Chapter 13
Thirteen
Angie stood at the shoreline, staring with revulsion at the sight before her.
What in the eighteen levels of Hell was wrong with these people? This was positively barbaric and archaic. The early evening breeze carried the stench of ammonia and the heaviness of death. It made her sick, and her stomach squelched in agreement.
Three mer captured this morning were strung up on poles by the seashore, a crude warning to any of their kind who dared approach. The sight of them marred the harbor’s usually lovely view, full of lush, green vegetation.
Since she and the workers got the order to shoot mer on the spot, tension wove through her muscles and nerves, a rain cloud of negative thoughts following her every move.
Bàba had gone home without her after she told him she had some things to take care of.
He hadn’t questioned what kind of work she supposedly had, appearing deep in thought while making his way off the docks.
Angie’s patience wore thin as she paced up and down the coast. Her heartbeat quickened, yet weighed heavier with each beat each time she saw the strung-up mer.
She willed Kaden to appear so she could warn him away from the area.
Except he was nowhere to be found. Angie wrinkled her forehead. If he was smart, he would have stayed far from here.
Or, he could have decided he no longer wished to meet her and decided that gallivanting with a human was too risky. That particular notion put a bitter smile on her face.
Minutes passed. Still no sign of him. She let out an indignant huff.
Footsteps shuffled in the distance, and a deep voice called out behind her. “Hey!”
A male worker strolled by on the top of a hill, where she stood at the bottom. He peered down, his eyes two, wide, azure orbs.
She waved weakly.
“Whatcha doing down there? Little late to be wandering around by yourself, isn’t it?” He grinned like he knew something she didn’t, making the mole on the upper right corner of his lip more prominent.
She didn’t recognize him. He looked young and bright-eyed, and must be a new hire.
Frantic, invisible hands racked through Angie’s mind. “I’m sweeping the area before I head home.”
“Oh, okay. Me too.” He laughed. “Hey, you be careful if you see any of those crazy fish!”
“Yup, got my trusty Glock.” Angie patted her side pocket hard, making a point to him. Her hand met with her filled holster, her palm molding around the comforting lump.
He walked away, disappearing into the distance. A minute later, it hit her. He had asked why she was hanging around so late, but she never thought to ask him why he was still around by himself, when everyone else had gone home. She made a mental note to ask if she saw him again.
Angie walked down the shoreline, watching out of her peripheral vision for mer in the vicinity. Her vision closed in on a set of footprints, looking to have been made with boots larger than hers. Someone, perhaps a dock worker had been here recently. Maybe they were still nearby.
“Kaden.” She got to one knee. She kept her pitch low, hoping he alone heard her and not anyone else.
As she expected, no answer. Her lips thinned.
She called his name again, louder. Nothing, not even a ripple of water to acknowledge her.
He had five minutes, and if he wasn’t here by then, she was leaving.
Five minutes passed. Still no merman, but as she walked away, a bottle jumped from the water and rolled across the wood planks, stopping when it touched her feet. “Of course. More trash washing up.”
Grumbling to herself, she picked up the bottle and turned back toward the docks to drop it in their single recycling bin. While walking, she turned it over in her palm. A hastily scrawled “A” on a rolled-up sheet of viridian algae inside gave her pause.
“Message in a bottle. Cute.”
She slid the algae sheet out into her hand, a thick sheet of kombu kelp. Perplexed, she found scratches on it, appearing to form a pattern. She looked closer.
A simple message.
Follow where the currents shift westward.
Angie pursed her lips. She pulled out her phone to check the Maps app compass, and followed where it pointed west.
She found Kaden a three-minute walk away, waving to her and sitting in between two gray boulders. A wave rose behind him and crashed into the rocks, creating a liquid fan capped with snowy seafoam.
“Sorry to have you come all the way down here,” he said as soon as she was within earshot. “Humans found our meeting spot, and it was too dangerous for me. Especially after I saw—” Kaden visibly swallowed, an air of panic clutching at him.
“I figured.” Angie waved the kelp-directions at him. “The bottle was a little cryptic. It was about to go right into a recycling bin.”
Kaden’s lips quirked into an amused smile. “Pray tell, Angie, how I would have made it more obvious without sticking my head out of the water and screaming your name? I threw a bottle at your feet. Is that not obvious enough?”
“All right, whatever.” Angie raised her hands in surrender. She wanted to get to the point, not linger around and give someone a chance to see them. “I get it. I know there are other people around.” Also, she was sure it didn’t help to see three of his people impaled.
“I saw what your people did to mine.” His nostrils flared, and his eyebrows drew together, his jaw tightening.
His gaze pointed where the dead mer hung, fingers curling tight around the rock he sat on.
His countenance flickered to reflect some hidden rage mounting inside him.
By instinct, Angie took a step backward, keeping him in her sight.
His fingers relaxed and his expression collapsed, lips falling into a frown.
“I’m sorry you had to see that.” A sorrowful note spiked her words.
After all, she couldn’t forget the sensation of fear and despondency when she saw Luke, and she hadn’t been forced to see his decaying corpse each time she came to the seaboard.
“I am too.” Kaden’s chest heaved with heavy breaths, as if something in the air affected his respirations. “They were old friends of my family.” He let out a quiet cough and bowed his head. “But you’re not here to hear me lament.”
“I wasn’t, but I feel awful that happened.” Angie found herself at a loss for words. “That is horrible.”
The bottom third of his tail emerged from the water and curled at the end, caudal fins draping like an upside-down fan.
“Agreed. But I know we agreed to meet for another reason. I spoke with my family of your proposal, to release the fish back into the seas to feed your people. See if we could come to an agreement. They would not hear it.”
Angie’s next breath caught in her throat, her eyes feeling as if they were popping out of their sockets. “They wouldn’t listen at all?”
“I tried to convince them to see my side.” His voice became more strained with each word, and she crept closer to hear him clearly.
“They said it’s too late. Your people keep killing ours, and now mocking us with that tragedy at the shoreline.
They refused to keep talking about it and said landwalkers brought it on themselves. ”
Defeated, she slumped and covered her face. “Thanks for letting me know anyway.”
“I apologize for not being able to do more, or deliver better news.” He peered toward the water’s surface, and then back at her again. Still, he kept his head slightly turned away from her, his gaze darting back and forth.
“Are you expecting someone to sneak up behind you?” Angie followed his gaze. Before he answered, more footfalls sounded behind her. She jolted and Kaden hid between two taller rocks.
A man walked past without a second glance, whistling to himself and picking up garbage and debris from the floor with a reacher. Part of the evening cleanup crew, but they didn’t come this far out. Her chest tightened. Then again, things weren’t normal these days.
The man left, and Kaden reappeared from his hiding place. “Kaden.” She took another cursory glance around. “I should go. If they’re sending people further out here, it’s not safe for us to keep meeting.”
Kaden narrowed his amber eyes, nodding slowly. “Agreed. And Angie?”
“Hm?”
“If we ever see each other again, I promise I will not strike at you. But, I will not be coming ashore anymore.”
She gulped, her next words tumbling out breathy and cracked. “Me neither.”
What was she supposed to do now?
With a flick of his tail, he dove back underneath the sea. She made her way back, pulling her jacket tighter as the cold and heavy winds howled.
She struggled to think of a plan B, but she had nothing.