by S. K Munt
Tristan shrugged. ‘We should. We’re very alike-and we’ve spent the last week and a half together....’ his voice trailed off, his brown eyes widening. ‘Oh my god! You’re jealo-’
Ivyanne placed a finger to his lips, unable to bear the words. But yes, the idea of him and Adele having spent weeks together working for a common goal-alone- unsettled her traitorous heart. ‘Ssh,’ she said softly, finding herself transfixed by the sensation of his lips against her fingertips. It was making her crave him. ‘I’m way too mixed up to address that right now...’
Tristan kissed her fingertip gently, his eyes not leaving hers. ‘I didn’t lay a hand on her,’ he murmured, moving his lips down to her palm in a tender, erotic way that made her toes curl in her fancy heels. ‘You’re the love of my life. I should never have left you.’
Ivyanne sighed as her heart fluttered away but her mind sank into logic. She didn’t want to say what had to be said. ‘But you did Tristan-then you died.’ Her voice shook. ‘Lincoln is a good man and I love him so much…. and I gave him my hand.’
Tristan sagged against the wall, the light going out of his eyes. ‘I knew you’d say that,’ he said softly. ‘And it’s okay. I never allowed myself to hope that me returning would change anything.’
The ring on her hand was burning hot. ‘But it does,’ she admitted, feeling the stitches holding her heart together break apart again. ‘Just in what way, I don’t know.’
Tristan looked up hopefully. ‘Really?’
‘Maybe,’ she whispered. ‘Once again, I need time.’ She shook herself off. ‘Actually no, I need to kill something. I go out and you follow in five, okay?’
Tristan grinned. ‘You get him in your hands, I’ll do the rest.’
Ivyanne nodded, kissed him quickly then turned to the door, heart pounding as she opened it and glanced down towards the kitchen and bar. It was all clear.
‘What the f-’
Ivyanne looked to her left to see that she’d opened the door right on Sherri, who’s eyes were round with shock. A packet of cocktail stirrers fell from Sherri’s hands to the floor. The door must have missed Sherri’s nose by inches in the cramped hallway.
‘You’re screwing some guy in the cupboard at your own engagement party?!’ Sherri squeaked.
‘Shit!’ Ivyanne grabbed the girl by the throat, squeezing as tightly as she could while wrapping her other hand around her mouth, dragging her back into the storage room. ‘Tristan-help!’
Sherri was thrashing against her, yelling against Ivyanne’s hand, heating it with her breath. Ivyanne’s heart was racing but her grip unrelenting. Tristan leaned over the girl and helped wrestle her to the floor.
‘Hey there Sherri! I’m Tristan Loveridge. You know, the guy who you helped kill?’
Sherri’s face went white.
‘Think you can handle her while I rally the troops?’ Ivyanne asked, backing away and thinking of what she had to do next.
Tristan gripped Sherri by the throat and lifted her off the ground, tossing her horizontally into some shelving. Sherri crashed on to the floor and landed awkwardly, whimpering.
‘My pleasure,’ he said, pinning her head to the ground with his shoe. ‘But if you want her alive, handle it quickly.’
Ivyanne grinned, backing out of the room. ‘When did I say I wanted that?’ She glared down at Sherri’s squirming form, secretly wishing that she could have two minutes locked in a closet with her-Sherri would be coming out purple for all the trouble she had caused.
‘Thought Lincoln was hard to get? Well try this one, loser.’ Ivyanne slammed the door behind her.
29.
Lincoln spotted Ivyanne barreling out of the narrow corridor between the kitchen and the bar, and didn’t hesitate to rush over to her. He had her in his arms before the saloon doors had swung shut behind her. ‘Thank God! There you are!’
Ivyanne looked up at him, her gaze slightly unfocused at first. Then, it melted into an expression of pure apology.
‘Lincoln,’ she whispered, catching his jaw in her hands. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Sorry for what? Lincoln asked quietly. He noticed instantly that her eyes were red, making the vivid green iris’s neon in contrast. ‘Is everything okay?’
Ivyanne shook her head as she pulled a strange ring off her finger. ‘That’s why I’m apologizing- you threw a beautiful party, and now I’m going to have to wreck it. Just like I wreck everything.’
Lincoln took her elbows. ‘You don’t,’ he said quickly. ‘What are you talking about? Is it about Ardhi and Adele and-’
Her eyes narrowed. ‘Bane told you?’ She glanced over his shoulder, scanning the room. ‘Okole puka!’
‘Yes. And my dad is giving the non mer guests a wine tour right now. But I don’t know how long he’ll be able to contain them.’
Ivyanne nodded then disentangled herself from his embrace and held his hands between their chests, squeezing tightly as her focus came back to him.
‘It’s bad Lincoln-so much worse than I thought. There’s so much-’ she shook her head, her slightly tousled hair whipping about her hips. ‘I don’t have time. In fact, I have four minutes.’
Lincoln felt a chill race down his spine. ‘What can I do?’
Ivyanne leaned up and planted a swift kiss on his cheek. ‘Stay clear of Ardhi- no matter what happens, but don’t leave my sight.’ She dropped his hands and walked away before he could protest, making a beeline for the centre of the room where Ardhi was dancing with his sister.
⁓
‘If you want to cook so badly...ask Lincoln to transfer you to the kitchen.’
Pintang shook her head. ‘Rory is his sou chef-he’s been in college for two years. I can’t just steal his job like that.’
‘Then go somewhere else,’ Ardhi said. ‘This isn’t the only mer friendly resort in the world you know.’
‘Well, that’s what I’ve been thinking. Actually, I was talking to Bane and he said that his parents might-’ Pintang’s eyes swept to the side. ‘Hey Ivyanne. Where have you been?’
Ardhi glanced over his shoulder and found Ivyanne standing in the centre of the room, staring at him with a small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. He was elated to see her-she’d been MIA for almost an hour by then and Adele had returned ages ago.
‘Have you been crying?’ he asked, dropping Pintang’s hands and wondering what Adele could have said.
Ivyanne nodded, her expression miserable. ‘You know what I’m going through,’ she said softly. ‘You did it to me on purpose. How can I enjoy my engagement party when you...?’ She wiped at her eyes as her voice trailed off.
‘Oh my god,’ Pintang said, her blue eyes full of concern. ‘What am I missing here?’
‘Nothing,’ Ardhi said quietly, reaching for Ivyanne and pulling her into his arms. ‘Ivyanne’s just trying to cope with...a change of heart.’
‘Are you serious?!’ Pintang squeaked, turning to gape at Ardhi. ‘Since when?’
Ardhi was thrilled that Ivyanne was breaking down over him, and amazed that she was doing so in front of witnesses.
She loves me, he thought, astonished. She really loves me. This is finally happening! Ardhi ignored his sister and her horrified expression, stroking Ivyanne’s hair and whispering in her ear. : ‘It’s okay, sweetheart....but you’ve got to pull yourself together. Dance with me okay? We’ll make it look like we’re having an innocent dance while you get a hold of yourself.’ Even as he said it, Ardhi looked up and flushed to see that more than a few people had noticed and were watching the tender exchange with bewildered expressions, especially Isabelle Londeree and her youngest daughter. ‘You don’t have to decide anything right here and now. I know how you feel.’
Ivyanne lifted her face. ‘You do?’
Ardhi nodded and swayed her in a gentle circle. He could see Pintang backing away. ‘Yes, and that’s enough for me for now. We’ll worry about how to handle Lincoln later.’
A tear spilled down Ivyanne’s cheek. �
�I’ve always loved you,’ she said quietly, reaching down and intertwining her fingers through his. ‘I always believed the best in you....’
‘I know,’ Ardhi said, smiling. Just behind Ivyanne, he saw Vana turn away from the conversation she was having with Simone Loveridge (who had been staring daggers at Ardhi all night and not surprisingly so) and stare at the back of Ivyanne’s head, biting her lower lip in consternation, the crown on her head catching the flickering candlelight. That small gesture of concern was enough to make Ardhi want to kiss Ivyanne right there and then in front of everyone-that bitch had done nothing but thrown hurdles between him and her daughter since Nigara had died. Like Ardhi wasn’t good enough. Like Ardhi wasn’t strong enough-like his family were black sheep in a sea of golden fleeces. Instead, he smiled smugly. ‘That’s why I love you. You made me feel special in a way no one else ever did.’
‘Not even Lux?’
‘Not even Lux?’
‘Then how could you do this to me?’
Ardhi froze, breaking the eye contact with the queen to stare down at the girl in his arms. Her tone had frosted over significantly. ‘Do what?’
Ivyanne’s entire face hardened. In one split second, her eyes went from molten emerald to the calculating, condescending and terrifying eyes of a black cat under a full moon. ‘Make me loathe you,’ she finished. ‘That’s what you’ve done.’
Ardhi’s mouth fell open in surprise and at that exact second, Ivyanne tensed her arm and bent his wrist up and behind his back, causing him to cry out in pain and spin around. Before he knew it, he landed on the hard slate floor on his knees, blinding white pain obscuring his vision momentarily.
‘What are you doing?!’ he hollered.
Her hair swung by his face like an aurulent curtain. ‘Letting you know where you stand...or should I say...kneel.’ She hissed, sounding nothing like the Ivyanne he knew. The background noise had gone from laughter and conversation to gasps and screams. ‘At my feet-where you belong.’
Ardhi didn’t understand any of it. And before he could begin to, Vana’s shin’s came into vision as she rushed forward, hitched her long lavender skirt and kicked him squarely between the eyes with the underside of her high heel.
⁓
‘Bane! Ash! Do we have anything to tie him with?’ Vana asked the first men to rush forward.
‘Not on me,’ Bane said. ‘But I’ve sent Marcus down to the boats looking for some rope. Ivyanne, do you have a good enough grip on him for now? Is he out?’
Ivyanne nodded, her teeth clenched together. ‘I think so. He’s gotten bloody heavy...but I can handle it.’
‘Aubrielle has gone down to the spa to get a few doses of that sleeping stuff she’s concocted. She said she had enough to restrain him for at least a week.’ Vana crouched down in front of Ardhi and saw that while his eyes were rolling around, he wasn’t unconscious. ‘Do you hear me kiddo?’ she demanded. ‘You’re trouble- making days are through.’
Ardhi grunted and spat out a mouthful of blood.
‘What’s going on?!’ Pintang exclaimed, rushing to Vana’s side, her voice pitchy.
‘Lux is dead.’ Vana said sadly, her voice audible now that a profound silence had fallen upon the guests. ‘After fighting with Ardhi. Bane and I found her body this afternoon-buried on Bracken.’
‘What?!’ Pintang’s shocked cry carried above the others.
Ivyanne’s head jerked up. ‘She is? You found her?’
Vana nodded, indicating to Bane. ‘He found where she fell, and we followed the blood to the forest.’ Her voice caught. ‘I’m so sorry darling. She’d been dead for days.’
Ivyanne’s face crumpled and she bowed it, a sob shaking her shoulders.
‘No! Ardhi wouldn’t-’
Vana glanced to her left to see that her husband was already wrestling back Joakim, while the newcomer-the blonde in the gold dress someone had pointed out as being Lincoln’s Adele-struggled to hold onto Ardhi’s wailing mother. And as old as Eka was, restraining her wouldn’t have been possible for a young human girl. Vana wondered if that was what Bane had been coming over to tell her when Ivyanne’s antics had stilled the room-that Ardhi had turned Adele. But if so, where had she been all of this time?
‘Why would he do that?!’ Eka screamed. ‘He loved her!’
‘Until she worked it all out,’ Ivyanne said., glancing up at the blonde. ‘Thanks to Adele.’
Adele glanced over her shoulder and smiled with genuine surprise and delight. ‘My note?’
‘Your note.’ Ivyanne glanced up at the room. ‘Ardhi has been lying to us! He didn’t just wash up here the other day, he came to the area at least a week beforehand and was watching us all!’
‘And that deserves a beating?!’ Eka screamed.
‘That’s the least of what he deserves!’ Ivyanne said. She didn’t scream it, and yet her firm tone made the room fall silent. ‘He’s done nothing but scheme and plot against us since the night he disappeared. He-’
‘What are you on about?’ Ardhi spluttered through his bloody mouth. ‘First you tell me you want me and now you’re- argh!’ His scream of pain ripped through the room as Ivyanne grabbed his other arm and yanked it violently up behind him. She was now holding both wrists and staring down at him with more hate than Vana had ever imagined her daughter capable of.
‘Shut up!’ Ivyanne hollered. ‘Do you hear me Ardhi? Shut up! I’m sick of your lies. I’m sick of you!’ There was a soft clattering sound on the floor next to Ardhi. Vana glimpsed a carved shell ring lying on the floor before Ardhi seconds before Ivyanne’s foot came down hard on it. Ardhi winced.
‘And when I think of what you did to Lux, and Tristan and all of those innocent humans...I’m sick to my stomach and I want you to be dust!’
Vana caught her breath when she saw the obvious shudder go through the prisoner. ‘Tristan?’ She stepped forward again, staring at her daughter in disbelief. ‘What did.....?’ Her hand went to her mouth and she shook her head. She’d never thought anything inside her could feel so....empty.
‘No!’ Bane breathed, circling Ardhi and coming to Vana’s side. ‘Where did this come from Ivyanne? I thought you’d told me everything! Don’t say that Ardhi- Kanapapaki!’
‘Ardhi brought down the plane,’ the words dripped from Ivyanne’s voice like acid. ‘It was cold blooded murder.’
Pintang screamed and collapsed to her knees, dragging Lincoln down with her, the fight going out of both of them. Vana heard an inhuman wail and turned to see Isabelle take a halting step forward and into her Bane’s arms. That sound echoed the pain in Vana’s own heart-in fact, it itself was echoed throughout the room like a crescendo of misery as everyone realized what had just been said.
‘You’re insane!’ Ardhi bellowed, trying to look over his shoulder frantically. ‘You’ve lost your mind Ivyanne! How on earth could you prove that?’
‘I have a fair idea how,’ a silken voice said blithely. The blonde shimmered into view, jostling Eka in her hands, pushing her forward. ‘I can show everyone everything-the receipts from the flights you booked for him, the hire boat you made me hire in case we needed to dispose of his body...the phony passports you got to fly back from Los Angeles....’
Ardhi growled and struggled in Ivyanne’s arms, turning to sneer at Adele. ‘I’m going to kill you, you hear me?! You helped me every step of the way! If I’m going down for this-which I won’t-I’m taking you too!’
But Adele merely smiled. ‘Hey Ardhi...I have your mother. How do you like the shoe being on the other foot now, mate?’
‘No, no, no, no, no..!’ Pintang blathered, pressing her hands against her ears. ‘I’m not hearing this!’
Vana felt light-headed as Ardhi’s blatant admission rattled her very being and confirmed her suspicions. She stared at Lincoln’s ex, fascinated. Another new mermaid? Ardhi’s doing, but not his ally?
‘Anyway Adele didn’t tell me squat,’ Ivyanne said smugly. ‘I figured it all out on my lonesome. Though I
must admit-I didn’t tie her or Sherri into this until tonight.’
‘Sherri?’ It was Lincoln’s turn to scramble forward. His brown eyes were wide. ‘What has Sherri got to do with this?’
Ivyanne turned to glance at her fiancé. She looked awkward, restraining Ardhi that way. ‘I’m sorry honey, but you didn’t turn Sherri-she came pre-packaged, just for you.’
Lincoln’s eyes bugged. ‘Are you serious?!’
Ivyanne yanked on Ardhi again. ‘He found her, turned her and then brought her here to split us apart.’ She leaned down over Ardhi. ‘So nice of you Ardhi, to try and make him cheat so you wouldn’t have to kill him as well!’ She addressed the crowd, turning her head slowly. ‘Ardhi created Sherri in New Zealand, to be his lure. My fiancé of course, being the prey. But not until he’d set the wheels in motion to take Tristan out first!’ Ivyanne kneed him in the side and her captive grunted. Then, she looked back at Lincoln. ‘If Ardhi here wasn’t deluded enough to think I wanted him back, you probably would have been in an accident too by now-given that you weren’t weak enough to sleep with her.’ Her incensed gaze fell back upon Ardhi. ‘You bet against the wrong man, Kayu-Api.’
The room erupted with nervous chatter and exclamations of outrage. Lincoln rubbed at his temples, looking as stricken as Vana felt.
‘Where is she?’ he asked weakly. ‘I’ll kill her myself.’
‘She’ll be out any minute now,’ Ivyanne chirped, her expression radiant. ‘Let’s see Ardhi try and deny all of this when I have both witnesses out here trying to save their own asses. You hear that Ardhi? It’s over!’
‘I don’t give a shit!’ Ardhi rasped. ‘Thinking I had you only felt half as good as watching his plane plummet into the ocean anyway!’
Vana wanted to claw his eyes out herself. She lunged forward but felt her husband restrain her. She hadn’t even felt him come up to her.
‘Don’t,’ he whispered. ‘This is Ivyanne’s fight.’
‘You’re a monster!’ Pintang exclaimed. ‘How could you do such a thing Ardhi? You knew I loved him!’