by Tracy Deebs
Page 34
Did you hear me?
I still didn’t respond. His hand tightened on my throat, but I wasn’t afraid. I might be in human form right now, but I wasn’t breathing through my windpipe. He could choke me all he wanted, but it wouldn’t cut off my air supply.
Of course, I was forgetting that Sabyn the Insane knew every dirty trick in the book—and a bunch that hadn’t been invented yet. Before I had a clue what he was going to do, his hands slammed into my head, directly behind my ears. And then they started to press against my gills, cutting off my supply of water and, in turn, air. He wasn’t gentle about it either, his fingers gouging into the small slits of my gills until it took all my will not to scream. He got what he wanted, though. In my panic to get away from him, I turned my head back. Our eyes collided.
Thank you, Tempest. Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it? He smiled, a deranged twisting of his lips that would have terrified me if I weren’t already dying. Though I was staring at him, he hadn’t seen fit to lift his fingers from my gills. As my mouth opened and closed, my panic making me revert to human habits, he just watched me. The world started to go gray, and I struggled in earnest, my head flopping back and forth as I forgot my resolve not to give him the satisfaction. And still he didn’t let up, still he watched me as his fingers savaged my gills.
I tried to buck him off, to kick him, but the sad fact was, in this situation he did have all the power. The world grew dimmer, even blacker, and I understood that this was it. I was going to die down here like my mother had and, like her, there was nothing I could do about it.
The last thought I had before I went out was of Mark. I prayed that he wasn’t destined to live my father’s life, looking out to sea and waiting, wondering, if I would ever come back.
When I woke up, I was floating. Sabyn had unchained me but was keeping a close eye on me from his spot across the room. It took a second for me to register that I was still alive, and when I did, I allowed myself a moment of pure relief before whirling toward Sabyn yet again. I sent out the most powerful blast of electricity I could muster. It should have been enough to knock him on his ass, if not fry him completely, but nothing happened. In fact, he just stood there, smirking at me as I blasted him again and again and again.
It took only a couple times for me to figure out that it wasn’t that Sabyn was repelling the electricity; it was that I wasn’t actually firing any. Just like I wasn’t shooting any energy pulses either. My powers had completely dried up.
Are you done? he asked. Because there are things I’d like to talk about, and frankly, you don’t look like you can do that and listen at the same time.
I sent another blast his way. Then another. And another. Still nothing. What did you do to me?
If you’d calm down a little bit, maybe we could talk about it.
I did scream then, reaching deep inside myself for the reserves of power I rarely had to draw on. I fired absolutely everything I had at him and prayed.
All he did was yawn. Then he walked toward the door, his total disregard for my powers obvious in the way he turned his back on me—something he never would have done before.
Okay. All right. The words came out hoarse and breathless, a testament to just how hard I’d been fighting him. What do you want to talk about?
I knew you’d come around.
I coughed, then felt my gills ooze a little. When I put my hands up to them it was to find out that I was bleeding. Sabyn had really done a number on me.
I’m sorry about that, he said. I guess I was too rough.
I didn’t bother to answer. He’d smothered me into unconsciousness, so yeah, I had a tendency to see that as “too rough. ”
What do you want, Sabyn? I’m too tired to play games.
Even after your nap? I’m so sorry to hear that. He gestured to the floor. Why don’t you have a seat, get comfortable? He pulled a picnic basket into the room, set it down next to me. Maybe something to eat will help with your exhaustion.
I stared at the basket in disbelief. I’m not hungry.
He shrugged his shoulders. I guess that depends on how badly you want answers. Besides, who knows when I’ll decide to feed you next.
You are completely revolting.
And you are a total pain in the ass, but here we are anyway. He held out a kelp bar. Try it. It’s pretty good.
I don’t think so.
He shrugged, then took a big bite. Suit yourself.
Sabyn settled with the picnic on the ground, or at least as close to the ground as he could get with the sea water pushing at him. Merpeople, like other half-human sea creatures, have a built-in resistance to the ocean’s buoyancy, which allows them to counteract it any time they want. It doesn’t mean they’ll be able to walk on the ocean floor without effort, but it does mean that they won’t float more than an inch or so above it unless they want to. My resistance isn’t as good as a full merperson’s, but I can usually stay two or three inches above whatever it is I’m resting on. Unless I’m concentrating. Then I can lie on a bed or walk on the ground like any other merperson.
Are you going to tell me what’s going on here, Sabyn? You can’t actually think you’re going to get away with holding me prisoner.
He laughed. Who’s going to stop me? Kona? From what I hear, he can barely stand to be in the same ocean with you. Besides, he’s got other problems right now.
My blood ran cold. What do you mean?
You screwed things for a lot of people when you took off for home last week. Now Coral Straits is mine, and Kona’s kingdom … well, let’s just say it’s not really his anymore. But don’t feel too bad; his people are probably relieved. He’s been having a rough time over there since you dumped him.
Sabyn’s words hit me hard, made me focus on the guilt that was always just below the surface. I wanted to lash out at him, to tell him off, but I couldn’t. I needed him. Not just for me—I was more than happy to piss him off when I was the only one at risk. But Sabyn had news of Kona, and that I wanted desperately. He might not be my boyfriend anymore, but that didn’t mean I didn’t still care about him. If something else happened to him because he was helping me … I’d never forgive myself. And I would make Sabyn, and Tiamat, pay.
I’d never been particularly bloodthirsty as a human. Even as a mermaid, I would rather take flight than fight if I could get away with it. But I’d had about enough of Sabyn and Tiamat and all the other sea monsters they had working with them. If I got out of this damn dungeon alive, I swore I would take them all down, no matter what it took. Their reign of terror had to end.
But I was smart enough to know that there was no way I’d get a chance to escape if I didn’t play nice with Sabyn. Oh, I didn’t necessarily expect him to buy it—he wasn’t a total idiot, after all. But he was vain, really vain, and if I worked it long enough, maybe his guard would slip. If not today, then sometime soon.
Hating myself and what I had to do, I settled down next to him and his ridiculous picnic. I even grabbed one of the disgusting kelp bars and took a bite, praying it wasn’t poisoned.
He didn’t say anything while we ate, and neither did I. I was smart enough to know that I had to wait for him to take the lead or I would never get anywhere. But it was so hard, when I was dying to know where Kona was. Not to mention what he had done to my powers. If there was ever a time I needed them, this was it. I couldn’t do anything without them.
