Chapter 45
Forty-Five
Angie spun around and banged into the narrow walls, and she flinched. The mer swimming guard outside moved into formation and darted out, leaving her with Serapha and the group of sentinels.
One sentinel’s voice drifted to Angie. “We must keep the Queen safe!”
Angie struggled to make a U-turn in the cell so she faced the back window.
She was at the palace’s flank, and divers approached in droves, dressed in red scuba outfits effectively camouflaging them in the deep’s darkness.
Mer approached from the left, right, above, and beneath them.
Spears, lances, and tridents struck. Blood flowed and formed sanguineous clouds around them until Angie couldn’t differentiate between tail, blood, human, or mer.
She hoped one of the divers wasn’t Stefan or Ken.
When the blood dissipated, it revealed the dead. Their bodies sank to become food for the sea’s scavengers, littering the ocean floor around the palace. The cell blocked out much of the sound, so she watched the goings-on outside with rising terror, a silent, deep-sea horror movie.
Tiān, if one of the mer was Kaden—
Her cell door burst open, and a pair of hands grabbed her ankles, pulling her out. The blood-curdling noises came. Screams from the mer as they were impaled. The divers too, with their mouths free of regulators with the mer magic in them. Screams, yells, and battle cries rang through her skull.
The sentinels escorted her out with Serapha at the helm.
They fled from the carnage outside.
This time, it wasn’t only the sight of blood striking at her. It was the stench. Even diluted, the thick, ferrous odor assailed her nostrils and made her want to heave had she anything in her stomach to throw up.
The mer and humans were still fighting around her.
Fighting, fighting, fighting. Tiān, she wanted this to end. Wanted to go home. Wanted to be with Kaden in peace.
A brief thought of escaping their grasp crossed Angie’s mind. Anything was better than what the mer-queen and her group of armed sentinels had in mind for her. Yes, Serapha had said she would use Angie to make the humans surrender, but she didn’t say how, or whether Angie would live or not.
Though, if there was the miniscule chance of escape, she’d take what she could get.
Desperation clawed at her, and she broke away, kicking and cycling her legs and arms as fast as her fatigued body would allow.
Every stroke felt like torture, her muscles screaming in pain, but she pushed through, fueled by adrenaline.
Angie had made it three kicks before arms grabbed her ankles and dragged her back down, and she shrieked.
“What are you thinking?” Serapha hissed, flanked by one sentinel while the other brought a still-struggling Angie back to them. One of the sentinel’s arms squeezed around Angie’s shoulders, and he held his trident to her lower back.
Though her mind refused to quit, her body gave up the fight, and she went limp in the sentinel’s strong arms.
She should have squashed the notion, knowing it would never work.
They swam much faster than she could ever dream to, and her body remained fatigued from not eating and drinking anything but sips of seawater for a day.
Her lungs and skin were tight from dehydration, and she suspected Kaden’s magic was the only thing keeping her conscious.
They stopped briefly when another sentinel swam up to them, her long braid swaying on her back. “Your Majesty. The messenger you sent has been slain.”
“Black trenches.” Serapha set her jaw, and the sentinels moved to surround her, their weapons pointed outward. “Bring me one of the cursed landwalkers, then.”
The mermaid sentinel gave her a single nod, and turned away.
They moved through one tunnel, then another, and then a third, until they were out in the open sea. No fighting, no dead bodies, no blood, no weapons.
Only chilling silence.
Their path took them through a sanctuary, and a melancholy wave draped over Angie’s head as the fish inside darted out of their way.
“Here.” Serapha waved them over once the sanctuary had vanished from sight. She pointed to a giant rock cluster before them, and they ducked underneath, entering the littoral cave from the bottom. Inside was a passage sandwiched between thousands of cenotes, stretching an endless distance ahead.
Vibrant sea sponges and soft coral dotted the walls around them. A sight Angie likely would never have seen if she wasn’t the mers’ captive. Though the situation struck fear, she relished this picture of beauty.
A sentinel held out her arm, barring Angie’s chest when they reached an open space with a single, large, flat rock formation. The male sentinel pointed her to the rock.
“Wait there.” If Angie could sweat underwater, she would have been doing so profusely by now. She swam to the rock and brought her arms upward to lower herself onto it. Clutching at the edges, driving her heels into the sandy ground, and pushing her calves against the rock kept her from floating.
The mer-queen paid them no attention, her back turned to her.
For a tortuous stretch of time, the four remained in silence.
Angie slid her gaze to Serapha again. She had her head bowed, murmuring what sounded like a prayer, or mantra under her breath. Angie’s heart softened, knowing she must be grieving her comatose crown prince and her mer-king.
The mermaid sentinel from earlier returned with a male sentinel, and a struggling, kicking person held by his armpits as they dragged them in.
“Here. We found this one swimming around aimlessly, away from the intruders.” The male sentinel braced himself with his tail, and swung the human around to face them.
Angie gave a small yelp. “Stefan?”
Stefan looked up and stopped his kicking. “Angie? Oh my God, you’re okay.”
“You–what are you doing here? You came to attack the palace?” Angie still couldn’t believe he was here. Wearing only a crimson scuba suit. “You took the mer magic?”
“Oh, so you two know each other. Makes this much easier,” Serapha sneered.
Stefan floated with the sentinels binding his arms behind him. “The others came to siege the mer, and I said I wanted to join them so they’d lead me here. But I didn’t attack. I heard you had been captured. Your dad sent me to find you. Figured with the camouflage, the mer wouldn’t find me.”
“Then you go and tell your leader that they have until low noontide to meet at the shoreline. If they do not agree, or if they attempt to attack us again without speaking, she dies.” Serapha tossed a haughty glance to Angie.
“Okay. Okay. I will. Just, how do I get out of here? I’ll tell your dad, Angie. I promise.” Stefan winced, then gritted his teeth as he rolled his shoulders out. “God, it hurts. My shoulders don’t have that kind of flexibility anymore.”
“Escort him. Make sure he reaches the surface.” Serapha dismissed the two sentinels, and they turned and left with Stefan.
Angie watched after them, and let a stretch of time pass before addressing Serapha. “Your Majesty?”
Serapha turned her head in Angie’s direction, but didn’t bother to rotate her body enough to face her.
“Do not call me that.” The sentence came out abrupt and snappy.
“You’re not of my kind. You’re a filthy landwalker, and you caused my people to die in droves.
” Unmistakable hatred coated her words. “Then you led my son into a trap.”
Angie flinched, but kept her eyes trained on Serapha’s back and contracted tail. “No.” Her exhale carried the word. “Kaden and I were trying to stop this. I swear, I didn’t lure him. Why would I? I just returned Cyrus to you.”
Serapha’s hands curled into fists at her sides. “Keep Cyrus out of this.”
Angie set her jaw. “Your people have died, and so have mine. They’re killing each other in the palace as we speak. Can’t we come to an agreement, for both of our sakes?”
“I’ve heard nothing from you about whether your leader had agreed to negotiate in the first place. I was still open to talking of peace, but then your divers sieged us. Clearly peace is not what you landwalkers want,” she sneered.
Angie held her breath for several seconds before letting it go, slowing the pounding pulse beating through her veins and arteries.
“Your Maj—Mer-Queen.” She hoped the title wouldn’t offend her.
The Queen said nothing, didn’t move, and Angie took it as her cue to continue.
“I’m sorry about King Aqilus. But I heard Prince Cyrus still lives. I kept my promise, didn’t I?”
“His heart still beats, but he is far from alive.” At last, Serapha faced her, and Angie sat at attention, her hair fanning around her head. She eyed a coiled, striped nautilus drifting by. “I have already lost too much.”
She turned her back to Angie again, and she took the hint and stopped talking.
Angie didn’t have the first idea of how much time had passed, and she was numb from sitting in the same position for so long.
She longed for a way out, but with the cave’s single entrance and the sentinels never leaving her side, it left her no choice but to sit and wait for what happened next, much as she loathed not knowing what was to come.
A second attempt at speaking with the Queen yielded stony silence, and Serapha hadn’t deigned to turn around to face her.
Finally, a lone sentinel entered the cave. “It’s safe to return. The landwalkers are gone.”
Serapha raised a hand and gave them a nod. Without a word, the sentinels took Angie by the upper arms and traveled back to the palace.
A small group of haggard mer greeted them at the palace gates.
Mer and human corpses littered the courtyard floor, and salmon and Greenland sharks were closing in.
“My Queen, you are safe. Thank the Goddess.” The mer lowered their heads in a bow to her.
Then their gaze moved to Angie. “This is the human captive?”
“Yes.”
Many of the mer glared at Angie, but the one who had addressed the queen continued, “A small landwalker group flanked the rear. Entered one of the sanctuaries, stole a netful of fish. We’ve lost fifty soldiers, but we took their lives in equal measure.”
“This is how they wish to try to end this? By attempting to steal the fish back for their own terrible use? I will not let this come to pass,” Serapha said, her silvery voice full of resolve.
“What do you propose?” One of the sentinels escorting Angie asked.
Serapha tilted her chin upward. As they inched closer to the surface, dread unfurled in Angie’s innards.
“We follow them,” Serapha ordered. “They cannot outswim us. Call what sentinels and soldiers you can. We will make for the shore. I wish to end this on this tidesday. The landwalkers will cede to me or see their end.”