Dangerous Depths (The Sea Monster Memoirs) (18 page)

It was too easy.

Even without Sage whispering warnings to me, I would have been suspicious of how perfectly this had played out. I turned my cheek, hoping our “mothers” were far enough away not to overhear me whisper to Treygan.

“This went a little too perfectly, don’t you think?”

He glanced at me and pursed his lips. “Maybe Medusa is helping us.”

My eyes flickered to the inky, starless, moonless sky. “Highly unlikely.”

Treygan may have wanted to believe Medusa was helping us, and that our spirit guides were the real deal, but I knew better. First off, Medusa didn’t reign over this world. Second, if Treygan truly believed that Liora—dressed in a spotless white gown, in hell—was his mother, he would be gushing over her, asking a million questions, and offering her unnecessary apologies for killing her during his birth.

Instead, we stood divided, two and two, mothers apart from their children, waiting for Rownan and Vienna to do gods-knew-what in a decaying temple while Treygan and I twiddled our thumbs and tried to keep our souls intact.

I leaned against the rock wall and studied my supposed mom.

“How are you, darling?” she asked.

“Why do you keep calling me darling? You never called me that when you were alive.” She didn’t reply. Just shrugged and smiled, but her smile sent a chill up my spine. “You seem different than the last time I saw you.”

Her cold eyes darted up then back down to her feet. “You were a child back then, of course you remember me differently.”

My back went rigid. I had seen her only a week ago in the Inbetween. Sage curled around the back of my neck, hissing softly. Treygan shifted closer to me. Liora kept her penetrating stare locked on me. 

I had talked with Liora’s spirit right before the Triple Eighteen.
I offered another test to confirm what I had suspected all along. “You too, Liora. It’s been a long time.”

Treygan
watched them with as much venom as I felt. I didn’t need to tell him. He had figured it out too.

“Yara, don’t be silly,” Liora said, proving she wasn’t who or what she claimed. “We’ve never met.”

Treygan and I reached for our weapons, but the mom lookalikes were faster than us. They both leaped through the air, knocking us flat on our backs.

My mother’s imposter screamed like some kind of rabid animal. Her mouth stretched wide, revealing a toothless black hole. She leaned close to my face like she wanted to swallow me. I kicked and fought to push her away, but she had my arms pinned at my sides.

Sage shot forward and bit her cheek, sending my fake mom leaping backward. I scrambled toward Treygan. Evil Liora held him down while screaming the same way Cleo had. Sage extended longer than I had ever seen her stretch and sank her fangs into Liora’s neck. Liora shrieked and rolled to her side.

Treygan jumped to his feet, whipping out a dagger. I reached for my thigh holster, but my hands shook so badly that I fumbled my dagger and it fell to the ground.

Both mothers flew at me again. My claws instinctively shout out. I caught Evil Cleo by the throat, but Liora sailed over my head. 

Treygan shouted my name as fire ripped across my back. I fell to my knees. The pain was overwhelming. Sage bobbed behind me, tugging at my scalp, but commanding me to stay down. The searing pain in my back kept me anchored in place.

My fingers, still lodged in Evil Cleo’s neck, changed from selkie claws to siren talons then back again. A wheezing sound gushed out of the puncture wounds, along with black smoke. Beneath my hand, Cleo’s body dissolved into a pile of black sand.

Sage no longer whipped through my hair. I was dizzy. I couldn’t feel my legs. I toppled forward, face-planting into Evil Cleo’s remains.

“Yara?” Treygan’s voice was delicate and cautious. He kneeled beside me, pulling me into his arms. He gently brushed the sand off my face. His eyes were wider than I had ever seen.

“What happened?” I managed. The fire in my back was fading, but an intense aching took its place. Sage purred against my cheek. I could sense her sadness.

“I’m so sorry. I should’ve been faster.” Treygan nostril’s flared and his eyes were glassy. “How bad does it hurt?”

I had only seen his face etched with such concern and sadness one other time, on the Triple Eighteen when I was turning to stone and he couldn’t do anything to stop it. Something was very wrong with me. I managed to turn my head enough to see the statue of Liora. Treygan had turned her to stone. She was frozen in motion.

Held high on either side of her were my wings.

“Noooooooo!” I groaned, trying to roll out of Treygan’s arms so I could get to them.
My wings.
She had ripped off my wings. I would never fly again. Treygan held on to me. I didn’t have much energy to fight. Tears pooled in my eyes as Sage slithered up and down my arm.

The Liora statue disintegrated into another pile of black sand. My beautiful pearl wings landed on top of it. A strong wind blew, and the sand formed a small tornado that carried my wings into the air. Evil laughter echoed above us as they swirled out of sight.

I buried my face against Treygan’s chest, fighting the urge to break down and sob. He kissed the top of my head and squeezed me tight. “I know it hurts. I want nothing more than to sit here and hold you, but we have to find Rownan.”

We knew this place woul
d be awful. I expected to fight. I expected to get hurt. But my wings—the part of me I inherited from my mother—were gone.

“Yara, can you walk?” Treygan probed.

Sage nudged me. I rolled onto my knees, but I was so lightheaded. My limbs felt like they weren’t attached to me. “Go. Help Rownan.”

“I can’t leave you.”

I willed blood to travel to my limbs, demanding my legs become useful. Sage pressed her head against the back of my skull, trying to help me up. I tried so hard to stand, but I collapsed again.

Treygan’s arms were under me in an instant, carrying me. Every jostle hurt as he ran toward the temple with me in his arms.

“Three entrances,” Treygan said. “Which one do I choose?”

“I don’t know.”

“The middle.” Treygan rushed toward it. “Agreed?”

I nodded my heavy head.

Left.
Sage whispered to me.

“Left!” I groaned. “The left one.”

He didn’t question me—just changed course, and into the muggy, dark ruins we went.

She always loved it slow. The slower the better.

I slid Vienna’s coat off her shoulders and let it fall to her feet. I brushed my fingers up her arms. She watched them as if I was touching her for the first time.

“Do you need a drink?” I asked her. “You look weak.”

“A drink?”

“Of my blood.”

“No, I need you.” She grabbed me with such intensity that I was knocked off balance. She tried to kiss me, but I slipped. She missed my lips and ended up almost biting my chin.

“I know it’s been a long time, but don’t be so rough.”

Her eyes were so different. Beautiful ice crystals used to form when she stared at me with love or lust, but now they were dark and empty.

She rushed at me again. Something inside me screamed that this situation was very off. I dodged her next kiss and held her at arm’s length.

“V, why do you love me?” She first asked me that question when I proposed. We had asked each other the same question more times than I could remember. Our answer was always the same.

“Because.” She leaned forward, pouting, but my locked arms kept her from reaching me.

“Because why?” I wanted her to say the right words. I wanted it to be her more than anything.

“Many reasons,” she whispered.

I clenched my teeth, realizing this person, this
thing
, was not my Vienna. “Wrong answer.”

Her eyes hollowed and I shoved her backward. “What are you? Where is my wife?”

Her tongue rolled out of her mouth like a long carpet, changing from pink to black as it hit the ground and slithered toward my feet. I stomped on it and she screamed like a teapot boiling.

I reached for my knife, but she catapulted through the air and knocked me down. We wrestled as she morphed into a creature with speckled skin and black holes for eyes, but then she became Vienna’s lookalike again.

“You’re not her,” I grunted. “Where is she?”

“Fool,” it hissed, elbowing me in my jaw. “Give me your soul.”

Her mouth opened as wide as my entire head. I grappled for a tight hold on her neck, pushing her off me with all the strength I had. Whatever this creature was, it was strong and not giving up.

Vienna’s features solidified. For a moment her eyes almost looked real. Her voice softened, sounding exactly like Vienna’s. “Please, Rownan. Don’t do this. I love you.”

Part of me wanted to believe it could be her, possessed by some demon that I could exorcise from her. It caused me to hesitate, and the creature used the opportunity to bite my forearm. I cried out, but tightened my grip on its neck. This thing was not Vienna. It couldn’t contain the soul I loved so dearly.

I dug my heels into the ground and took a quick breath for strength. My claws shout out of my fingers and into the demon’s neck. She hissed, and the holes smoked, but it hardly fazed her. She kept thrusting her face at me. Her disgusting tongue flopped side-to-side, smacking against my neck and shoulders as I thrashed out of its path. My arms shook from exertion.

She pinned my forearms over my head. Her bony hands seared my skin. I cried out in agony. Her mouth opened wide, a swirling black vacuum, and she rushed at my face for what I suspected would be the final time.

But then her mouth turned to stone. The rest of her hardened into rock in seconds. She hovered less than an inch from my mouth.

“Move!” Treygan yelled.

I wiggled my right arm furiously, breaking her stone fingers and freeing myself from her grip. I dug at the dirt to free my other arm and then rolled out from under her, shoving the statue so it wouldn’t fall on top of me. I scurried to my feet, wobbling and almost falling back down. Treygan rushed over to me, carrying Yara in his arms.

“What the hell was that thing?” I gasped, trying to catch my breath.

“We don’t know. But our mothers were the same thing.”

I leaned against a wall, raising my head to look at my brother. “Thank you. If you hadn’t shown up, I would’ve been a goner.”

The statue began cracking. Even though I knew it wasn’t Vienna, it was hard to watch her crumble and melt into a black pool that looked like tar. The liquid slid up into the air like a floating blob then turned to smoke and swirled around me. A bodiless whisper said, “Her soul is ours. You’re too late.”

Distant laughter echoed through the ruins as the black smoke rose through an opening in the ceiling.

“We have
to get out of here,” Yara said shakily, looking more scared and weak than I would have ever thought possible.

“What happened to—?” Then it registered. “Holy hell. You’re wings are gone.”

Yara dropped her head to Treygan’s chest. “Please, let’s go home.”

Treygan hugged her tighter to him. “I hate to say this, but we have barely survived an hour in this place and there are three of us. Vienna couldn’t have survived this long by herself.”

Anyone else would be easily convinced this place would have killed or consumed Vienna minutes after her solo arrival, but no one knew her like I did. I knew she was still alive.

“No,” I argued. “She’s here and I’m going to find her, but I can’t do it without you guys.”

“Try shadowing her again,” Treygan said. “Do you get any sense that she could still possibly be here?”

“I feel it. I know she is.”

“Just try,” Treygan demanded.

I closed my eyes and searched for her. Nothing.

My eyes fluttered open to find Treygan watching me with a crinkled brow.

“She’s not dead,” I told him. “I would know if she was.” My heart was hopeful, even in this wasteland of despair. I would find her. She was here somewhere, and I would search every crevice, shadow, and demon until I found her.