Rising

  ***

  A tremendous pounding in her skull was the first thing Sara was aware of. She felt weightless, almost like she was having an out-of-body experience. She was underwater. Memories flooded her mind. She threw her head back in a panic, slamming it into something hard. Her pounding head now felt like it was about to explode. She reached back to inspect the damage—it felt like she’d split her head open. Her fingers brushed a small lump. Okay, maybe she’d live, for now.

  She tried to figure out where she was, but all she could see was pitch blackness.

  She couldn’t believe what had happened. She’d been kidnapped, taken from her own bedroom, with Xanthus right in the next room. Everything had happened so fast her head was reeling. Or was that just her killer headache?

  Sara tried her best to see something, anything at all, as she reached out into the darkness. Her hands bumped into something hard and she lightly touched it. It was a metal bar. She kept searching with her hands and felt more metal bars all around her. She was in some kind of cage.

  How would Xanthus ever find her? And would Gael kill her? Should she tell Gael that she and Xanthus were getting married? Would he have second thoughts about killing the fiancée of his brother? No, if that were going to help, Xanthus would have told him yesterday. Instead, he’d told Gael that he was going to kill her.

  Telling Gael about her relationship with Xanthus was out of the question. She might die, but Sara didn’t want to put Xanthus put on a hit list too.

  From the corner of her eyes, a blue glow materialized, illuminating the outline of a jagged entrance to the room she was in. The swelling illumination began to fill the room. As the light increased, she saw that she wasn’t in a room at all, but a very large cave.

  And she wasn’t alone.

  There was another cage beside hers. A shadow moved around, circling the cage, a shadow in the shape of a monstrous shark. Sara’s heart began to race.

  The shadow of the shark got larger and larger until it slammed into the bars. Sara shrieked as the impact threw the side of the cage into her shoulder. The rocking cage pounded against the cave floor. All the while, the light continued to increase. Sara searched her surroundings, rubbing her aching shoulder. Her cage and the shark’s were connected. Thank heavens metals bars separated them or she’d be shark food.

  Sara moved back, trying to get some distance between herself and the creature. There wasn’t much room to work with. Her own tiny cage was about three feet wide and six feet vertical. She remained upright, plastered against the bars. The shark’s cage was much bigger than her own, probably about four times as big as her apartment. It allowed the shark to circle around as he stared her down with his black eyes.

  “Frightening isn’t he, human?” Gael’s amused voice came like a mist through the mouth of the cave opening. A moment later, his smiling face appeared. He wore a necklace with an orb that glowed blue, bright enough to illuminate the entire cave. Sara saw that the opening he came through led not to the outside, but to a rocky tunnel.

  Sara darted a glance back to the shark. It was the biggest shark she’d ever seen. The colossal shark charged toward Gael. Once again, he hit the metal bars and both their cages shook. Sara’s body trembled as she gulped in breaths of water.

  Gael’s eyes widened in shock as he snarled out a slew of foreign words. Xanthus had taught Sara some Atlantian, but from the sound of it, he wouldn’t be teaching her any of these words. She had a feeling they were very foul.

  “Amintah is a bit agitated. As well he should be. He hasn’t eaten in a very long time. I can see his frustration with having a meal so close and not being able to have even a nibble.”

  “What are you going to do with me?” Sara did her best to sound brave, but her voice cracked.

  “I’m going to have some fun with you, my retched, little cur.”

  “You aren’t going to…” She couldn’t say it. She didn’t even want to think it.

  “You wish. I put on a good show for my brother yesterday when I said I would like to mate with you. But I’d sooner mate with a sea cow than a filthy human. Not when I have plenty of willing Dagonian females. But I saw what I needed to see. He may have said he was going to kill you, but I know my brother. He thought he could fool me, but he’s the fool, a fool who is in love with a human.

  “And he’s given me the means to take him down. Before all this is over, he’ll be exposed for the human lover he is. He’ll lose everything—his status, his respect, and ultimately his life.

  “But first, I must attend to Amintah.” He gestured toward the shark. “He’s very hungry. Why don’t we give him a bite?”

  Sara’s eyes widened and she clung to the back of her cage. She looked toward the vicious shark. Scars crisscrossed his back. Then she saw two metal rings that looked like handcuffs connected to the bars that kept her separated from the shark. It wasn’t hard to figure out what those were used for.

  Gael reached out, grabbed her right elbow, and yanked her grip away from the bar. She clawed and twisted with all her might. “Please, no. Please don’t do this.”

  Gael may not have been as big or muscular as Xanthus, but he was still much stronger than she was. Sara was helpless as he put her hand through the metal ring and locked it in place, closing it tightly around her wrist.

  “Please, don’t do this, Gael. I never did anything to you. Why are you doing this to me?”

  “I do it for the sheer enjoyment of it,” he said with a smile.

  Sara yanked and pulled with all her strength, trying to free her hand. The metal cut painfully into her skin. It was no use—her hand was exposed inside the shark’s cage. And the shark kept circling.

  A few moments later, the shark moved in. Sara sucked in water, closed her eyes, and braced for the attack. Something sandpapery brushed over her knuckles and a jolt of fear nearly stopped her heart. Then she felt nothing. She was shaking hard when she chanced a peek. The shark continued to circle.

  She yanked her hand again, trying her best to pull it out.

  A moment later, the shark moved in again. Sara closed her eyes and braced herself. Like before, his rough skin scraped over her knuckles.

  “Oh Hades, Amintah,” Gael said. “Just bite her hand off already.” Without warning, the shark turned his attention to Gael, charging him and slamming into the side of the cage. “Amintah, what is wrong with you?” Gael shouted.

  The shark turned away and continued to circle. Gael shook his head and scowled. He swam forward and pulled out a knife. “This will get him going.” He reached in and slashed the blade across Sara’s fingers, cutting deep, bringing instant pain as she cried out. “There’s no way he can resist you now.”

  The shark’s gaping mouth appeared in an instant. Gael jerked his arm back just in time to miss the snapping teeth. When the shark couldn’t clamp down on Gael’s arm, it bit down on a bar. The shark shook the cage violently, jerking Sara’s wrist painfully against the band and slamming the metal cage against the rocky floor over and over again. Silt clouded the water.

  The shark resumed circling the cage.

  Gael gaped at the creature, his eyes following his movement. Once again, Gael looked hopeful when the shark moved in toward Sara. This time she didn’t close her eyes, didn’t cringe away. Amintah kept his eye on her and for a third time, brushed his body under her outstretched hand. Sara’s fear of being exposed to attack had melted away. She was far from being an expert on shark behavior, but she suddenly felt calm. This monstrous shark was not going to hurt her. He was giving her a message. She now understood it perfectly. She had nothing to fear from him.

  Gael shouted, enraged.

  Sara’s ears stung as Gael let loose a string of profanity. She didn’t understand a word of it, but it was upsetting nonetheless. He raced over, unlocked her door, and ripped the cage open, cursing at her the entire time.

  “I guess I’ll just have to take care of you myself.” When Gael released her hand, he fisted her hair in
his grasp and yanked her out the door. Sara heard the shark slamming into the metal bars as they entered the tunnel. She wished Gael had opened Amintah’s door, too.

  Sara couldn’t believe this Dagonian was Xanthus’s brother. She felt her hair being ripped out by the roots. Xanthus and his brother couldn’t be more different. Xanthus was a protector, his brother, Gael, was a soulless, evil monster.

  “Why are you doing this to me? Why aren’t you just killing me?”

  “The best things in life are to be savored. And I am going to enjoy watching you die. Triton thinks my brother is a great warrior, but look at him. He didn’t have the heart to kill an abomination. By the gods, he fell in love with the abomination.

  “The law demands your death regardless of how my brother feels about it. He may think he’s above the law, but he’s not. And I’m only too happy to rectify the situation. Once it is known what he has done, it will mean his death also.”

  While he spoke, Gael pulled her through the tunnel’s twists and turns, not hesitating a bit when they came to forks in the maze. The light increased as they moved. It was blinding as they entered open waters and Gael swished to a stop.

  “Now I’m going to explain what will happen.” He pulled Sara up close. She smelled an odor emanating from him and it wasn’t pl