Chapter 15
Alette
Cassius squeezes my hand, then releases it, and in that last second I see how cold his eyes have gone, how empty he makes himself before violence.
He melts behind the door, shoulders pressed flat to the stone, his own dagger angled upward and ready.
I shuffle closer to the table, trying not to breathe, heart battering at my ribs.
Act normal. Just act normal. Don’t give him away.
The chain clinks softly as I move, but there’s no other sound. Nothing but the water surrounding me and a sense of impending doom that isn't just all in my imagination.
The door swings open and the merman floats in, all his eyes fixed on me, tongue flicking between lips already pulled back to show those awful teeth.
He doesn’t even notice Cassius. He just stares at the trash on the floor, at the bone piles and the old food, then at me, as if the only thing in the room that matters is how I failed him.
“You lazy shit,” he says, the words coming out in one long, bubbling slur. “Didn’t clean. Didn’t listen. Should have drowned you when I had the chance.” He spits, then grabs a handful of seaweed and whips it at my face.
It hits with a slap. I flinch, but not much. I don’t want him to see that he hurt me. Like with my grandparents, showing weakness is always a mistake.
The merman floats closer, fists clenched, tail lashing, all his eyes going narrow. “You think you can ignore me?” He’s at arm’s length now, teeth snapping at the water with every word. “I’ll break your hands so you can never clean again. I’ll break your—”
He never finishes the threat.
Cassius moves so fast the water in the room booms. He brings his dagger down on the merman’s skull, hard enough that I feel the shock in my own teeth. The merman’s head whips forward, crashing into the table, sending bones and forks spiraling through the water.
Cassius grabs for the key at the merman’s throat, but the merman is faster than I thought.
He whips his tail, catching Cassius in the side, sending him reeling against the wall.
A gasp slips from my lips, but I don’t even have time to process what just happened.
The merman spins, teeth bared, and now his eyes are on Cassius, on his dagger, on the threat.
“You brought friends,” he says, voice gone low and slick.
I leap forward with my dagger, aiming for the merman, hoping to catch him off-guard. He barely turns, striking my arm and sending my dagger spinning away, falling onto the sandy ground.
“Let the men play,” he growls.
Cassius doesn’t reply. He circles, arms out, his posture loose, but his eyes never leave the merman’s neck. I see the plan. He wants to get the key, get me out, and get out alive. Unfortunately, the merman sees it, too.
He laughs, a horrible sound. “Think you can fight me in my own home?”
The next second is all movement.
Cassius feints left, but the merman blocks him, tail a battering ram.
They circle, testing each other, and every time Cassius tries to get close, the merman swats him back, using his size and reach.
The merman is bigger, stronger, but Cassius is quicker, smarter, using his power over the water itself to angle and dodge.
Still, it’s a losing battle. Every time the merman lands a hit, Cassius shudders, just a little.
He’s getting hurt. The merman is going to kill him. I have to do something!
My dagger is right there on the sand. If I could get it, if I could help… I want to, but the chain only gives me a few feet, and the fight is moving too fast. I try to edge toward it, but the ball won’t budge, and the scraping sound nearly gives me away.
The merman catches me looking. “You want to help him?” He laughs, not taking his eyes off Cassius. “Stupid human. Stupid little girl.”
He swings at Cassius, claws out. Cassius blocks it, but barely, the blow spinning him sideways. The merman is on him in a second, grabbing Cassius by the throat and squeezing, hauling him off the floor. Cassius claws at the grip, trying to break it, but the merman’s hands are like stone.
“Leave him alone!” I shout, but the merman doesn’t even bother to turn and look at me, he just keeps his focus on squeezing the life out of Cassius.
I reach for the dagger, stretching until my shoulder nearly pops from the socket, and just barely get it.
I angle it at the chain, try to wedge the blade into the lock.
It doesn’t work, not even a little. I want to scream, to throw the dagger, but I don’t trust myself to hit the merman, and not Cassius.
Cassius kicks at the merman, hard, and finally gets a hand free. He slams the dagger into the merman’s arm. Blood clouds the water, slow and dark. The merman howls and drops him, tail thrashing. Cassius lands. He stumbles, but doesn’t go down.
He raises his hands. The water around him starts to move, at first just a shudder, then a rush.
I see it, the magic. He’s making the water dance.
He brings his palms together, and a funnel of current slams the merman into the far wall, hard enough to crack the stone.
The merman staggers, dazed, and Cassius hits him again, another rush of water, sharper this time, like a battering ram of ice.
The merman tries to push off the wall, but Cassius is ready. He flicks his wrist, and a dozen darts of water shoot from his hand, slicing into the merman’s skin. They leave lines of red and white, deep, but not painful.
The merman roars and charges, jaws wide, teeth snapping.
Cassius sidesteps, but the tail catches him again, this time in the gut, folding him double.
The merman grabs Cassius’s hair, slams his face into the table, then pins him down.
A scream slips from my lips, but it only brings a smile to the merman’s mouth.
“You’re weak,” the merman says and grins wider, blood dribbling from his lip.
Cassius’s eyes flick to mine. I see the plan, the plea.
I take the dagger and throw it.
It arcs through the water, slow, almost floating, but the merman doesn’t expect it. The blade catches him in the shoulder, not deep, but enough. He jerks, loosening his hold, and Cassius rips free. He dives, grabs the merman by the throat, and shoves him back against the wall.
Cassius’s hand glows, a shimmer of blue energy radiating out.
The water around the merman starts to swirl, faster and faster, like a whirlpool that’s all teeth and pressure.
The merman screams, but the sound is sucked away by the spinning current.
Cassius’s face is twisted, rage and focus, and I realize I’ve never seen him look so alive.
The merman claws at his own neck, eyes wild, and Cassius steps back, to make it easier for his magic to attack. The whirlpool closes, slamming the merman against the wall again and again, bones crunching, blood smearing the stone.
Finally, the merman goes limp, body slumping to the floor. The water stops moving. Cassius staggers, almost falling, but catches himself on the table. The merman isn’t dead. I see his chest moving, slow and shallow, but for now he’s unconscious.
Cassius locks eyes with me. “Are you okay?”
I nod, not trusting myself to speak.
He kneels by the merman, hands trembling, and fumbles for the key at the merman’s neck.
It takes two tries, but he gets it, hands shaking so bad he almost drops it.
Then, he resheaths his own dagger and yanks my dagger out of the merman’s shoulder with a hiss as the bone touches his skin, his expression bordering on fury as he looks at the unconscious merman.
He faces me. He’s drawn and pale, and I see the blood on his hands, on his face, and the little cuts on his arms from the merman’s claws.
He hands me back my dagger, and I quietly slip it into my sheath.
Then, he kneels, key out, and unlocks the shackle from my ankle.
The second it falls away, I kick the chain off, crawling to Cassius and hugging him as tight as I can.
He doesn’t hug back at first, but after a second he does, holding me close, chest heaving.
I want to tell him how brave he was. I want to tell him I was afraid he would die.
I want to tell him I don’t ever want to be left alone again.
But all I manage is, “Thank you.”
He pulls away, looking at me with those perfect eyes, a pale shade of blue I’ve never seen in real life before, and I’m surprised. Surprised at the softness I see in his gaze. Surprised by the gentle way he looks at me. I haven’t seen much of this side of him.
“You would have done the same for me,” he says, his tone gentle.
He helps me stand. My legs barely work.
The merman floats in the corner, blood mixing with the water in lazy ribbons, and I look away, disturbed by the sight. Knowing that was almost us.
Cassius looks at the door, then at me. “We have to go. Now.”
I glance back at the merman, just once. He’s not smiling now, is he? The bastard.
Cassius and I swim side by side, away from the merman, toward the surface, through the strange tunnel into the merman’s lair. I don’t look back again. I never want to look back. I just want to forget this terrible place ever existed.
Cassius is pulling me by the hand, every muscle in his body wound tight and trembling, the blue energy of his water magic leaving tiny ripples in the current.
He’s tired. I’m tired. But neither of us will stop until we get back to the others.
We barely make it fifty feet out of the merman’s lair before it happens…
a shadow lunges out from the wall and clamps around Cassius’s neck.
It’s the merman, back again. His eyes are even wider now, all of them bloodshot and rolling, his teeth bared to the root. He’s bleeding everywhere, wounds from Cassius’s fight and the dagger I threw, but he doesn’t care. He wants to kill. He wants to take us with him.