Dangerous Depths (The Sea Monster Memoirs) (9 page)

BOOK: Dangerous Depths (The Sea Monster Memoirs)
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I was by myself when I first knew something was wrong. Minding my own business, I had been flying to Echo Bayou, and that’s when the fear hit me.

The most intense part was brief, but it was much stronger than I’d ever felt before. I had never known Otabia or Mariza to be terrified of anything, so that only left Yara.

First, I checked the grotto, thinking maybe Stheno and Euryale had scared her again. She wasn’t there, so I flew to Treygan’s house, which is where I found her. I sort of wish I hadn’t, because it ruined my perfectly good mood.

Yara and Treygan were sitting at the kitchen table with books and papers spread out everywhere.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Neither one of them looked up. They were too engrossed in reading. I have never liked repeating myself, so I spread my wings wide and flapped them so hard that papers flew off the table and Yara’s hair blew over her eyes.

“Nixie!” Treygan yelled. “What is your problem?”

“I don’t like being ignored.”

“We weren’t ignoring you.” Yara pulled her white hair into a ponytail. Such an odd human thing, the ponytail. I’d never be a fan of not allowing my hair to flow freely and blow in the wind. “We didn’t even hear you come in.”

Exactly
. They were too self-absorbed to even notice me. “You were scared earlier,” I said to Yara. “Unbelievably scared. Why?”

Yara glanced at Treygan. He watched her with a look of concern. Sage swayed over Yara’s shoulder.

“There’s another way in,” Yara said.

“Another way in where?”

She swallowed. “Harte.”

“What?” My wings rustled involuntarily. “How?”

Treygan carried a map over to me and held it up so I could see where he was pointing.
The Devil’s Triangle.

I knocked the map out of his hand, wanting to break his finger for pointing out such a dreaded place. “You can’t do this!”

Yara stood up and snatched the map off the floor. “We can and we are. You can either help us or not. I don’t want to leave on bad terms with you. I need your help if we stand any chance of surviving this.”

“You need me? Since when?”

Yara’s eyes softened. “Have you ever doubted that I needed your help?”

“Many times.”
And if you ever attempted to tune in to my feelings, you’d know that
. I should have told her that, but I didn’t want to look weak in front of Treygan.

“Do I need to remind you that you saved my life on more than one occasion?”

I did save her from being eaten by sharks, but the incident when she was a child was owed to Treygan. “Technically, Treygan saved you from drowning.”

“He wouldn’t have known I was drowning if it weren’t for you.” Yara nodded once, slowly, as if to signal the discussion was over. She walked to the table and shuffled through papers. “We need you to help us train and prepare.”

“Train and prepare? That doesn’t even sound like a real job. I thought you wanted me to come with you.”

She didn’t glance up from the paper in her hands. “I’d never put your soul in jeopardy by taking you into Harte.”

I walked over and leaned on the table, trying to make her look at me. “Treygan is going with you. Why is he allowed to go and I’m not?”

Yara looked up, but only at Treygan. He sat silently at the table, watching us. “Rownan is his brother,” Yara said. “He has the right to go, and he’s insisting. I can’t deny him the chance to help save his own brother’s life.”

“But you’re part siren. That makes you my sister. I demand to go so I can save your life.”

She finally looked at me. “It’s not the same, Nixie.”

“How is it not the same?”

“They are more help to each other by being in the same realm together. I need you here as my link to this world.”

My interest was piqued. “Your
link
?”

“You feel my emotions, right? I’ve been thinking that you can monitor how I’m feeling while I’m in Harte. If you feel me get scared or anxious, Indrea can calm you, and it will make me calm too. We could have
multiple Violets standing by to help with any negative emotions that may surface.”

“That
would
be a brilliant plan, except what if our connection doesn’t work in Harte?”

“It works between Rathe and Earth.” She was so naïve. As if Rathe and Earth were anything like Harte.

“What if it doesn’t work because you’re dead or your soul has been banished to hell?”

Yara slammed her palms on the table. “Nixie!”

“What? It’s the truth! Stop acting like this is going to be some leisure vacation. It’s going to be hell. Literally, you are going to hell. Don’t you understand that?”

“Of course I understand that.”

“Then why aren’t you recruiting an army to accompany you? Why are you being so foolish about your odds of making it back alive?” Sage rose high in the air, and Yara’s anger vanished quickly and completely. “Holy Medusa!” I shouted. “Sage is controlling your emotions!”

“No, she just helps me stay focused.”

A long, irritated growl poured out of me. “You’re lying! You don’t need me or the Violets to help with your emotions. You have your sidekick serpent to do our jobs!”

“Merfolk don’t lie,” Treygan interjected.

I snarled at him. Yara could lie. I had already witnessed it a couple of times since her transformation. He was so blinded by love that he couldn’t see how different she was in her new form.

Yara replied before I could shatter Treygan’s delusion. “It’s not like that. Sage keeps me thinking clearly. She reminds me that I can’t be scared or angry. If I give in to those negative emotions, I lose strength. My will gets weaker. I can’t afford to be weak in Harte. Not even for a second. My soul depends on it.” She lowered her head and mumbled, “So do Treygan’s and Rownan’s.”

I stared at Sage, drifting back and forth beside Yara’s head like a kite in the wind. “You better keep her safe, you self-righteous, glorified worm.”

Sage hissed at me, but Yara pulled her back. Yara smoothed down my hair then squeezed my shoulder. “Everything is going to work out. You’ll see.”

I tapped my foot, trying to curb my anger. I didn’t want to fight with Yara any more than I wanted her going to Harte. “If I can’t feel you anymore—if we lose our connection—I’ll go mad.”

“We won’t lose our connection. Our bond is too strong.”

Pango’s loud voice startled all of us. “Knock knock! I found our drunken sailor!”

Yara and Treygan hurried into the other room, and I followed. Pango waded through the water and up the steps into the living room. He was dragging Rownan beside him. Rownan’s arm was draped around Pango’s shoulder. He looked like he’d slide right back down the steps and into the water if Pango didn’t keep hold of him.

“Drunk, huh?” Yara asked.

“Positively wasted,” Pango said. “I’ve got a contact buzz from all the alcohol leaking out of his pores.”

“Thanks, Pango.” Treygan dipped under Rownan’s other arm and took the heavy load off Pango. “I’ll take him from here.” Treygan assisted him into the kitchen as we all followed. He dumped Rownan into a chair and he slumped forward, his forehead landing with a thwack on the table.

“Good grief,” Yara said. “He can’t even hold up his own head.”

Treygan grabbed him by the hair and pulled his head up. Rownan’s eyes stayed closed as Treygan loudly said, “There’s been a major turn of events.” Rownan didn’t utter a word, not even a groan. “Maybe now isn’t the time to update him,” Treygan said to Yara. “He’s not even coherent.”

Yara nodded. Treygan released his hold on Rownan’s hair and let his head fall forward, slamming against the table again. I snickered.

“I’m going to lay him down in the den.” Treygan scooped Rownan into his arms. “He needs to sleep it off.”

Treygan’s hallmarks stretched across his bulging muscles. Desire stirred inside me, but I didn’t know if it was mine or Yara’s. We were both staring at him like he was a juicy piece of prime meat.

“Thank you, Pango,” Yara said. “I appreciate all of your help. I owe you more paybacks than I can count.”

“You owe me nothing,” Pango insisted. “It was my pleasure. But if you are no longer in need of my gallant services, I’d like to go home and spend some quality time with Merrick.”

“Of course,” Yara said. “Tell him I said hello.”

Pango winked at me. “Goodbye, winged Ruby Goddess. Don’t hurt anyone.”

I nodded, and half waved goodbye, not realizing how much I felt like an intrusive observer until Pango acknowledged me.

“I’m sorry,” Yara said to me. “We were interrupted. What were we talking about?”

That you need me. Or maybe you don’t and you’re just pretending you do to shut me up
. “If you don’t remember, it must not have been important.”

Treygan came out of the den. “He’s out cold.” He glan
ced between me and Yara. “Did I interrupt something?”

“No, we’re fine,” Yara said, assuming she knew how I felt.

“Nix,” Treygan said. “Would you do us and Rownan a huge favor?” I glowered, but didn’t reply. “Yara, you may be repulsed by this, so don’t listen.”

“Oh no,” Yara groaned, but continued listening anyway.

Treygan stepped closer to me. He glanced sideways at Yara and tried not to grin. “Could you please filter out some of the alcohol in Rownan’s blood?”

Yara’s head snapped back. “Gross!”

Treygan shrugged. “We need him in semi-good condition when he wakes up. If Nixie can help ease his hangover, then we’ll be much better off.”

“Sure,” I said, wanting to prove to Yara that I was useful for something—regardless of whether she appreciated my talents or not. “I’ll drink as much as I can without killing him.”

Treygan looked down his nose at me. “Don’t come anywhere close to that point. Just take enough so he can walk and talk without throwing up.”

“Why do you always put a damper on my fun?”

“Thank you.” Treygan gently squeezed my forearm. Since when had he become so affectionate?

Yara sat at the table again, thumbing through a book. “Nixie, don’t you get drunk too. But don’t regurgitate in the house. That sound makes me sick, and we’re not cleaning up the mess.”

I flinched. Not even a thank you from her. Just a reminder that me doing what comes naturally makes her sick. 

“You’re part siren too,” I reminded her.

She didn’t look up from her page. “Yes, but my other instincts cancel out any desire to drink blood.”

“Whatever.” I stomped off into the den where Rownan was passed out on the floor.

I kicked Rownan’s arm. He was as limp as a dead eel.

“This won’t be much fun,” I said to him. “You’re not even going to put up a fight.”

I straddled him and sat down on his pelvis. My siren instincts stirred, and I leaned forward and breathed in his scent. “My, my, you are soaked in alcohol. I can hardly smell your blood at all.”

BOOK: Dangerous Depths (The Sea Monster Memoirs)
12.53Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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