2. Enna
Chapter two
Enna
I’m not a sloppy killer. I take my job as a death-dealer seriously—I kill quietly, precisely, and I clean up the mess afterward.
Never have I let a target get away. The wounded soldier dives into the current that leads to the royal city, and I pursue him, leaving Odissa to harness and tether the princess’s corpse.
My tail slices with swift precision. I track the male by the iron scent of his wounds. Odissa’s blue light dims the farther I swim from her. My pulse races through my body in a thudding rhythm as fear creeps in. Sloppiness in the Drink is a death wish.
This was supposed to be a solo mission. Odissa would wait at the Hissing Bloodfish, connect with the client, and I’d deliver the body. Instead, my master showed up mid-mission, lit up the water with her glowing globe of a head, and distracted me enough to let a soldier slip through my fingers. Just so she could taunt the poor thing before I killed her?
Odissa isn’t a strong swimmer. Her gelatinous body is soft, with the exception of her torso, arms, and face. Where my hair sprouts from my scalp, Odissa has four oral arms and a jelly bell. Where I have a sleek tail, her torso fades into strings of wispy tentacles. I can control my bioluminescence with a flick of my magic; her skin glows ceaselessly, a beacon in the darkness. Her talents as a death-dealer are advantageous in long-game missions, in complex schemes with moving targets.
She observes. She analyzes.
I kill.
It’s the way we’ve operated since she found me in the royal city of Dredgemaw. Magic-wielders don’t usually mix with mermaids; not in the Abyss. The sirens are glad of the divide the Drink creates between us. But I'm a half-breed, so I belong nowhere.
Odissa sees potential in me. From a distance, I look full siren, and with my Voice and high-born upbringing, I can blend in at the royal court. Her appearance would raise questions.
We make a good team—when we stick to our expertise. When we don’t, shit like this happens. And I’m the one who has to clean it up.
Odissa calls out to me, the panic in her voice diluted by the water stretching between us. “Let him go, Enna!”
The soldier’s tail is almost within my grasp. I fight to swim through his current, reaching up with both hands. My core burns with exertion. Blood roars in my head, matching the heat of my fury.
He will not escape me. Not this time.
“Enna! Let’s go!”
A rumble sounds in the deep, low and grating. Then comes the clicking, echoing across the Drink—a dredgebeast seeking its prey.
My claws graze the slippery edge of the merman’s tail.
“ENNA!” Odissa’s shriek is desperate. She treads in a cloud of the soldiers’ blood, tethering a fresh corpse, with no hope of outswimming the beast.
Another boom. The sound ripples through the water, pushing me off course. The merman dives out of my reach. If I let the witness go, the whole mission could fail. He’ll report us to the Abyssal King, and we’ll be dead in two sleeps’ time.
The beast draws closer, its clicking tongue growing louder. Gritting my teeth, I pull up short. The soldier is bleeding. Odds are, the beast eats him, too.
“ENNA!”
I dive deep, following the light of Odissa’s skin until I find her fumbling with the tether rope. I check her knot around the princess’s waist, make an adjustment, and loop the cord through my harness. One final cinch, and the corpse snugs against my back like a rucksack.
“Let’s go!” I kick my tail without waiting for her response. The corpse is heavy but not unmanageable. As long as I don’t dive or twist too much, the body should stay in the proper state for delivery to the client waiting for us in Vespyr. With the extra weight, however, I cannot reach my usual speed. I pray to Tephra below that the dredgebeast goes for the wounded soldier.
Odissa undulates behind me, her tentacles contracting as she propels through the water. Her glowing skin is a moving target, the only light between here and our destination.
The clicking noises of the beast grow closer. Odissa’s hands grasp my tail, hitching on for a ride. I struggle to cut through the water, anchored by not one but two dead weights.
“You just had to come out here, didn’t you?” I scold her. “I had it under control!”
“Clearly not. That soldier should be dead.”
She pulls herself up the length of my tail, twisting to latch onto my belly. Her wispy tentacles thread beneath my harness, and she clutches me tightly. The soft, gel globe of her head nestles beneath my chin.
I growl, knowing she can feel it rumble through my body. “And he would be dead if you had stayed in Vespyr and let me handle it.”
“You would have sliced her neck.”
“That’s my protocol.”
“Then you should be thanking me. The client needs the body in perfect condition.”
Behind me, the dredgebeast increases its clicking. The water around us ripples as the beast’s large, scaly form forces through. I can’t see its paddle-like fins, but I can sense them—churning the deep.
If I can’t outswim this dredgebeast, it won’t matter what condition the body is in.
The clicking stops. An ominous silence settles in, the only sounds my fin's labored push through the water.
The dredgebeast is within attacking distance. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I squint into the darkness ahead of me, searching for the pinprick of light emanating from Vespyr.
There. A bright blue dot pierces the blackness like a beacon of safety—still out of reach. If we want to make it to the city alive, I’ll have to fight off the beast.
“Odissa, let go,” I whisper.
Her tentacles slither away from my body, releasing me from the burden of her weight and swimming toward the light of Vespyr. There’s nothing to be done about the corpse, no time to transfer the tether. With a flick of my tail, I twist to face my adversary.
In the dim light of Odissa’s retreating glow, I can only make out the outline of the beast’s snout, each nare twice my length. The water stirs as the beast inhales, scenting my position.
The beast lunges. With a snick of its bones, the jaw unhinges in a woosh of water. I follow the current, floating closer to its face. Claws extended, I collide with its snout and begin to climb. The jaws snap shut, jolting me. My hold slips. The princess’s corpse shifts, and I dig deeper, sinking my claws behind a thick scale into the soft flesh beneath.
The beast screeches, sending shockwaves. The reverberation shakes my skull, and my teeth clatter. Its head whips and bucks. Those slit nares flare as it tries to locate me by scent. But I’m too close. I claw my way on its nose, resting on the long surface between its eyes.
With what remains of my energy, I stir the magic in my belly. I could fight it with my knives, but I have extra cargo today—precious cargo I can’t afford to damage in a bloody scuffle.
My Voice is off-pitch and urgent. Lightning splits the dark. Along the beast’s head, a row of scales illuminates, running the length of its large body—one stripe down the middle means this is a male.
The males are smaller than their females, but they make up for it in aggression. He won’t give up easily. With another shriek, he shakes his massive head, trying to dislodge me. But my claws anchor me in place. I draw my head close enough to sink my fangs into his scales, too.
I deepen my Voice. Lightning crackles from my hands and mouth. The magic burns in my eyes.
My stomach churns, rapidly depleting its energy stores. If the beast doesn’t go numb soon, I will die from exertion. To kill a dredgebeast of his size will take everything I have.
The purple glow of my magic travels from his skull to the tip of his long, thrashing tail, caressing each of his bones.
But my magic is running dry, yet still, he moves.
I pry one hand from his skin and stretch for his great, black eye. Growling, I slice into the soft flesh—a straight shot to his brain. His body twitches, writhing, as my magic courses through him. His screech cuts short, and the mighty dredgebeast goes limp, tilting toward the abyssal plains below. I release his body with numb hands.
The energy tax of my magic squeezes. My brain fogs. My body turns to ice. The last thing I see is the distant speck of Vespyr, still out of reach.
The beast will awaken soon, and I pray to Tephra that he kills the wounded soldier after he finishes devouring me.