Of course I do. How could I not? My parents have devoted their lives to protecting me.
“Even the little one—the one with that beautiful strawberry blond hair—Amy?” She runs a lock of my own hair through her fingers. It’s one of the most intimate gestures among female Mer. I think of all the times I’ve done it to Amy.
“She’ll die, too. You can save her. You can save all of them. All of us.” She’s still running her fingers through my hair. In this decaying, dangerous place, after such a terrifying day, the caress feels comforting. It shouldn’t. But having someone stroke my hair is so familiar, so soothing.
“Join us, Lia. I’ll make you a part of our dynasty. We can rule side by side. Everyone will know you saved them. They’ll see how special you are.”
I picture my family, the entire Community, and even all the Mer Below living forever because of me.
“Think how grateful they’ll be to you for giving them their eternal lives back, their safety back. The wars will be over and you and your family can come back home. Here—to the ocean. Imagine what you could do with an eternity to explore, to discover everything the ocean has to offer you.”
Immortal life in the ocean … it’s the stuff of dreams.
“I know how strong the call is. I know the unquenchable need you have inside you to be out here in the deep. Trapped on land with only a few miles of shallow ocean is no life for a Mermaid. I know you feel it.”
It’s like her eyes can see into me. Like she knows how out of place I feel.
“This is where you belong, Lia. All you have to do is choose it. Make the choice.”
I know what I have to do.
I lean into Melusine’s hand against my hair.
“I want that. All of it. I want my family to live. I want the ocean and the freedom. I want to stop hiding. I want eternity.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
A triumphant smile curls Melusine’s lips. “I knew you were smart, Lia.”
She touches the tip of the dagger to my temple. I force myself not to shudder. To stay perfectly still with the sharpened blade pressed against the vulnerable veins there.
Our eyes meet, and Melusine must see the resolve she’s looking for. “There’s no reason for you to be our prisoner, when you can be our guest.” She drags the tip of the dagger down my cheek and neck with enough pressure that it must leave a line of raised, red skin in its wake. But she doesn’t break the skin, doesn’t cut me. This is a warning.
Obey.
As she circles behind me, bringing the tip to rest between my shoulder blades, I’m careful not to flinch. The cold, sharp point skims down my spine.
“Let’s do this together.” With those words, she brings the blade down between my hands, slicing through the seaweed ropes that bind me.
I only have one chance.
The instant my tail is free, I stretch it to its full length and kick out as hard as I can, walloping Melusine in the side.
The powerful muscles of my tail smack against her ribs. She grunts in pain, but I don’t look back. I’m already swimming at full speed toward Clay. The seaweed bonds still hanging from my wrists and fins fly out behind me in the water like streamers.
If I’m anything, I’m a fast swimmer, and I reach him in seconds. Clay. His body bound, his skin blue, his face frozen. I have nothing that can cut through his bonds, so I duck below him, where the rope is tethered to a ring in the mosaicked floor.
My fingers are nimble, but the knot’s a complicated one. There’s movement behind me. I need to leave with Clay, and I need to do it now.
I work one strand of seaweed under another, then another. I almost have it.
Hang in there, Clay, I’m—
A large, cold hand closes around my neck from behind, yanking me away from Clay.
“You stupid girl,” Mr. Havelock rasps in my ear. With his other hand, he grabs the top of my fin and folds my tail back up into that painful bent position. I lash out with my arms, twist my torso around so I can hit him with my fists, and try to free my tail, but he stands firm against my attack.
“Stop!” Melusine shouts. She presses the dagger to Clay’s throat.
That stops me faster than ropes ever could.
“Don’t hurt him,” I say, raising my hands in surrender. “Just don’t hurt him.”
“I thought you wanted to fix the curse. To save your family.” Did her voice break? A bruise is blooming across the pale flesh of her right side and abdomen.
“I do.” I picture my family, picture the smiles that would light my parents’ faces if I told them they could have the immortality they’ve always dreamed of. But they’re not the only ones I picture. An image of Kelsey with her mischievous grin rises to my mind. How many times has she been there for me when I needed her? We have so many of the same interests, the same worries about school, about family … we’re the same age. How is Kelsey’s life worth less than mine? It isn’t. And neither is Kelsey’s friend Matt’s, or chatterbox Laurie Kennish’s, or eager, well-intentioned Mr. Reitzel’s. Their lives matter. I picture my parents again, who have spent years living alongside humans and trying to learn from them. They’ve always taught me to respect humankind, to be grateful to humans for creating a world that could provide Mer safe haven from the ocean in our time of need. My parents wouldn’t be proud of me if I agreed to the ritual slaughter of human beings, no matter what the benefits. “I do want to save my family,” I repeat. “But causing more death isn’t the way to do it.”
“I thought you wanted eternity.”
“I do.” I answer honestly. “But I want Clay more. You told me to make a choice? I choose him.”
“You fool.”
“At least now we can get on with it,” Mr. Havelock says, still clutching my neck in his cold fingers. “I’ve waited long enough.”
“All right, Lia,” Melusine says, “it’s time to break your precious human’s heart so we can start the ritual.”
The ritual. They can’t kill him now, or it will ruin the ritual! “I’m not helping you. I’m calling your bluff. You can do what you want to me, but you won’t kill Clay. Not now. You need him.” Only the fact that the blade tip rests against the soft indent of Clay’s clavicle keeps me from fighting again.
“Oh, I won’t kill him. Not yet. His death is too important. But I have no problem hurting him.” She uses the blade to trace random patterns against the skin of his throat. “You know the dagger’s cursed. As soon as it breaks the skin, it burns like liquid fire. Even small cuts will cause poor Clay unbearable agony.”
The unsuppressed glee in her eyes is the only proof I need that she’s telling the truth.
“We’ve still got an hour before sunrise,” she says. “So you do exactly what I tell you, or I’ll spend all that time torturing him. Making him writhe and suffer before I slit his throat in the ritual.”
The fight goes out of me. I can’t let Clay’s last moments be filled with pain. “Don’t. Please.”
“Do we have a deal? No more pointless escape attempts? Full cooperation?” She’s still skating the blade against his exposed skin, tracing where the seaweed pulls taut against his chest.
“Deal,” I whisper.
“Oh goody. This’ll be fun.”
Her father releases my neck and tail. There’s nothing holding me now, but the instant I try anything—try to wrestle the dagger from her grip, try to free Clay and get him out of here—Mr. Havelock will overpower me again, and Melusine will take my actions out on Clay. There may be nothing holding me, but I’m trapped just the same.
“Unbind the land-dweller,” Mr. Havelock instructs his daughter. “He must be free and willing for the spell to work.” She nods, and the dagger glides across the thick seaweed ropes. They fall from Clay’s body, leaving him floating there unconscious in a pair of cotton boxers nearly the same blue as his icy skin.
Melusine takes him by the arm while her father yanks at my own. Soon, all four
of us swim right above the symbols that deface the floor. Mr. Havelock moves a few feet back and begins chanting in Mermese.
His creepy half-music fills the chamber.
“Stay,” Melusine orders, like I’m a misbehaving puppy. Keeping a firm grip on Clay, she swims to where rows of supplies lie on the ground, just outside the circle of symbols. When she returns, she holds a small bottle containing a deep purple potion. Then she brings it to Clay’s lips.
“What is that?” Urgency suffuses my voice.
“Don’t worry—this won’t affect the potion keeping him alive down here. I need him alive so I can kill him.” She laughs at her own sick joke. “All this does is make things a lot more interesting.”
Clay’s hand jerks, and I gasp. He’s waking up.
Melusine returns the sharpened dagger to his throat.
“Now, tell him exactly what you are and what you’ve done to him. Or I play slice and dice.”
The ice clinging to Clay’s eyelids chips off with a soft crackle. He opens his eyes.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Don’t move!” I tell Clay, worried that even a small nick from the dagger at his throat will cause him searing pain. My words come out in the sibilant, melodic tones of Mermese. I don’t realize my mistake until Clay starts thrashing, wild-eyed. How much can he see in the semi-darkness?
Melusine moves the blade an inch or two from his skin but angles it threateningly at him. “Better tame your stallion, Lia. I wouldn’t want to cut him by mistake.”
I rush to Clay’s side. He’s choking and sputtering.
“Clay, stop moving. It’s okay. You can breathe the water. Just let it in.” It’s strange speaking English underwater. The words are muffled, so I say them into Clay’s ear. But my eyes never leave the dagger.
“Breathe. Shh. Just breathe and stay still.”
It must take courage for Clay to take the salt water into his mouth and nose, but he does. Now that I’m close to him, I can see the potion has given him gills like mine—tiny openings along the sides of his neck below his ears.
He gasps again and again, no doubt getting used to the strange sensation. I use the time to keep talking to him.
“Clay, listen to me. I need you to stay very still. We’re both in danger, and there’s a knife at your throat.”
“Lia, are you okay?” His gaze searches my face. Melusine presses the dagger’s tip up under his chin, and he must feel it because he doesn’t dare move his head.
At least as long as he doesn’t look down, he can’t see my tail.
“I’m okay.”
His eyes move as far to the side as they can, trying to see who’s holding the knife. But Melusine floats behind him, out of his field of vision. Giving up, he says to me, “We’re underwater.”
“Yeah, we are.”
“How are we breathing? How are we talking?”
“You’re breathing because you drank a potion. A magic potion.” There’s no other way to say it. He blinks twice but doesn’t question this. I guess waking up deep in the ocean with an unseen attacker threatening your life does wonders to suspend your disbelief. Or maybe he’s in shock.
“I’m breathing … ” I hesitate. Melusine raises an eyebrow at me from behind Clay and adjusts her grip on the dagger’s hilt. “ … because I can.”
“You can breathe underwater?”
Melusine lets out an exaggerated yawn. “I’m getting bored, Lia. Start talking.”
“Mel? Is that you? What are you doing here?” Clay asks, trying to see over his shoulder without moving his head. It’s a useless endeavor, but he must be able to guess from the proximity of her voice that she’s the one holding the dagger, because he says, “Why are you doing this?”
“I’m doing this because Lia’s been lying to you. It’s very naughty of her.” She smirks at me as she ruins my life. “I’m just making sure she finally tells you the truth.”
“Lia?” His hazel eyes, greener than ever in the chamber’s emerald glow, are wide and questioning.
“She’s right,” I admit, shifting my gaze away from his. “I have lied to you.”
“About what?”
I wring my hands, twisting my fingers together.
“I can breathe underwater because … because I’m a Mermaid.” I move backward so he can see all of me—all of my long fish’s tail.
His jaw drops.
The only sounds are my own heartbeat pulsing in my ears and Mr. Havelock’s ghostly chant growing louder. The seconds stretch.
“This whole time?” Clay finally asks. “This whole time you’ve been a … a … ”
Tides, he can’t even say it. “A Mermaid? Yeah.”
“But how … how did I not know my girlfriend was a … ”
“Oh, she was never your girlfriend,” Melusine interrupts. “Not really. Tell him, Lia. And you’d better hurry—that potion’ll be wearing off mighty soon.”
She says it so casually, but her words tighten my chest. How long before he stops breathing? Twenty minutes? Ten? Two?
I close the distance between us again so he’ll be able to hear me. If it weren’t for the dagger, would he recoil from me now? If he doesn’t want to yet, he will.
At Melusine’s dangerous look, I start talking fast. “She’s right. I … I was never really your girlfriend.” I look away.
“Yes you were. Lia, you were my girlfriend up until yesterday when you just ran off.”
“No. That’s why I ran off. I couldn’t lie to you anymore.”
“Because you’re a mermaid?” His voice is all shock, confusion.
“No, because being with someone means choosing them, but you never chose me. You never had a choice.”
I take a deep breath, the water flowing in and out of me. “Melusine—Mel—she’s a Mermaid too, and she sirened you. She, um, she used a spell … a song … to brainwash you. To make you love her. I wanted to protect you.” I stroke his cheek, feel his stubble graze my fingertips.
“Tell him what you did, Lia.” Melusine’s voice is menacing now, as she presses the blade harder against the flesh of his throat. He swallows.
I speed up, the words spilling out of my mouth. “I wanted to make sure she couldn’t hurt you, so I sang to you.” My voice cracks. “I brainwashed you.”
“My song … ” He trails off, putting the pieces together.
“Yes. I sang your song. Oh, Clay, every time I did it, I felt so awful. But I didn’t know what else to do. And then you started acting like you liked me, like you wanted me, like you loved me.”
“You liked it,” Melusine accuses in a hiss.
I nod in shame. “I didn’t want to like it, but I did. I used magic to control you, to control your feelings.” My eyes well up with tears. “I’m sorry, Clay. I’m so, so sorry.”
“So, I never loved you? It wasn’t real?”
“No,” I shake my head, the tears flowing freely now, dotting the surrounding water with the shimmering pearls of my regret, my grief. “I wanted it to be. I wanted it to be real so badly.”
Clay’s jaw sets. “Get away from me.”
“Clay, please, I—”
“You used me.” He clenches his teeth. “All those times you sang to me. I thought we were connecting. God, Lia, I thought … but no. You were making me think those things, you were making me feel that way. I can’t even look at you.”
Melusine may as well have cut me with that dagger. The pain couldn’t be worse than this.
Her laugh pierces the water, and she releases Clay with a flourish, letting the dagger hang at her side. It doesn’t matter now. The damage is done. He swims away from me.
“Brava,” Melusine says. “I certainly couldn’t have hurt him any worse than that.”
Neither Clay nor I say anything. There’s nothing left to say.
Clay’s eyes are red. If we weren’t surrounded by water, would there be tears in them?
Suddenly, the whole ro
om vibrates. The symbols etched below us glow. Mr. Havelock stops chanting.
“That confirms it,” he says. “The human is heartbroken. He’s ready to be sacrificed.”
“Thanks, Lia,” Melusine says. “I couldn’t have done it without you. Ready to watch him die?” A deranged look shines in her eyes as she rushes toward Clay, the obsidian blade aimed straight at him.
He sees her coming and tries to swim away, but with her natural speed in the water, he’s no match for her. This deep down, the current is strong, and without a tail to combat it, Clay looks like he’s swimming in slow motion. She’ll reach him in seconds.
It can’t end like this. Without planning, without thinking, I shoot toward her. My hand closes around her wrist.
Clay’s voice echoes in my memory from a long-ago lesson: “Keep as much distance between the weapon and the victim as possible.”
I wrench her arm upward so the dagger points away from Clay.
“Swim to the surface! Now!” I scream to him. He has to save himself before sunrise—before the potion wears off, and he stops breathing.
I squeeze Melusine’s wrist as hard as I can and smash my tail into the spot on her abdomen I bruised earlier. The shock and pain of the impact make her loosen her grip on the dagger for the briefest of moments. That’s all I need. I shake her arm violently, and the dagger flies out of her hand, plummeting toward the sea floor.
I let go of her and speed after it. Without the dagger, she can’t kill Clay in the ritual. If I can hold onto it until sunrise, she’ll miss her chance. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Clay hasn’t listened to me; he’s swimming toward us instead of toward the surface. But he’s making almost no progress, his human legs still hindered by the current.
I dive toward the ancient weapon, my arm outstretched, my fingers inches from the hilt.
Thick arms wrap around my waist and yank me away from my prize. Mr. Havelock holds me back, and all I can do is watch in horror as Melusine’s long-fingered hand closes around the rubied hilt.
Emerge Page 26