by Dee J. Stone
Dad’s eyes bore into mine, and I can tell he knows exactly what I’m thinking because he nods, light in his eyes. “You’ve experienced it.”
I’m not admitting anything.
“The blood beats in your veins. You feel it.”
I jerk my hand away. “You want to tell me what you’re talking about?”
He grabs both my hands. “You belong to an ancient race, one that was thought to have been wiped out hundreds of years ago. But there are some of us left. Not a whole lot, but much more than I could ever have imagined. And we’re growing stronger by the day.”
Bile rises in my throat as every hair on my body stands on edge. I don’t like where he’s going with this. I want him to shut up this instant. I refuse to hear any more. I need to escape with my merman back to…where exactly? Clearly it’s not safe for us on land, since we’ll probably get kidnapped again, and I’m not welcomed in the ocean.
I try to break free. “If you don’t let me go this second—”
“Sea serpents, Cassie,” Dad says, getting to his feet and yanking me up with him, his body shaking with excitement. “An ancient race that was driven out of the sea. But we’ll return to our rightful home. And you are the key.”
This time, I manage to slide my hands out of his and I back away until I hit the wall. “What on Earth are you talking about?”
Dad goes after me, taking hold of my hands again. I have nowhere to run. “Hundreds of years ago, there was a great battle between the sea serpents and the children of the sea. They stole our power and drove us out of our home. After they slaughtered us,” he adds bitterly. “I thought I was one of the only survivors. Then I met Sheila online. She started a blog about sea serpents, hoping to draw others to her site. That’s why I left your mom, Cassie.” He clutches me. “I loved her, honey. I didn’t want to leave her or you. But this is more than just me or Sheila or you. This is about our race. We need to reclaim our home.”
I shove him away and dash to the other end of the room, my heart thumping in my head. My dad’s crazy. He’s lost it.
He storms after me, and I run to the other side. “I’m not crazy, Cass. You saw the changes on your body. You know what I’m telling you is the truth. Don’t run from it, sweetie. You need to embrace your heritage.”
My breathing is unsteady. My arm still stings from when that jerk jabbed me with the syringe and my limbs are stiff. I need to get out of here.
“Your body is at war with itself,” he says. “That’s why you’ve been feeling sick. Why you’ve been having weird sensations in the ocean. I know that you grew paralyzed. Your body was locked in place as the mermaid side and the serpent side fought for control.”
I slam my hands over my ears. No, no, no. I refuse to listen to this crazy talk. My dad’s a nutcase.
But he knows so much. What he’s saying is spot on, like he was there when all those things happened to me.
He’s at my side again, his hands over mine that are pressed to my ears. “And the voices,” he whispers. “The ancient language you heard. Those belong to your brethren. To all of us. Because we are one unit, one body. One entity.”
I push my dad away as tears well up in my eyes. “Stop it!” I close my hands over my ears again.
“You have to hear this. You are half sea serpent. Normally weak, with the possibility of no shifting at all. But you’ve mated with a child of the sea. With the true heir to the merpeople throne. You are the strongest of us all.”
He knows Damarian is the true heir to the throne? I can’t move a muscle. I let Dad lead me back to the couch and sit me down. He rubs my knee. “How about I start from the beginning.”
He waits for me to respond, but I can’t move my mouth or any part of my body. I’m like a statue.
“We always lived in peace,” Dad says. “Children of the sea and sea serpents. Neighbors. Friends. But all that changed one day when a child of the sea murdered one of our own. That started a war between the races. Naturally, the children of the sea put the blame on us. They didn’t stop until they murdered every man, woman, and child. Survivors fled the sea, finding refuge on land. With so many of us gone, we were weak and broken, stripped of our essence. We dared not step foot in the sea, and due to that, we lost our ability to shift. We became nothing but a shell of who we once were. We were scattered across the world.” He moves closer and looks into my eyes. “My family was murdered right before my eyes. I thought I was the only survivor. But there are more, Cass. We can reclaim the sea. Reclaim who we really are.”
I just sit still, my head trying to process what he’s telling me. I can’t believe the merpeople would murder and start a war. They’re a peaceful race. I won’t sit here and listen to the bullshit coming out of his mouth.
I’m about to tell him that he can shove his sea serpent crap up his ass, when Jace flings the door open and runs into the room. “He’s awake, Mark. I can’t sedate him.”
Damarian’s awake? I dash out the room.
“Cassie!” Dad yells.
The man outside stands in my way, but I’m pumped with energy—Damarian’s energy—and I shove him aside like he’s nothing more than a curtain. I race down the stairs and into the room where Damarian is. He’s out of the tank. On the floor, flat on his back, his beautiful tail curled at his side. His eyes are barely open, as though he’s lost all of his strength. Because he fought off Jace? I gasp when I see bruises on his arms and face.
I drop down before him. “Damarian.” I wish I could touch him, gather him in my arms and comfort him, but I can’t risk getting wet. I need my legs.
His eyes flutter. “Cassie.”
“What did they do to you?” I whisper.
Footsteps and voices are down the hall. Dad, along with three of the others.
My heart is racing faster than a train as I move closer to my merman. “Damarian,” I say softly.
He opens his eyes and looks at me. “Cassie, what is happening?”
I bite down on my bottom lip. I have no idea what to tell him.
He raises his head like he wants to scan his surroundings, but he’s too weak and it falls down. “We are not safe,” he mutters. “Not safe.” He touches his chest. “It does not feel right…in here.”
“That’s enough!” Dad marches into the room, followed by the other three, a syringe in his hand.
“Don’t you dare!” I get to my feet and am about to launch myself at him, but someone locks his arms around my waist. Jace. I try to free myself. “Let me go!” I jab him in the stomach with my elbow, which causes his arms to drop from around me, but I don’t make it far because the woman grabs me.
“Sedate her,” Dad says.
“No!” I yell.
The last thing I see before I black out is Dad stabbing his syringe into Damarian.
Chapter Sixteen
I’m tied up. Again. Gagged. Again.
Peering to my left, I see my father sitting on a wooden chair, leafing through a magazine. Like he’s in the waiting room at his doctor’s office. He turns the next page, his expression calm and collected. As if it’s part of his every day routine to bind and gag his daughter.
My heart beats violently with rage. I yank on the bindings, and my left hand comes loose. The action causes my father’s head to snap toward me. I expect his eyes to flash with anger when he sees my hand is free, but a proud, satisfied smile captures his face.
He throws the magazine somewhere behind him and gets up, settling down near me on the cot. “That’s your super strength,” he informs me. He strokes my head. I whip it out of his reach, my whole being swallowed in disgust, but it only makes him stretch his arm further to continue stroking my hair. “I’m sorry for the way things have gone down, Cassie.” His voice is soft and gentle. I don’t trust him one bit. “There is so much to talk about. So much to explain. You’ll have to excuse the others’ behavior—we sea serpents get too worked up, and our emotions affect one another. When one is excited, we each get fueled by it.” He touches my hair
again. “If you promise to remain calm, I’ll untie you. What do you say?”
I wish I could tell him to go to hell. I can’t for two reasons. One, I’m gagged. Two, I don’t think pissing my dad off is the best idea. I’m at his mercy, and if I want to escape with Damarian, I need to do what he says, then formulate a plan.
I nod.
My dad once again pulls a knife from his back pocket and cuts at my bindings. I rub my wrists. Dad lowers the gag before moving closer to me. I scoot away.
“Cass.” He lays his hand on my knee. “I know how scary and confusing this looks. But I assure you that after our little chat, you’ll have your answers. And you’ll be so psyched.”
Psyched? I roll my eyes.
“How about I pick up from where we left off?”
I shrug. I don’t care about the story he’s about to fabricate. All that matters is getting Damarian and myself out of here safely.
“After I fled to land, I was alone,” he says. “Lost, confused. I searched days for other survivors, but it was no use. I was the only one. I didn’t understand the form I had. What these legs were.” He slaps his thighs. “I was weak. My body was weak. A useless human body. But I needed to adapt and live on. I told myself that one day, I would discover others like me and we would return to our home.”
For a second, I’m reminded of when Dad read stories to me before tucking me into bed. One of them sounds similar to the one he’s telling me. About a creature from the sea who was cast away from its home. The memory has been filed away, deep in the recesses of my mind along with the other painful memories of my father. Now it’s trying to push to the surface. But I refuse to allow it.
“A few hundred years later, I met a beautiful woman—”
“A few hundred years?” Damn. I planned to keep my mouth shut, but my curiosity got the better of me.
Dad looks pleased that I’m interested enough to ask a question. “Yes, Cassie. We sea serpents live thousands of years. Don’t look so shocked—your merpeople live long lives, too.”
What?
“Haven’t they told you they have a life span of five hundred years?”
I press my lips together, feeling stabs of betrayal. Is he insinuating that Damarian is hundreds of years old? He told me he was about twenty. He couldn’t have lied to me, could he?
“I met a beautiful woman,” Dad continues. “A human. One who was not like me. But at that moment, I didn’t care. At the moment, I resolved to put my past behind me and embrace a new life. I had a beautiful daughter shortly after.”
He plays with a few strands of my hair. I swallow. I won’t let his sentiments get to me. I won’t.
“Life was going very well,” Dad says. “I was happy. My wife and daughter were happy. We had a wonderful life, full of love. For the first time in a long time, I was truly happy. Then I stumbled upon a blog entry on sea serpents.”
A sudden chill crawls up my spine. I fold my arms over my chest, squeezing them against my body.
“Ever since I learned to read, I was researching sea serpents, hoping to find any information that would lead me to others of my kind. But I never found anything useful. Until I read the entry on the blog. It was written in a way where only one who was a sea serpent could understand, and I knew I struck gold. I immediately got in contact with the woman who wrote the blog.”
Sheila.
Dad nods, like he read my mind. “Yes, Sheila. A sea serpent. One of my kind. After emailing back and forth for a while, we met face to face. She was living in Arkansas at the time. It was then that we knew what we had to do. We knew that we couldn’t have been the only survivors, that there must have been others scattered throughout the planet. I loved you and your mother very, very much, but it was our duty to search for others as well as breed more of our kind.”
I get a sick taste in my mouth. Breed more of their kind. He’s talking about my little sister and brother. That’s all they are? Offspring to ensure the survival of this supposed “ancient race” that used to live in the ocean? I can’t help but scoff.
Dad ignores it. “We hit a brick wall. We posted on forums, started many blogs. Anything we could. But nothing. We were ready to give up and just continue living our life, when one day I felt something in my heart. The beating of other hearts. Somehow, I was able to sense my brethren. Sheila felt it, too.” He’s looking at me in a way that makes my toes curl. “Because my daughter, a half sea serpent, mated with the heir to the merpeople throne.” His eyes get animated. “I suspected what he was the second he stepped foot in my house. I couldn’t believe my eyes—my own daughter with one of them.” He spits out the last part of his sentence. “My own daughter—one of them. I’d have killed him right on the spot. But then I realized the power you held in your hands, Cassie. The reason we have been reborn. Because you took his power, and by doing so, you have awakened us.”
Every cell in my body beats with terror. I don’t understand. Is he claiming I’m the reason these sea serpents are rising to power? Do they plan on harming the merpeople?
“The true king of the children of the sea holds an immense amount of power,” he says. “Power he himself can’t fully understand or control.”
It feels like the entire cot is clogging my throat. The true heir has power. Damarian has power. I think back to those times we linked hands when we were in distress and electricity shot out of us. It melted the net holding Damarian captive by the rebels. It struck the rebels blocking us from heading to land. He told me he thinks they’re due to him being the rightful king. How could Dad possibly know about them? Damarian hasn’t told anyone but me.
“That power belongs to us, Cassie.”
My gaze shoots to his.
He nods. “It was stolen from us. Hundreds of years ago, by the children of the sea.”
It’s hard for me to imagine the merpeople doing that. They’re good people. And how could Damarian possess these powers if they’re not rightfully his?
“This is where you come in, Cass Bass,” Dad says. “It’s time for you to fulfil your destiny.”
My stomach churns. “My destiny?”
“The true heir to the throne’s power can only be completely restored once he takes the throne. That’s the reason the rebels have been trying to get your merman on the throne. Once he takes the throne and reclaims his powers, we will be able to take them from him and return to our true selves.”
“The…the rebels,” I manage to choke out. “They serve you?”
Dad leans back in his chair, a smug smile on his face. “Yes, they do.”
“Why?”
“Everyone has a price.”
My hands clutch the sides of the cot and squeeze. Clearly Dad is holding out on me. “You want to steal Damarian’s power?”
Dad’s eyes flash with anger. “Our power, Cassie. Ours. It belongs to us.”
I run a nervous hand through my hair. “What happens once you get this power?”
“We will return to the ocean as sea serpents—who we are meant to be. We will live peacefully in the ocean with the children of the sea.”
I don’t meet my Dad’s eyes. I can’t believe I’m actually believing him. But how can I not? Basically everything he said fits with what’s been going on. The rebels have only revolted once Kiander—who is not the true king—took the throne. They captured Damarian and tortured him in order to force him to be their king.
“Where…where do I come in all this?” I ask.
“Had you not mated with Damarian, nothing. You most probably would not shift because you are only half sea serpent. The blood would have remained dormant in our veins, just as it did every day since we were chased from the sea. But now that you’ve mated with him, you absorbed some of that power. The power that only the true heir to the throne possesses. You transferred some of the power into the rest of us, awakening the sleeping sea serpents in our souls. Because of you, Cassie, we will once again be able to enter the sea. We are weak now, but soon, very soon, we will be strong again.�
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My head is pounding so hard I think I’m going to faint. “And if I hadn’t mated with Damarian?”
He shakes his head helplessly. “I’m not sure how we would get in the ocean. We would have to think of a plan, but the most important thing is to get the true heir on the throne.”
My whole body quivers. I can’t think straight. Are these sea serpents good or bad? I have no idea. They want to steal Damarian’s power. They want to return to the ocean. Dad told me they would live in peace with the merpeople, but is he telling me the truth?
“The rebels,” I say, surprised I can talk. “They want me dead. They blockaded me and Damarian when he was trying to return me to land. I almost drowned thousands of feet in the ocean!”
A look of rage passes over Dad’s face. “They don’t care about you,” he says, his voice filled with venom. “All they want is for Damarian to take the throne. They thought eliminating you would be the wisest move, since you were the reason he didn’t take the throne to begin with. The bastards,” he mutters under his breath. “I told them not to hurt you.” He gets up and hugs me, so tight I can’t throw him off. “I’m so sorry, honey,” he says. “I’ll have a talk with them. Immediately.”
I manage to push him away. “How are you communicating with them?” I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen my dad lurking at the beach.
Dad doesn’t answer. He sits back down on his chair. “You understand what you need to do. You need to convince Damarian to take the throne.”
I cross my arms over my chest. He wants to steal Damarian’s power. I don’t trust him one bit. Even if what he told me is true and I’m one of…one of those things, I’m one hundred percent positive I’m not getting the whole story. The merpeople murdered them? If that’s true, there might have been a good reason. All of this makes me so confused and is giving me a headache.
“If Damarian takes the throne,” I say. “I’ll become queen.”
Dad waves his hand. “The role of the king and queen is a lot of bull. What do the children of the sea need them for? They have those sharks to protect them. I assure you that nothing will happen if you become queen of the merpeople.”
