itself as the fight went on. What the hell were these fish?
If that part of my dream had been real, did that mean Niall had really spoken to me?
The witch screamed and roared as the attack continued. Her tentacles pummeled the cave and the fish like fists, but that didn't stop them. My song kept going, too. It couldn't be stopped. I had no control over it, divorced as it was from my body.
I screamed myself as something grabbed my tail underwater. Thrashing, I tried to break free from whatever it was, but it just wound itself tighter around my tail and then pulled me toward the witch.
She'd sent a tentacle for me, and I'd been too distracted to see it. One of the bigger ones too, strong enough to lift me out of the water and bring me to her.
"Make it stop," she screeched at me.
"I can't," I said.
"Sing it away, mermaid, or you'll go away." A thinner tentacle grabbed for my face. I turned my head, dodging it, but another one rose up and slapped itself over my mouth. At first, I thought she meant only to silence me, but then the tentacle pried open my lips and grabbed my tongue. Another tentacle spun itself around my neck, squeezing until I couldn't breathe.
"Sing it away mermaid. Now."
One of the fish jumped up and threw itself on the tentacles holding me, but it wasn't heavy enough or forceful enough to make them let me go. The witch smacked the fish away with a tentacle as thick as a tree trunk and it sailed back into the recesses of the cave, landing in the water with a loud splash.
The second fish tried to help then. That one, the witch grabbed and smashed against the cave. "Stupids. Your scales are not worth this much trouble. I will suck out your juices and break your bones."
The fish flopped on the cave floor, its expression glazed from the force of the hit. With awkward movements, it flopped toward the water, slipping in so smoothly there wasn't even a ripple. The witch gave a rough growl of irritation and sent several tentacles snaking after it.
Her green eyes turned their glow on me again. She gave me a shake, making my head snap back with the sudden movement. "Stop the song. Now."
I opened my mouth and threw out a note so deep and so full of power it became a punch of sound that smacked the witch across the face. She responded by smashing me into the cave wall, same as the fish. I screamed as rock raked across my back, biting into flesh and bone. Hot, wet blood dripped down my spine, and the world spun in ever darkening circles everywhere I looked. Another hit like that and I might not survive.
Even so, I drew another breath and sang another attack, pushing my tongue against the tentacle trying to silence me. If Siya could still sing, I could, too. I wouldn't allow slavers to take my sister or me, and I wouldn't allow the witch to force me into a different, but just as abhorrent, kind of slavery. I would live and die free.
It wasn't like my tribe was going to welcome me with open arms anyway. I just hoped Alec took the time to deal with the slavers for me.
The witch screeched at me. "Stop!" The tentacle she'd wrapped around me rose and swung forward preparing to throw me into the cave wall again. I tensed, preparing myself for certain death. I'd sung my strongest magic and it hadn't been enough. There was no way out. I could feel it in my bones. I was done. The sea would know me no more.
Perhaps Niall would greet me on the other side of the abyss. Perhaps that was how we were destined to be together. I would be his maiden, he would be my dragon, just not in this life. Within a split-second, I made my peace with that. I would miss my sister, miss the sea, but I would have Niall and count myself lucky. Most mermaids and humans died alone, but I wouldn't.
The witch's tentacle whipped me through the air, my hair streaming in front of me from the force of it. I closed my eyes and braced myself.
A loud sucking sound caused the witch to suddenly freeze, though. I opened my eyes, confused. The only thing that kept moving was my song. It continued its attack, but the witch no longer seemed to notice despite the fresh wounds being sliced into her torso. Her green eyes had gone wide, and she stared into the center of the cave.
My ears told me the sound came from the water. At first, I thought it was the strange rainbow fish, but they were nowhere to be seen.
The water level rose and then dropped abruptly as if something large had displaced its volume. This happened several times, sloshing little waves of water toward the witch, soaking the tentacles she used to prop up her large girth.
Eventually, the witch jolted into action, muttering under her breath and using her free tentacles to make more sigils. Magic skittered over my skin, raising goose bumps as it went. She was afraid. I could feel that underneath the magic, hear the note of fear in her voice as she tried to cast something to protect her.
But it didn't matter. What burst out of the water was bigger than her and faster. It didn't need magic, it had force. It moved so fast, it took me a second to piece together what I was seeing. I first noticed the small arms that ended in claws, followed by wings that shimmered with their own phosphorescence, and then a long neck and a head shape I knew well.
A dragon.
But not one I recognized. This one had rainbow scales like the fish as well as gills. The sea didn't have dragons. Yet, despite that truth, a dragon had shot up out of the water and was now barreling down on the witch and me.
The witch dropped me and scrambled to escape. I fell from so high that she might as well have meant to kill me. Things snapped inside me and despite agonizing pain, I couldn't scream. Even breathing was difficult. I lay on the stone floor of the cave, sipping air as it were a drink I didn't want. Shuddering with pain and fighting for air, I watched the dragon fly at the witch out of the corner of my eye.
For a moment, I thought the dragon meant to bite her, but as he drew near—I assumed it was a he, all the dragons I'd met so far in my life had been male—fire erupted from his mouth, the flame so hot it ran blue. In less than a second, he covered the witch with dragon fire and even though we were in the depths of the ocean, surrounded by water, and even though the witch herself always ran on the damp side even out of the water, the fire took. It clung to her like a barnacle infestation.
Most importantly, her magic didn't shield her from it.
The fire went after her in all directions, snapping and crackling as it consumed the fat under her skin. My song roared on, continuing its assault as well. Despite the pain, I rolled over to watch the witch die with grim satisfaction. Her tentacles slammed up and down, breaking bits of rock off the cave walls and a high-pitched keening that reminded me of a teapot filled the air as she reached the point of no return. Death had come for her, and it wasn't pretty.
Her eyes dribbled down her face, and her body continued to deflate, splattering the cave with dark liquid. She stopped moving long before she stopped screaming, finally ending the fight.
She'd broken her promises, threatened me and then tried to kill me. I had no sympathy for her. Not after everything she'd put me through. The world didn't need slavers or witches. Not like this. It needed...people like me and the dragons of Inverness.
Thinking of Niall, I turned my head to check the ledge where his body lay. My stomach dropped and a gasp slipped past my lips as I discovered he had disappeared. He must have fallen. Maybe one of the waves had plucked him off the ledge.
If I hadn't been hurting so much, I would have dived to find him. I didn't
want to lose his body to the sea. Not yet.
But I still couldn't breathe very well and moving seemed impossible. My body throbbed, one big wound. It would be a while before I swam with any strength, let alone dive for and keep a hold of something as big as Niall's body.
I would have to let him go.
At that thought, I couldn't breathe at all for several long seconds. This was the final loss, the one there was no coming back from. I'd known him for such a short time, it seemed crazy to be so attached, but alone and hurting, I didn't try to deny the truth. I'd fallen in love with Niall. I hadn't wanted to, but he'd been right. We were meant for each other.
I'd denied him over and over again, letting him die thinking I didn't feel the same as he did. Guilt stole more breath from me. Tears flooded my eyes. In finding my sister, I'd refused to find him.
I would never forgive myself.
Unable to withstand my physical and emotional wounds any longer, I collapsed flat on the ground, letting the hard rock support me. The cave ceiling above me glowed with phosphorescence that looked like green stars. Fatigue sang a lure I couldn't deny, and I sank into the darkness that consumed me from the inside out.
Chapter Sixteen
"Mila," Niall's soft brogue filtered through the darkness.
Relief swept over me. Dying hadn't been so bad. Niall was here. Destiny had a strange ending planned for us. I'd anticipated a long-distance relationship or no relationship at all and yet here I was on the other side of the abyss. My very own ghost romance.
I laughed and opened my eyes.
The shimmering rainbow dragon that had attacked the witch stared down at me. "Mila," it said again, the voice achingly familiar.
I frowned. "Niall? Is that you?"
The dragon dipped his head and then his body folded in on itself, collapsing in a shimmering rainbow until Niall stood in its stead. His orange hair still covered his head like a screaming fire, but his body now had a touch of iridescence. "It's me."
