Chapter 26
“Walton, you spoke to the intruder and knew it by name,” Chalmers stated, not bothering to ask or to go lightly into the topic. Not that he’d ever be accused of being delicate.
“Yes, sir,” Autumn replied. There was no point in arguing. She had a half dozen witnesses and a desire for it all to just end—in so many ways.
“Not sure how you did it, Walton.” Chalmers smiled and let out a low laugh that crept up Autumn’s skin like something insidious.
“Sorry, sir?” Autumn asked, needing more context.
“It’s all right. All your little disappearing acts make sense now. I never knew you had it in you.” He shook his head at her, a smirk on his lips like he was damn proud of her.
Autumn looked over to Marshall, hoping to find some clue as to what was going on. Marshall continued to stare straight ahead, refusing to turn toward Autumn though she would have bet he could feel her stare on his face.
What the hell was going on?
“I’m not sure I understand.” Even asking that question could get her into trouble. If he expected her to know what was going on, then she really should play into that for survival’s sake.
“Now, now.” Chalmers shook his head. “No need for that. Let’s not waste time with more lies. I must say whoever trained you did a great job. We were all convinced you were just here to be a pain in our ass.”
Autumn’s heart sunk.
They really did all hate her.
She hadn’t just been overthinking or making that up.
The stares, the annoyed looks, the jibes—it had all been real.
Autumn wanted to question him again but thought better of it. She had no idea what he was going on about, but he seemed to want to talk. Which would be a first for him and her. And that set off loud warning bells. She’d let him talk and hope she could work out what the hell had happened while she roamed the corridors of the tech wing in a daze.
“But all this time you had your own mission. Infiltrating the monsters from the water. It’s genius. No doubt you’ve been able to get information about their technology.” He put his hand out in front of him, like he wanted her to take over the conversation and explain something.
“Technology.” Autumn said it like a statement, hoping the pause would propel him to say more. She wished she had been able to keep her mouth shut, but her head ached and nothing seemed quite real. Not the weight of her own body or the feeling of the hard wooden slats beneath the too thin padding on the chair she sat on.
“Ah, of course.” Chalmers nodded, an unnerving glint in his eyes. “Need to know basis. I respect that. Though I would have been able to give you more freedoms if I’d known what your mission here had actually been.”
“Sir,” Marshall interrupted before Autumn could work out what to say. The acid in her stomach burned and made its way up the back of her throat. “I’m on duty in the mess.”
Chalmers barked a laugh. “You’ll stay where you are until we’re finished.”
“Yes, sir,” Marshall said. To anyone else it might seem as though he spoke calmly, or at best indifferently, but Autumn had known him long enough to see his jaw muscles pulse beneath his skin.
“Who knows about the mermaids?” Autumn asked. She had gleaned enough from his conversation to figure out what he had been assuming. She took her chance, hoping she was correct. What did she have to lose? Her life? She had already expected to be executed.
“Oh, you needn’t worry about that. I was the only one privy to that information when we first arrived.”
“But Marshall knows.” Autumn pointed at her comrade.
“Marshall encountered them in the water and asked about them.” Chalmers looked at her suspiciously.
“You told me I’d been mistaken,” Marshall’s voice burst into the room, anger laced in every word.
“Of course, I did. You were being an idiot. Wanting us to abandon our mission for those disgusting slimy aliens.” Chalmers sneered.
“What?” Autumn stared at Marshall, mouth dropping open.
“What do you want me to do now, sir?” Though it didn’t sound like a question. It sounded like Marshall was being handed his execution orders at the same time as Autumn. That cold feeling she’d gotten used to since Soulara had shown up reared its ugly head again. Autumn was about to jump in, but Chalmers beat her to it.
“You and Walton have a new mission. We need more information about the mermaids.” Chalmers stood and turned his back to them.
Autumn looked directly at Marshall, trying to gauge his reaction. She hadn’t meant to get Marshall in trouble. She hadn’t meant to pull him into this drama and make him commit treason with her. Looking back at Chalmers, something settled in Autumn’s heart.
“That’s not my mission, sir.” Autumn stammered.
“It is now.” Chalmers turned back to them, and Autumn recognized the cold hard stare he gave her. The amused man who had chuckled was no longer present anywhere in his face. “I don’t appreciate spies in my ranks. No matter if the mission is for the greater good. I don’t care what you’ve reported back to whoever trained you and planted you in my team. You’ll collect the information I need. And you won’t be reporting it back to your other leaders.”
Autumn flinched.
“And before you think about going against my orders, Marshall.” He narrowed his eyes on Marshall. “Don’t forget how unfortunate Tripp was.”
Autumn turned to look at Marshall, but his eyes remained fixed ahead of him. From his profile, she could see that his face hadn’t gone white so much as a dusty gray.
“Yes, sir.” Marshall’s voice had no emotion in it.
“You’re dismissed.”
They walked out together, shoulders bumping once. Marshall leaned down and glared at her before turning sharply and stalking down the corridor.
“Marshall.” Autumn hurried to catch up with Marshall. “Would you fucking stop already?”
“Why?” He stopped and glared at her. “So you can get me fucking killed, too?”
Fellow officers moved around them and turned their heads and stared. Autumn grabbed Marshall’s arm and pulled him around the corner. She had been tempted to smile, but seeing as she didn’t usually, she simply nodded as a handful of officers walked past.
“Let me go,” Marshall snapped, pulling his arm out of her grip once they were alone.
“What happened at Tripp?” The words seemed sluggish in her throat. She had to use far too much force to get them out of her mouth.
“What do you think?” He rubbed his hands over his cheeks and let out a huge sigh.
“I have no idea.” She hadn’t even heard the name before.
“Fuck you. You can knock off the sweet innocent routine now.”
“You believed him?” Autumn’s face grew cold, and then her arms and her torso as her blood drained to her lower body.
“He knows what goes on around here.”
“He thinks he does.” Autumn shook her head. She could do this. She could trust him, right? “I’m not some undercover agent. I went for a walk because the fucking testosterone was threatening to choke me. Next thing I know, this naked woman starts talking to me, and it turns out she’s a fucking mermaid!” Autumn whispered-screamed the last two words, just in case. And the relief at being able to finally say the words rushed through her.
“You expect me to believe that bullshit? You knew her name, and she knew you,” Marshall hissed. “I watched the video, Autumn.”
“It’s not like that. Yes, we know each other, now.” She emphasized the last word, but Marshall’s sneer didn’t shift from his face.
“I’m going to do Chalmers’s fucking bidding, and the moment we get back, I’m wiping my hands of you, and this whole fucked up service.”
“Marshall.” Autumn begged to be believed, but she didn’t chase after him again.
Instead, she watched him walk away.
Autumn had thought she had felt trapped before, but now she wasn’t just trapped, she was screwed.
She had a mark on her.
One that would land her six feet in a pit.
No.
That was too kind.
They’d leave her out to feed the wildlife.
Autumn put her hand in her pocket and searched for the small sewn-in coin pouch. She didn’t dare open the pouch and touch the soul stone with her bare fingers. The hardness through the material calmed her. Until she remembered what Chalmers was making her and Marshall do. Her stomach churned as she remembered the threats of what would follow should either of them go against him.
Marshall found her in the morning. He didn’t look happy about it. And when he repeated their orders, Autumn nearly ran to the ocean to drown herself.
Standing on the edge of the beach, Autumn’s eyes ached in the glare of the sun. The winking lights off the water no longer carried a calm beauty to them. She hadn’t slept. Not a wink. After tossing and turning for hours, she gave up. By then the sun had already woken, spreading the cold light of dawn over the world she inhabited.
No, not inhabited.
The world she invaded.
She had avoided the harsh words. But the truth would no longer be hidden behind diplomacy and justification. At least not in her mind—not anymore. She had allowed herself to believe they didn’t know. She had ignored all the clues that told her that of course they knew, they just didn’t care. Nothing could be ignored any longer.
The water washed over her bare toes, and she flicked a glance over her shoulder.
Marshall hid himself along the tree line. While she couldn’t see him, her back prickled at the sensation of his eyes staring holes into her. He wouldn’t talk to her, wouldn’t let her explain. And she couldn’t really blame him.
It just showed in stark clarity how no one really knew her. Marshall had been the closest she had come to having a friend, a human friend. But for him to think she would do what Chalmers accused was unthinkable.
Taking another deep breath, Autumn closed her eyes and shoved her hand into her pocket. She had already opened the small pouch inside and now dipped her fingers in to touch the smooth surface of the soul stone.
Calm washed over her, a warmth that spread through her body and out to the tips of her fingers and down to her toes. She wanted it to wrap around her, protect her, and never let her go. Then she remembered the standoff with Soulara. Perhaps drowning wouldn’t be such a bad option after all.
She shook away the morbid thought and focused on the feelings washing through her from the stone.
In a flash that made her gasp, images of sea life, beautiful and bright, pressed into her mind. A building in the ocean. Not just a building, but a castle. It reminded her of stories the oldest of her people would tell the children. Stories passed down since before the water ran dry. Since before humans had destroyed their own planet and instead of changing their ways, decided they deserved to destroy as many planets as they could find.
Anger slammed into her where the warm calm had once been. She rocked on her feet, only just managing to keep her balance.
She took slow, deep breaths and reached out with her thoughts. Part of her didn’t want this to work, didn’t want to risk Soulara anymore. But the risks to her own people, to Marshall and his friends and family, couldn’t be ignored either.
“Please, Nylah. Please ask Soulara to come see me. I need to talk to her,” Autumn whispered, hoping that Marshall couldn’t hear her.
The anger lashed out at her like a whip, but the connection didn’t break. Autumn swam through the turns and dips of the castle all through Nylah’s eyes. A smile that she couldn’t hold back touched the corners of her mouth. The colors and the light were beautiful, not to mention the works of art the mermaids had made of the natural world around them. She never would have been able to imagine it on her own.
There was no separation between them and their environment. Autumn could see the pulse of life in everything there.
The smile disappeared from her lips, and by the time Nylah reached Soulara, tears ran down Autumn’s face. She had fallen into the sand. With her legs pulled to her chest, she sobbed into her knees and watched as Soulara excused herself from a room full of mers. Some of them looked so like Soulara while others might have been different species if she went solely by the differences between them.
Soulara looked directly at her.
Betrayal.
They were done.
She wasn’t coming.