The Vast and Brutal Sea: A Vicious Deep novel (The Vicious Deep) (18 page)

“Let go of me!”

The fuzziness around my eyes recedes. Hands. Dozens of hands grab me. Around my biceps, my forearms, my chest.

“Tristan,” she says. The voice is familiar but I can’t place it. “Tristan! Settle down!”

And all the while, I scream. I can hear myself screaming at them to release me. I have to find her. I said I would come for her and I didn’t. And now Layla is—No, I won’t say it.

I feel my fist hit flesh, bodies tumbling to the ground. I open the metal gate, letting in wind and rain. People gasp around me, their eyes wide and bewildered because their champion’s gone mad.

And then I’m out the door and running down the streets as fast as I can, ignoring the pouring rain. I run across the boardwalk, hop over the warped railing, and hit sand. Wind whistles and I gasp for air. My thighs and chest burn as I push my way toward the water, my name a distant shout in the background.

And all I see is Layla in my vision, jumping into the tunnels that lead down, down, down into the sea. My blood has turned to ice. My mind is on fire.

I can feel someone fast, faster than me, catching up. He tackles me to the ground. I eat sand. I kick. I punch. But it’s like hitting solid stone.

He holds me down with his cold hands.

“You are not going in that water,” Frederik yells.

“Let go of me.” I try to swing but his iron fists hold my arms down at my sides.

“Weaponless. Blind. You’ll die.”

“
She’s out there!
” I scream. I try to punch but he weighs a fucking ton. “I know she’s out there. She has to be.”

He lets go of my wrists but doesn’t get off me because we both know that as soon as he gets up, I’m jumping into that ocean.

Marty and Kai run up beside us. They’re backlit silhouettes against the boardwalk lights.

“Tristan—” Marty tries to say, but he’s panting. “Look—”

“No. You don’t understand what I saw. None of you—”

Frederik looks up and stands and lets me go as a wave crashes over my head. I push myself up on my knees. From here, there is no separating the black sky from the sea.

“Tristan!”

“Leave me alone.” I push the hand away that tries to take my wrist.

Thalia screams and jumps at a creature on the sand. He snorts, shaking his mane. The green scales of his tail wag against the sand. Atticus, Thalia’s sea horse.

Then I hear her…

“Tristan.” Softer now. Breathless.

I turn around.

She’s shivering. Cold.

I fall on my knees.

Part of me is telling me that she isn’t real. I’m making her up. I want this so badly that I’m hallucinating. So I reach out my hands and wrap them around her, my head pressed to her belly.

“I was going to come for you.” I’m dazed, an electric sense of relief filling all the gaps inside me. “I was going to. I’m sorry.”

Layla sinks down too, kissing my wet face with her wet lips. “Didn’t I tell you?”

“What?”

“I don’t need you to save me.”

Her lips are cold and blue. I kiss them and wrap my arms around her to give her my warmth until she stops shaking. “No, but I need you. I always need you.”

My friends and I sit at a round table in one of Frederik’s many rooms. The walls are exposed brick, mostly covered with all sorts of maps. A lot of planning seems to go down here. I trace my finger along the continents. I’ve been so deep beneath the sea. These maps don’t even cover a fraction of it.

I take in the people that have stuck by my side. Frederik, the High Vampire of New York. Marty, the shapeshifter and all-around keeper of the peace. Brendan, my cousin who came back to help me. Thalia, fierce and full of love. Dylan, who is unafraid. Amada, the Naga girl who has saved my life more than once. Ewin, a warrior who is looking for somewhere to belong, just like the rest of us. Shelly, the oracle of Central Park. And then there’s Layla. There’s always Layla.

Her hair is tied back from her face, and she’s holding a blanket tightly over her shoulders.

When Thalia looks at me, I know what she’s thinking. We’re hours away from the battle that’s been coming for days, and Kurt is out there. I saw him with Lucine and the silver mermaid.

Marty spreads sheets of white paper on the table, like the kind an architect or designer would use. He pulls a bunch of pens from his back pocket and scatters them on the table. I take one and chew on the cap.

“You got your compass and eraser in there too?” Layla asks, drumming her pen on the table.

Marty shakes his head, adjusting his black baseball cap. That thing really needs a wash. “This ain’t our first rodeo, ladybird.”

“Indeed.” Frederik clears his throat.

“Tomorrow, we attack Toliss.” I take the black marker and start sectioning off land masses. “Okay, this is Coney Island, for those of you who need a geography lesson. I’ll say Toliss is south of us by five miles.”

“If I may,” Frederik says, coming up beside me. He takes my marker and fills in the Coney Island landscape: the beach, the boardwalk, his home, the Wreck, the rides. A red star marks the entrance to the nightclub Betwixt. A II for the Second Circle where Lucine made her home while waiting for Kurt.

“Layla, what did you see beneath the island where the tunnels are?”

She holds her arms around her body, staring at the black ink that bleeds when I leave it on the paper. “Two dozen hungry sharks. The ones with the metal harnesses around their jaws. There are chains that keep them right there. Archer said they hadn’t been fed for days. Partly because the king was relocating to the Glass Castle, and partly because Nieve overran the island. Either way, if they smell blood in the water, they’ll attack.”

Everyone nods, like we’re all picturing the same thing—jaws chomping blindly and ready to devour.

“How did you get past the great white beasts?” Ewin asks.

Layla’s eyes swivel between Thalia and me. She must have seen Kurt. “Someone was arriving. They parted for them. That’s when I saw Atticus hiding. Swam like hell all the way to the shore.”

I draw a few sharks beneath my outline of the island.

“Is there anything else you saw?” Frederik asks.

Layla’s eyebrows furrow. “Other than the fact that Nieve has more mood swings than my cousin pregnant with triplets? She almost never lets Gwen or Archer out of her sight. You can see that she loves them. Every time they’re gone for too long, you can hear her scream for them.”

“I can use that,” I say, squeezing her hand lightly.

“The beach is full of merrows,” Thalia says.

I nod, still thinking of the last order they had from Nieve. “They can’t risk losing their numbers so close to tomorrow night’s full moon. She told Gwen and Archer to go fishing in the morning.”

“Let them try. I want to keep a line here.” Frederik draws a line across the beach. “For merrows or any rogue mermaids trying to come ashore.”

Ewin seems confused. “Why would the mermaids of your court attack the shore when you’re defending it?”

“Because the king is dead,” I say. “The trident is severed into three pieces, which means his laws, his bindings, they’re all going to be broken.”

“It’s what has kept the land safe from us for eons,” Brendan says.

“And also from us being discovered by humans,” Kai adds. “Our laws have changed. Actually, they’ve been discarded completely.”

“She doesn’t have Layla anymore, but she’s still keeping the nautilus maid. She hasn’t figured out what I want with her. She doesn’t know about the Sleeping Giants. Big plus for us.” I draw Toliss as I remember it—the beach, the forest, the river that leads to a waterfall behind the valley where the Sea Court gathers. The king’s throne, marking the entrance to the inner chambers.

“So how do I get me from here to here?” I say, drawing a line with my fingertip from the boardwalk to Toliss.

“What do you mean ‘you’?” Layla says. “We’re all going. Isn’t that the point of having a small army? That you don’t have to go at it alone?”

Frederik stands beside me. I’m so used to Kurt being there, lending his suggestions. But Kurt isn’t here, is he? I have to keep reminding myself of that because part of me keeps forgetting.

“I have to go in first,” I say. “You’ll wait for my signal. What’s up, Vampire Guy?”

“I’m concerned the night creatures won’t be much help until nightfall.”

Kai shakes her head. “Not so.”

“What do you mean, not so?” Marty asks, jumpy. “Sun equals extra-well-done vampires. And no offense to other supernatural beings in the room, but few things on this plane equal vampire strength.”

Ewin smirks and Marty amends his statement. “Except for a warrior of the Vasiks clan.”

Kai takes the marker and draws the outline of an eclipse in the corner.

“Remember the prophecy,” Shelly says, repeating one line. “‘
And in darkness we will remain
.’ Everything we’re doing is changing the natural weather of this plane.”

“This puts me and mine back in the game,” Frederik says, eyeing the map like he’s trying to sink my battleship.

“Once I free the Sleeping Giants,” I say, “I think we can expect thunderstorms with a chance of hellfire. I don’t know where the other two will be coming from, but the kraken is inside Toliss.” See, Kurt?
I think.
I did pay attention to some of the things you babbled about.

“That creature hasn’t been awake in years,” Thalia says.

“Then it’s sure as hell going to be cranky when it wakes up,” I say, explaining that each trident piece corresponds to a different sea beastie. “I get Doris, the badass sea horse with claws. Nieve, the kraken. And Kurt, the turtle with the spike collar.”

“Why are we giving Nieve and Kurt more power?” Layla asks.

“They won’t know what’s happening. That’s where I have the upper hand. I can attack Nieve’s merrows and open the field for your entrance. I know we can beat them.”

Once again they break into a chorus of indecipherable arguments. That I’m insane to wake these creatures up. That I don’t know if I’ll be able to control them. But among all of their noise, all I see are Shelly’s dark, sad eyes. I hold my palm up so she can see it. There’s the scar that bears the promise I made to the nautilus maid. To end her life and set free the Sleeping Giants of the sea. To use them to put an end to Nieve, to start a new world for everyone in this building.

She nods once, and then her voice is in my head. “I know.”

Frederik’s head turns to the door. “The gates just opened, and patrol isn’t due to change for another twelve minutes.”

I run after him, leaning over the banister to see what the commotion is about. The downstairs hall is filling up with mermen in armor. I don’t recognize their faces, most of them with patches of scars. They shake hands with my army of strays and unload their weapons. One of them looks up at where I stand frozen, staring unbelieving at them.

“Master Tristan,” Arion says. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

I pull Arion into a man-hug. “I looked for you, and you weren’t there.”

He smacks my back affectionately. “The blast severed my rope. I woke up on a strange beach. As soon as I could, I swam to some old friends. They’re here to fight for you.”

I shake hands with the newcomers. We feed them and give them water. Dylan is fascinated with their weapons craftsmanship. I leave him to prepare the artillery for the battle.

“Come, Arion,” I say. “We’re going over our strategy.”

It’s strange and wonderful to see him walking. The black and white scales on his forearms have patches of pearly scars where his ropes used to be, but not anymore. The roundtable welcomes him with open arms. Kai hugs him the longest.

I catch him up on what we’ve discussed. He agrees with my plan, which makes me feel like I got an A on a test I hardly studied for.

“What about our fin-challenged friends?” I ask.

“I can swim.” Marty raises his hand.

“It’s best to save that energy for fighting,” Brendan points out.

“Master Tristan,” Arion says.

“Just Tristan.”

He smiles, but I know him better than that. “I have a ship. It is yours.”

“Thank you, Arion. We’ll load it up tonight.” I can see in my team’s faces that they’re more and more hopeful that we’ve got this.

“Brendan, Kai,” I continue. “Mix and match our troops into small teams. They may have the numbers, but I’d love to watch a merrow figure out what to do when a werewolf is coming at them.”

Ewin points to the Toliss drawing. “I understand there is only one beach on this island.”

Thalia nods. “Toliss can be entered two ways, through the beach or through the tunnels. The rest of the island is comprised of cliffs.”

At the thought of cliffs, I remember Karel pushing me off them.

“There is a third way,” Frederik points out. The merpeople are confused as Frederik draws birds above Toliss. “We have wings at our disposal.”

“Where will you be, Tristan?” Layla asks. I can feel her jitters. She’s good at hiding it, but her nerves smell of smoke.

“After I send out my signal,” I say. “Leave finding Nieve to me.”

“What about my brother?” Thalia whispers.

I swallow the dryness that coats my mouth. My heartbeat spikes because I have to tell her. “He’s already there.”

“What do you mean, he’s already there?” She gets up, her chair smacking the floor. Layla goes to calm her down. Thalia balls her hands into fists, as if she can take all her anger and choke it. “He wouldn’t.”

“I know my sister,” Shelly says. “She’s been obsessed with the boy since he was born. She must know that Nieve would kill him. Joining forces with her would keep him alive.”

“She’s controlling him,” Thalia raises her voice. “She has to be.”

“He chose her,” I say, though I wish I could agree with Thalia. “I saw it.”

Thalia sits back down, her jaw set, her yellow-green eyes full of fire.

“Then it’s settled,” I say, after a moment of silence. The plan is set. “Now, raise your hand if you don’t know how to swim.”