Dangerous Depths (The Sea Monster Memoirs)

by Karen Amanda Hooper

  Even when all of them broke down sobbing and begged me not to go, I kept a straight face. Jenna and Keeley had followed me to the outskirts of Echo Bayou, still pleading with me. I told them I would be a disgrace to myself and every sea creature in Rathe if I didn’t try to save Yara. I kissed both of them goodbye and never looked back.

  Yara stood no chance of leaving Harte without being flown out. None of them did. I had to do the right thing.

  Later, I sat in the back of the boat, watching Caspian, Delmar, Pango, and Merrick navigate us to the Triangle. Kimber sat beside me, silent as always. I looked at her and she turned to face me. Her warm, sky blue eyes were such a drastic contrast to her mouth of stone.

  “Can I tell you a secret?” I asked her.

  She nodded.

  “I’m scared.”

  She placed her hand over mine. Even though she couldn’t speak, I felt as if she was telling me it would be okay. Or maybe that was just what I wanted to hear. No one, especially on a boat full of merfolk who were unable to lie, could make me that false promise. But the fact that Caspian, Indrea, Delmar, Kimber, Pango, and Merrick were escorting me to the Triangle did bring me some small sense of comfort.

  None of them were going in with me. They couldn’t fly, so they would be useless in the rescue mission. Mariza and Otabia refused to help. I would be on my own in Harte.

  Indrea was sitting across from us, watching the horizon. The clouds were thickening and turning gray. My throat was dry. I couldn’t sit still.

  “Indrea.” My knees bounced nonstop. “Could you help me calm down?”

  She smiled sweetly. “With pleasure.”

  She bent over me and smoothed down my hair. She didn’t need to touch me to calm me. We both knew that, but her nurturing touch helped immensely.

  My legs stilled and my heart wasn’t racing as fast as it had been. “Thank you.”

  She sat beside me and held my free hand while Kimber still held the other.

  “Words can’t express how much I admire your bravery,” Indrea said.

  “Thanks, but keep the calming juju coming, please.”

  Indrea nodded, and we sat in silence as we traveled closer to hell.

  My last visit to the Triangle just days earlier was very different. Back then, all of nature had been violent and angry. Today the ocean was calm. The fog was still thick and dark, but there was no wind, and no powerful current pulling us in.

  “Are you sure this is the right place?” I asked.

  Delmar held out a compass so I could see the needle spinning in circles. “This is it. According to our calculations, if you fly east less than one nautical mile you should see it.”

  I stood with shaky knees. Even Indrea’s powers couldn’t tame the sick feeling in my stomach.

  “Remember,” Pango said, “you don’t have much time. The sun will set just over an hour from now. Get in and get out. If you can’t find them right away, you have to accept that there’s nothing more you can do.”

  Merrick slightly bowed his head as our eyes met. “Don’t risk your own soul, Nixie. That’s the last thing Yara and Treygan would want.”

  Delmar gripped my shoulders. “I’m sorry you have to go alone, but we are with you in spirit. We’ll be right here waiting for you to return.”

  Alone. That was the scariest part about this. Yara, Treygan, and Rownan had gone as a team. I had no one.

  My throat still felt like sandpaper. My back twitched and my wings itched.

  “She won’t be alone,” a shaky voice said behind me.

  Delmar dropped his hands. Keeley and Jenna landed on each of my shoulders.

  “What are you two doing here?” I asked, shocked and worried about their safety. “How did you get here?”

  “We hid in your wings,” Jenna admitted.

  Keeley flew up and touched my cheek. “We couldn’t let you go by yourself.”

  “You two aren’t going,” I said firmly. “It’s too dangerous.”

  “But you’re going. Why is it okay for you to go and not us?”

  “I’m much bigger,” I argued.

  Jenna looked crushed. “You’ve always said our size doesn’t matter. That we could do anything big creatures can do.”

  “It doesn’t matter. And you can do anything. Just not this.”

  “You don’t believe in us.” Keeley pressed her hands over her heart as if I had shot her with my words.

  “Of course I do. I just don’t want the two of you risking your souls in Harte. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “We’ll forever be filled with guilt if we don’t go,” Keeley said.

  “And we’ll feel like cowards,” Jenna added. “Do you want us to live the rest of our lives feeling useless?”

  Being useless was the worst thing in the world to a sprite. And to a siren. It’s why I was offered the promotion to siren. Our beliefs and work ethics were so similar.

  “You’re our family,” Jenna said. “Family sticks together.”

  “They even go through hell together,” Keeley added.

  Until that moment I had been worried I would have to leave Treygan, Rownan, or Vienna behind. Maybe even all three, depending on how long it took me to save Yara. I had no miracle plan for how to rescue all of them in such a short time, especially without sacrificing my own soul like Otabia had warned me about. One or more of them would hate me for leaving someone behind. As much as it worried me to put Jenna and Keeley in such danger, it could be the answer to saving more than just Yara.

  “Fine,” I said reluctantly. “Because you’re family. And because I know you’re brave and strong enough to survive this.”

  Both of their eyes widened with a mixture of pride, satisfaction, and fear.

  “But you listen to everything I tell you,” I insisted. “I know more about this place than you, so do not separate from me, and swear to obey everything I say no matter what.”

  “We swear,” they both vowed.

  I suddenly felt much more confident about this mission now that I had help from two of the bravest souls I knew.

  Pango leaned in close to my ear, trying to speak softly enough that the sprites couldn’t hear him. “Maybe they shouldn’t go with you. They’re so tiny.”

  I shoved him away, looking up and down his 6’5” frame. “Body size is no indication of courage or spirit. Those two tiny sprites can do anything they set their minds to.”

  I had never seen Delmar look so concerned. “What if you lose them?”

  I raised my wings high behind me. “I don’t lose.” I rose up in the air with Keeley and Jenna on either side of me. “We’ll see you soon. And we’ll have all the love birds with us.”

  As we flew toward the Devil’s Triangle, Keeley held her fists out in front of her. “I’m ready.”

  Jenna flew back and forth, nervously chanting, “I am strong. I am a sprite. I can do anything.”

  I saw the gate. The huge hole in the ocean was churning in on itself, creating a massive whirlpool. I gathered Jenna and Keeley closer to me with my wings. “Hang on tight, girls.”

  I heard Nixie calling my name. I covered my ears with my hands. “I hate this place. No words can adequately express how much I hate it.”

  Treygan pulled my hands down. “What do you hear?”

  “Nixie calling my name over and over.”

  His eyes widened. “I heard her call my name too.”

  “Are we both having the same hallucination?”

  Treygan looked up at the sky. “Maybe it’s real. She’s crazy enough to come here.”

  “Dear gods, I hope not.” My head snapped up as Nixie’s voice shouted my name again but louder and with more force. “She’s getting louder.”

  “I don’t see any sign of her.”

  I listened as Nixie screamed at me to wake up. To get back in my body. “Get back in my body?”

  Treygan’s lip twitched. “What?”

  “She just said ‘get back in your body.’” I looked down at my arms and
hands. “You don’t think …” Hope flooded through me from my toes to my fingertips. “Maybe this is all a bad dream. Maybe Vienna never went to Harte and we never left Rathe. Maybe Harte doesn’t even exist, and this is just a nightmare I’m trying to wake up from. Maybe Nixie is trying to wake me.”

  “I wish that was the case, but no. This is real. Harte has always been a scary reality.”

  “Of course you’d say that if I’m dreaming.”

  “You can’t dream because you don’t sleep.”

  “But I’m still part human. Maybe I can still dream.” My heart ached. “Oh no. What if you’re a dream too? What if being turned into a mermaid was a dream and you don’t really exist?”

  “Please don’t make me snap you of out of another hysterical downward spiral. I’m real. You’re awake. And Harte, unfortunately, is real.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “So is Nixie’s voice. Now she’s screaming at me again.”

  I pulled his hand away, getting ready to continue my argument about dreaming, but then I noticed something about his face. “Your constellation is gone.”

  “Beg your pardon?”

  “Your freckles along the side of your face that match the Canis Major constellation, they aren’t there.”

  He touched his cheek and gave me a strange look. I glanced at the brand on his arm then down at myself. “Am I exactly the same as you remember me?”

  “Of course not. You’ve lost your wings, and …” He hesitated, then sadly said, “Sage.”

  I read the burnt words on my arm, still there, looking as inflamed as ever. “Yes, but besides that, is there any minor detail on me that’s missing?”

  He stepped forward and lifted my arm, bending it to examine my elbow. He squinted. “Your scar is gone.”

  I twisted my arm to look at the faded scar from when I had received stitches. “It is gone.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Nixie is telling us to get in our bodies because we aren’t in our bodies!”

  “How is that possible?”

  “How is anything possible in this place? Harte is all about consuming our souls, right? Maybe our—” I gasped mid-thought, remembering when I dove off the floating island when we first arrived. Even though Rownan jumped before us, I could have sworn I saw his body lying on the ground. “We left our bodies! Our souls separated from our bodies right after we arrived. Our souls jumped from that island, but our bodies didn’t.”

  “Then what do you call this?” He motioned to his torso.

  “An illusion. Just like everything else here.”

  “If so, how do we get back into our bodies?”

  Nixie was still screaming at me. “We wake up.”

  “How do you propose we do that?”

  I listened to Nixie while assessing the dark world around us. “Just like when we soul share. Focus on something real in great detail. I’ll focus on your freckles. You focus on my scar.”

  Treygan apprehensively nodded then closed his eyes.

  “See you soon,” I whispered.

  ~

  My eyes fluttered open.

  Treygan lay beside me on his back. The freckles on his pale cheek came into focus.

  “Yara!” Nixie yanked me up and hugged me tight. “Thank gods.”

  I rested my chin on her shoulder as I groggily watched an old ship and plane float through the air behind her. I managed a couple of raspy words. “You came.”

  Sage slithered against my cheek. She was alive. I wriggled my wings, feeling them attached and unharmed. I wanted to sing with joy, but Treygan’s body was still motionless beside us. I let go of Nixie and leaned over him, crawling onto my knees. I smacked him lightly on the cheeks. “Wake up, Treygan!”

  “I already tried that on both of you,” Nixie said. “It doesn’t work.”

  “What were you doing just before I woke up?”

  Nixie blushed. I had never seen Nixie blush. “I kissed you. Deep. And, well ….”

  “What? Now isn’t the time for you to start being shy.”

  “I imagined sucking your soul back into your body.”

  I turned and kissed Treygan, putting as much passion as I could into it. I pictured every time he had smiled or laughed, the look on his face when he saw me outside of the gorgon’s grotto for the first time, our first kiss. I let so many intense and happy memories charge the energy between us. I imagined breathing his soul into his body. Come back to me.

  His chest heaved, so I pulled away. His eyes flew open.

  He didn’t even speak, just yanked me back down to him and kissed me hard. When he finally let go of me, he whispered, “You’re brilliant.”

  “You two stay here,” Nixie ordered. “I have to find Rownan and Vienna.”

  “They’re on a small beach at the top of a cliff,” I told her, but Treygan stopped me.

  “Are they? Or is that just where their souls are?”

  I glanced around. “But this is where we landed. Rownan should be here.”

  “He’s down there!” Nixie shouted, standing at a crumbling edge of our floating island and pointing. “I’ll be right back.”

  She dove off and I faced Treygan. “But where is Vienna’s body?”

  Treygan rubbed the back of his neck. “I have no idea, but look.” He nodded at something behind me.

  I turned to see Jenna and Keeley holding hands and watching us. “What are you two doing here?”

  “We came to help,” Jenna squeaked.

  I rushed over to them. “You shouldn’t have come to this place.”

  “We’re going to help carry everyone out,” Jenna said.

  “Nixie couldn’t save all of you on her own,” Keeley added.

  Nixie landed beside us with Rownan unconscious in her arms. She laid him on the ground and yelled all the same stuff she had yelled to me and Treygan.

  “You have to kiss him,” I reminded her.

  An all-too-familiar screeching started.

  I ran to the ledge. The soul suckers were slithering far below us, rising fast. “They’re coming!”

  “Get his soul back inside his body right now!” Treygan shouted at Nixie.

  She leaned over and kissed him, her wings quivering behind her.

  The soul suckers’ multiple heads formed. At least four different trios of heads were coming our way. That made twelve massive mouths of sharp teeth. We were grossly outnumbered.

  I whipped around at the sound of Rownan’s voice. “Vienna? What happened?”

  “No time to explain,” Treygan said. “We need to leave right now.”

  Rownan sat up, looking disoriented. “Where are we? Where’s Vienna?”

  “Probably long gone,” Treygan said. “Nixie, Yara, fly us out of here.”

  “No!” Rownan scrambled to his feet, backing away from us. “I’m not leaving without Vienna.”

  Treygan tried explaining as fast as he could. “We separated from our bodies. Only our souls dove off this island and into hell. We’re back in our bodies and we’re out of time. Those creatures are coming to eat us alive.”

  Rownan’s eyes were wide like he was trying to process everything, but he shook his head. “We have to find Vienna’s body.”

  “Rownan.” I stood in front of him. “Feel how weak you are. It’s because our bodies have been lying here with no food, water, or movement for nearly three days. Vienna would have been here for sixteen years. I’m sorry, but her body would never survive that long.” I took his hand. “We have to go. Now.”

  I flew upward, holding on to Rownan. I lifted him off the ground a few inches, but he kicked and squirmed his way free of my grip, landing hard.

  “Let me make this clear,” he growled. “I’m not leaving here without Vienna.”

  The three-headed soul suckers rising around us silenced everyone. They shrieked long and loud, and the stench of death nearly knocked me over. The sprites were visibly trembling and the color had drained from them.

  I swooped down and tackled Rownan, binding
his arms at his side in a tight bear hug. “Nixie, get Treygan!”

  In an instant, she and Treygan were beside us. “Jenna, Keeley, in my wings, now!”

  We flew high into the air, darting between the heads of the beasts. Rownan thrashed in my arms screaming to let him go and demanding we find Vienna.

  “Where’s the gate?” I shouted to Nixie.

  “I think this way, but I’m not sure. The trip here was disorienting.”

  I knew what she meant. I had no idea how or why we had landed where we did when we passed through the gateway. “Look for an opening in the sky, a tunnel or hole.”

  “No,” Nixie explained. “It looks like a black crescent moon. A nail puncture in a cloudless sky. It will seem like we’ll never reach it, but keep flying toward it and eventually we’ll cross through. Then hold on to him tight, because it’s a hellish ride.”

  How did Nixie know any of this? There was no time for questions. We kept flying as Rownan continued yelling at me and thrashing. I was so weak and tired. Struggling to keep hold of him was not helping the situation. “Hold still!” I yelled. “We’re not leaving you here!”

  “Don’t do this!” Rownan begged. “Don’t take me away from her again.”

  The desperation and despair in his voice slowed my flight. Nixie pulled ahead of us.

  “Yara,” Rownan pleaded, “I don’t know what’s going on, but if I need to bring back Vienna’s body then help me find it.”

  “You’re not understanding.”

  “No, you aren’t understanding. I know where her body might be.”

  I closed my eyes, trying to shake the mental image of Vienna’s rotten corpse. No way could her body have survived sixteen years of this place without her soul in it.

  Rownan was desperate. “She’s on a boat. I know it. Please, take me to it and let me end her nightmare!”

  Nixie and Treygan had doubled back and hovered in front of me.

  “Come on!” Treygan demanded.

  “We’re running out of time,” Nixie warned. Jenna and Keeley peeked out from her wings.

  “How long have you been here?” I asked Nixie.

  “Too long. Let’s go!”

  “How much time until the sun sets?”

  “Maybe thirty minutes!”