The heavyset woman in the severe bun stood behind it with a wide smile on her red painted lips. A howl rent the air. The wolf drew closer, it's eyes fixed on the threesome. But now Adelaide knew what the wolf's goal was. She was its goal. Her hands fisted at her sides and she darted to the right, away from Nathan and Jo.
Nathan's eyes grew wide in terror and his gaze met hers when she stopped several yards away. "What are you doing?" he called out.
She ripped her gaze from his, leaving his question unanswered. Her eyes fixed on the werewolf's and the werewolf's gaze fixed on hers. It had taken a half dozen steps toward her. She was right. It was only after her. She could lead it away from Nathan and Jo. All she needed to do was lure it away. Without another thought, she dashed toward the exit, hoping that the rest of the crowd didn't linger in the hallway. She stopped before stepping on the sensor that would trigger the door and turned about.
The wolf followed, moving slowly as though it measured every step. It stepped over one of the bodies that lay on the floor as it drew closer to Adelaide. Her heartbeat thundered in her chest while she counted the werewolf's footsteps. Maybe it wasn't able to move quickly. Maybe it could only move slowly. She didn't want to take the chance and let it get too close. When it was only three yards away, she stepped on the sensor and ducked out into the hallway.
The lights in the empty hallway flickered. Above the elevator door, the number three was lit. That meant that the initiates were safely on the third floor again. Relief prickled across Adelaide's skin, just before she heard the door behind her swish open again. It was too late for her to even try to wait for the elevator, but she hit the button on it anyway. From the corner of her eye she saw the mixed colors of the wolf's fur before she darted toward the other end of the hallway.
The terrarium doors loomed in front of her like an escape hatch. She knew the place well now, but did the wolf? Her foot hit the sensor for the doorway when the wolf howled behind her. She stumbled when her knees locked up in fear for a split second. After twisting back to take a peek, she found the wolf on all fours, loping toward her. She cursed. Of course it moved faster than it had been.
But behind the wolf, she saw something that made her heart sore. A purple dress. Jo was on her feet and walking, her brother beside her, supporting her as they started for the elevator. Good enough for Adelaide. She ducked into the jungle beyond the door.
Night song filled the air inside the terrarium. The crickets and frogs weren't aware of the danger about to come this way. The magic in her blood called to the water at the center of the Terrarium. Feeling it course through her blood, she darted for the center of the Terrarium as the doors swooshed open behind her.
She stripped the high heels from her feet the moment she hit the mud. Barefooted, she rushed across it, calling to the water within the mud. She separated the water from the dirt, letting the land that she traversed grow dryer so that her feet didn't get suctioned and slowed down with each step, like they did when she came through here the last time. Then she pushed the water and the dirt with it in the path directly behind her. She purposed the mud to deepen and thicken. When the wolf made its first step into the waters, the mud crawled up its leg toward its knees. The mud pulled at the wolf, so that each step it tried to make, it couldn't make headway. It was stuck. Adelaide pulled more water from the swamp and pushed it toward the mud, deepening it and piling it upon the wolf, covering it up to its hips, then its waist.
Behind her, teeth snapped, and the low growl of an alligator approached. She picked up the swamp water, formed a wave, and pulled the alligator back into the swamp, sucking it in and away from her several yards before releasing it. Now the wolf in front of her was buried in a pile of mud five feet deep and five feet around. Only its arms and head were above the mud tower that Adelaide had created. Its claws raked at the mud, trying to pull it away, but she continued to call to the swamp water, drawing in more dirt from around her and piling it on top of the tower until she had the monster buried up to its neck.
It howled and whimpered in response.
But Adelaide wasn't finished. She pushed the mud six feet deep, six feet wide around the creature, so that it lifted its snout, gasping for air while the mud climbed up its chin.
"That's enough!" the woman with the severe bun broke into the jungle and shouted. The night song around them quieted in response to her presence. For some reason, the frogs and crickets seem to recognize the danger that the woman in front of her possessed. The woman sneered at Adelaide. "You'll kill Jonas, and you wouldn't want to do that, would you?"
Adelaide froze and blinked. Her magic's grip on the swamp water and the mud slipping. The mud had crawled back from the wolf's face. "What?"
"Jonas. He's not quite the Mer you knew. He fought to hard and ended up having his blood tainted by my wolf before killing it. So, I didn't get the chance to use his blood to feed my magic. When he told me that you might be coming to find him, I knew we had to hold another trial right away. I suspected it was you all along, but the buoy test took away every doubt."
"Jonas?" Adelaide looked at the wolf, but its yellow eyes were wild and rolling, and didn't focus on anything. It desperately struggled against the mud that held it.
"You don't have to believe me. Go ahead and kill it." The woman laughed. "Or you can recognize him for what he is and rescue him. After all, you rescued the girl who would be your enemy. You rescued a boy who now wants to claim you for his when you have no feelings for him. Why wouldn't you rescue the boy you’ve loved since you were younglings?"
"Jonas?" The word played through Adelaide's mind like a broken record. She couldn't believe it. This monster could not possibly be her Jonas.
The witch's voice reverberated through the room as she commanded, "Jonas, change."
The body of the wolf twitched harder, more aggressively, and before her eyes, the face changed, pulled back and stretched until it became human. More than human. The wolf became Jonas, just as the witch had said. He was buried chest deep in the mud. His bare torso exposed and familiar. His eyes were closed, as he lay unconscious.
The witch pulled a long knife from behind her and set her palm out toward Adelaide. "Come mermaid, come closer and give of your blood freely. If you do it of your own free will, I will release your friend from his bond to me. You will die, but he will be free to go to Atlantis 5 and live out a long life. It's better than being a bottom feeder, isn't it? Don't you want to save him from his slavery?"
Adelaide swallowed. The witch didn't want Jonas. She wanted her. If she gave up and came willingly to the witch, the woman would release her friend. For a moment, she thought about pulling the mud around the woman instead. Would it work? Or would freeing Jonas be a mistake if the woman commanded him to change again. There wasn't enough mud to contain them both.
She stepped forward, trying to think of a solution while she stalled. But this whole thing overwhelmed her. Jonas was the wolf. He had told her to leave not because he didn't want her, or didn't believe in her, but because the witch had control over him, and he knew this moment was coming. She had been right that everything had been arranged to keep her here and make sure that she wasn't one of the failures to be eliminated. This woman who seemed as much in charge as Mr. Custis likely had a hand in everything from the moment Adelaide had stepped through the doors of the Horizon Corporation's building.
Even if she ran away through the swamp and out of the terrarium, she'd never be able to make it out of the building before this witch shut off all the sensors and kept her trapped inside. She had no choice. Jonas needed saving. And Adelaide was the only one who could do it.
She reached the witch and the woman snatched Adelaide's arm. A wicked smile spread across the woman's face at the same time as a low growl and teeth snapped behind Adelaide again. The alligator was back. And Adelaide had an epiphany.
The woman raised her knife over her head and began to laugh. "Finally. A mermaid this close to the full moon. Your magic is strong. It probably
was always strong. You are going to fortify my magic and make it so no one can ever--"
A hand came out of nowhere and grabbed hold of the witch's arm and wrenched it so that she dropped the knife in her hand.
"Adelaide, run!" Nathan cried out, his emerald green eyes meeting hers as he wrenched the witch's arm behind her back.
"No, Nathan. Don't!" she cried out, pulling a confused Nathan away from the witch. Adelaide called on the swamp waters behind her as she pulled Nathan further back.
The witch scrambled for her knife, sneering at the two of them. "You'll both regret this. You're both dead!"
Adelaide gripped Nathan's hand harder, the warmth of his palm against hers giving her confidence that her plan would work. She pushed the swamp water toward the witch. On the wave, the alligator rushed toward its new prey, snapping its jaws again and hissing.
The witch's eyes grew wide and she screamed, just as the wave hit her. The alligator grabbed hold of her shoulder and went into a death roll, spinning the body and twisting it. The bones snapped under its grip.
Adelaide winced and turned away, pushing the water from the mud that surrounded Jonas and the water from the wave back toward the swamp along with the alligator and the prey it now feasted upon.
Nathan blinked down at her. "What on Earth was that? How did that just happen?"
Jonas crumpled to the ground, still unconscious. Adelaide rushed to his side, shaking him, trying to wake him, but the boy wouldn't rouse.
A warm hand rested on her shoulder. "Are you okay?" Nathan asked above her.
She nodded, but her heart still filled with worry as guards busted through the door to the terrarium into the jungle. "What happened here?" one of the men asked lifting his visor. "Is that Jonas?"
14
When Jonas awoke in the infirmary and called out for Adelaide, she took his hand in hers. "I'm here."
He squeezed her hand and his eyes became watery. "I'm so sorry."
"It's okay. None of that was your fault. I understand." She shook her head and wiped away tears of her own. They sat in the infirmary of the Horizon Corporation, with the medical workers behind them. Jo laid in the bed to Adelaide's right, so that she could sit in between them both while she waited for one of them to awake. Nathan met eyes with hers when she glanced his direction. He offered a small smile.
Annette lay with her leg broken, the next bed over. She also had been trampled by the crowd during the stampede away from the wolf. Apparently, the witch had disabled all the cameras on the floor before starting her spree, so the Horizon Corporation had no idea that she was behind the incident or that Jonas was the wolf that had caused the trouble to begin with. Most of the remaining initiates were shaken up by the incident at the dance, and several of them quit the trial. The only ones who continued to remain in the building had been Annette and Jo, because of their injuries, Adelaide and Nathan, because they had wanted to be with Jo and Jonas as they woke, and Scotty, who refused to leave and sat beside Nathan.
Mr. Custis came into the room a moment later. "Initiates. Precious Initiates. The Horizon Corporation extends its deepest apologies for the disaster that overcame our building last night. In light of this, I've been authorized to allow each and every one of you five remaining candidates a spot on the shuttle that will take you all to Atlantis 5. Congratulations."
His smile was left with blank stares as no one celebrated his news.
He clapped his hands together. "Well then. Once the injured are healed, we'll begin our journey. If you decide to opt out of the journey, please let us know before our departure then."
He nodded and left to their wordless response.
Jonas looked up into Adelaide's eyes and squeezed her hand. "What are you going to do?"
She looked down at him and then across Jo's bed to meet eyes with Nathan. She wasn't sure what was the best decision to make just yet, but she knew for sure that she had no intention of going back to the empty shell of a home her mother had left behind.
Perhaps the dangers she now faced here would lessen with the witch gone. Maybe Atlantis 5 truly would be the idyllic home that the people in the city dreamed it would be. Regardless, she would continue in the direction she had started when she first left for the shore.
The End
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About the Author
Pauline Creeden is an award-winning, USA Today Bestselling Author of contemporary fantasy, apocalyptic thrillers, and steampunk. She tries to keep her stories bright and inspirational, but reflective of the dark world surrounding us. One Thousand Tears is a part of her Mermaid Tales world. The next chapter in Adelaide’s story will be released in 2019.
http://paulinecreeden.com
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