by Katee Robert
There’s no overpowering him. The fact he hasn’t shifted into his natural form says he doesn’t want to draw attention, but it doesn’t give me the advantage I should have—would have—against a human. It doesn’t matter. I have one last trick up my sleeve.
I just need him in position to make it happen.
I weaken my struggles and gasp as if I’m out of strength. “Don’t do it, Abel. I don’t care what deal you made with them. Just… don’t do it.”
“Did you not figure it out by now, pretty?” His dark eyes bore into me and his grip tightens impossibly. “The deal I made was you.”
Screw that.
I propel us upward. He might be stronger than me, but his feet are no match for my tail. Up and up we go. Right before we hit the surface, I open a sliver of portal and drive us through.
The world around us turns green and thick, the water slimy against my skin. His eyes go wide, and he flails back from me. “What did you do?”
I only have seconds before he recovers. “This isn’t our world.” In the distance, there’s the sensation of something opening giant eyes and turning our way. I allow myself a tight smile. “I think you’ll find that you aren’t top predator here.”
He looks around, expression still dazed. “You can’t leave me here.”
“I think you’ll find I can do whatever I damn well please.” I inch back toward the portal still open behind me. Less than a foot away. One good flick of my fins and I’m through.
I should already be gone.
He’s terrorized me, threatened me, and wants to keep me for his own uses. He’s a monster in the truest sense of the word.
And yet…
He was instrumental in making me whole again.
I shake my head slowly. “Good luck, Abel. If you ever try to come for me or my sisters again, I’ll leave you in a fucking desert to die.”
“Lorelei—”
It’s too late. I’m already gone. I slip back through the portal and close it behind me. Just like that, my energy is tapped, and I sink several feet before I get my body under control again.
Abel may very well die in that nameless world that I found as a child, a very long time ago.
And I’m weaker than I could have imagined, because the knowledge brings me no joy. Just a wave of sadness I have no way to deal with.
It doesn’t matter.
I’m alive.
I haven’t broken.
I spend a week at my sister’s spa. Frivolous, perhaps, but I’ve more than earned it. It’s hard to say goodbye to Loire at the end of the stay, but my life is in California. For better or worse. But I’m no longer hidden away in shame. When the fight comes for us, I’ll be there on the front lines.
I portal back to the waters of my new home and shift as I make my way toward the beach. It’s deserted this time of night, which is just as well. I’ve guided my scales to cover the necessary bits, but explaining why I’m skinny dipping at midnight in the winter ocean is not something I want to deal with. Part of me wants to abandon the shabby life I built here, the altar to a life half-lived. The house where I spent so many tormented hours. The bookstore that I holed up in, attempting to drown out the siren call of the sea. The people I allowed myself to be surrounded with, none of whom knows what I truly am.
Leaving makes sense. Traveling to one of my sisters and immersing myself in the fronts of their fights. Our enemies might have suffered a setback when I prevented the kraken from eating the Nexus Portal, but no doubt they have backup plans in the works.
The kraken.
I have no business thinking about him. He’s the enemy in the truest sense of the word.
But I still pause at the edge of the water and send my finding ability pulsing out into the world. I hold my breath for several long minutes until it rebounds with a firm negative. Abel has not magically found a way back.
Maybe I should have killed him, should have abandoned him halfway through the jump and let him be shredded to pieces. Even a creature such as he couldn’t survive that.
The fact that I didn’t…
No.
There’s no use in examining why. I’m not even sure I have the answers. He’s gone. Should he be fool enough to return, I’ll be waiting.
And this time, I won’t be so merciful.
Afterword
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Interested in reading more about Lorelei’s sisters?
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About the Author
New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Katee Robert learned to tell her stories at her grandpa’s knee. Her 2015 title, The Marriage Contract, was a RITA finalist, and RT Book Reviews named it 'a compulsively readable book with just the right amount of suspense and tension." When not writing sexy contemporary and romantic suspense, she spends her time playing imaginary games with her children, driving her husband batty with what-if questions, and planning for the inevitable zombie apocalypse.
www.kateerobert.com