by Jade Kerrion
What can we do about these ocean monsters? Ashe asked Medea.
“Nothing,” the witch said bluntly. “The Beltiamatu trapped and imprisoned the great primordial beasts behind bars woven from the dark energy of the aether core, and now that the aether core is no more—”
The creatures were freed.
Medea nodded. “Not just freed, but infected.”
Then they have to be destroyed.
“They are far larger and greater than you and your allies can take on, Daughter of Air. Elemental powers will avail nothing against them. Only dark energy will bind them.”
There is one last aether core—at Atlantis.
“You cannot wield its power, Asherah. No Beltiamatu can.”
Ashe shook her head. But Kai took the core from Shulim before it exploded. He absorbed it.
“He carries it, but he cannot wield it. Kai saved the ocean with his decision, but he will pay the price of his actions forever.”
But he is alive. Ashe spoke more from hope than certainty. Medea had spoken in the present and future tense. Where is he?
“He is not in the ocean.” Medea shook her head. “But where else he is, I do not know.” The sea witch raised her chin. Her eyes closed and she spread her hands. The current flowed around her, drawing her long gray hair away from her face, accentuating her once-luminous beauty. “You must leave. The ocean has turned against even its protectors.”
Ashe extended her hand. The water flowed past her fingertips, whispering to her. Her gaze flicked to Varun. Something’s coming.
Ashe and Varun swam through the narrow tunnel, one of the many escape routes from Medea’s lair. Why Medea suggested that one, Ashe did not know. It occurred to her, however, that Medea’s cave had many exits, which seemed odd, considering how the sea witch never seemed to leave it.
What else did she say? Varun asked from behind Ashe, as they squeezed through claustrophobia-inducing passageways.
I’ve told you everything she said. Although not every insight she had realized while in Medea’s cave. The recollection of him—the one who had died for Ashe and because of Ashe—was still too painful to speak of. Besides, it was nothing that concerned Varun.
It had nothing to do with anything that was happening, or anything between them.
Ashe? Even Varun’s mental voice sounded concerned.
What?
Are you okay?
She snapped a glance over her shoulder. Varun was staring at her, his eyes intent, his brow furrowed in what looked like concern. Of course I’m fine.
He shrugged. The current doesn’t think so. The air reflects your mood, and here, in the water, it stirs the current. It got awfully agitated a moment ago when I asked you what else Medea said.
She turned away. I’ve told you the truth. Medea said nothing else.
A muscle twitched in his smooth cheek. Fine, then, what nasty realization did you come to that you’re not telling me?
It doesn’t concern you.
We’re in this together.
This is personal, and it doesn’t concern you.
Personal? He grabbed her upper arm before she turned away. The same way you didn’t tell me your son was the mer-king, or that the Beltiamatu possessed island-destroying technology?
We are trying to stop the Arbiter, Varun, but that gives you no right to anything else in my life.
I didn’t realize you had a life. His calm tone cut like a blade. Haven’t you spent three hundred years pretending you didn’t have a heart, or family, or love?
Air swirled through water, propelling her forward so that she faced Varun, nose to nose. Your choices have not resulted in people dying, or in the annihilation of the most powerful maritime empire in the history of the world. When you’ve made as terrible decisions as I have, you may not feel up to a heart-to-heart chat either.
Ashe turned her back on Varun, but his words stopped her. I wasn’t asking to satisfy my curiosity. I was asking because I thought talking about it might help you feel better.
Ashe twisted around to stare incredulously at him. What was that wretched tightness in her chest?
Varun shrugged, his shoulders squared and stiff. Or maybe that’s just a human sort of thing. He brushed past her, managing to avoid physical contact despite the tightness of the tunnel, but his rigid stance sagged in a soundless sigh as he reached the mouth of the cave. He did not look back at her. If you keep pushing me away, I might start to think you don’t like me.
Ashe blinked at his back. She hadn’t imagined his wry, self-mocking tone. What she hadn’t expected, though, was the bitterness, especially when she was only trying to protect him from her history of terrible decision-making.
Decisions that got people killed.
He glanced around, the sudden alertness in his stance warning her that something was amiss. She joined him at the cave mouth, her gaze immediately drawn to the school of tiger sharks, circling a cluster of rocks on the seabed, their sleek motions accentuating their sharp turns and darting lunges.
There’s something hiding down there. Varun squinted, but the water, polluted by particles hurled up by the Dirga Tiamatu, did not provide sufficient visibility. One of the attacking sharks veered away, its tail thrashing. Whatever is down there is armed and fighting back.
Ashe held out a hand to caress the churning currents. The sharks are distracted. If we stay low, we should be able to get away without being noticed.
Varun shook his head. Ashe, the sharks. Look…the black markings near their gills. His jaw tightened. They’re infected.
No way to kill them, then. Ashe grimaced. Not unless we can somehow keep their blood from spilling. Let’s go. We have to get back to the Veritas.
They swam away, keeping a wide berth between them and the circling sharks. Their path, however, led them along the far side of the rock. Ashe glanced over her shoulder and froze. Beltiamatu!
Varun shook his head, frowning at the two merfolk, one male, the other female, coiled by the rocks. The female jabbed her spear out, driving away a shark. Her silver tail flicked hard as she spun around, scarcely in time to push back another shark.
Ashe frowned. Her hands curled into fists. Why aren’t they swimming away? A Beltiamatu can outrace a shark.
Maybe he’s injured, Varun said. We should—
I am. Stay here, Varun.
He pulled a WASP injection knife from his utility belt. Their eyes met. I’m coming. Varun spoke calmly, easily. No bravado. Just fact.
Ashe grimaced. It was safer knowing that he was planning on tagging along, regardless of her order, but now she would have to worry about him too. I’ll lead the sharks away. You get them back to the caves. They’ll be safer there.
Air churned the water behind her, propelling her into an arc over the cowering merfolk. Shark tails flicked; dorsal fins turned toward her. Sleek predators twisted to follow in her wake. The air churned an endless slew of bubbles. Her eyes narrowed, Ashe raced through the water in a deadly game of tag.
Chapter 21
The noose of circling sharks unwound and darted on a chase even the most sensory impaired predator could follow. Ashe was obviously leaving nothing to chance. Goes to show how much she trusts me to get this right. Varun suppressed the scowl, and fought down the reflexive snap of his ego. This wasn’t about him, after all. He was a human, trespassing where the Beltiamatu had once ruled.
He was lucky, really, just to tag along.
Varun swam toward the cluster of rocks where the merfolk hid. This way, he threw out his thought before realizing that he probably wouldn’t be understood.
The dark-tailed merman stiffened suddenly, and the mermaid picked up on enough of his alarm to swing around, brandishing her spear.
Whoa! Varun kicked back, but the tip of the spear slashed across his stomach, ripping through his dive suit. It’s all right. He held up his hands in what he hoped was a universal sign of I-come-in-peace. His gaze fell upon his knife, still clenched in his fist, and he hastily tucked i
t into his utility belt. You’re not safe out here. You have to get under cover. There’s a cave. This way. Follow me.
The mermaid looked to the merman. Her silvery hair swirled around her face, concealing Varun’s glimpse of the merman’s face. A low, melodic sound issued from her lips. She was talking to the merman, he realized, and the sound was even more musical than that of the humpback whales.
The merman’s response was pitched lower, but no less beautiful, the sound so haunting that Varun’s throat closed against the inexplicable ache in his chest.
This—the ethereal harmony beyond human understanding—was what Ashe had given up when she chose legs over a tail.
The more he knew of her, the more he knew of this underwater world, the more he realized the enormity and the terrifying cost of Ashe’s choices, and how deeply she must have loved her son.
The mermaid’s gaze darted back to Varun, and she nodded. With her spear in one hand, she reached out and took the merman’s hand. The current swept the merman’s dark blue hair away from his face. Only then did Varun see the drooping curtains of skin where his eyes should have been.
The merman was blind. And not just blind. He had no eyes.
No wonder they could not flee from the sharks. Speed was worth nothing without sight to see where one was going.
Varun swam toward the cave; the mermaid and merman followed. He glanced over his shoulder, but could not see any sign of Ashe or the school of diseased tiger sharks.
His lungs tightened; he was running low on air. Varun gritted his teeth. If Ashe did not return soon, he was in a hell of a lot of trouble.
A massive torpedo shape flashed overhead. Varun’s attention snapped up. Jaws yawned apart, revealing double rows of jagged edged teeth. Varun twisted aside, his heart pounding as the shark’s skin grazed against his diving suit. The powerful tail flicked, and water slammed Varun against the rocky edge of the cave, knocking the breath out of him.
His world melted into sickly yellow and brown hues. He cursed softly, his lungs spasming around his shrinking supply of air. Varun yanked his knife from his utility belt. His teeth gritted against his spinning vision, he braced for the shark’s sharp turn into its second attack.
The sleek shape vanished in the distant dark, but hope turned cruel when it reappeared an instant later. It grew larger the closer it swam, its subtle curve through the water both beautiful and hypnotic.
Varun’s heart pounded, its beat erratic, the sound loud, echoing through his skull. His fingers trembled around the hilt of his knife, the tips cold and numb. Motion flurried in his peripheral vision, but he did not turn.
He could not take his eyes off the shark’s spreading smile, the gleaming teeth. They loomed larger until they were the only things he could see.
His brain, stuttering from lack of oxygen, reeled from the truth. Not gonna make it…
The shark opened its jaws.
Something swooped beneath him, pushing his legs up until he floated, parallel to the shark, as the predator cut through the water beneath him. Bemused and dazed, he turned his head to look over his shoulder. Automatically, his trained scientist’s mind took note of details. The scarcely visible stripes of an adult shark. Three…four…five meters at least. More than full grown, it was also among the largest specimens of its kind.
So beautiful. He extended his cold, trembling fingers to stroke the shark’s back—
Air rushed into his lungs; oxygen reignited his brain. His vision refocused.
Only then did he see Ashe’s semi-translucent face. Her body, below his, held him up as the shark passed beneath them.
This, she told him bluntly, is called open water. It is not the safety of the cave.
I got close. I was still working on it. He twisted away from her, his knife held in front of him as the shark turned for another attack. This time, his air supply renewed, he was ready for the predator.
The shark closed the distance. Varun’s heart thudded. His shoulders squared, tension knotting in his back as his grip tightened around the hilt.
The predator’s jaws yawned apart in anticipation of the attack. Varun drew back his knife arm, poised to strike when the shark sharply veered away.
Varun’s astonished gaze followed the shark, its tail flexing quickly from side to side, as it vanished into the deep. A slow smile spread across his face. He would never have imagined that a simple knife and a human standing his ground, virtually, would turn a shark away.
It didn’t.
The cold dread in Ashe’s voice turned him around.
The titan filled the entire breadth of Varun’s vision, and it was still hundreds of feet away. Its sleek profile began at the wedge-shaped head, arched into the familiar triangular shape of a stiff dorsal fin, and ended in long caudal fins. It’s…it’s…
Ashe vanished into air, and all Varun could see of her passage was the parting of water in her wake.
No, he shouted to her, hoping she would still hear him. It’s a megalodon—a prehistoric shark—but bigger than we ever thought—
Ashe’s tart reply snapped though his mind. I don’t care what its name is.
Damn, it’s…His eyes swept across that magnificent creature. It’s four…five times the length of a whale shark. Our maximum assumptions had it at two—
Stop gaping at it. Get those Beltiamatu to safety!
Don’t hurt it.
A moment of silence filled Varun’s mind before Ashe replied, her tone incredulous. Hurt it? I’d be lucky to tickle it.
Varun turned and found the two Beltiamatu hiding on the seabed. Come on, this way. He pointed to the cave entrance. It’s safer in there.
The mermaid’s voice rolled toward him, the melodic tune lilting upward in a question, the sound, as beautiful and lyrical as it was, edged with fear.
And Varun had a good guess as to the reason.
Perhaps there were sharks and an oversized ancient megalodon out here, but in the cave, there was a sea witch and a Big Thing.
And far less space to run or hide.
He glanced up at the megalodon. It twitched, as if annoying gadflies swarmed around its eyes, but it was not turning off its attack path. Varun grabbed the merman’s arm and sped him toward the cave. The mermaid followed, while casting frenzied glances over her shoulder.
Go in. Get deep into the cave, Varun ordered.
The mermaid shrieked.
Varun twisted around. The megalodon’s mouth was opening so wide it could have swallowed the Veritas whole. The wide sweeps of its tail pounded the water, creating currents as strong as riptides.
Hold on! Varun shouted as the water tugged him and the two Beltiamatu toward the monster. He managed to grab onto a rock, but the current yanked him horizontal. His knuckles turned white from the effort of holding on—
The mermaid screamed again. She had lost her grip, and the strong current yanked her toward the megalodon. Varun reached out and grabbed her hand as she swept past him. He tried to pull her back to the rock, but the current was far stronger. Varun grimaced, grunting from the effort of trying to save her, and save himself. Blood trickled out from beneath his hand, cut by the rough surface of the rock.
He couldn’t…he just couldn’t let go—
The megalodon swept its tail, the motion almost lazy and indifferent.
The riptides that screamed into action were anything but lazy and indifferent. They tore Varun’s grip off the rock and carried him and the mermaid toward the predator’s gaping mouth.
He wrapped his arms around the mermaid to protect her, and together, they fought the suction of the riptides—but how could there be any protection from a creature larger than an aircraft carrier? Despite their kicking, despite all their strength, the megalodon was winning.
The merman who had been safely concealed behind a rock, out of the immediate range of the prehistoric shark, launched himself out, into the current.
The mermaid screamed again, but she extended her hand out to the merman, catching his wrist as
he was about to be swept past them. Varun and the mermaid pulled the merman into a tight three-way embrace.
Two tails and a pair of legs kicked hard against the current.
For a moment, it almost seemed as if they managed to gain an inch, but the water roared around them and they were yanked back a foot. Varun glanced over his shoulder. The tip of the megalodon’s mouth was almost directly overhead. In less than a second, all it had to do was bring down its upper jaw, and it would sever all three of them in half.
From the corner of his eye, Varun caught a glimpse of jaw hinges shifting, mouth narrowing—
Then it all stopped.
The riptide vanished. The suction dropped to a dead calm.
Varun stared as a whirling galaxy of lights merged into a radiant, translucent form. Ashe appeared in that tiny fraction of space between them and the megalodon. Her lower half shimmered, alternately appearing as a pair of legs, and then a graceful mermaid’s tail, before shifting back again. Cautiously, Varun extended his hand toward Ashe, but before he made contact, his fingertips hit a wall of air so tightly packed it was as physically real as one made of granite.
On the other side of that wall, Ashe faced a megalodon.
Alone.
She extended her arms, and water danced to her call. Varun pressed his face up against the wall of air as the ocean heaved. Water rushed outward, as if Ashe had pulled the plug. Varun stared up, gaping at the sun gleaming visibly through what had, moments before, been a several hundred feet of water.
He saw the water gathering high above the floundering megalodon. Harnessed and directed by air, the water did not shape into a wave, not even a tidal wave. It sharpened into a spear.
And when it slammed down, straight into the megalodon, the prehistoric monster thrashed, its massive tail churning the water into froth. The white flurry of bubbles pressed up against the wall of air, blocking Varun’s view. Damn it. He gritted his teeth and pressed up against the wall until they finally cleared.
He did not draw a deep breath until he saw her, still in front of the wall, her mermaid’s tail gleaming pearlescent silver.
