Breakwater (20 page)

Dolph and I swam toward them and I thought for just a moment that this was going to be easy. They didn’t see us—we were below them and they weren’t exactly looking down. I swam under the first shark and sliced upward with my spear, arcing from the tip of its tail to the base of its mouth, cutting through the soft under belly.

Blood and guts poured into the water as the shark rolled, flailing as it died. Teeth snapped, black eyes went dull, and the gray body dropped like a stone. The water was muddied by the blood and I didn’t think about one simple factor.

Feeding frenzy.

The blood set off the rest of the sharks, and they went wild, darting through the pinkish water, grabbing at the bits and pieces of their buddy. I swam backward, bumping into something hard and pointed. I was lifted up like a dancer arced backward over her partner’s head as the shark opened its mouth, trying to get its teeth into me. I rolled over its head and down its back, diamond rough skin tearing at me, which added more blood to the water.

Grabbing its tail, I did the only thing I could. I drove my spear forward into the shark’s spinal cord. Killing creatures of any sort was not something I liked, nor wanted to do. But these weren’t any creatures belonging to the mother goddess. They belonged to Requiem. This would be a battle to the death and I had no intention of crossing the veil anytime soon.

Swimming hard, trying to get to clearer water, I spun in a circle. The water was a mess and even though I couldn’t see the sharks, they could still find me.

Without warning, a maw of teeth clenched my left calf, a thousand razor sharp blades cutting into me as the shark dragged me away from the others. The moment slowed as I stared into the black eyes and I realized the shark was not bearing down. He was holding me, yes, hurting me, yes. But biting my leg off, he was not.

I swung my spear around and held it in front of his eye. The grip on my leg increased. Worm shit and green sticks. I couldn’t kill him, or he’d snap my leg off. I just didn’t understand why . . . until his eyes slid from black to a shimmering violet.

An elemental who could shape shift. These sharks were not familiars any more than I was. I put a hand on its head, between his eyes and the shape shifter’s thoughts flowed over me.

Bring her in, don’t kill her. Bah. Requiem and his dick need to get their priorities straight
. Funnily enough, his thoughts didn’t make me feel any better. I knew what Requiem wanted with me, and I would do everything I could to make sure he didn’t get it.

My captor swam in a lazy circle and started toward the boat. I counted only five sharks left. Dolph had taken out one, which seemed like too few until I saw him, his body being held by one of the sharks, the same as me.

The water around us seemed to shift, the current changing. I put a hand on the shape shifter’s triangular head, picking up his thoughts once more.

Requiem is pulling us home.
The black eyes flicked to mine and if a shark could frown, he did, a slight wrinkle forming along what would have been his forehead if he’d been in his human shape.
Can the Terraling hear me?

I nodded.

How is that even possible?

I wasn’t going to explain my ability with Spirit. At least, that was my assumption about why I could understand its thoughts. Not that it mattered, really. Even without his words I knew what was happening.

We were done.

A shiver ran through the Undine shark holding me and his mouth popped open, releasing me as it spun away from me. As if fleeing. I swam free of him, looking back to see what was so frightening.

A black and white body twenty-feet-long cut through the water, bumping past me and clamped down on the shark with six-inch teeth. The orca thrashed its head, tearing through the shark as if it were nothing. The eyes on the shape shifter flashed violet, then dulled to black as it floated to the bottom of the ocean.

The remainder of the sharks swarmed the orca. They darted around her, attacking in pack formation, taking chunks out of her side. Maybe if they’d been just sharks, she could have done more, but there was no way she stood a chance next to these shifters.

The orca’s beautiful bright white hide was ripped into, her belly spilling into the ocean. The sharks dove into her body cavity, pulling pieces out while she still lived. I shuddered, grief wracking me for the creature who had traded her life for ours.

Losing a familiar was supposed to be as painful as losing one of your own limbs, and behind me, I saw Dolph jerk hard. As if the blows to the orca were blows to his own body.

Unable to move as shock set in, something below me caught my eye.

From the depths, a smooth current flowed up and around us. Tentacles shot upward, grabbing one of the still attacking sharks. Sucker cups rounded the bull shark, one tentacle on the front half of its body, one on the back half. What looked like a gentle, casual pull ripped the shark in half, his violet eyes meeting mine as he died.

Unfrozen with the thought of the tentacles coming my way, I scrambled toward Dolph. I didn’t have to convince the shark to let him go.

Dolph was spit out, and the remaining sharks fled, and we were left facing the giant squid on our own. Dolph wrapped his arms around me, pinning me to face him. He shook his head and even in the water, I could see how pale he was. How much blood he’d lost, not to mention the loss of his familiar. He pressed his forehead against mine though I doubted he realized I could hear him.

The Princess has given us a chance. Thank the goddess!

I didn’t have time to really think about what that meant. We were wrapped up in a tentacle that coiled around our bodies, squeezing. Cold, fleshy suckers pressed against my skin as we were slowly lifted out of the water and deposited into the boat.

The tentacle released us and disappeared into the depths. Coughing, I would have thought I would be vomiting up buckets of water as my body struggled to breathe the air again. But that wasn’t the case. “Why am I not puking water?”

“The hook in your ear, it converts air molecules in the water directly into breathable air.” Dolph slapped me on the back and I waved him off. As interesting as that was, we had other issues far more pressing.

“What happened?” Belladonna clutched at me, her body shivering.

“You tell me. We were fighting and then Dolph’s familiar came in, and saved me, and then that giant squid showed up and the sharks buggered off.” I looked at Dolph, who lay on the bottom of the boat breathing hard.

Finley sat beside him. “That was Olive. She’s my familiar.”

Belladonna choked on whatever she was going to say. “Your familiar is a giant squid?”

“The Kraken,” I breathed out.

Finley nodded. “I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, but Lark said I should fight to keep us safe.” Her eyes sought mine. “Did I help?”

I leaned forward despite the bite in my leg and the pain that shot through me to put a hand on her head. “You did amazing, kid. Thank you. You saved us.”

She beamed up at me. “Olive is lovely. I love her laugh.”

As if hearing her name, Olive sent two tentacle tips up and over the edge of the boat. Finley stroked them gently. “Thank you, Olive. You saved us. You saved my friends.”

I reached over and touched one tentacle tip. “Thank you.”

She wrapped herself around my fingers and squeezed gently before sliding into the water.

Belladonna let out a sigh and slumped into the boat. “We’re safe now. Let’s get out of here.”

The water bounced and I looked at Dolph who shook his head. “It isn’t over yet.”

“That’s what I thought,” I muttered, looking up to the sky. The water was a draw, neutral ground no one could really control. But the sky?

That was Requiem’s to control.

And we were about to taste what a powerhouse half-breed could do when he was irritated.

he sky above us blackened with a speed I’d never seen. “This is going to be bad. Hang on!” I wrapped one arm around Belladonna and pushed her to the bottom of the boat next to Dolph. “Stay there. Finley, can you help keep us upright?”

Groaning, Dolph tried to sit up, and Belladonna helped him. “Requiem wants Finley dead. You two are about to become collateral damage.” The boat rocked hard to one side as if to emphasize his words. Water sloshed in and I fought to find balance by shifting my weight to the opposite side.

Why didn’t Requiem just steal the air from Finley’s lungs then? It was a trick of the Sylphs. To draw away a person’s life by crushing them from the inside out, I should know. I’d been on the receiving end of a Sylph’s treatment.

The truth hit me between the eyes with a sharp gust of wind. “He’s not that strong. If he was, he wouldn’t be pushing us back to him. He has no finesse.”

Around us the wind picked up as if in defiance to my words, and all but picked our boat up, shoving it along the top water so quickly, we skipped and bumped. Belladonna fell to the side, slamming her head against the wood. Finley’s face was pale, but her lips were set in a thin, determined line. Being tossed at that speed, it wasn’t long before the fog surrounding the city rose around us. For a moment the world quieted, and I could believe everything that had happened had been just a dream.

A nightmare come to life that we would wake from and laugh about.

The fog lifted and we drifted into the harbor; no nightmare, this was the truth of what we faced. Standing on the sand, his hands on his hips, stood Requiem, three Enders to either side of him. He called across the water, one hand lifted high. “Welcome home, Princess.”

I touched Bella’s leg. “Tell him I forced you to come. Tell him you had nothing to do with this.”

“Lark—”

“Father said you do as I say when it comes to your safety. Now, do it,” I snapped and she closed her eyes, a tear trickling.

“As you say.”

A glance at Finley. How to keep her safe? How to stop Requiem from killing her?

“Dolph?”

He cracked his eyes open. The unspoken language of Enders seemed to flow between us and he answered my question.

“I don’t think he will kill her yet. He will wait ‘til the coronation. What better blood to be spilled than that of the princess to seal his crown to him?”

Finley stood, her tiny frame trembling with what I thought was fear. Nope, she had a hell of a lot more spunk than I gave her credit for. “Requiem, you are a bastard and a half-breed.
My
people will never bow to you.”

Our boat thudded lightly onto the sand, throwing me off balance. Belladonna leapt from the boat and ran toward Requiem. “Thank you.” He had no choice but to catch her as she wrapped her arms around them. Her sobs were real, I knew that much—I’d heard the crocodile tears too many times from her not to recognize the real thing. He tightened his hold on her, one hand going to her thick hair so he could pull her head back. “Either you are an exceptional actress, or you truly were afraid. I can’t decide which it will be. So for now, I will keep you in my bedroom until I decide.”

I lurched forward, and three of the Enders rushed me. They circled and I spun my trident out, keeping them at bay. The sand beneath my feet pulsed and my anger made a perfect conduit to the power laying below us. Requiem tsked at me. “Please, give me some credit.”