by Lucia Ashta
“Does that mean you also intend to kill me?” I asked.
Liana’s breath hitched behind me.
“That means I have a responsibility to the entire Kunu Clan. The kind of magic the two of you contain will upset the balance of all nature. The sea will never be the same. Irving should have killed the boy. He lied to me.”
I’d lie to her a hundred times over if it meant saving Quinn’s life.
“I told Orelia she had to dispose of you when you were born, but you know your mother. She made an argument that convinced me it was worth the risk to allow you to live. But now...” The sea witch shook her head, her long, thick hair swirling and jingling around her. “Now that you two have connected and activated the extent of your powers, the risk is too great. There was a reason Irving never allowed Quinn to learn about his history or to shift.”
“And what of me, then? You flung me onto land when you believed me a risk?”
“I see now that I made a mistake.”
Liana’s breath hitched again. The sea witch didn’t make mistakes, and if she did, she certainly didn’t admit to them.
“I thought by alienating you from the sea I was segmenting your powers,” she said. “Your siren powers were growing, and I needed to get you out of the sea before you could notice. I didn’t foresee the turn of events, though I should have.”
If the sea witch should have foreseen the seemingly random events that had befallen me since I arrived at Irving’s doorstep, then so I should have anticipated that Mulunu wouldn’t be an ally.
Instead of a fierce ally, I’d just earned the worst enemy imaginable. Forget Antonio Dimorelli, Naomi Nettles, and this witch in Scotland. Mulunu was as bad as it got, and she’d firmly latched on to a sense of righteousness to motivate her actions.
I should have never gone to the witch for help. I should have realized things with Mulunu were never easy or as I hoped.
I’d made the biggest mistake of my life. I’d painted a big, glaring target across the chest of the man I loved.
And if he went down, I’d go down right along with him.
2
I had a plan. It was a lousy one. I was under no delusion that things would go easily or smoothly. Still, I had no better idea of how to set about rescuing Quinn.
I was going to allow Mulunu to lead me to the witch in Scotland—and to Quinn. Then I’d figure out how to neutralize the threat that Mulunu now posed to Quinn and me.
Either way, I had no other notion of how to find Quinn without the sea witch. It wasn’t like I could stick a staff in the ground and receive answers from … wherever. There was a chance I could link to Quinn through my angel magic. However, after what had happened when my magic last bonded with him, I didn’t dare. If my last unintentional burst of power had sent him into convulsions, I couldn’t risk reaching out to him now. I wasn’t even sure he’d recovered from my last attempt to connect with him.
“Pick up the pace, ladies,” Mulunu called from up ahead, where she was leading Liana and me at a fast run. “We have to hurry.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Liana mumbled over a ragged breath, only loudly enough so that I could hear her. “We’re hurrying,” she announced to Mulunu.
“You and I obviously have different ideas of hurrying, then, girl.” The sea witch, who was who-knew how many hundreds of years old, set a fierce pace. Running on legs she used no more often than Liana, her steps were confident and steady. Despite her advanced age, her nude body was all muscle and sinew. There wasn’t a soft spot on the entire witch.
“What are you going to do?” Liana whispered to me, her words disguised by our pounding footfalls. “You know she’s going to kill Quinn the second she sees him. If she’s this worried about whatever is going on inside him, she won’t wait.” My best friend gave me a heavy glance as we went. “You realize she might try to kill you too. Without Orelia’s protection…”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “I hadn’t thought of that. What if she asked my mama to stay behind to mind the clan because she wanted to kill me?”
“I don’t think she saw you as a danger at that point.” But Liana’s tawny eyes suggested it was a possibility. The wily sea witch seemed always to be at least three steps ahead of everyone else.
“With Orelia out of the way, there’ll be no one to stop her…”
Shock bit into me at the veracity of my statement. Sure, I’d activated my powers, but no matter how much of my magic I’d learned to access, I didn’t think I was a match for the likes of Mulunu. I’d feared her my entire life. Still, it was looking like it would be up to me to change this unexpected direction of my fate—and Quinn’s. If I was the only one positioned to defend us, then I’d do whatever I had to. Quinn and I would live; I’d accept no other alternative.
“You know I’ll do whatever I can to protect you,” Liana said, but allowed her words to trail off at the end. She knew as well as I that she was no more of a threat to Mulunu than a puffer fish.
“If it comes to that,” I whispered, “I want you to stay out of harm’s way. I’ll need you to tell my mama what happened.”
Liana and I pounded steadily behind Mulunu as we settled in for the long haul. Mulunu intended for us to run to the closest shore and then swim to Scotland.
“You know I won’t leave you,” Liana said. “I can’t.”
“You’ll have to,” I insisted. “If not, she might kill you too just for opposing her.”
Liana didn’t say anything for several paces, and though I didn’t turn to look at her, I knew her so well that I had no trouble picturing the scowl that marred her beautiful face.
“I mean it, Li,” I said.
“I know you do.” Her voice was thick with grief, as if I were already dead. Maybe I was naïve for believing there still might be a way for Quinn and I to survive Mulunu’s attentions.
“Come on, girls, move it,” Mulunu called from up ahead. “We need to make it to the water before the sun rises.”
“Why?” I asked.
Mulunu didn’t answer. The wily sea witch loved her secrets, always had.
“What about your magic?” Liana asked while we ran a little faster. My feet moved so quickly that they nearly skimmed the wild grasses beneath us. Thank goodness my angel magic had recently gifted me with increased coordination. If not, I wouldn’t have been able to keep up—no way.
“What about it?” I asked carefully.
“Well, couldn’t you use it to … you know.”
“You can’t be serious,” I whisper-screamed. “I can’t kill Mulunu. She’s the head of our clan—your clan, I mean. She’s a powerful witch … she keeps the Kunus safe.”
“But she no longer keeps you safe…”
“True, but I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t?” she asked.
“Both!” I snapped. “My mama would kill me if I, uh, killed her.” The irony of the situation was rich. “You know Orelia, she’s always going on about how important it is to honor our elders. And even though she and the crone have their differences, she respects her. She believes she’s the best ruler of our people.” I scowled. “Your people,” I hastily corrected. It was difficult to separate myself from the life I’d led for eighteen years. “But it looks like I’ll have to do something to … to disable her.”
“Does that mean that you could kill her?” Liana asked in tones so soft I had to strain my ears to pick them out over our pounding footfalls.
“I don’t know,” I snapped, but not because I was angry with her. “What if I try and fail?”
“Then she’ll kill you. And if she’s planning on killing you anyway, then I don’t figure you’ll have lost a damn thing.”
Panic swelled in my chest like a sponge soaked in seawater. “I … Li, how can I do that? I grew up believing she was the most amazing leader ever. I can’t consider her death. What would become of the Kunus without her?”
“Let’s be real, Selene. She’s amazing, but she’s scary as a deep and dark ocean trench withou
t a visible end. Besides, this isn’t you setting out to murder someone. This is you defending yourself and the man you love—who, by the way, I want you to tell me all about just as soon as the hag is out of earshot. I can’t believe you made love with someone before I did. I always figured it’d be me.”
I chuckled as an automatic reflex before the gravity of the situation knocked the amusement loose. “I always figured it’d be you too. Quinn … was a surprise. And it was just instant with him. I don’t think what we share is normal.”
Mulunu snapped at us like a whip: “It sure as hell isn’t! That’s the whole point, now isn’t it?”
I could actually hear Liana swallowing over the sound of our running as both of our strides faltered.
“What? You don’t have anything to say now?” Mulunu barked, and despite my desperate efforts I couldn’t come up with a single thing to say. My brain was sloshing in shock.
“Here’s a little tip for the two of you gagglers,” the leader of the Kunu Clan called over her shoulder. “If you want to plot someone’s demise, don’t do it where they can hear your plans.”
“B-but how … how could you hear us?” Liana finally said, her voice a full octave higher than usual. “Your hearing shouldn’t be that good.”
“Shoulds and shouldn’ts and what actually is are usually different things in my experience. I can hear you just fine.”
I gulped around a heavy breath. “So you heard everything we said?”
“Every single word. Though I’ve tried to block out your girly nonsense over the years, I can’t seem to help but listen. My instincts told me my efforts would prove worthwhile someday. It looks like I was right.”
Without warning, she whirled and came to a full stop right in front of us, her breasts bouncing from the abrupt movement as she blocked our path.
Liana and I skidded to a stop, and while we sucked in heavy breaths, we eyed her with extreme wariness. Like skittish minnows, we cast quick glances to our surroundings, working to identify any routes of escape.
Mulunu clutched her staff and drew it in front of her. I clamped my eyes shut and prepared for the worst.
“What in Neptune’s name are you doing, child?” Mulunu snapped.
My eyes flew open. “W-what do you mean?”
“Are you really going to just stand there and accept your fate without a fight? Didn’t you learn anything since I sent you to land?”
“I … I don’t understand,” I said, dragging out my words. “You … want me to, uh, kill you?”
“No, you daft girl, I don’t want you to kill me. But I’m not offended that you’re considering the move. It’s the logical step after I told you I planned to kill you and Quinn.”
“You didn’t actually say you were for sure planning on killing Selene,” Liana said, eyes narrowed to mean slits.
“What’s to be of the future of the clan if this is what the new generation is like.” Mulunu shook her head in lament and Liana growled softly.
I, however, stared at the witch like she’d sprouted a second head. “You’re unbelievable, you know that? Did you forget that you forcibly removed me from the clan? I’m not part of the Kunus’ future. If it’s up to you, it appears I won’t have a future at all.”
“So what are you going to do about it, girl?”
This time, a deep rumble vibrated through my bare chest. My fingers clenched and unclenched at my sides as my heart beat wildly. I couldn’t decide if I was more furious or frightened, but I was starting to think it wouldn’t be as difficult to defend myself against Mulunu as I’d originally thought. The way she sneered at me, her lips curled to bare those odd, pointed teeth, I was resisting the urge to strike her down right where she stood. I’d never been violent by nature—I supposed that was part of the problem Mulunu was alluding to.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do about it,” I finally said. “But I’m definitely going to do something.”
“Something?” Mulunu said with a grimace. “I’m right up in your face, telling you I plan to kill you, and ‘something’ is the best you’ve got?”
“What kind of game are you playing?” Liana snarled.
“I don’t play games. Ever. But I do need to know what kind of problem I’m dealing with if I’m going to decide whether it’s safe to allow Selene to live. I don’t want to anger Orelia without need.”
“So you’re afraid of my mother but not me?” I said.
“You’ve never given me reason to be afraid of you. Even now that I’m inciting you to react, you do nothing. Orelia, however, won’t hesitate to follow through on her threats if I hurt her precious daughter. She about tore my head off after I sent you to land.”
I had to resist the urge to smile. My mama was always on my side, I never should have doubted it.
“I don’t risk her wrath lightly,” Mulunu said. “Which again goes to the point I made earlier—that both of you seem to have already forgotten—but I don’t enjoy killing any living creature. I only do what I must. The consideration of having to eliminate you, Selene, is not one I make lightly. Orelia has threatened to have Raziel smite the entire clan in its home if I make any move to harm you. Can you imagine what kind of damage that would cause to the ocean?”
“So you’ll consider the well-being of the ocean, but not of Selene?” Liana hissed, taking a step closer to my side, pushing her hair over her shoulder as if preparing to move to my defense.
“Ahgh!” Mulunu threw her hands in the air, including the staff one hand clutched. When she slammed the staff back against the ground, lightning speared the sky and thunder rumbled like the indigestion of a giant. “Everything I do is about the well-being of the greater good. I’ve been tasked in this life with the duty to maintain the balance of nature and magic. I already told you that.”
She leveled me in a frightening, milky stare that shook me to my core. “It is a heavy, terrible burden. I don’t get to choose what I want. My choices are ruled by something greater than my desires. My magic points the way, and I am tasked to do as it tells me. I don’t want to kill Selene, nor do I want to kill Quinn. I don’t want to incite the fury of the angels, or of Orelia, who is nearly as bad. But I will do as I must to keep Quinn and Selene from destroying the balance of magic and potentially setting off a chain of events that will unsettle all of nature. As you both know, the natural world of the entire planet is connected in some small or large degree. It is only a matter of time before what we do here impacts the other side of the world.”
The witch cast a milky stare up to the sky. “I haven’t enjoyed my role in this life for a very long time. I am merely a servant of nature. You ask if I will kill Quinn, and if I will kill Selene ... the answer is clear. I will do it if it is what is called for to maintain the well-being of magic and nature. I am their steward.”
“So then you won’t be offended when Selene fights back?” Liana asked, and I snapped my head to look at her.
Mulunu didn’t flinch. “I expect nothing less of the first sirangel in all of history. If I see the extent of her powers, I can decide whether they are sufficient to pose a threat, though I suspect they are. My magic has already suggested it.”
“And Quinn?” I whispered softly now that my breathing had slowed, and despair and desperation had begun to settle within me in an angsty mix.
“With Quinn, it is certain. You contain the elements of water and air. He contains water and fire. Fire and water cannot possibly find balance.”
“What you’re saying suggests that all hybrids should die,” I said.
“No, Selene, I’m not. Most hybrids combine the elements of two different species with relative harmony, and when they don’t, natural selection takes care of it, making their lives unsustainable. But angels and dragon shifters were never meant to breed with the creatures of the sea. Their power is too great, too volatile, too destructive. There is no way for Quinn to ever achieve balance. I fear it won’t be possible for you either, no matter what Orelia likes to argue.”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. Dragon shifters and mermaids should never be allowed to mate.” She pinned a furious glare on me. I took a half a step back as her gaze seared into my flesh. “And sirangels and whatever the dickens he is should never, ever be allowed to mate. By attempting to make love, you may as well have dived into an active volcano—underwater. What you did simply isn’t done. Nature won’t allow it. Neither will magic.”
But wasn’t it magic and our natures that had drawn Quinn and me together like sharks to blood?
“You’re wrong, Mulunu,” I declared. “I’m sure of it. Quinn and I are meant to be together.”
“Then you have until we find him to prove it to me.” Her shoulders softened. “I’m not evil, I promise you. Killing is a burden I shoulder simply because I must. If you prove to me that my magic is wrong, I will be glad.” But her grimace implied that her magic was rarely wrong, if ever.
Then she turned on her heel and ran across the grass in the direction of the water. I’d begun to feel the ocean calling to me. It wouldn’t be far now. Maybe an hour or two at most and we’d reach the water.
Liana squeezed my hand and set off after our crazed leader, who’d explained more of herself to us just then than I’d learned in the eighteen years I’d lived under her rule.
It was still up to me to save Quinn’s life and my own, and I had no idea how I’d manage it. But at least Mulunu had granted me a chance. I had mere hours to maximize the opportunity she’d given me.
Tick tock.
I ran, but my thoughts were far from the idyllic hills we sped across.
3