Grand Rescues
Chapter Thirteen
SADIE
I’m about to be eaten. God fucking dammit.
The creature closes the distance between us with startling speed.
Just when I prepare to squeeze my eyes shut, something crimson slams into my side. For one disoriented second, I think the creature has me. I brace for teeth—for unimaginable pain and for my body to be torn apart in the black.
Instead, a thick, muscular tail coils around my torso and yanks me backward so quickly that my head snaps to the side.
Kyros. He hauls me against his chest just as the creature’s jaws clamp shut where I’d been floating a heartbeat earlier.
The sound of teeth meeting teeth travels through the water in a horrible crunch.
Bubbles erupt from my mouth.
Kyros tightens his tail around me, pinning my arms to my sides as he jerks us away from the creature. I can feel every flex of muscle beneath his scales and every violent snap of power as he drives us away from the thing.
The creature follows and, fuck, it’s fast. Too fast, I fear.
A low, choppy chirping sound escapes Kyros. I suspect it’s a curse. He unravels his tail and shoves me behind him so roughly that I spin in the water, tumbling toward the current.
It’s going to take me.
Kyros fists the front of my shirt just before I hit the current. He pulls me close, my chest slamming against his. My breath catches. It’s unnecessary underwater, but my body doesn’t seem to care.
Crimson-speckled eyes meet my blue ones for half a second before Kyros turns toward the monster. He’s holding a silver blade.
The creature surges forward. Its mouth opens again, jagged teeth glinting faintly as it barrels toward us.
Kyros moves at the last second.
He twists, dragging me with him, and drives his dagger straight into one of the creature’s pale eyes. The thing convulses, a bone-rattling sound exploding from its chest as black blood erupts from around the dagger.
The creature thrashes hard enough to send a brutal wave through the water, and Kyros’s grip on my shirt nearly tears the fabric as he yanks me out of the animal’s reach.
We shoot backward through the dark.
Kyros doesn’t wait to see if the creature will follow. He wraps his arm around me and swims, faster than before.
My heart is still pounding—rapid thumps that threaten to burst open my ribcage—but some of my panic eases as Kyros pulls me fully against him. I hate that it does. I hate that my body recognizes him as safety.
My fingers curl around his shoulders on instinct.
Kyros goes rigid at the contact, his tail tightening around my waist before loosening just enough for me to breathe. His chest is broad and solid against mine, and every powerful stroke of his tail sends us slicing through the ocean with impossible speed.
I’m clutching him.
I realize it. He realizes it.
Neither of us mentions it.
A warm line of blood still drifts from my nose, which I catch Kyros occasionally glancing at. He almost looks worried, his mouth hard and nostrils flared.
We break over the edge of the trench, but Kyros doesn’t stop until we’re tucked against a wall of dark stone, well away from the trench and the creature that lives within it. Was that a deepweaver? I’m too afraid to ask.
Kyros spins me toward him, his hands clamping around my upper arms.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” he hisses. His words are muffled by the water, but the fury in them is impossible to miss.
I stare at him, still trying to catch my breath. My whole body hurts, and my head feels like it’s been split open from the inside. I can barely think, and he wants answers?
Not going to happen.
“You locked me in a cave,” I snap. “What, exactly, did you expect me to do?”
Kyros’s eyes flash. The red in them looks brighter than usual, sharp and furious.
“I don’t know,” he snarls. “Not swim into a death current, for starters.”
I laugh, but it comes out shaky. “Well, I’ll make sure to ask for a map next time.”
His grip on my biceps tightens. He looks like he’s contemplating shaking me.
Instead, he drags in a breath and looks away, his jaw locked so hard, I can see the muscle ticking. Faint, red lines flare beneath his skin, racing along his ribcage. They’re the same markings from before.
I wrench my arms back, but Kyros doesn’t release me immediately. His gaze drops to my face, then to the blood drifting from my nose. He stares at it.
“Do you have any idea where that current leads?” he asks.
“No.” I rip one arm free and wipe at my nose, only succeeding in smearing blood across my hand. “I was a little busy trying not to die.”
“It leads directly into Coveborn territory. Those currents feed straight into their hunting grounds.”
A cold knot forms in my stomach. Well, how the hell was I supposed to know that? Nobody has taken it upon themselves to explain this world to me. How many Mer pods exist? Do they all hate hybrids, or is there one that will rescue me from Kyros and his people?
I look toward the dark trench we just escaped. The current churns there in the black, tempting another unsuspecting person to slip into it.
I’ll avoid it during my next escape.
“They would’ve found you,” Kyros continues. “They would’ve scented you long before they saw you.”
I blink. “Scented me?”
His tail lashes once, agitated.
“You’re a hybrid.” The word comes out like an accusation, as if I had any say in this. “You carry both Mer and human scent, and neither hides the other. Anybody close enough can smell it in the water.”
I think of the way Daros was staring at me earlier. He said he could smell my otherness.
Kyros flexes his fingers against my biceps. “Coveborn actively hunt hybrids, Sadie.”
I go still. “What?”
“Hybrids have not existed in generations,” he explains. “They were killed off, and the attack was spearheaded by the Coveborn.”
“Killed off? Why?”
Kyros hesitates. Of course. The council already explained why. I affect the blood—whatever the fuck that means. Mermen are drawn to hybrids, and they’ll fight over me.
“Why are mermen drawn to hybrids?”
“Biology.”
I blink, waiting for more.
Kyros looks upward. “Because we were once human.”
I frown. “What?”
“We didn’t begin as Mer.” His voice is quieter now but no less tense. “Thousands of years ago, our ancestors were human. We changed over time. Adapted to the ocean. Each generation strayed further from humanity.”
I stare at him, trying to process that.
“You’re saying that humans turned into…this?”
“Yes.”
“That’s insane.”
Kyros lifts a brow. “Says the woman currently breathing underwater.”
Fair point.
He releases a slow breath. “With every generation, we become stronger in the ocean. Faster and more powerful, but it comes at a cost. We lose touch with ourselves.”
“Your sentience?” I guess.
Kyros jolts, clearly surprised that I reached the conclusion so quickly. After a second, he dips his chin. “Yes. We lose our sentience.”
I press my lips together.
Kyros continues. “There are pods that live deep in the ocean—far from the councils and the laws that bind us. They migrate. They fight. Some can no longer speak. They’re no more thoughtful than the animals they hunt.”
A cold chill works down my spine.
“Hybrids—and humans—change that,” Kyros explains. “Human blood strengthens what we’re losing. It restores clarity and reason, putting us back in control.”
“And that makes everyone horny for me?” I ask dryly.
Kyros’s nostrils flare. “It intensifies a biological instinct.”
“So, that’s a yes?”
Kyros shrugs.
“Great,” I mutter. “I’m merman Viagra.”
Kyros closes his eyes briefly, like he’s praying for patience. Does he know what Viagra is? Doubtful.
“Wars have been fought over a single hybrid,” he admits. “And the fact that the red bloom is only weeks away makes it worse.”
I frown. “The coral thing?”
“Yes.” Kyros hesitates. “The red bloom kicks off our mating season. Your presence here will be an issue.”
The words sink in one by one, ugly and cold.
“You’ll truly kill me because men can’t control themselves?”
Kyros’s gaze trails down to my legs, then away. “Yes.”
“Charming.”
“It’s not charm that concerns me.”
For a beat, we stare at one another. What more is there to say?
I cross my arms over my chest, then jerk my chin toward the trench. “Well, forgive me for not knowing that your underwater death highway leads to the murder clan.”
Kyros glares. “You could’ve died in that trench. Predators lurk in the deep waters around here.”
Yeah. I’ve gathered as much.
Two shapes glide out of the dark, appearing in my peripheral vision.
Daros and Seraya.
Wonderful.
Daros reaches us first, his cerulean tail cutting through the water with powerful strokes. His gaze hardens as it lands on me. Seraya is beside him, pale and composed and furious. Her eyes lock on Kyros’s tail, still coiled loosely around me, and her expression turns to ice.
She lets out a loud chirp, and Kyros releases me so abruptly that I drift backward. The loss of his warmth is immediate. And annoyingly noticeable.
What did she say?
“Please,” I hiss. “If you’re going to speak about me, I at least deserve to understand what you’re saying.”
All gazes snap toward Kyros. He drags a hand down his face, then nods.
Seraya makes another chirp.
Kyros chirps back, his voice hard.
She sucks her cheeks into her mouth. “Well,” she spits, her words muffled. “This just gets better and better.”
Daros looks me over once. “She reeks of Coveborn water.”
“Because she nearly drifted into their territory.”
Seraya’s gaze cuts to me like a knife. I imagine she’s mentally picturing me skewered on a pike. “This is exactly why she should’ve been killed the moment we discovered what she is.”
Daros stares at my legs. “If she crossed the border current, they’ll scent her residue.”
Seraya folds her arms. “We should kill her before she brings trouble.”
“No.” Kyros’s response is immediate.
Seraya stares. “No?”
“She lives,” Kyros says. “The black siphon is our priority.”
His tone leaves no room for debate. It should probably reassure me, but I don’t trust these people. They’ll keep me alive for as long as I’m useful, but afterward, there are no guarantees. I’d say the odds are in favor of my death.
Daros makes a low sound in the back of his throat. “You’re too close to this, Oshea.”
Kyros’s jaw hardens. “I brought the hybrid here. She’s my responsibility.”
I glare at the back of his head but keep silent. I don’t think my input will be well received by these people, and I’m not looking to make things worse for myself.
Daros eyes the trench current, his scarred tail swaying behind him. “If Coveborn caught her scent…”
Kyros spares me a glance over his shoulder. I wish he wouldn’t look at me. There’s something in his face I don’t know how to handle. Pity. Fear, maybe. It vanishes so quickly that I almost think I imagined it.
“We’ll deal with it when the time comes,” he says.
Seraya opens her mouth, but Kyros doesn’t give her the chance to argue. He grabs me around the waist and pulls me against his side before I can protest. His tail curls beneath us, powerful and warm, and then we’re moving.
I wait until the council is out of sight before twisting in his hold. “Put me down.”
“No.”
“You don’t get to manhandle me every time I—”
“Silence.”
The word is sharp enough to cut, and I clamp my mouth shut out of pure shock.
Kyros keeps swimming, one arm locked around me as he drags us back through the tunnel system. His body is rigid, his tail snapping through the water with more force than necessary.
He’s furious.
Good.
So am I.
By the time we reach the cavern, I’m cold again. Exhausted, too. The adrenaline from nearly being eaten alive is fading, leaving behind a bruised body and a pounding headache.
Kyros shoves me up through the air pocket, water splashing over the edge as I land on the stone slab. I scoot backward on instinct, but there’s nowhere to go.
Kyros rises from the water in one smooth motion, his crimson tail dripping as he braces his palms on the edge of the slab. He fixes me with a stare that could crack bone.
“There will be a guard outside this chamber from here on out,” he snaps. “If you want any hope of leaving this place alive, you will not attempt that again.”
I wipe blood from beneath my nose and let out a bitter laugh. “What does it matter? You have no intention of letting me leave this place alive.”
Kyros says nothing, which is enough of an answer.
I push wet hair out of my face. “Maybe I’d rather take my chances with the giant trench monster.”
His eyes flash. “You would not.”
“Maybe I would.”
“You have no concept of what waits beyond this city.”
“And I’m supposed to trust the person who murdered my father?”
Kyros glances down. “No,” he says after a brief pause. “But you will listen to me.”
My throat tightens with pure rage as Kyros returns to the water, his gaze dragging over me as if checking for injuries. His mouth tightens at whatever he sees.
“I’ll return in the morning,” he says.
“To do what? Threaten me some more?”
His gaze lifts to mine, but he doesn’t answer. He starts to turn away, then pauses. “If you leave this chamber again, Sadie, I may not reach you in time. Once you’ve destroyed the black siphon, you have my word that you’ll be returned safely to the surface.”
His word means nothing to me.
Kyros disappears beneath the water, leaving me alone with the echo of his voice and the deeply unpleasant realization that I don’t really want to attempt another escape.
Not if that thing is waiting for me in the dark.