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Before I could decide, Mahina screamed again—louder and shriller than she had before. I darted out of the boat and raced toward her, just in time to see her being dragged along the ground by the chains. She was clawing at the ocean floor, trying to dig in, to hold on, but whoever was at the other end of the fishing lines wasn’t about to give her a chance. Every time she found purchase, she was just yanked harder.
I raced after her, aware the whole time that I was swimming straight into a trap—probably one that was designed specifically for me. But I couldn’t just let them take Mahina. Not without a fight.
I raced to her, grabbed on to her wrists, tried to anchor her where she was. But I only got dragged along with her.
The grenades, Tempest! Use the grenades.
I can’t! We shucked the backpacks to get through the net—I’m not even sure where they are now.
But I had to do something. I knew that. None of my powers were working on the chain. Not the electricity, not the energy pulse, not even the telekinesis, which made me wonder if it had somehow been charmed to withstand my powers.
For a brief moment I contemplated trying to tie Mahina to something, but figured out pretty quickly that all it would accomplish was to cut my best friend in half. Which meant I was out of options—except one. I would have to take this up with Tarisus, or whoever it was that had gone fishing for Mahina.
So though it went against every instinct of self-preservation that I had, I swam along behind Mahina, braced and waiting for the moment we came face-to-face with whoever was doing this.
It took longer than expected. Or maybe that was just because every second felt like it took an hour to pass.
And then we were there. In front of Kona’s underwater castle. While he usually lived on a small, aboveground island—selkies often preferred their human form, unlike mermaids—he did have a home under the water as well. It was used mostly for entertaining foreign diplomats from other clans, but Kona resided there sometimes.
Now, however, it looked like it had become Sea Monster Central. A ring of half-shark, half-human guards—Tiamat’s favorite henchmen—ringed the palace, looking feral with their bared teeth and bone spears. Behind them was Tiamat’s next line of defense, the bunyip, who looked as ugly and terrifying as ever. And free-roaming around the palace, acting as insentient guard dogs, was a trio of whirlpools sucking anything that got too close to them straight into an abyss. I watched in horror as one of the shark-men disappeared in the swirling water.
Needless to say, there was no way we could have snuck up on the palace even if we’d wanted to. So, while Mahina’s predicament put us at a disadvantage, it wasn’t much worse than it would have been anyway. Except, of course, that she was shackled. Helpless. Stuck.
Okay, it was just as bad as I had thought it was, but I did my best not to dwell on it. Just like I tried not to think about Mark or Kona trapped somewhere in the castle. If I did, I would lose focus, something I absolutely could not afford to do right now, not when the sea bitch finally had me right where she wanted me.
The huge, heavy doors of the underwater castle flew open and, to my surprise, I found myself face-to-face with Tiamat herself. I’d expected to have to get through a few of her faithful lap dogs before I had to take her down.
She looked different from when I’d last seen her. Oh, she was still beautiful, which meant that she’d been up to her regular tricks—killing mermaids and drinking their blood. Mermaid blood, combined with her most ancient spells, gave Tiamat a youthful appearance, even though she was thousands of years old. In fact, only her tail—which was black and split into two razor-sharp, curling sections—even distinguished her from a mermaid at all.
At least until she turned her head and I realized that half of her face was hideously burned—the flesh looking like it was literally melting off her skull. I had done that to her. Last summer when I had turned supernova, I had nearly burned her to a crisp. This must be the outcome of that last confrontation.
If so, it was no wonder that Tiamat was gunning for me even more than usual. The only thing greater than the evil that hung around her like a veil was her vanity. If I had permanently scarred her, I was half-amazed that I had been allowed to live this long.
Tempesssst. Ssssso nice of you to join ussss. She drew the s sounds out like the evil snake I knew her to be. I have a couple of young men down here who are very anxiousssss to ssssee you.
Relief flooded me. Mark and Kona were still alive. Or at least that’s what she wanted me to believe. To keep my sanity, and my resolve, I was willing to go along with it. What do you want, Tiamat?
She weaved her way slowly through the lines of soldiers, the motion semi-hypnotic despite my determination not to be enthralled by her magic. What do I want? she asked, tapping one scarlet-tipped finger against her mouth. What do I want? She threw her head back and laughed. The same thing I’ve always wanted. Everything, darling.
She moved even closer. But what I want most is to watch you suffer as I have these last long months. To watch as everything you care about is destroyed right in front of you. She snapped her fingers and Mahina was suddenly jerked off her feet. I tried to grab her, but it was too late. Whoever had control of the chains had strung her up, so that she was hanging upside down from one of the massive poles that lined the outside of the castle. Bunyip and small sharks and a few other creatures I didn’t recognize circled her, snapping at her hair and fingers and toes.
She didn’t scream this time, but I could sense her terror. I couldn’t do anything about it, though. Not now. I knew if I took my eyes off Tiamat for more than a second, she would make her move. And we would all be dead.
Another snap of her fingers and Sabyn appeared, looking a little worse for wear than when I had seen him last. He stared at me, and I could see he was cataloging the bruises left from his last session with me, bruises that Zarek had not healed completely because he’d been too busy healing my internal injuries and my hand to bother with them during that first healing session.
I looked at Sabyn for a moment, shifting my eyes from him to Tiamat and back again. He looked a little odd, a little shaken and remorseful, but I knew better than to buy that act. Sabyn didn’t care about anyone but himself, and he sure as hell didn’t care about me or Kona or Mark. Hell, he didn’t even care about Tiamat, or he would never have tried to betray her in Coral Straits the way he had. The fact that he was here now—more than a little bruised himself—shouted that she’d found out about what he’d tried to pull there. What I couldn’t figure out was after all that, why he’d allowed himself to be drawn back into service to her. He already had Coral Straits. What else did he want?
Another snap and I forgot about Sabyn for the moment as out came Turisas, looking as terrible and frightening as I remembered. His octopus eyes were fierce, his seven remaining tentacles whirling around his head like it was taking all his control not to reach for me. Which it probably was. He looked like he’d been mighty attached to that tentacle I had sliced off.
One final snap and there he was. The Leviathan. The most fearsome creature in the seven seas, or so rumor had it. This was my first look at him, and I could totally see why he had that reputation. He was a sea dragon, the only one of his kind, and he was the scariest thing I had ever seen. Long and winding, his bottom half was that of a snake with a razor-sharp tail and scales that looked like they could slice through anything. Numerous spikes came off his body at different places, all of which were sharp and pointy looking. His upper body was the spiky head of a dragon, with huge, jagged teeth and long, slit-like eyes. The top of his head was also covered with long spikes, and while he didn’t have arms, he didn’t look like he needed them.