Chapter 27
Troy
I WOKE UP TO DYLAN shouting my name and Eirlys shouting Kiora’s. Begrudgingly, I got up and stumbled into the living room.
“Keep your voices down,” I grumbled, still trying to wake up.
“Where’s Kiora?” Eirlys asked excitedly.
Good question. She could’ve run up to greet her mom, or she could’ve just as easily hidden from her. Evidently, she had chosen to hide.
If Eirlys hadn’t killed Billy, I would’ve done it myself for traumatizing my little mermaid so much she was too scared to face her own mother.
“Hiding from all the commotion, most likely.”
Dylan cringed. “Sorry. Didn’t think about that.”
He knew how young mermaids were, and even though Mira should’ve grown out of the runner phase, trauma didn’t always allow for it.
I went in search of her, checking the hot springs first. Not here. She wasn’t in the kitchen either.
“Is that what you were eating?” Azar asked as he pointed at the plates left on the table. Exhaustion had gotten the better of me, so I hadn’t cleaned up after us. Since Kiora had cooked, it should’ve fallen on me to do the dishes.
“Yeah, sorry. I’ll clean that up in a minute,” I promised.
Azar shook his head. “Nah, I was gonna say this plate has a funky smell to it.” He pointed at the one I had eaten out of.
Nothing funky about it. Kiora just needed more time to learn to cook or give up on it entirely.
“It’s the burned veggies,” I explained.
“That’s not what I’m smelling.”
Azar pushed past me and went to grab the first aid kit. He checked all the pills until he found a bottle of fleniton and shook it at me.
“Why are we looking at the first aid kid instead of looking for my daughter?” Eirlys asked.
“That’s what the plate smells like,” Azar explained. “She drugged your ass.”
Ah, shit.
I sprinted to the exit and opened the chest. Sure enough, it was half empty. Already knowing what I would find, I went in search of Kiora’s backpack. It was gone, but her kettlebell and her clothes were left in a haphazard pile on the floor.
“I don’t see her anywhere,” Dylan said as he came up behind me.
“She’s climbing down the mountain.” Fucking fuck. That climb would’ve been brutal on anyone, but a mermaid?
Dylan paled, then turned a shade of green. He liked heights about as much as the rest of our kind.
“Please, tell me you’re joking.”
“You guys want to climb and try to trace her steps, or do we fly the path she’s most likely to take?” Azar shouted from the living room.
“Climb?” Eirlys squealed. “Are you crazy?”
“Both,” I shouted back. “I’ll climb, and the rest of you can fly.”
“Are you crazy?” Eirlys repeated. “You’re going to fall.”
“I won’t. I might shit myself, but I won’t fall.”
I quickly grabbed a harness and rope, secured it in place, and left the safety of the luxury cave for the deadly drop. Just below where I had picked the flowers, I found fresh scuffs. A little further down, I found more.
Would she have left any trail at all if she wasn’t terrified of the heights? The guts it must’ve taken for her to climb even this far was astounding, but she didn’t stop here. She kept going.
Waves, I never should’ve told her she might be getting her seal skin. What had I been thinking? I knew she was a flight risk.
A few dozen feet later, I found a narrow ledge with a partial footprint just to the side of where I was hanging. She must’ve moved over to use the next piton. I inspected the area more carefully, and sure enough, there were more scuffs.
As I changed my own position, I made the mistake of looking down. My foot slipped and my stomach didn’t just drop—it liquified. Waves above, that was one hell of a drop. I was so dead. One wrong move and splat.
I pressed my body into the solid wall and forced my breathing to slow. I had a harness and a rope. A single piton could hold thousands of pounds. I wasn’t going to die today.
Well, I might still die today after telling my friends I had every intention of dating their daughter. But first, I had to find her.
I also needed to find a way to knock her out of the running cycle. She deserved a better life—the life where she got to choose if she wanted to stay in one place or not.
And what if she doesn’t want to settle in one place? A voice in the back of my head whispered.
I liked Whynot. It was a nice little town with a lot of great people. But would it be enough for me if Kiora wasn’t here? No. I didn’t even have to think about it.
Finally, I made it to an area with easier terrain. I didn’t even need a rope here. Judging by another partial shoe print, Kiora had found this place, too. Now, I just needed to find the next clue as to where she would’ve gone.