The Tideborn Council
Chapter Nine
SADIE
Iscramble backward on the stone slab, my palms slipping against the wet surface as my pulse hammers in my throat. I continue until I’m pressed against the damp wall, as far as possible from the Mer. My ribs ache from coughing up half the ocean, and my body feels weak and wrong.
Everything is unreal—like I’m watching someone else live through this nightmare instead of actually being here.
I’m still hoping to wake up and discover this has all been a horrid dream.
The first person to emerge from the water is massive, a man with broad shoulders and a thick neck I suspect would be damn near impossible to strangle. His dark hair is slicked away from his hard, angular face, and he tilts his head in an eerie way as he evaluates me.
I look lower.
His tail is a deep cerulean blue, thick and scarred, and his forearms flex as he uses the stone slab to haul his upper body out of the water. He looks like a fighter.
And he’s much too close for comfort.
The second man is leaner, but no less frightening. Vibrant orange scales gleam beneath the pulsing algae light. The color is mesmerizing, almost distracting from the open curiosity reflected in his expression. He looks less hostile. When I meet his eyes, I’m shocked to see flecks of orange in them.
The third person to emerge is a woman. She’s beautiful in an eerie way. Her hair is long and white, with an almost pinkish tint to the strands. They float around her shoulders like smoke. Her tail is pale gold, almost ivory beneath the water.
Unlike with the men, the scales of her tail travel up her ribcage, ending just beneath her breasts. Something shell-like is covering her chest.
Her face is perfectly composed, stiff as a statue, but her eyes display immediate, open disgust.
The cerulean, scarred male makes a quiet click, his tongue smacking gently against the roof of his mouth. The gesture reminds me of a predator tasting the air, and when he snaps his tail against the water, a strange, charged tension rolls through the room.
I scoot back farther, putting additional distance between us. It’s still not enough.
Kyros chirps back, his brow furrowed, before crimson lashes out underwater and smacks against cerulean. There’s a moment of stillness before the frightening man moves away, releasing the stone slab and returning to the others.
The distance is an immediate relief.
Kyros drifts in front of the slab, his broad shoulders cutting me off from view. His crimson tail swipes once behind him, violent enough to send water sloshing against the stone. It coats my feet and, thankfully, scatters the remnants of my vomit.
The orange-tailed Mer makes a low, rough sound and moves away.
The others stare at me, seemingly waiting for me to react, but I have no inkling of what they’re looking for. I don’t speak Mer.
The woman’s mouth hardens.
“Well,” she says coolly, finally speaking my language. “That answers one question.”
The orange-tailed Mer shakes his head. “By the currents…”
He’s staring at my legs, dragging his gaze up and down the length of them. It’s unnerving, and the woman doesn’t seem happy when she notices.
“Mavek!” She clicks her tongue twice, her expression souring. “Control yourself.”
“I am.”
Judging by the aggravated thrashing of his tail, he very clearly is not. He’s also still staring at my legs.
Kyros’s voice comes out low and sharp. “Enough.”
The water ripples with the force of his command, and Mavek finally looks away.
Who are these people? Are they here to join Kyros in his interrogation?
They’re going to be sorely disappointed to learn I don’t know anything about anything.
Up until an hour ago, I thought I was Sadie White, a twenty-five-year-old crabber with no skills beyond tying bait traps and hauling crab pots.
But now… I’m not sure who or what I am. I have no answers.
Mavek flexes his jaw, his orange tail twitching behind him. I look between him and the others, my pulse pounding. Is Mavek dangerous?
The cerulean-tailed male finally speaks. “You brought it here.”
Did he just call me an ‘it’?
Kyros stiffens. “Her name is Sadie.”
The woman arches a delicate brow. “Believing that is your first mistake.”
I push myself upright, ignoring the way my muscles tremble.
The cerulean Mer’s nostrils flare, and Mavek raises a brow. The woman… She smiles. I wouldn’t say it’s kind.
Kyros shoots me a look over his shoulder. There’s something dark in his expression. A warning, maybe. Or maybe he’s just surprised that I haven’t broken down sobbing. Admittedly, I’m close.
The woman glides closer, her gaze sweeping over me with clinical disgust. I’m beginning to regret my choice of attire. My cotton pajamas are thin, and the short shorts display to the room exactly how non-Mer I am.
“Human legs,” she says. “Human eyes. Human clothing.”
Mavek chimes in. “But not human scent. I can smell her otherness in the water. It lingers, even now. She’s not human.” I don’t like the way he’s staring at me. It’s too intense.
The woman flicks a hand toward him. “Get a hold of yourself.”
I look to Kyros, my heart pounding as I find my voice. “Who are they?”
Kyros blows out a breath, the dim algae light sliding across the sharp planes of his face. “The Tideborn Council.”
I shut my eyes in a slow blink. Of course there’s a council. Why wouldn’t there be a council in the underwater murder kingdom?
“Mavek and Daros are the most seasoned warriors of our pod,” the woman says, lifting her chin slightly. “I’ve been voted in for unity.”
“Unity…” I repeat. “That’s funny.”
Her eyes flash.
Kyros ignores us both.
He nods toward the male with the cerulean, scarred tail. “Daros.”
His attention shifts to the orange-tailed one. “Mavek.”
When his gaze shifts to the woman, something in his face goes flat and unreadable. “And Seraya.”
Seraya swims closer to Kyros, her pale tail curling beneath her as she settles beside him. One elegant hand slides over his forearm. It’s subtle…intimate. Judging by the way Kyros immediately goes rigid, it’s also deliberate.
Jealousy twists in her pretty face when she looks at me again. That explains it. I don’t know exactly what happened between her and Kyros, but I know enough to recognize another woman’s territorial behavior.
She has nothing to worry about. I would rather fuck myself with a smoldering blade than touch Kyros in any sort of sexual way.
Her voice grows cold as she speaks to Kyros. “You should’ve killed her on sight.”
Kill me? For what? I have zero interest in hunting Mer. I just wanted to do my job, complete our run in a timely fashion, and go home to my comfortable bed.
Kyros’s jaw tightens as Mavek folds his arms over the stone edge, approaching me for the second time. How did he get those scars on his tail? From humans? I’m keeping an eye on him.
“Start from the beginning,” he orders Kyros.
Kyros does. He tells them about the boat and my father, including details of my private conversation with Dad regarding the abnormalities he saw on the sonar. It figures that Kyros was eavesdropping on us.
He tells them about pushing my father overboard, then a brief fight with Tipper. That’s why he was covered in blood.
He leaves nothing out, and every detail makes the chamber feel smaller and smaller, the walls shrinking in on me. I’m biting back tears when he confirms again that both Dad and Tipper are dead. He examined their drowned bodies himself.
That’s when he smelled my otherness seeping through the water. He couldn’t detect it until we were both submerged. I guess his senses aren’t as adept on land.
Mavek cuts in, his orange tail twitching beneath him. “She’s a hybrid.”
“No,” Seraya says immediately. “No. That isn’t possible. She must be something different. Something new.”
I glance between them. Could I really be a hybrid? I don’t know how else to explain what’s happening to me. Did Dad know? Does this mean my mother is Mer? Is that why she left?
Has Dad been looking for her? Is that where his obsession stemmed from?
I lick my lips. “Why is being a hybrid such a problem?”
Seraya rounds on me. “Be silent!”
“Fuck you.”
The chamber stills, and Seraya’s stare could flay skin from bone.
She turns back to Mavek. “Hybrids are extinct. You must be mistaken.”
Mavek tears his gaze off my exposed legs. His orange tail curls beneath him, the fins skimming the water.
“She affects the blood,” he says. “Not just desire—instinct itself. The deepest parts of us. Every male in the pod will feel it, and even the most disciplined won’t be able to ignore the pull.” He works his jaw from side to side. “I felt her the moment I entered the room.”
What the fuck does that mean? I take a closer look at the men in the room.
Mavek is flexing his hands like he wants to grab hold of something and snap it in half.
Daros is controlling himself better, but there’s a stiffness to his movements.
A strain around the mouth and an agitated twitching of his cerulean tail.
And Kyros…
He’s trying not to show it, but I can see his tension. His shoulders are too rigid, and his jaw is locked. His tail keeps making short, abrupt movements through the water behind him, causing continuous ripples and occasional splashes.
Seraya stares at his tail. “You’re already compromised.”
Kyros shakes his head. “No.”
“You brought a hybrid into Tideborn territory during the red bloom,” she argues. “Pollen has already begun spreading through the lower reefs.”
All three men tense at the mention of the red bloom. It’s a dramatic shift, impossible to miss.
I look between them. “What the hell is the red bloom?”
No one answers me.
“Well?” I urge.
Kyros drags a hand through his hair. “There’s a temperature surge every spring. The coral releases a potent red pollen. It causes male Mer to grow volatile—territorial and aggressive over our land and our women. It’s our—”
He opens his mouth, like he wants to say more, before snapping it shut.
Seraya scoffs. “And now we have a hybrid in the middle of it.” She looks me over with open contempt. “She’ll destroy the pod.”
A shiver works its way down my spine, but I refuse to show my fear. I didn’t ask to be here. This isn’t my fault. I look around, desperate for a way out, but there’s no hope. There’s only one exit, and I have no chance of outswimming four Mer.
Seraya continues. “Hybrids ignite breeding wars. Entire bloodlines have been slaughtered over less.”
Back the fuck up. Breeding wars? What is she—
Daros nods. “We should kill her.”
Straight to the point. I flatten myself against the wall.
The corner of Seraya’s lip twitches upward. “Agreed.”
My stomach drops, but I force my chin up higher. “You already killed my father and Tipper. Now you want to kill me, too? Is that how you protect your people? Murder anybody who stumbles too close?”
Kyros flinches. Barely, but I see it. Seraya notices his reaction, too, if her bitter expression is anything to read into.
“Your father endangered us,” she says. “His death was necessary.”
“He was a crabber!” My voice trembles despite my best attempt to keep it steady. “He loved the ocean more than anybody I’ve ever known.” I laugh. It’s a horrible, broken sound. “He was a good man.”
Kyros frowns. “That doesn’t erase the risk he brought upon us.”
Daros pushes forward. “Enough.” He grunts. “The hybrid is dangerous. We end this now.”