I feel a sudden wooziness, and I’m unable to stand. I hit the sand face-first. There’s a click, and I feel both gloves slide off my hands. They clang as they hit the ground. With them goes the last ounce of my strength. I can’t hear the voices. I don’t feel the water any longer.
I hear a splash and feel clawed hands on me. They drag me to my feet. I’m still dazed but able to make out three figures. Two are Rusalka. The third is Minerva, her face alive with sadistic joy.
“Bring her,” she says to the beasts.
“Where are you taking me?” I say as they drag me into the surf.
“It’s time for you to meet the Great Abyss,” she says.
The water is cold and black, and then there is nothing.
Acknowledgments
Lots of people kept me afloat while I wrote this book. My editor, Sarah Landis, managed to help me with this baby while having one of her own. My wife and super agent, Alison Fargis, does more than a wife or an agent should have to do for a husband and a client. All the merfolk at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt put a million little notes into bottles and sent them out to sea. I have been overwhelmed by what came back. My friend Meredith Franco Meyers was a tireless supporter, and Joe Deasy—thanks for always understanding the plot and the subtext.
Thanks to friends and family, near and far.
And most of all, thanks to my little minnow, Finn.
About the Author
AUTHOR PHOTO BY DANA GALLAGHER
MICHAEL BUCKLEY’s two bestselling series, the Sisters Grimm and NERDS, have sold more than 2.5 million copies and appear in twenty-two languages. He has also worked as a standup comic, a television writer, an advertising copywriter, a pasta maker, and a singer in a punk rock band. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, Alison, and their son, Finn.
Visit his website at www.michaelbuckleywrites.com.
Michael Buckley, Raging Sea
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