by Ashley Meira
Adam gave me a thumbs up. “Nice job.”
“Less talking, more killing,” Fiona and I yelled.
He smirked and sent out a jet of ice at the two charging creatures while dodging an incoming spear. Show off.
I threw another spear, hitting the fish monster just before he hit me. His spear swooped over my shoulder, the current pushing my head away. I swam forward, watching Fiona throw a Fairy Blast at the first charybdis I hit. His head exploded on impact, proving once again that you shouldn’t piss off fairies.
She hit another one before narrowly avoiding a giant fist. Damn, these things were fast. Conjuring another spear, I threw it at her attacker. It went clean through his skull, turning the water around him dark red.
Adam grabbed my ankle, tugging me away. A monstrous jaw clamped shut where I’d just been. There was a blur above us. This time, I saved him. I blew up the charybdis’ head with a shot of ice while Adam took out the one that had come after me.
I saw him shiver as the lifeless bodies sunk past our feet, disappearing into the ocean floor below. Without thinking, I rubbed his arms in an attempt to warm him up.
His lips quirked, and he leaned into my touch. Fiona rushed past us, throwing a Fairy Blast over her shoulder. I followed her attack up with my own, killing the hulking monstrosity behind her. I backed away from the body. Those things were ugly enough from a distance.
“I’m definitely not sleeping tonight,” I muttered.
“Movie night?” Adam asked.
“Maybe.” If I hadn’t ruined our entire relationship by then.
Three Fairy Blasts flew past our noses, slamming into the remaining charybdis’ gut. As it staggered back, Adam hit it with a jet of water. His magic was so concentrated it shattered the sea creature’s skull, leaving an unsettling echo in my ears.
We floated there, absorbing the situation. “That could have gone a lot worse” seemed to be our silent consensus, and we continued swimming a moment later. There was a tense aura around us as we kept an eye out for terrifying fish people. I’d never seen a nereid before — Adrienne had only ever showed us her human form — but I hoped they were more pleasant to look at.
“I think we’re lost,” Fiona said after another fifteen minutes of wandering around. “It’s been over an hour, hasn’t it?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “We left our electronics on the boat, remember?”
“Should we go back?” Adam asked. “I don’t want to go deeper without a sign we’re going the right way.”
“Back to the boat or just higher up?” I stopped swimming. “Wait.”
Magic. Somewhere close by. It reminded me of the way Fiona’s magic felt when we first met: small and terrified. Flashes of a tiny fairy hiding behind spice jars brought me back to darker times. That waif of a girl, with disheveled hair and ripped clothes, looked nothing like the woman next to me — something I was very, very glad for.
I hugged her, wincing at the impact. “Damn it.”
“You’re bleeding,” Fiona said. “Why didn’t you tell me, dummy?”
“I forgot,” I said sheepishly. Terrifying fish monsters had a way of doing that.
Adam examined the cut on my side before hovering a healing hand over the gash. I relaxed against his touch, watching the skin knit back together.
“Want me to kiss it better?”
“Yes,” I said, surprised I hadn’t denied it. Guess I was growing up. “But I sense magic nearby. We should check it out.”
“Lead on,” he said. “You can take an I.O.U. for that kiss.”
“I’ve heard that before.”
He smirked. “This time you can redeem it for any place you want, not just your stomach.”
“About time,” Fiona said.
“Make up your mind.” I glowered. “Is it gross or great?”
“It’s both,” she said. “Where’s the magic coming from?”
“Lower.” I pointed to an overhang two meters away. “Near there.”
“That’s not ominous,” Fiona said when we reached our destination. There was a cave nestled underneath the stone, too dark for me to see inside. “The magic isn’t dangerous, right?”
“Hello?” I called. “We’re not here to hurt you. Are you okay in there?”
Nothing. The magic was still inside. It had spiked in fear when Fiona spoke. With such a small entrance, it seemed likely there was a child inside. It was certainly too small for any of us.
“Can you get in there?” I asked Fiona.
She nodded, chewing on her lower lip. “If I die, I’m haunting you.”
“So, I should wait a while before throwing the party?”
Her eyes narrowed into slits, boring holes into mine as she shrunk down. I wanted to say there was nothing scary about a toddler-sized Fiona glaring at me, but my sister managed to be menacing no matter what. I watched her crawl into the cavern, mumbling something about her hair getting snagged. Then things got quiet. Straining my ears revealed a voice. Fiona’s, it sounded like, but I couldn’t make out the words. A moment later, she crawled out again, followed by a pair of big green eyes.
I held my hand out, making sure not to get too close. The child eyed me warily, terror coming out of her every pore. She reached out, but quickly shrunk back when she saw Adam. He was big to a normal person, but to a tiny thing like her he must have seemed enormous.
“Don’t worry,” I said softly. “This is Adam. He won’t hurt you. If he even tries, I’ll kick his butt.”
“She will,” he said. “She has.”
I nodded. “He’s kind of a wimp.”
That made her smile. She took my hand, her little fingers barely filling half my palm. I pulled her out of the cave and into my arms. She was definitely a nereid. The mermaid tail proved that. Nereid tail, I suppose. It was turquoise and curled protectively against her chest. Her hair was silver, and her skin was a soft blue. There were gills on either side of her neck, flapping softly as she breathed. She was no bigger than a toddler, making it easy to cradle her.
“I’m Sophia,” I said, rocking her gently. “What’s your name?”
She pressed her cold nose against my neck and clutched my sweater. “Cheza.”
“That’s a very pretty name,” Adam said. “Are you lost, Cheza?”
Tears flooded Cheza’s eyes, her lower lip trembling like an autumn leaf. “I was playing in the kelp garden, but I got lost. The charybdis were hunting nearby, so I ran away before they could see me.” Her voice was like a bell, soft and clear. When she finished speaking, she hid her face again. “I want to go home.”
I hugged her close and pressed a kiss to her head. “Can you show us where you live, Cheza? We’ll take you back.”
Her head shot up, her eyes brimming with hope. “Promise?”
Fiona held her pinky out. “Promise.”
Cheza smiled and laced their fingers together. She was missing her two front teeth, and it made her look even cuter. “If you find the kelp garden, I can show you the way. But the charybdis are still hunting.”
I looked at their linked pinkies with misty eyes. Fiona and I made a pinky promise when we escaped. We swore we’d be sisters forever. The memory made my heart ache. I didn’t like to think about those scared little girls, or the others we might have left behind.
Like Snow.
Cheza dabbed my cheeks. “They scare me, too.”
I laughed weakly. “Didn’t even know you could cry underwater.”
Adam began rubbing circles against my back but made sure to keep his distance from Cheza. “We took care of those charybdis.”
“There’s more,” she said, shrinking away from him. “There’s always more. Theo says they’re like palamites.”
“Parasites?” he asked. “Is Theo your brother?”
She nodded excitedly, causing her silver curls to fly everywhere. “He’s super smart. But mama says she doesn’t know how he got to be so hot-headed.” A mischievous smile came over her face and she whispered to me, �
��Papa says he gets it from her.”
I chuckled before asking, “Do you know how to get to the kelp garden from here?”
“Down.” She pointed eastward. “That way. But I don’t know how far.”
“Let’s go,” Fiona said before pausing. “There are no sharks here, right?”
“They don’t usually come by the kelp garden. Tangles them up.”
“We still need to hurry,” Adam said. “I don’t want to be a man down if more charybdis show up.”
I kicked at him. “I can outfight you with one arm.”
He caught my leg. “This is a leg. A very nice leg, but it nulls your point.”
Cheza wrinkled her nose. “How can you swim with those?”
“The same way I walk. Away from Adam.” With that, I stuck my tongue out and swam away.
“That sentence made no sense,” he said, following after us.
“He’s smiling,” Cheza told me as we swam. “Is that normal?”
“No, but nothing about him is normal.” That was one of my favorite things about him.
We swam with relative ease for a while. Cheza relaxed and began telling us about the various fish passing by, her little fingers pointing at each one. She even warmed up to Adam, going so far as to let him hold her when Fiona and I needed a break. She didn’t ask to swim on her own, though. I wasn’t sure if she was tired, hurt, or just scared.
The deeper we went, the slower Fiona and Adam seemed to move. I noticed them huddling closer to me as well. Cheza wasn’t affected by the drop in temperature. Neither was I, though I did notice a slight dip. Complaining about being Fireborn felt petty sometimes. Most of the time. I was growing up.
“There!” Cheza bounced in my arms and pointed excitedly below us. I could make out a bunch of colorful spots but not much more. “The garden is past that patch of coral.”
We’d just gotten close enough to see the coral clearly when an explosion knocked us back. As the dust cleared, we saw a giant spear embedded in the colored sediment. Shit.
I didn’t want to let Cheza go. There was nowhere for her to hide around here, which is probably why she’d run so far in the first place. Would Adam and Fiona be able to handle these guys on their own? The charybdis answered my question when they appeared. I counted ten, but there were shadows rapidly approaching from behind.
“We need to run,” I said, slowly edging away.
Adam shook his head. “They’re too fast. You take Cheza. We’ll hold them off.”
“I am not leaving you.”
Cheza’s fingers dug into my collarbone as she whimpered, her entire body trembling. “They’re gonna eat us.”
I rocked her back and forth. “Fiona, open a portal.”
“Where? It’s the ocean!”
I looked up but couldn’t see the surface. “The boat!”
“I won’t be able to portal us back here,” she said quickly. “The area is too vague.”
“Go there!” Cheza pointed behind us. “Hurry! Hurry!”
“Do it,” Adam said, dodging a spear. “Now!”
Cheza shrieked as we entered the portal, a charybdis’ spear following us through. Fiona cut the portal in time to slice the weapon in half, and the spear tip fell impotently to the ocean floor.
“There!” Cheza pointed again.
We began portal hopping with the young nereid as our guide. She kept assuring us we were getting close, though I wasn’t sure what “close” meant to a nereid — or a child. The worry that she might be one of those creatures that lured travelers to their doom crossed my mind, but the familiar prickle of protective magic assuaged my fears.
“We’re close,” I said.
“Good,” Fiona panted. “Can I stop?”
Adam looked over his shoulder. “I think we can swim now.”
The area didn’t have many fish, which didn’t make me feel safe, but Fiona looked exhausted. Opening portals and rushing through cold water wasn’t doing her any good. I couldn’t tell how much colder it was here, but I noticed Adam starting to shiver.
“You need to approach slowly,” Cheza said. “The tribe doesn’t like outsiders.”
The magic got heavier the closer we swam. No wonder the Council had never found this place. The protections around here were hardcore — as powerful as the barrier on the Pyrenees, maybe more. Doubt gnawed at me as we approached. Would they help us, or would we have more spears shoved in our faces?
“Almost,” Cheza said as the magic became nauseating. “You’ll feel sick if you’re trackers. That’s part of the protections’ effects. I can rub your belly if you’d like.”
Would her tribe notice if I took her home with me? “We’re okay, sweetie.”
“Yeah,” Fiona said. “I’m just glad this is finally—”
She let out a low screech and froze, her eyes trained on the darkness ahead. I came up to her and squinted, making out large shadows. They were too big to be charybdis. A procession of them maybe? But they weren’t moving as fast. Cheza looked too scared for them to be nereids, so….
My eyes widened as they came into view. Shit. Shit. Shit.
“I knew it!” Fiona squeaked.
Sharks.
Three giant great white sharks.
I hated the ocean.
“Go!” Fiona screeched, swimming faster than I’d ever seen.
We followed after her, the burst of movement drawing the sharks’ attention.
Adam shot of a blast of ice. It rushed forward, crashing against the center shark’s face. It did nothing except piss the thing off more. “Crap.”
“How do nereids fight sharks?” I asked Cheza.
“We don’t,” she said, her hand sticking out to guide us in the right direction. “Magic has a hard time penetrating their hide.”
Freakin’ awesome. We kept swimming for what felt like an eternity. Based on the reefs we passed, it’d been about five meters. My arms were beginning to cramp from clinging to Cheza, and my leg muscles were screaming for mercy. Fiona was trailing behind me, her movements slowed and her breathing heavy. Adam grabbed her arm and pulled her forward, but he didn’t look much better. I’d never seen him so pale.
“Theo!” Cheza screeched. “It’s me! I know you’re on guard duty! Help us!”
A puff of brown hair peeked out from behind a cluster of boulders followed by a pair of narrowed green eyes. He wasn’t holding a spear, but the ice magic crackling around his hand looked just as unfriendly. The hostile snarl on his face vanished when he caught sight of our uninvited tag-alongs. He turned and shouted something over his shoulder.
Two more male nereids appeared and rushed toward us. Theo gripped my bicep and forced me forward while his friends helped Adam and Fiona. The barrier’s magic sent tingles across my body before snapping against my skin in a heavy burst. I let out a sigh of relief as it stopped. They’d let me through the barrier.
Fiona and Adam had just made it through when the first shark slammed against the invisible wall, rebounding against it with surprising grace. It banged its body against the barrier again, rolling back before trying a few more times. After its friends also failed to get through, they abandoned us in search of easier prey.
“We did it!” Cheza clapped, giving me a big grin.
“Just in time,” I panted. “Thank you—”
Theo ripped Cheza from my arms as his friends circled us, ice swirling around their arms.
“Move,” he said dangerously, nodding farther ahead.
When we didn’t comply, the other two edged closer, their magic coming out in jagged waves. My Fire surged to life at the rhythm. It was starving, as usual, but part of it picked up on missteps in their waves. I could break their magic… and ruin any chance of diplomacy.
Adam held up his hands. “We come in peace.”
“Then you will move,” Theo said as Cheza fussed in his arms.
“They saved me, Theo! They’re friends.”
“You are the only reason they’re still alive,” he told her.
“The chief will hear them out. Unless they would prefer to stay here?”
I didn’t appreciate his snippy tone, or the angry guards at my back, but this was our only chance to plead our case. With a deep breath, I swam in the direction Theo directed, trying to avoid the ice magic crackling at my back.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Say your piece quickly, land-dweller, and leave with as much haste.”
The nereid chieftain looked exactly like King Triton from The Little Mermaid, though I didn’t dare tell him that. His hair was sleeker than the cartoon’s thick mane, and his skin shone a soft blue like Cheza’s.
Not all nereids had the same skin, however. Looking around the colosseum-esque room revealed a variety of skin tones, from snow white to vibrant magenta. Some of the nereids had hair, others had horns that twisted behind their heads in a mollusk-like way. Apart from their gills, the only thing they seemed to have in common were deep, enchanting eyes. Each pair felt like an abyss I wanted to get lost in, though the charm was countered by the frigidness in their gaze.
Oh, and they wanted us to leave. They also had that in common.
“We came to ask for your assistance,” I said in what I hoped was a steady voice.
The chieftain’s face was unreadable. “Continue.”
“A friend of mine, a nereid, was taken by a man. He’s killed two other people in an attempt to recover the Tears of the Ocean Queen.” I paused as the crowd erupted into whispers and looked around. “We believe the necklace is now in his possession, and that he plans to release part of Seraphine’s soul soon. He will likely use your ritual space to perform the ceremony… and your people as his sacrifices.”
The crowd’s whispers turned to roars. A cacophony of panic and rage spread around the room. I couldn’t imagine how loud it would be if the colosseum were full. Barely a third of the space was filled, and it was already nigh unbearable.
“We are aware of your man’s plan.” The chieftain made no effort to mask his distrust. “He is there now, defiling our sacred ground with his profane rite. His partner commands the charybdis. With their help, many of our people have already been taken. All attempts at rescue have been foiled. The charybdis keep us at bay. We are no match for them on land.”