Anthia’s head tipped up, and the paleness of her face became far more prominent when her eyes widened like the two moons beginning to peek through the heavy, dark clouds overhead. The song continued on, coming closer and … higher?
Eryx looked upward into the fruit trees. “Who is sing—”
His mother made an inhuman noise. “Run.”
His stare snapped back to his mother. “What?”
“You’re more like them than us, and that’s all the mermaids will see. Run, Eryx.”
She didn’t give him the chance to argue about it. The singing in what seemed like the trees above them came louder with every passing second. Her hand locked around his wrist, and she darted back up the channel of high water fruit trees. She ran like the wind, but he was still faster. It didn’t matter because he stayed behind her as they weaved through the narrow trail beside the trees, avoiding low hanging branches that swung in the suddenly heavy winds.
The storm had arrived. He should have listened to the rustling of the leaves. The creak of branches.
He might have heard the mermaid when she dropped down on top of them. Except he didn’t. Not until it was too late.
Red hair and violet eyes. Fingernails sharpened like claws that dug into his throat and teeth bared with a vicious hiss slipping past snarling lips. She was naked, shifted from her water form to walk on land although she attacked from the trees.
Eryx’s mother’s screams pierced through the howling winds, but from which direction he couldn’t be sure. All he could see was violet eyes and fire-red hair intent on ripping the throat right out of his fucking neck.
THREE
Arelle
“AND THEN WHAT happens?”
Arelle sighed, willing her younger sister to focus on the last leg of their trip to the west side of Atlas, and less on things that didn’t concern her yet. “Has anyone told you that sometimes, you ask too many questions?”
Coral skipped ahead of her in the water, her tail smacking the rough surface of the water to splash her sister before slipping over on her back with a grin. She skimmed along the choppy surface, all the while looking like she was quite proud of herself. “Actually, they do.”
“Do you think that may be a hint, then?”
“Never.”
Arelle laughed because, really, what else could she do? “You’re asking me about things I can’t give you the answers to, Coral.”
“But you’ve been there. You saw it.”
“Last year, I saw some of the matings, yes.”
Since witnesses to matings proved paired couples’ bonds beyond any doubt, it was quite common for the colony—but especially the royals—to go along and be a part of the traditions. Even if it was from afar.
“And?”
Arelle could see just how close to the west side of Atlas they were. Already past the safe band of the Atlas Islands, now was the time she knew they needed to be quiet and pay attention. To everything. She’d heard the tales of ships coming out of the fog—like ghosts appearing where they hadn’t been just a moment before. She remembered hearing stories from merpeople who had managed to escape about how the landwalkers would lay nets along openings in the bays or on the sea floor before drawing them up fast when they weren’t expecting it.
Of course, Coral had never experienced those things, and being sheltered meant she hadn’t been around enough of their kind to hear those same stories that made Arelle wary and cautious.
“Well,” Arelle told her sister, “if we manage to make it back to the colony alive tonight, then you should get all the answers to your questions soon enough. But if you keep talking so I can’t pay attention until we get to the water orchard, then we might not make it back at all.”
The widening of Coral’s violet eyes and the way her pretty face fell almost made Arelle feel bad for her sharp tone and snarky words. She really couldn’t afford to sympathize when nothing she’d said was a lie.
Yes, the sky was a swirling black mass. Yes, the winds were high, and the rain pouring down had turned rather cold and harsh. A storm had come in faster than it’d taken them to get from the band of islands to the shore of the mainland. The water was already choppy, a dark reflection of the clouds overhead, while lightning streaked through the tunneling clouds starting to reach down toward the sea below. The season of storms had finally arrived, which meant they were safe.
Arelle didn’t trust that. It meant they should be safe. She would take no risks.
“Come on, we’re almost there and I’m sure Poe is waiting,” Arelle told Coral. “And then I promise, when we get back, I will tell you all about what I saw last year and what you can expect this year. Okay?”
Coral chirped happily in response, but it didn’t quite skip over the waves like it usually would. Maybe Arelle had been a little harsh, and besides, Coral was still forever curious. She couldn’t expect the girl to change just because she was now of age. She didn’t understand what was expected of her yet, and like the rest of them, would learn in time what she had to do.
For herself.
For their people.
For their life.
It all came with time.
“Let’s hurry,” Arelle said, swimming ahead of Coral who had now flipped back to her belly on the surface of the waves. “Poe might have managed to leave court ahead of us, but she won’t start picking any fruit unless we’re there to help her carry it all home.”
“Her mate must really like it for her to come here.”
Ah, there it was.
Arelle heard Coral’s wariness.
Maybe it was because they were now so close to the orchard that they could see the waterways between each row of the fruit trees perfectly fine. There was no going back now; they were in landwalker territory.
“It’s dark, the storm is here, and it’s the safest time for us to be out,” Arelle assured, heading for one of the waterways. She’d sing for her sister, and no doubt, Poe would call back, so they could easily find each other in the large orchard. “Don’t worry, okay? We just have to be fast and careful, that’s all.”
Glancing back at her little sister, Arelle saw Coral’s nod and figured that was good enough. They were here. What would be the point in turning back now? It wouldn’t be worth very much, especially if their father found out that they disobeyed him, tricked their guards, and came to the forbidden lands.
Slipping into the mouth of one waterway canal, Arelle listened in the wind, ready to call for her sister. Before she could even open her mouth, a noise whipping through the trees had her perking her head higher. The water in the canals was maybe six feet or a little deeper—certainly not enough for her to stand straight with her fin to the canal floor and still have her head above water.
“Coral, wait,” Arelle snapped, still trying to come higher out of the water to hear that sound better. “Listen.”
“What?”
Coral spun a fast circle in the water, making more noise than she needed to. Because of course. Arelle said nothing. She simply waited. It would come again, that noise, if it was what she thought it was.
And then there it came, with the next rush of wind, as clear as day. It sounded familiar, and then it didn’t. Angry, scared, and violent. That’s what her sister’s call felt like. It had Arelle’s anxiety picking up with the fast beats of her heart and made her want to turn right around and leave.