To Enchant a Mermaid

by S. L. Williams

  “I can say I am surprised. This is what you truly long for?” He swept his hand across the table. “You don’t want revenge, power, or fame?”

  The food cleared, and the table was loaded down with treasure. At the top of the pile was the locket from Mother’s garden.

  “Isn’t this better?” He stood and smiled. “Who needs love when you can have all this?” He plucked the locket from the pile and tossed it from one hand to the other. “We all have things we want. There is no cosmic law stating we have to want love. We don’t need family.”

  “I need them.” The words slipped from my lips. “I don’t care about any of that.”

  Diamonds and jewels wouldn’t fill the hole in my heart. I slept in palaces and wore the finest clothes and jewels. None of that filled the hole in my heart. I needed my family. I needed their love.

  The gold turned to dust, the locket nothing more than smoke. The room cleared, and we were transported to a garden filled with bright flowers. Kamryn rested against a lone tree with black apples.

  “Your weakness. Hmm.” The monster who wore Etan’s face plucked an apple from the tree and took a bite of the cursed fruit. “His emotions make him weak. His feelings for you are only hastening the inevitable. You will be his demise.”

  “You’re lying.”

  I would never hurt Kamryn. The thought of anything happening to him made me physically ill. Kamryn was my anchor when I felt myself slipping back into the cold depths of despair. If something happened to him, I didn’t know what I would do.

  “I don’t have to lie. With time, you will learn that the truth hurts more than a lie.”

  Kamryn turned to smoke that was blown away by a cold wind.

  “I’m getting closer.” Etan smiled and exposed blood-red teeth. “Let’s dig a little deeper, shall we?”

  Soft singing filled the clearing, the soft grass melted into sand, and the field of flowers turned into a churning sea. A boat rocked on the tumultuous waves. The cries of men could be heard from the land.

  “Do you remember this?” He cocked his head and stared out at the ocean. “Do you hear that?”

  Of course, I remembered that day. The notes rose, and the power of the song hit me. A cascade of memories and emotions came rushing forward, and I felt myself fall apart. The song was the same, yet it didn’t bring forward the excitement and curiosity as that day. Tears spilled from my eyes. I was so blind.

  The melody spoke of everything I had lost, everything I experienced, and everything I longed for. It was the gentle cry for help, imbued with a deep sense of hopelessness.

  “This is my favorite song.” Etan closed his eyes and smiled. “Why do you cry, Sarai? Show me what it is your soul truly longs for.”

  Tentacles rose from the water and wrapped around the boat. With a loud crack, it broke in half. The sea turned red as the sky shifted to a bright orange streaked with purple lightning.

  A woman rose from the churning waves. Her blue-green hair was made of water and streaked with white foam. Thousands of fluorescent scales of every color imaginable covered her body. Her pupilless eyes were as dark and bottomless as the deepest sea. She was beautiful, if one could call chaos beautiful. I shivered beneath her gaze. Who was I but a scale on her magnificent tail?

  “What is this?” Etan stumbled back. “How—”

  Did he not see? How could he possibly question what stood before us? I dropped to my knees and stared at her in awe. Looking at her was like looking at the light reflected off a glass surface. My eyes watered, but I couldn’t turn away. I wouldn’t have if I could.

  “Sarai, the time has come.” Her voice was the crack of thunder, yet delicate like crystal bells. It was vibrant and layered, as if her voice were a combination of all the voices in the sea. “Wake, child. Accept your fate.”

  She swept a webbed hand in my direction and summoned a colossal white-capped wave. I dropped to my chest and braced myself for the impact.

  “No!” Etan yelled as the wave came crashing against the beach.

  I didn’t fight against the tide, and I felt no fear when it pulled me into the ocean. I drifted in a sea of peace. Nothing could touch me here. I was safe.

  I was home.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Kamryn

  It was nearing dawn. The grass was wet with dew, and the air was crisp and fresh. The enraged spirits that lived in the forest finally slept.

  We had made it through the night without serious injury.

  “If no one else will say it, I will,” Phadrah said as she packed a deep scratch on her thigh with moss. “They’re dead.”

  “You don’t know that.” Rylo poked at a nasty bruise that had blossomed on his cheek and grimaced. “Speak positively.”

  “I’ve never heard of anyone spending the night with the witch and making it back alive.” She threw her head back and groaned.

  “I’m not leaving without them. If you feel the need to go, then you are more than welcome.” I crossed my arms and reclined against a sprawling oak. “Sarai is alive.”

  “Kamryn, we can’t stay here forever!” Phadrah cried in outrage. “Yesterday was bad enough.”

  Yesterday had been a disaster. Our plans were ruined as soon as that unnatural fog rolled in. It had taken me all day—and most of the night—to get Xiomara out of the marsh.

  Rylo claimed he didn’t know what had happened. One minute, he was in the trees, watching and waiting for Etan, and the next, he was tied to one of the trees. The same happened with Phadrah. They didn’t know what happened. They hadn’t seen or heard anything, and thank the gods they weren’t harmed.

  Rylo grabbed his head between his hands and began to pace back and forth. “No one knows what happened to them. But"—he held up a hand when Phadrah was about to interrupt—“I won’t say they are dead.”

  “They can’t be in between. Either they’re dead or they are alive.” Xiomara wrapped a band around her arm.

  “They aren’t dead. If they were, I would know.” I ran a hand through my hair. “Phadrah, go back and check on the city. Write the letters you need to write and—"

  The crack of a broken branch stopped me mid-sentence. We all pulled out our weapons at the same time. I squinted at the shadows and lowered my blade when I realized who it was.

  “Whose there?” Rylo called out.

  “Show yourself.” Phadrah stepped forward.

  “Stand back.” I put my blade away and rushed toward the shade. “What have you found, Sokly?”

  Her body was quickly fading. She had minutes before she would be pulled back to Irkalla and the safety of the palace walls. Sunlight was no friend to my dear shades, and I could tell she was in pain.

  “I found the princess.” Her voice was hardly more than a whisper. She held out her slim hands. “She sent…coin…fog….Etan.” She dropped the coin into my hand and was blown away by the early morning breeze.

  I closed my fingers around the coin and looked in the direction of the marsh. It looked like Etan had made his choice. He had turned his back on us and chosen power over his family. It hurt, more than I thought it would, and it would hurt even more when I had to confront him. You made your choice, Etan. Now, I have made mine.

  “Go back to Nueva Vida.” I turned and spoke to the group. “Tell your advisors that Etan is gone. Tell them I will be back and to prepare my throne.”

  I shifted into a hawk and flew straight through the marsh. The mind-muddling fog had cleared, and there wasn’t any sight or sign of any apparitions. The gold coin I held in my beak guided me to a strange island that was covered in dark trees.

  How Sarai had managed to find one of the Lake Lord’s famed gold pieces I wasn’t sure. The thought of him gifting her such a treasure sent a jolt of jealousy through me. I was supposed to keep her safe. But I hadn’t. I had lost her before she even made it to the dreadful island, and now she was in Etan’s hands.

  I had failed her, and I could only imagine what she had been put through, or what she was t
hinking. Sarai was sensitive, even though she tried to hide it behind snide remarks and a fiery temper. She was afraid of being alone.

  I’m coming, Sarai.

  I shot through the air and headed toward a cluster of dark evergreens.

  The ground trembled, tops of trees shook, and birds took to the sky. A roar reached my ears, and the scent of salt and sunlight chased the rancid odors of the swamp away.

  “Sarai!”

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Sarai

  “Wake up, Sarai. You have to get up.” I opened my eyes and slowly turned my head to the side. “Get up now.” Sclena’s voice was loud and clear in my mind, like the horns that signified the closing of Irkalla’s gates.

  “I can’t.” I groaned. Just turning my head had sent a shock down my spine and through my hips. “I need help.”

  I needed more than help. I needed a new body. I was sure my ribs were broken. Each inhalation felt like a knife was being driven into my chest.

  “Fight through it. Kamryn needs you.”

  I took a deep breath and rose onto unsteady legs. It took a second for the world to stop spinning. I slowly turned in a circle. The bonfire continued to crackle, its heat soaking into my muscles and easing some of the stiffness in my joints. There was no sign of Isabis or the monster. The door to the rough hut was open, but no light shone from inside.

  I took a step in the direction of the forest and stopped when I heard the snap of a branch. I scanned my surroundings. Nothing. There was no one.

  I took another step and clenched my teeth. White-hot pain shot up my leg. I couldn’t put too much weight on my left ankle. Every time I tried, my vision filled with black spots and my breath was snatched from my lungs. The pain was unbearable. Even if I managed to make it through the forest, I would never make it through the repugnant marsh.

  A roar rattled my teeth. I looked up at the same time a dragon appeared and let out a stream of blue fire from between its mighty jaws. Isabis’ hut went up in flames. Figures sprouted from the fire. They spun and danced on the remains of the hut, as if they found joy in its terrible destruction.

  I swayed on my feet, sure I would faint. From the corner of my eye, I saw something move among the forest shadows. The wind picked up speed, and the hairs on the back of my neck rose. The shadows writhed and curled until they formed the shape of a man.

  “Come here, girl.” The shadow-man’s voice rose above the crackle of the burning hut and the feral roars of the amber dragon that circled the island. “Don’t run from me. There is no way out.”

  I backed away, careful not to put too much pressure on my ankle. The man drifted into the clearing. It’s Etan, my eyes tried to tell me, but my brain knew differently. The creature had taken his body and made it his own. Whatever Isabis had summoned from the inner circle was now as solid as any living being.

  “Is this who you were waiting on?” Etan snapped his fingers. Shadows poured from the tips of his fingers like spilled ink, twisting and curling against the yellowing grass at his feet. A body materialized from the smoke.

  I looked down at my stomach, sure someone had stuck a knife in my gut. My pulse beat loudly in my ears, blocking out the cacophony of sounds that had erupted across the clearing.

  “Breathe.” Sclena’s voice was firm. How could I breathe when my heart was lying on the ground?

  “Kamryn.” His name fell from my lips.

  “I found him creeping around the island.” Etan bent down and grabbed Kamryn by his hair. “I have been waiting on this day for a long, long time.” He yanked Kamryn’s head back and exposed his throat.

  “Erapi feeds off negative emotions. Do not let him deceive you. Leave while the Drogon distracts him.”

  I couldn’t leave Kamryn behind, especially since he had come back for me. I bit through the pain and took a few cautious steps forward. The creature Sclena called Erapi watched with a spiteful smirk on his face.

  I raised my hands in the air. “Let him go.”

  Asking was futile, but I didn’t know what to do. Erapi dug his filthy nails into Kamryn’s throat. Kamryn whimpered, and my heart shattered like a porcelain vase against a marble floor. He was suffering.

  “Sarai…help me.” Kamryn stretched his arm in my direction.

  I swallowed hard. “What do you want?” He could ask for anything, and I would do anything in my power to get it.

  “I need nothing from you. King Kamryn and I have our own…disagreements.” Erapi bent down and pressed his cheek against Kamryn’s. Blood trailed down his neck and onto his robes. “Tell Sarai bye, brother.”

  Erapi grabbed the top of Kamryn’s head and twisted. The snap was like the crack of a branch. The wicked sound echoed in my mind as if we stood in a cavern. The light was extinguished from Kamryn’s eyes. His body went limp, and Erapi threw him to the side as if he were nothing but trash.

  No.

  It couldn’t be. Not my Kamryn. No. He wouldn’t have gone so easily. He was strong, intelligent, and patient. My Kamryn had a beautiful soul. There was no way something so dark and evil could ever…He wasn’t dead. He wasn’t.

  “Kamryn,” I demanded with as much force as I could muster. He always answered when I called his name. “Kamryn, get up.” My lip trembled, and my face felt wet. Had it begun to rain?

  “He’s gone, child.” Erapi licked his lips and rubbed his hands together. “Consider it a favor.”

  The edge I had precariously been balancing on for the past few months tilted forward, and I was thrown into the depths of that dark abyss. The temperature dropped, and all warmth vanished from the world.

  My pain and terror combined into one monster that struggled to escape. That terrible sound still echoed in my mind. It slammed against barrier after barrier until cracks began to form and thoughts I had fought to contain began to slip through.

  “Come to me, Sarai.” Erapi's voice was as sweet as the sickeningly thick icing the real Etan liked on his pastries. “I can restore what you have lost. I can give you this world and the next.”

  I didn’t want any of it. My voice, this world, and his outrageous promises—they all meant nothing. How would I learn to live knowing I had found what I didn’t even know I had been missing and lost it because I was too stupid to see?

  Kamryn had provided me with friendship, a home, a family. He had given me the world, but I’d too blinded by what I thought I wanted to truly appreciate any of it.

  “You took everything from me.” I didn’t take my eyes off Kamryn. My words were silent, but they were loud in the clearing. “Nothing you can offer will make me stand by your side.”

  My family, my home, and Kamryn. Everybody I loved and everything I cared for, gone right before my eyes. Sorrow burned like acid in my stomach. Hungry and uncontrollable rage rose up in my throat.

  “You won’t break me. I will die before I let you use me to hurt anyone else.” I looked up at the cloudless night sky. The moon and stars watched as my world fell apart at their feet.

  The gods were determined to see me break, and I was tired of fighting. Life continued to give and take from me, and I was tired of hurting. If the gods wanted to see me broken, they’d accomplished their goal. I was done.

  “Goddess, I am yours to do as you will.” I gave myself over to the power that pressed in from all sides.

  “Child of my essence, I would never forsake you.”

  Pain gripped me by the temples and stole my vision. Violent tremors that had nothing to do with the dragon’s roar shook the ground.

  Unbearable pressure built up within me and robbed me of the ability to hear, see, or think. The barrier in my mind crumbled, and all-consuming power poured through the rift. I threw my head back and allowed the euphoric magic to flow through me.

  I was the young bird who had been pushed from the nest but learned to fly. I was the power of the temperamental sea and all her glory. I was untouchable. I was free. I was a goddess reborn.

  I was Sclena.

  ∞∞∞


  Kamryn

  Without warning, a wall of energy slammed into me and robbed me of my magic. I shifted back into a man midair and went crashing through the forest of rotten bodies. As I landed on the hard ground, broken branches and leaves rained down on me. The awful odor of death and decay permeated the stale air.

  “What in the Void was that?” I stiffly rose to my feet.

  Sarai was near. I could feel her energy in the air. Bright and blazing as it always had been, yet it felt different. My nostrils flared. The achingly sweet scent of shadow magic intermingled with the lightly salty and soft floral notes I associated with Sarai.

  My magic rose in response to the intrusive scent. I shook my head. Etan wasn’t stupid enough to summon such a being. He wouldn’t unleash something so vile onto the world. He wouldn’t…

  I took off at a sprint. I summoned clothes and boots as I ran, and the simple task was a struggle. The remaining bit of magic in my body was quickly draining. My breathing became harsh and ragged. My ribs ached, and a sharp stitch formed in my side, but I didn’t slow. I couldn’t stop. Sarai needed me.

  I stumbled out of the dark forest and arrived at a ten-foot hedge made of thick vines and sharp thorns. An aged wooden gate blocked the only visible way through the mass of brambles. I placed my hand on my side and took a couple of steadying breaths. I had lost the golden coin when I was knocked out of the air. I had nothing to give and hardly any magic left to force my way through.

  I walked up to the gate and placed my hand against the old dry wood.

  “Uh-uh. Don’t do that.” A face materialized. It scowled and snapped at my fingers as if it had teeth. “So you’re the one who filled that magnificent stone with all that power. What are you doing standing here, feeling on me when you have someone waiting on you? Go.”

  It swung open and revealed a scene that seemed to have been plucked from a battle.

  “I owe you a favor, old one.” I bowed my head before rushing past.