"Nammu, take me to the surface. I need to talk to her."
Nammu did as I asked. Nephtalie was tucked on the half of their boat that hadn't just been swallowed by my wyrm.
The boat would sink eventually. She'd be stranded out here. And she was family. Maybe she was warped by Odette, but we were blood. I'd saved her once. Perhaps I could again.
"Nephtalie!" I shouted. "You don't have to die out here. Let me help you!"
"Help me?" Nephtalie asked. "You wouldn't help me."
"But I would," I said. "You don't have to use your power this way. I can help you learn to use it for good."
Nephtalie laughed loudly. "For good? Why would I do anything to help this world, a world that never wanted me? A world the enslaved Odette... and you just killed her! She was my mother, La Sirene!"
I shook my head. "I had to stop her. And I know. I'm sorry, Nephtalie. Please, just call me Joni. We're family, Nephtalie."
"Family?" Nephtalie's face was red in anger even as tears filled her eyes. "Odette was the only family I ever knew!"
I didn't have time for this. If she didn't want to be saved, I still had to stop these sharks. And only being able to control a small number at once, it wasn't going to be easy. I just needed more power.
Then it dawned on me...
"Fine, Nephtalie. If you don't believe me, take my power. Use it. I trust you... I'm showing you that you can trust me by giving myself over to you."
Nephtalie cocked her head. Then she nodded and started siphoning my magic. I could feel it. What I'd siphoned from Agwe, I'd already amplified. She couldn't kill me by draining me of magic. I wasn't full-blooded Fomorian. But she could weaken me.
I had to let her think she was winning...
As she siphoned my magic, amplifying it herself, I started siphoning more from her.
Together, our magic was limitless. Each of us, absorbing more, amplifying it more each time we took it. An infinite loop of expanding power.
Yes, I made her more powerful, but I gained untold quantities of power with every exchange.
"I see what you're doing!" Nephtalie shouted. "Think what we could do. Together, we'd be like gods. Wielding the power that once made the world! We could remake creation itself!"
I nodded. She was right. We could. If we worked together, we would be unstoppable. But I couldn't go along with her plan. Destroying the world wasn't the way to make it whole.
"That is not balanced," I shouted back. "That is not what this power is for! We could change the world. But if we kill billions, how is that just? How can you expect we'd make the world better if we commit the gravest atrocity in history to do it?"
"It's the only way!" Nephtalie screamed. "This world is broken. It's beyond repair!"
"You're wrong! All it needs is more love, more acceptance... we could change the world together, Nephtalie. But I won't help you destroy it!"
I reached out again to the sharks. With all the power I'd managed to siphon and amplify, I was able to reach out throughout the whole ocean. I was the queen of the Sea, after all, and now I had the power to draw all the undead together. I claimed them. One by one. All the sharks. A few other sea creatures, whales, squid, dolphins, all that had been infected.
I couldn't save them. But I could stop the spread.
I had to order them to destroy themselves... under my compulsion, I could free them from this curse. I could give them rest.
All of them, under my command, turned against each other until there were only a few left. And Agwe took the last one out with his Trident.
It was over.
I looked at Nephtalie. She was still siphoning more of my power. I couldn't let her take any more.
Nammu! I shouted through my psychic connection. I need a portal to the void. I have to send her into it...
Yes, La Sirene...
I channeled a fraction of the magic I was wielding to Nammu, and she opened a portal to the void.
Then, with as much of the magic as I could, I cast it at Nephtalie. I don't know how I did it. Was it because Erzulie finally bound me to Agwe in genuine love? I was the Queen of the Sea, I commanded the ocean itself, and with a giant wave hurled Nephtalie toward the void portal.
But, out of the portal, something else emerged...
The ship...
The ghost pirates...
Nephtalie laughed as she cast some of her magic against mine and used it to send her body hurling onto the ship.
Agwe, riding Ruach, cast a whirlpool trying to capture the ship. To force it back into the void portal. I sent another tidal wave at it at the same time.
But the ship was unaffected by the water. It was translucent like it hovered over and through the water, independent of the currents or waves of the sea itself.
With a streak of white light, the ship took off and disappeared, fading into nothingness, as it soared across the surface
"Well, shit," I said. "That is going to be an issue."
Agwe nodded. Tahlia came up to the surface on the back of Tohu. "Maybe it will be. But we have a whole legion now. Don't forget. We are the Fomorian Wyrmriders."
I smiled. "Yes, we are. They will be back. We'll have to face Nephtalie and those ghost pirates someday. When we do, we'll be ready."
"We will," Tahlia said. "Can I get a high-five?"
I raised my left eyebrow. Tahlia had her hand raised over her head. I chuckled as I stretched, best I could, toward her and slapped her hand.
"We just averted a zombie apocalypse," Tahlia said. "If anything deserves high fives all around, it's that."
I shrugged. "How about it, hubby? High five?"
"I'm not doing this on the wyrms," Agwe said.
I rolled my eyes as I jumped off Nammu's back and dove into the water.
Agwe joined me, diving in head-first and coming up next to me.
I raised my hand to give my husband a high five.
He didn't slap it. He grabbed my hand and pulled me into him.
And he kissed me.
Chapter Forty-Five
Evan was a nice-looking merman, all things considered. According to Titus, the most trustworthy of the new legionnaires and Wyrmriders. On top of that, he had an attention to detail and a focus that made him ideal for the job.
"This is the room where I keep the map," I said. "We're going to select a couple more legionnaires so you can do this in shifts. But it's straightforward. If there's a threat in the water, be it of magical or electrical energy, you'll see it here. We'll run a few drills with the wyrms in the surrounding waters while you're watching the map so you can see how it works."
"Seems simple enough," Evan said. "Thank you, Your Highness. It's quite an honor."
I smiled and patted Evan on the back. "It's an important task. You'll be our lookout when you're on duty. Until now, only the reigning monarch had access to this map. But I have other, more important, responsibilities. And based on Titus' recommendation, you've proved yourself reliable."
"Again," Evan said. "I don't know what to say. Thank you."
I nodded as I left Evan in the map room for his first shift as a lookout.
Tahlia met me at the door. "How'd that feel?"
I laughed. "Freeing! Like you wouldn't believe."
"Good!" Tahlia said. "Want to get high?"
I shook my head. "Tahlia, we have more important things..."
"I'm joking, Joni!" Tahlia said, giggling to herself. "Seriously, though, if you're serious about being among the merpeople... going to another rave wouldn't be the worst thing in the world."
I laughed. "I suppose you're right. But let's take it one step at a time. I want to get to know the people. Give them a sense their queen cares, you know?"
"I think it's brilliant," Agwe said, sneaking up behind us. "Conand never thought to do anything like that."
"Well, Conand also kept a secret dungeon under his spire. I intend to be better than that."
"Any news on the ghost pirates?" Tahlia asked.
I shook m
y head. "It's been three months—still, nothing. When I was on that ship, though, they had a kind of magic. It was like they were trying to siphon my life right out of me. All that power Nephtalie brought onto that ship. So much Fomorian power—exactly the kind of magic those pirates were seeking. I'm terrified of what they might end up doing with it. Or, what Nephtalie might become."
"I wish I had better answers," Agwe added. "I've honestly never encountered anything like it. Even in the void, the ship was there... and we couldn't touch it."
"And it changed," I said. "Somehow, when it was in the void. When it came back, it was different. We couldn't force it back through the portal like before."
Agwe nodded. "We could always try summoning Marinette and ask."
I narrowed my eyes. "You can't be serious."
"Look," Agwe said. "Odette and Nephtalie used her to get to you. She might be more willing to help than you'd think."
I shook my head. "If I'm going to talk to her, I'll speak to her on the crossroads. Legba and I are pretty tight now. I'm sure he could arrange it. I'm not risking bringing her back in another host."
"It might happen regardless," Agwe said. "Odette and Nephtalie weren't the only caplatas in Haiti. They were working with others. There's no telling what they might do."
"Even if they do," I said. "Marinette doesn't have Ezrulie's power anymore."
"That doesn't mean she isn't still powerful on her own right," Agwe said. "I wouldn't underestimate her."
"I won't," I said. "And maybe you have a point. It might be better if we can summon her before the bokors do."
"Just something to consider," Agwe said.
"How are you adjusting?" Tahli asked. "To you know... Samedi..."
"To being a vampire?" I asked.
"Well, I didn't want to say it out loud," Tahlia said.
I honestly think my Fomorian nature is somehow immune to it. I have few enhanced abilities, but my eyes aren't red. I don't crave blood. I'm pretty sure, though, that once I retake human form, I'll have to deal with all that like any newbie vampire might."
"You'll have to face it, eventually," Agwe said. "You said yourself that Merlin told you that you visited him regularly while he was growing up."
I chuckled. "I can't imagine how Mercy will respond when she finds out. I mean, I don't know how vamps think about it, but showing up at her door shouting surprise probably won't go over too well."
Tahlia giggled. "It's like, hello, mommy! Guess what! You had a vamp baby you didn't know about!"
I snorted. "That doesn't happen to moms. I mean, it can happen to dads. But what mom wouldn't know if she had a baby?"
"Okay," Tahlia said. "Fair point. The metaphor isn't perfect. But if you're technically her progeny, and she doesn't know it yet..."
I shook my head. "It isn't going to be fun. I've just started to get a handle on the dragon's essence that screams to let itself out when I'm in human form. To have to deal with vampire cravings now, too..."
"But if you want to see your baby," Tahlia said. "You need to get a handle on it one way or another."
"I agree," I said. "I'll approach Mercy soon enough. But until then, I've got a kingdom to learn to run."
"What's first on the agenda, then?" Tahlia asked. "I mean, if holding a kingdom-wide rave is off the table."
I shrugged. "I figured I'd go spire to spire. Spend a little time with everyone. Get to know them, listen to their concerns."
"There are a lot of merfolk in Fomoria," Agwe said. "This is going to take a while."
I smiled. "Well, it's a good thing that I have plenty of time. It's not like I plan on dying again any time soon. Twice was enough to last me a lifetime. And if I'm here half as long as Conand was, I'll get to know everyone eventually."
End of Book 2:
The Adventure Continues in Wyrmrider Justice
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ALSO BY THEOPHILUS MONROE
The Druid Legacy
Druid’s Dance
Bard’s Tale
Ovate’s Call
Rise of the Morrigan
The Fomorian Wyrmriders
Wyrmrider Ascending
Wyrmrider Vengeance
Wyrmrider Justice
The Voodoo Legacy
Voodoo Academy
Grim Tidings
Death Rites
Watery Graves
Voodoo Queen
The Legacy of a Vampire Witch
Bloody Hell
Bloody Mad
Bloody Wicked
Bloody Devils
Bloody Gods
The Legend of Nyx
Scared Shiftless
Bat Shift Crazy
No Shift, Sherlock
Shift for Brains
Shift Happens
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Theophilus Monroe is a fantasy author with a knack for real-life characters whose supernatural experiences speak to the pangs of ordinary life. After earning his Ph.D. in Theology, he decided that academic treatises that no one will read (beyond other academics) was a dull way to spend his life. So, he began using his background in religious studies to create new worlds and forms of magic–informed by religious myths, ancient and modern–that would intrigue readers, inspire imaginations, and speak to real-world problems in fantastical ways.
When Theophilus isn’t exploring one of his fantasy lands, he is probably playing with one of his three sons, or pumping iron in his home gym, which is currently located in a 40-foot shipping container.
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Wyrmrider Vengeance: An Underwater Magic Urban Fantasy (The Fomorian Wyrmriders Book 2) Page 24