Siren’s Desire: A Dark Tides Novel

by Devyn Quinn

  Hawkins quickly shook his head. “You men stay aboard ship. That’s an order.”

  One of the bigger men was quick to speak up. “There’s no way we’re staying behind while women do the fighting. McKenzie’s our captain, too, and we’ve got a right to go after him.”

  “That’s not a valid argument, Chester,” Hawkins said. “No man leaves this ship without my say-so. You’re needed aboard, to defend the ship.”

  The burly diver folded his arms across his chest. “That isn’t how we view it, Commander. You’ve got to have backup, and the more the better.” The men accompanying him all nodded their agreement.

  Clearly annoyed, Hawkins cast a glance toward Addison. “What say you?”

  Addison sized up the crewmen, most of whom she knew only in passing. By the look of determination on their faces, there was nothing she could say that would deter their stance. They weren’t fighting for the Mer, she realized, but for the captain who’d been boldly snatched from beneath their noses. No matter the reason behind their presence, the additional manpower would be welcome. Even with the presence of Admiral Dalton and the USS Evanston, they were still clearly outnumbered.

  She nodded. “We’re glad to have you on our side.” She did a quick mental count. Twenty-five people, including her and Gwen, were on the ice. Dalton’s ship might have been trapped, but his crew also stood at the ready.

  It wasn’t nearly enough, but it was all they had.

  Addison drew in a breath. “Let’s do this.”

  Everyone nodded. Hawkins and Jovon assumed the stance of bodyguards, walking a few steps ahead.

  The group advanced across the ice with grim determination. Magaera, too, began to lead her soldiers away from the island. As they walked, a strange mist began to eddy around them. The sun above their heads became a pale golden halo, which struggled to cast its light through the murk.

  “She’s cutting us off from our backup,” Hawkins warned.

  “I have a feeling she’ll strike fast and hard,” Kenneth muttered from behind.

  “You have to counter every move she makes,” Jovon advised. “Whatever she throws at you, your mind has to be faster. Don’t think; just do.”

  Addison nodded. “I will.” Deep inside, though, she wasn’t sure she could.

  Magaera halted. Less than a hundred feet separated them. A smile played at the corners of her mouth. “Who among you leads the humans?” Though her words were a bit garbled by her otherworld accent, she managed to make herself understood.

  Hawkins stepped up. “I do.”

  The Mer queen gestured toward Mason. Her soldiers pushed him forward, and he fell to his knees. “If you wish to have your man returned, you must give me the traitors. Otherwise, he will witness every last one of you die at my hand.”

  Mason painfully raised his head. “Don’t do it, Hawkins,” he shouted. “That’s an order.”

  Addison’s heart seized. His shirt had been torn away, revealing the raw red welts that covered his shoulders and upper abdomen. It looked as though Magaera had tried to flay him alive.

  A volatile mixture of emotions bubbled inside her. She loved him so much, and now she was so close to losing him. Unable to contain her anger, she stepped around Jovon. Gwen followed, picking up her flank. “I’ve had enough of your shit.”

  Magaera’s eyes widened at the sight of the jeweled cuffs circling her wrists and the glittering breastplate. “I see the Nyx have betrayed our secrets.” A smirk crossed her lips. “But your weapon won’t stand against the scepter of Atargatis.”

  “We’ll see,” Addison spat back.

  Placing the scepter in front of her, Magaera muttered a few unintelligible words. A lightning bolt appeared out of nowhere, striking the ice at her feet. It cracked and sizzled under the assault of pure unrelenting heat.

  Addison jumped back. Quickly gathering her wits about her, she lifted her arms, crossing her wrists in front of her. Forcing herself to make a mental connection with the stones, Addison projected outward. A flash of light appeared out of nowhere, striking a couple of Magaera’s soldiers. They dropped in their place, a mass of withered corpses.

  In a sudden eruption of violence, more Mer soldiers rushed forward to take their place, barely glancing back at the bodies of the fallen. A volley of spears was launched into the air, aimed with unerring precision toward the human males.

  The men scattered, dodging the dangerously sharp tips. Struck in the thigh, Hawkins cried out, dropping to his knees. “I’m hit,” he yelled. The words had barely left his mouth before four more crewmen were felled by the burning hot laserlike blasts from Mer soldiers with Ri’kahs. Although the men were armed, they hadn’t even had a chance to fire their own weapons before being struck.

  “Fuck!” With only a fleeting glance toward the downed men, Blake dodged through the melee toward Hawkins. His clothes were already singed, and blood streaked across his face. Another flare from a Ri’kah blazed across his legs, sending him crashing to the ground. As he lay there, momentarily too dazed to defend himself, one of the Sea Horse’s crewmen rushed in front of him.

  It wasn’t a wise move. The seaman’s face was blasted to bits; flesh and bone flew in all directions as he stumbled in agony before collapsing and dying a few feet away.

  Moving with lightning speed, Kenneth dragged Blake toward Hawkins, who lay panting on the ground, and shielded both with his own body. It wasn’t much of a cover, but it was all he could offer. He fired with deadly accuracy, taking down half a dozen Mer soldiers in quick succession.

  Moving even faster than the humans, Jovon boldly snatched one of the missiles out of the air. Without hesitation he returned the stolen weapon. Then, with nothing more than his own bare hands, the Nyx rushed forward and tackled two of the advancing soldiers. Grasping them around the neck, he cracked their heads together with enough force to shatter their skulls. The Mer fell like dolls discarded by a careless child.

  Trailing behind Jovon, Chester, too, claimed one of the spears. With a cry of sheer ferocity, he gutted one of the advancing soldiers. A volley of bolts from Gwen sent several of the Mer into retreat.

  But the Mer weren’t giving up easily.

  Hawkins somehow managed to climb to his feet, a spear gripped in his hands. One of the Mer soldiers rushed him. His first attempt to stab her barely creased her fish-leather suit, though the second upward stroke carved a deep welt across her cheek. Wounded, she refused to retreat, grinning as she unsheathed the blade at her hip.

  Hawkins was pressed back, dangerously close to the edge of the ice. The first swipe of the Mer soldier’s blade caught him across the back of his hand. The second thrust would have surely caught him squarely in the throat if Jovon hadn’t struck with an even fiercer determination.

  Catching the Mer soldier’s head between his massive hands, he savagely bent her backward and snapped her neck. Her face registered incredulous shock as her legs folded under her. She was dead before she fell.

  But the casualties were beginning to pile up on both sides. And, by the look of things, the humans couldn’t hold their own against Magaera’s forces much longer. They were vastly outnumbered.

  Addison barely had time to digest the carnage going on around her. The men were fighting without regard for their own safety, determined not to go down without a fight. She hadn’t expected the Mer to strike with so much so fast. The way it was going, this fight was going to be short, and bloody.

  And they were going to lose.

  But now was no time to waste thought or action. Gritting her teeth, she quickly shook her head to clear her mind. Focus!

  Addison threw her hands out, pulling more energy from the jewels circling her wrists. The pressure of pulling so much energy so fast was beginning to build behind her eyes, thudding at her temples. She ignored the discomfort, projecting the energy outward. The Mer soldiers she aimed the blast at shrieked with agony as a flare akin to pure fire engulfed them.

  But the battle was far from over. Unleashing a scream
of fury, Magaera hurled several hot bolts toward the men who were brave enough to stand with them and refused to back down.

  Gwen immediately threw up her hands. A radiant beam of light surrounded the men, shielding them for the fatal strike. “I’ve got them covered,” she yelled, “but I can’t hold it long.”

  Without even stopping to think twice, Addison reached out in midair, catching the lightning Magaera threw at the men and tossing them back at her with blinding speed. She saw the electric bolts explode and crash around the queen, knocking over row after row of soldiers like dominoes.

  Realizing she’d been bested, Magaera changed her tactics. Her expression hardened. The lightning she’d created faded away, and she smashed the base of the scepter against the arctic pathway beneath her feet. The ice began to melt as rapidly as it had appeared.

  “We’re going under!” Gwen cried as the solid ice began to crack and separate.

  Addison felt a spasm of fear as the icy surface melted away beneath her feet. It was clear that Magaera intended to sink them halfway and trap them alive by refreezing it. “Not going to happen!”

  Standing her ground, she stretched out her hands toward the ice. She envisioned a frozen arctic plain—solid, thick, and impenetrable—stretching between them. It wasn’t the best plan, but it was the only thing she could think to do to keep them on stable footing. Even as she did so, agony lanced through her mind, squeezing her skull in an unrelenting grip. As Andru had warned, the jeweled weapons he’d provided her with were beginning to exact a physical toll.

  “You are stronger than I believed,” Magaera snarled across the expanse separating them. “But it’s not enough.”

  Addison struggled to clear her mind and focus. “It doesn’t have to be like this. Surrender now, and the humans will talk with you peacefully and without further aggression.”

  “I bow to no man’s will.” Magaera’s voice, though shaken, was firm with conviction.

  Addison stared at her nemesis, reaching out and trying to make a telepathic connection. Magaera flinched as if physically struck. For a moment, the two of them were locked on a psychic level, and she felt the woman’s fear and hesitation.

  Magaera was weakening.

  I can take you, she shot back through their psychic link.

  Magaera immediately severed all contact. “No!” she screeched. “I am the rightful queen of Ishaldi—” She wasn’t just furious. She was insane and would destroy them all.

  Raising the scepter in front of her, she played her final hand. A subzero blast of wind came out of nowhere, bringing with it a thick boiling cloud populated with dark and twisted shapes.

  Addison screamed in pain as invisible claws began to rip at her flesh. The boiling mass around her struck from all sides, and she caught a glimpse of flashing, silvery blades.

  Thinking fast, Addison clothed them all in thick gleaming armor. She felt the impact of the blades against the solid steel barrier she created, battering incessantly until she could barely hear herself think.

  Without quite knowing what she was doing, she cupped her hands together. A harsh electric shock went through her as she gathered the last bits of her flagging energy. Centering her thoughts, she imagined herself holding a bright glowing ball of light, one that emanated a radiance so luminous it was painful to gaze upon. As she looked down at her hands, her skin seemed to turn translucent, stretched so thin and pale that she could see the fine bones of her fingers.

  Lunging forward, Addison threw out her hands. The light blasted outward, striking its intended target.

  Queen Magaera screamed and writhed, twisting against the force that picked her up and held her suspended. Her grip on the scepter was unrelenting, but there was little she could do to defend herself as billions of tiny sparks danced over her skin. Her control abruptly snapped. All at once she began to age, rapidly and unceasingly, until little remained of her but a withered old crone.

  Magaera dropped to the ground. She gasped one final time, then went utterly still. The scepter rolled free of her grip.

  All was still and deathly quiet. The darkness suddenly cleared. Bright rays of pure sunshine burned through the mist, revealing a bright clear sky overhead. What had felt like hours had taken only minutes.

  Struggling to identify everybody, Addison quickly performed a mental head count. Hawkins was alive, but he was breathing with difficulty from his wounds. Blake was muttering a string of curse words under his breath as he examined the various cuts and bruises mottling his skin, as did Jovon and Kenneth. Although a bit pale, Gwen seemed no worse for wear. But the news wasn’t all good. At least a dozen crewmen from the Sea Horse hadn’t survived. The ice beneath their bodies was slick with blood. The sight of their sprawled bodies was both shocking and sobering.

  Everyone was exhausted and badly shaken, but there was no time to do more than exchange grimaces of pain to assure one another no one had been mortally wounded. Somehow, it looked as though they’d actually beaten Magaera.

  As her heart rate dropped to its normal rhythm, Addison let down her defenses. Taking a moment to regain her bearings, she drew in a couple of breaths. The armor she’d created faded away. The jeweled cuffs circling her wrists were completely burned through. They dropped away from her wrists, falling with a tinkle against the ice beneath her feet and shattering into pieces. Only the breastplate remained, but it, too, was almost completely ruined. The walkway she’d reinforced out of Magaera’s initial floe was slowly beginning to melt away.

  I can’t fail them now. Her thought was focused. She had to hold things together just a little bit longer.

  Barely aware of what she was doing, Addison staggered to where Magaera lay. She bent, wrapping numb fingers around the scepter’s girth. Amazingly, it had suffered no damage and was intact.

  Without a word, she raised it above her head. It was all she could do to stand up straight. Tiny black specks were beginning to float in front of her eyes.

  She blinked hard, searching for and focusing on Mason McKenzie as he broke away from the guards who’d held him captive. His wrists were still shackled, but that didn’t stop him from breaching the distance separating them.

  “My God,” he gasped. “Are you all right?”

  Heart seizing in her chest, Addison felt a brief resurgence of energy burn away a bit of her fatigue. “Yeah.” That single word was absolutely all she could manage. He was safe and nothing else mattered.

  Through a long moment, silence filled the air around them. Neither of them dared to move.

  Mason glanced at the men who’d fallen, and then toward the Mer soldiers. The look on his face was one of loss and dismay. His fists were tightly clenched from having watched good men fight and die. “Do it.” His voice was tight, but controlled. “It’s time to end this.”

  Addison nodded. Stepping past him, she lowered the scepter, allowing its base to touch the ground. Her head was spinning, and her feet felt heavy and unresponsive.

  Drawing a breath, she cleared her throat. “It’s over,” she announced, struggling to find the words. Her grasp of the Mer language was tenuous at best, and she could only hope they would comprehend what she was trying to convey. “There will be no more war between the Mer and the humans.”

  More seconds ticked by, painfully slow. What would the Mer soldiers do without a leader?

  A solitary figure broke away from the rest. As she marched slowly forward, Addison thought she recognized Arta Keria, the envoy who’d delivered Magaera’s demands. Blade sheathed at her hip, she carried a spear in her hand. Her face was blank of all expression.

  Addison stiffened. The image of that spear going straight through her gut flashed across her mind.

  Arta Keria came to a sudden halt. “Speak you the truth?” Her question was simple, and rational. A slight tremble at one corner of her mouth revealed her inner anxiety.

  Fighting against the darkness swirling at the edges of her mind, Addison nodded. “There will be peace between our people.”

&nbs
p; The Mer soldier inclined her head. “So swear you?”

  Addison grasped the scepter tighter. It was all she could do to remain in an upright position. Exhaustion clawed at her senses. “I do.” Though her voice shook, she made sure her words were audible.

  And then something incredible happened.

  Keria knelt down. Lowering her spear to the ground, she drew a wicked dagger from its sheath. Extending her free hand in front of her body, she laid the flat of the blade against her forearm. “My blade is yours, my lady. I willingly serve at your command.”

  Mason shook his head in disbelief. “Holy shit,” he muttered.

  Addison wasn’t sure what was going on, but at that point it didn’t matter.

  The Mer soldiers who’d survived also knelt. Laying their weapons aside, they offered homage to their new queen. A rumble of female voices rose in unison: “Long live our queen!”

  Although she heard the cheer of her people, Addison could make little sense of them. At this point she was beyond comprehending what she’d accomplished.

  Her limbs trembled a moment before collapsing beneath her weight. She groaned fitfully, her body shuddering from fatigue. Drained to the max, she didn’t have an ounce of energy left. Her eyelids felt unbearably leaden.

  Darkness crept in from all sides, and she knew no more.

  Mason felt sick with apprehension as he sat in the sick bay of the USS Evanston beside Addison. She looked as if she’d been badly beaten; her skin was sheet white and dark circles ringed her eyes. Even her lips, normally so rosy, seemed pale. The trauma she’d gone through was etched into the lines of her face.

  Feeling a sharp stab of guilt, he tightened his grip on her hand. He was so focused on Addison that he barely noticed anyone else. Commander Hawkins, Vice Admiral Dalton, even Jovon, had all faded into the background as he lashed himself repeatedly with guilt. His own fatigue and injuries were nothing compared to hers.