My frown deepened. "Yes, I recall. Are you saying Palenque is now underwater?"
Alex shrugged. "It's possible. I don't usually travel to ruins this far, so I'm not positive.”
This was bad. Very bad. The mutant creatures were getting worse: stronger, smarter, more lethal, and on top of land creatures, we were also going to add in sea creatures? Getting the stone to the temple was finally starting to seem like a truly impossible task.
We broke through the final row of trees before the land opened up into a strange, partially-submerged clearing. My heart all but died at the sight before us.
Ships. Dozens of them. All flying the skull and bones symbol of the pirates. Treetops poked above the water between the ships, as did triangular temple tops, and who knew what lie in wait beneath the surface? The sea was churning. Every few seconds I caught a glimpse of a giant tentacled limb, or an oversized dorsal fin. On land, hundreds of mutants had gathered in the elevated areas that were still above water.
The landscape was completely different from what I’d expected, thanks to the outdated map, but I had no doubt in my mind that this was the sacred resting place. This epic shit-storm wouldn't have been brewing anywhere else.
After scanning the infinite hordes of enemies blocking our way, I skimmed the faces of our outnumbered crew. Solemn. Grave. Resigned.
I think they knew, down in the very marrow of their bones, that we would not survive this. And in my heart, I knew it, too. We were far too outnumbered. The balance of magic was not on our side.
The world had begun crumbling a long time ago—then came the ice caps melting, then came the meteor striking, then came us sirens—and now, it had finally caught up to us. Now the world would rid itself of the disease we had all become.
But still.
Even knowing that I would die and that the world would undoubtedly collapse, I refused to go down without a fight. It was simply the siren way.
I took a deep breath and lifted my chin a little higher, quoting my favorite speech, with a few little tweaks.
"A queen is worth nothing if she does not fight for her world. She has no honor if she hides from certain death. She must do more than sit on the throne and wear the crown. She must also journey to the ends of the earth, and lead her warriors into inescapable battle. It is an honor for me to fight for the sirens, mages, and humans of this world; and it would be my greatest honor to die for them as well."
Catalina and Alanza thumped their fists across their chests. "Honor and glory. Courage and sacrifice."
Alex threw his gun on the ground, and for a moment, I was sure he was giving up. But then he strode over to Catalina and ran his fingers through her scarlet hair.
"If this is the end for us, for the entire world, then I'd like to be able to kiss you just once before I die. Would that be okay with you, Red?"
She didn't reply with words, just kissed him with a passion hotter than the above-sea sun.
It made me happier than I’d ever been for another person. Cruz took my hand and Alanza made a gagging sound.
"Don't tell me you two are going to be making out too?"
Cruz's grin spread wider. "I mean, I had thought about it."
But at this point, it would have felt almost forced. Like it was expected of us. I didn't want our relationship to ever be like that. So I gave him a gentle kiss on the lips, then said, "You ready for this?"
He looked more hopeless than I’d ever seen him before, and probably more than I ever would again.
"I don't think you truly can be ready for something as absolute as death."
I took his hands in mine and squeezed.
“I don't want to die either, but I don't really fear death anymore. If it’s our time to go,” I took a deep breath and smiled, “then I’ll see you on the other side.”
He shook his head, eyes moving in between mine with admiration. His hands moved up to cup my cheeks, and suddenly I was dripping with magic. I didn’t even have to ask what sort of spell it was.
"If we die today, I just want you to know that this was the best thing I ever did with my life. You were the best thing.”
He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine, as the magic trailed all the way to my toes.
I’d never forget the subtle warmth and softness of his mouth against mine as that very first shot rang out.
One of the pirate ships had launched a cannonball. We were nowhere near close enough for it to reach us, but it did succeed in riling up both the land and water mutants. They let out all sorts of creepy screeches, gobbles, squawks, and hisses. They stomped around in nervous anticipation, and even from where I stood, the vibrations crept up my legs. It was like an earthquake all over again.
"What's the plan?" Catalina asked.
Thankfully, my mind was already moving. "I'm going to take the stone to the Temple of the Cross as fast as sirenly possible. I'll dodge and avoid as much conflict as I can, and hopefully skate by without many hang-ups."
They all nodded, waiting anxiously for their parts in this scheme.
"It's only fair that the sirens tackle the sea creatures," I said, looking to Catalina and Alanza. "So I need you two to hold them off as long as you can as I pass through on my way to the temple."
"Got it," Catalina said.
Alanza nodded. "They won't touch you with a single scale on their bodies."
"Good," I said with a crooked grin. Then I turned to Cruz. "Your magic would probably be most helpful on land." Then I glanced at Alex. "Same with you and your gun. I need you guys to keep the land creatures at bay as I move toward the temple."
"Consider it done, Queenie."
Cruz nodded his agreement. Then he pointed out across the half-submerged landscape. "I think that's the Temple of the Cross. See all the stairs at the front?"
I checked the temples surrounding it, trying to piece the old map back together in my mind, but I was pretty sure he was right.
"If that's where you’re going," Catalina said, craning her neck to get a better view, "then Alanza will take the creatures to the left of your path, and I'll take the ones on the right. We'll try to keep a line open straight down the middle."
Alanza nodded. "We can do that."
Alex rubbed the stubble on his chin. "Most of the land creatures will be out of your way, but the temple itself is partially above water. There will probably be creatures over there that we can't get to without crossing the sea."
"What if Catalina and Alanza swim you across?” I suggested.
"Great. Sounds good. Let's go. We're wasting time." Alanza unwrapped her crossed arms and sprinted toward the sea, with Catalina and the guys hurrying after her.
The stone pulsed at my chest, and suddenly, it was as if the damn thing had sunk to the bottom of my stomach.
Everyone else was in motion. Now, it was my turn.
I waited until the guys were safely deposited on the other side of the water, and until the girls had dipped beneath the surface, then I sprinted down to the shore. My strides were long and fluid, and before I knew it, I was diving into the ocean.
Instantly, the underwater landscape came into perfect clarity. Palenque was beautiful in the old map I'd seen, but underwater, where it now had aquatic flora and the whimsical filter of sunlight piercing through water, it was absolutely stunning.
Since the ice caps had melted, there was now about thirty feet of water on the ground, and within that thirty feet, dangerous sea monsters lurked. And I didn’t mean they were hiding somewhere, waiting to attack. I meant, they were everywhere, slithering past each other because they were so densely packed they couldn't even swim without brushing scales. Massive creatures, small creatures, skeletal creatures, and tubular creatures, all with red eyes and rows upon rows of bladed teeth.
Catalina and Alanza were nowhere to be found. A queasiness crept through my chest, and I feared they might already be dead.
The stone pulsed, vibrating through my body on a frequency I had never experienced. It irritated my nerve e
ndings and sent an intense pain straight to my head.
As soon as the vibrating began, all those red eyes turned to me at once.
"Oh, shit."
I grit my teeth and tore off, swimming as fast as sirenly possible toward the partially submerged temple.
Chapter 24
Suddenly, Catalina appeared, with a trident held high above her head.
Behind her, the biggest shark-squid mutant I'd ever seen was undulating through the shallows, a deadly stare cemented on his face. He wasn't even moving quickly. He was taking his time as if he knew he'd catch her eventually so there was really no rush to his stalking.
Like hell he would.
I lurched toward the shark-squid, but at the same time, a pack of incredibly fast little swimmers jutted out into the open and swarmed around Catalina. They were no bigger than minnows, but their teeth were vastly oversized. So much so, I had no idea how they even opened their mouths. They could definitely bite, though, because blood immediately began tinting the water near my best friend.
The giant shark-squid caught a whiff of her scent and his red eyes glowed brighter. He opened his jowls, exposing teeth taller than my whole body, and wider than me and Catalina put together.
"No!" I shouted, paddling over to help her, but she stopped me with a deadly glare.
"Get to the temple!"
Her pupils were dilated and her teeth were gnashed together. I'd never seen her look so fierce and determined. It almost scared me.
"But—"
"Liliana, so help me Poseidon, if I die in vain while you're dicking around, I'm going to come back and haunt your royal ass until you die of insanity! Now go!"
I swallowed hard and rushed toward the stairs that would lead above water to the opening of the temple.
But of course, it couldn't be that easy.
A sea turtle with metallic spikes on its back appeared to be guarding the way. And he wasn’t alone. Alanza was dealing with a whole herd of the aquatic reptiles.
They weren't oversized, thank god, but their design was clearly some form of dark sorcery not to be reckoned with. I sure as hell wouldn't want to battle a spiked turtle that had, what appeared to be, sizzling hot skin. Little air bubbles floated off its body and shell in a rush to get away.
Alanza pushed the closest one out of my way, and instantly, her fingers blistered and she cried out in pain.
I paused, distracted by an intense desire to help her, and I withdrew a baton from my belt. Clicking the button, I quickly popped it up into a crossbow and loaded a harpoon. I put my face down close to the site and lined the turtle up in the crosshairs. Thwack! I lodged the harpoon right into the side of its neck.
Normally, a shot like that would have dropped a creature, even a mutant. Instead, it merely infuriated the thing. It screamed loud enough for the sound waves to jerk me backward, and it started spinning in an angry circle, faster and faster until it created a vortex. More turtles joined in the circling, their glowing red eyes giving the whirlpool an eerie scarlet glow.
Alanza swam hard against the current, but it was slowly dragging her in. A grimace dominated her face, as she struggled to swim against the intense force of the suction.
Oh my god, this is all my fault. I was trying to help, but I’d only made it worse.
My head throbbed wildly, momentarily fracturing my vision. I needed to keep moving before the stone overwhelmed me, but I couldn't resign Alanza to death by spiked-turtle-whirlpool.
I did the only thing I could I think of: I called on the power of the sea.
I’d only ever used it for small things, like cleaning dirty water to make it batheable or drinkable. But now I had to hope and pray I could use it for bigger things.
The stone pulsed harder this time, rattling my brain against my skull until I feared it might explode. I squeezed my shut against the pain, and put every ounce of power I possessed into the task of literally moving oceans. I reached back, stretching my arms as far as they would go, then threw them across my body, hoping beyond hope that the water would catch the turtles and fling them away.
My head still throbbed, but I had to know if my efforts had worked. I cracked an eyelid open and came face-to-face with Alanza.
"You’re wasting time!” she shouted, features practically livid. “Get your ass moving! I'm gonna go find Cat."
I glared at her but started swimming drunkenly toward the blurry stairs. She was so ungrateful, I couldn’t help but snap at her.
"You're welcome, you big bitch!"
A chuckle came from somewhere behind me, surprising the hell out of me.
"Thank you, Liliana." And it sounded like she sincerely meant it.
I was almost to the stairs when the stone pulsed again, this time giving me the sensation of my whole body cracking and tearing down the middle. Like the stone had driven a gap into my chest and was now slowly splitting me apart.
I cried out in pain, reaching the stairs on my hands and knees.
From underwater, I caught flashes of colorful light and muffled gunfire. The background seemed to be alive and ever-moving, as things passed in and out of my line of sight. Whatever was going on up there was clearly chaotic.
Fighting against the pain with all the will I had in me, I clawed my way up the stairs, dragging and pulling until I breached the surface. I sputtered, choking on the air I was still unaccustomed to breathing, and blinked a few times as I cleared the brine from my vision.
Suddenly, I was face to face with hell on earth.
Fire was everywhere. Any piece of vegetation that had survived the meteor strike all those years ago was now ablaze. And more than just the land—little dots of flame littered the sea, as well, where pirate ships smoked and sank beneath the surface. The terrified shouts of weary sailors who knew they were about to die filled my ears, as well as the painful screeches of those who had caught on fire, or been hit by a stray bullet or magical ball of energy.
It was literally an unending vista of flames, screams, and pain—everything I'd always imagined Tartarus to be.
Pain flared, splintering through my body with each deliberate pulse of that mother fucking stone. I reached up and pressed it into me, trying to contain its power somehow, but I accomplished absolutely nothing.
Stumbling to my feet, I continued climbing the stairs until I reached the top of the temple, where an opening finally appeared. I had no idea what was inside. Would there be a downstairs? An enclosed room? An open platform? Some sacred freaking pedestal just waiting for me to place this pain the ass Legacy Stone? God, I could only hope...
I took another step toward the opening but was suddenly knocked down by a small, flying mutant. My arms quivered as I pushed myself up. I lifted my head and turned around, searching for the creature that had flattened me, and was utterly horrified by what I found.
The thing looked like the oversized spawn of a crab, spider, and bat. It had long fuzzy legs, fleshy wings sprouting out of its protective shell, and of course, nasty teeth just waiting to pierce siren skin.
What was worse than a flying mutant? A hairy, eight-legged, flying mutant with fangs and natural armor.
It launched into the air and swooped down at me, skimming my hair with its fuzzy leg, dropping a shock of my brown curls onto the ground.
What the—? I picked up the curl and stared at the mutant as it swerved back around. Apparently, the bastard also had razor-sharp legs. I grit my teeth and pulled out a baton, clicking it into my favorite double-ended sword.
The mutant zoomed toward my face, and while I was distracted, another one zipped by and sliced me in the side. Blood trickled down my skinsuit, and I dropped to one knee. I instinctively jabbed my sword upward, spilling the blood and guts of the original crab-spider down my arm.
I should have checked if the blood was acidic or not before doing something so stupid. Fortunately, it wasn't, though it did reek worse than anything I'd ever encountered before. Like dead fish and rotten eggs swimming in pus.
The urge t
o gag overwhelmed me. My stomach lurched up into my throat, but I had nothing to puke up. I'd barely eaten in weeks. As I clutched my stomach, I realized my bones were more prominent underneath my skin. Skin that was dry and itchy due to dehydration.
But I couldn't worry about the stench, or my nausea, or starvation for very long. There were more flying crab-spiders taking to the air by the second. It was like they were replicating right before my eyes. The fastest evolutionary process I’d seen yet.
Bullet casings rained from the sky as Alex pumped out round after round at the bigger creatures, and magical orbs of energy blazed through the air, eliminating the ones he missed. The guys were clearly more concerned with the bigger, deadlier creatures than the smaller ones I'd just dealt with. But now that the crab-spiders were multiplying like crazy and taking to the air in a cloud of fuzzy gloom, I had a feeling they were going to be a huge problem for us all.
I lurched into motion, scrambling toward the temple entrance, but the stone throbbed against my chest and I blacked out for a few seconds, stumbling onto my face on the stairs.
From the corner of my eye, I watched the guys fight in slow motion.
Alex ran out of bullets and was forced into hand-to-hand combat. He butted the attacking mutants with the end of his gun, but he was quickly overwhelmed, drowning in a pile of fuzzy mutants, as a strangled cry cut through the air.
My heart leaped into my throat.
Cruz hadn’t seen Alex go down, but he’d sure as hell heard him. He whipped around at the terrible noise, just in time to catch a set of fuzzy fangs to the throat. Blood dripped from his neck. His eyes went wide and his face paled.
I watched in horror as he crashed to the ground in a lifeless heap, my heart shattering into a million jagged pieces.
“NO!” I screamed, staring into his big brown eyes. They were glassy and staring at...nothing.
“Cruz!” I shrieked, sobbing uncontrollably until I nearly strangled on my own bodily fluids. Tears, spit, and snot clogged every hole in my head until I was sure I would suffocate.
Siren Awakened (The Cursed Seas Collection) Page 20
