Furious, uncertain, determined not to be captured, I closed my eyes and prepared to let loose with everything I felt building inside. Some instinctive part of me realized that it was the only thing that could save me. I just hoped I could survive whatever happened—God knew, water and electricity were far from a perfect mixture.
Flexing my hands, I relaxed, letting go of my natural barriers. Then nearly screamed as something bright and powerful shot out of almost every pore in my body—and straight at the five men who surrounded me.
They yelled, pushed back, but it was too late. The one holding my hand gasped and then his grasp loosened. I watched in dismay as his eyes went blank, and he slowly, so slowly, started to float away from me—carried by the ocean’s currents rather than his own power.
I stared at him for one long second, horrified by the idea that he was dead. He wasn’t the first person I’d killed since being in the Pacific—in self-defense, I’d been forced to kill one of Kona’s friends who had turned traitor, not long after I’d discovered the underwater world. This time it wasn’t any easier, despite the fact that shark-guy had been trying to kill me, just as Malu had.
Even as the thought was forming, even as I was grieving at what I had become, I was turning, prepared to meet any other threat head-on. But there was no more threat—the other two men who had been touching me were also dead, their eyes wide and vacant as the ocean slowly carried them away. The last two hadn’t been hurt by my strange new power—or at least they didn’t look hurt as they swam away from me as quickly as they could.
I watched them go, but then my instinct for self-preservation kicked in. Who said they really were running away? Maybe they were just going for reinforcements. And if that was the case, I certainly didn’t want to be caught floating here, waiting around for them like an imbecile.
I started to swim, glancing around for something familiar to prove that I was going in the right direction. There was nothing—no trench, no oyster bed, nothing but the feeling that I was heading where I needed to be.
More than once I was certain I caught glimpses of Tiamat lurking in the darkness, watching me, her long, red hair floating on the current and her black tail curled up like a sea horse’s. But every time I turned to where I thought I saw her, she was gone. Was it my imagination or was she really there, waiting for me to falter?
Just the idea that she might be lurking pushed me to swim faster.
My throat hurt, my stomach hurt, my head hurt—but I wasn’t sure if that was because I had actually been injured in the struggle or simply because I was doing my best not to cry. The tears were right behind my eyes, but I wouldn’t give in to them. Not this time.
Yes, I had killed three people, and no matter how sick that fact made me, I had to live with it. If I hadn’t lashed out at them, if my power hadn’t done that weird electric thing, I wouldn’t have stood a chance. And I could be sure that they would not have experienced the same attack of conscience at my demise that I was suffering at theirs.
And speaking of my powers, what had happened back there? I knew that I could call down lightning and cause storms, knew that I could blast out at people with bursts of energy. But this latest power—this electric thing taking over my entire body and consuming whatever was in its path—was new. Not to mention creepy in the extreme.
I shivered, and for the first time realized I was still trembling. And not just trembling but shaking violently. Adrenaline? I wondered again, because I certainly had enough of the stuff coursing through my body to power a small city.
But this didn’t feel like the crash after an adrenaline rush. This just felt … awful. Like I was slogging through mud with every swish of my hands and flip of my tail.
My eyes started to close against my will, and that’s when I realized how tired I was, my whole body assailed by a bone-deep weariness. What was wrong with me? Was it the fight? The electric thing? The fact that I had killed three people?
Or was it something else entirely?
For the first time since I’d gotten away, I realized that my tail was hurting. Glancing back at it, I froze as I saw blood in the water all around me. A lot of blood. And it was pouring out of a long, deep cut down the center of my tail.
One of Tiamat’s henchmen had stabbed me.
Chapter 4
I stared at the jagged cut for several seconds, trying to wrap my head around the reality of it—and the consequences. I was bleeding out, obviously, which meant I didn’t have much time before I fainted. And once that happened, I’d be a sitting duck—not just for Tiamat, but for all the other ocean life that was drawn by the scent of blood. I might as well be wearing a sign that read ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT MERMAID BUFFET.
I glanced around. I had to get moving, fast. But I was still about seven hundred miles from mer territory, and judging from how dizzy and confused I felt, I didn’t think I could make it that far, even if the copious amounts of blood leaking from my tail weren’t announcing my weakness to the world.
There was only one place to go—Kona’s. If my underwater GPS/homing-beacon instinct was working properly, I was about ninety miles from the outskirts of his territory. At the rate I swam, it would take me about fifty minutes to get there. Surely, if I concentrated, I could make it that far.
Speeding up, I used every ounce of strength my arms had to propel myself through the water as I tried to give my tail a rest. It took only a few minutes for my arm muscles to get tired, though, and I worried about how long I could keep this up. I could feel myself growing weaker with every second that passed.
Long enough, I told myself grimly. I could keep this up long enough to get myself to safety. The alternative was dying out here alone, and I wasn’t about to give Tiamat that satisfaction.
Or Kona and my family that heartbreak. Then I would be just like my mom—my father and Moku and Rio would never know what had happened to me. They’d think I just drifted away, drawn by the call of the ocean, and forgotten all about them.
I couldn’t let that happen. I wouldn’t let that happen.
A great white shark swam past, its black, beady eyes completely focused on the blood trail behind me. I stifled a mental scream, reminded myself of all the times Kona had told me I had nothing to fear from sharks—even big ones like this. But when the thing made a U-turn and came back, swimming so close that its tail brushed against me, I knew I was in serious trouble. Sharks might not bother mermaids in everyday life, but my open wound was obviously too much for the predator to resist. It was only a matter of time before it tried to eat me.
The thought terrified me—and made me angry. I would be damned if I had just fought off a whole coven of Tiamat’s shark-men only to be done in by a normal shark.
Gathering my power was a lot harder this time around. I was weaker, close to physical collapse, and scared out of my mind. Trying to focus my gifts, to use them to defend myself, was difficult at the best of times. Now I was afraid it would be downright impossible. Especially since that new electricity thing seemed to be MIA.
Then again, when the alternative was becoming some shark’s afternoon snack, I had a lot of motivation to get things right.
The fire started in my stomach, the way it always did, as I gathered more and more energy to me. It was smaller than usual, didn’t burn as hot, but I forced myself to tap into the last of my reserves. They were incredibly low, and I instinctively started seeking power outside of myself.