Dangerous Depths (The Sea Monster Memoirs) (3 page)

I shrieked so loud my vocal cords ached. “You’re what?”

Yara looked up at me. “We can’t let Rownan go to Harte alone.”

Why should she care what happened to Rownan? “
Don’t fall for that pathetic speech of his. He deceived you,” I reminded her. “He planned to kill you.”

“But he didn’t go through with it. In the end, he helped me. He even endured being tortured by Jack so Treygan and I could be together.”

I flew backward, putting distance between us, then crossed my arms over my chest. “I am
not
going into that realm.”

Yara flew up to meet me. “No one asked you to.”

Yara was my assigned gorgon. My job was to serve her. How could she consider traveling to somewhere like Harte without me? I spoke quietly so Rownan wouldn’t hear. “You told me I’d be your first in command. You said you had big plans for Rathe and needed my help.”

“All of that is still true.” Yara’s focus drifted to Rownan. “This is just a detour.”

“Detour? You won’t come back if you go to Harte.” I hovered in front of her face, forcing her to look at me again. “No one comes back.”

“Come on, Nixie. Have some faith in me.”

“It’s not about faith. You don’t even know how to use all of your abilities yet. You hardly know anything about our realm, but you’re going to blindly enter Harte and expect to come back?”

“I know what I’m capable of.” Yara’s snake slithered over her shoulder and our noses almost touched.

“You’re delusional,” I snapped. Sage hissed at me, and I hissed back.

Yara flew down to Rownan. He was watching us with a mixed look of shock and confusion.

“Treygan and I are going with you,” she repeated, “but we need to be smart about this. We have to give ourselves the best chance at finding Vienna and making it back to Rathe.”

I landed on the water, pacing beside them, my eyes burning holes into Rownan’s thick, stupid skull. Rownan had to tell Yara no. Even if he didn’t care what happened to Treygan, he had to care about Yara and the future of Rathe.

Rownan—the useless twit—didn’t argue with her. “I can’t believe what you’re saying. Actually, I sort of believe you’d do something like this, but Treygan? He agreed?”

“I didn’t even ask him.” Yara shrugged. “He insisted. He’s on his way here.”

Rownan almost smiled. “I’ll be damned.”

“Exactly!” I kicked the water, sending the spray directly into Rownan’s face. “You
will
be damned! All of you will be damned.” Gusts of wind blew so hard that Rownan drifted away from us in the churning waves.

Yara grabbed my arm. “Calm down, Nixie!”

But it was too late. I had lost my temper. I would conjure up a storm that would put Yara’s birthday hurricane to shame. Anything to stop her from entering Harte. “My job is to protect you. If I have to blow this realm to oblivion to stop you from going, I will.”

“You’re forgetting I can create storms of my own.”

“I have much more experience.”

Yara squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “Don’t test me.”

Of all the nerve. I threw my hands above my head and dark clouds boiled into being. I gritted my teeth and thunder rumbled.

Yara’s wings rose high and wide. Light
ning split the sky with three distinct bolts. She raised her arms and the lightning rotated so it was parallel with the horizon.

I gasped.

She circled her hands above her head and the bolts stretched and linked together, creating a belt of flashing light around us. I had never seen a siren manipulate lightning that way. We could create it, even direct it where to strike, but this was different. My skin buzzed with electric current and my hair stood on end. Yara didn’t look the least bit affected. Maybe she had learned more about her abilities than I thought.

“Now, that’s impressive,” Rownan shouted, swimming toward us.

I took a few deep breaths. My wind and waves calmed. The clouds I had created dispersed and the sky returned to its normal shade of violet. With a flick of Yara’s fingers the band of lightning around us fizzled into smoke that drifted away.

I gripped Yara’s shoulders. “You’ll lose your soul if you go to that world. We’ll never see you again. Think about everyone here who needs you. You just filled the empty place in the gorgon trinity, and now you’re going to give it up?”

“I promise I’ll come back.” Yara stroked my hair. “With my soul intact.”

“You can’t promise that!” I shoved her hand away. “You’re already breaking promises. I liked you better when you couldn’t lie.”

“Wait.” Rownan bobbed in the waves below us. He was like a pesky eel that wouldn’t go away. “Yara can lie again? What other changes should I know about?”

Yara shushed us. “I’d never lie about important things, but sometimes white lies are necessary.” She practically whispered, “The no lying rule is outdated and makes for some awkward situations.”

Rownan smirked at Yara. “I knew you had a devious side.”

Yara’s transformation into a mixed breed left her equally balanced with dark and light, warm and cold. I wondered, if the time ever came, which species she would defend first. Given the current situation, I guessed it wouldn’t be me and my siren sisters.

“So, this preparation stuff you’re talking about,” Rownan said. “What’s the plan? Gather supplies, heal my arm, and come back tomorrow?”

Yara tilted her head. “Yes, yes, and no. We’ll need a couple of weeks to—”

“Weeks?” Rownan repeated. “No way. That’s too long. In a couple of weeks Vienna could be dead.”

“You crazy fools!” I shouted. “She went in there sixteen years ago. She’s already dead.”

“Shut up, you loveless harpy!” Rownan’s claws shot out and he swatted at me, but I swooped out of his reach.

“If not dead, she’s an empty shell of herself.” I snapped my teeth at Rownan. “You’re risking Yara’s life for someone who is either gone or soulless.”

“Don’t talk about her like that!” His nostrils flared as he thrashed his arms. “I hope your wings fall off!”

“Both of you, stop it!” Yara ordered.

Rownan kept his eyes on me and spit in the water. Knowing he really wanted to spit at me, I stuck out my tongue at him.

He rolled his eyes. “Yara will be fine. Even if she does die, Medusa will just send her back again.”

That thought hadn’t occurred to me, and it momentarily gave me hope, but then I looked at Yara.

“Not true,” she said. “Medusa and Poseidon set some terms in our bargain too. Medusa made it very clear that I will not get a third chance at life. When I die again, it will be permanent.”

We were all silent for a few moments. Medusa had reigned over Rathe for hundreds of years. Her sisters had reigned for centuries. How long would Yara live if she didn’t do anything stupid and get herself killed? What would happen to me and my position if Yara was gone?

“You’re not dying anytime soon,” I t
old her. I shot Rownan a fiery glare. “Especially not in Harte.”

“Whatever,” Rownan said. “I’m going to Harte. Today.”

“No, you’re not!” Yara yelled.

Rownan dipped under the water and Yara dove in after him. They wrestled beneath the surface. I had no intentions of interfering, but then he used his claws on her. I cried out in pain as he sliced open her chest. I felt her injury as if it was my own. Part of me relished the pain because it meant my connection with Yara was strengthening. The other part of me rushed to her defense and dove down, tearing him off her.

I grabbed him by his hair, burst out of the water, and flew straight for a colony of jagged rocks. I pinned him down with my talons, screeching and snapping at his face.

“Nixie, stop!” Yara shouted.

She wrapped her arms around my waist and pulled me off him, but not before I kicked him in the jaw. “Don’t ever hurt her again, you useless seal!”

Yara grabbed my chin and forced me to look at her. She was angry and flustered. “You didn’t need to attack him!”

“I’m your siren. My duty is to protect you.”

“I don’t need you to protect me. I just need you to follow my orders.”

My wings drooped, but I couldn’t look away from her. How could she say something like that? How could she deprive me of reacting to my natural instincts? “But I—”

“No arguing.” She let go of me and flew to Rownan’s side. “Are you okay?”

Rownan’s face and arms were bleeding. He rubbed and stretched his back, but he looked as arrogant as ever. “Just keep your attack bird away from me.”

I imagined ripping every hair out of his head, making a nest out of it, then setting it on fire with my anger.

Treygan leaped out of the water and pulled Rownan under so fast that Yara and I were momentarily stunned. Then Yara dove beneath the water, and I followed.

Treygan had Rownan in a chokehold with one of Rownan’s arms pinned behind his back. He must have seen Rownan attack me and Yara.

I pumped my fist.
Break his other arm!

Yara was beside them in an instant, pulling Treygan’s hand from Rownan’s throat.

Apologize to both of them
, Treygan commanded Rownan while extending his sight so we could hear his thoughts.

I’m sorry
, Rownan said.
You don’t understand how desperate I am to find Vienna.

Treygan pulled Rownan so close their noses almost touched. I didn’t hear everything Treygan said to him, but I caught his last words: …
ever again, I’ll destroy you
.

Please,
Yara begged.
No more fighting. Rownan, we want to help you, but the violence needs to stop and you need to heal.

After all that, she still wanted to help Rownan. She didn’t even glance in my direction. She had no consideration for me whatsoever. Our bond meant nothing to her.

How quickly the tide had turned.

While I appreciated Treygan defending me and Nixie, I sympathized with Rownan.

Let him go
, I said to Treygan.

Rownan drifted backward, holding his injured wrist and looking mostly defeated. A few days ago I would’ve strangled him myself for all his lies and deceit. I’d had to hide from the selkies because they wanted to kill me. Now I was part selkie, and I felt a fierce and protective loyalty to him.

That same instinct burned inside of me for every sea creature: merfolk, selkies, sirens, gorgons, even Sage.

When I first discovered a snake attached to my head I was horrified, but it didn’t take long for me to grow fond of her. Sometimes I heard whispers in my mind and wondered if Sage communicated like the rest of us did underwater, or if I was just imagining she had a voice. I never could have predicted I would become so attached to a serpent—literally and emotionally. Feeling my affection for her, Sage rubbed against my neck.

My love for Rathe and its creatures, even those I hadn’t met yet, was almost overwhelming at times. Medusa told me I would inherit her instincts, but had I also inherited her love for this realm and everything in it?

I didn’t want to fight with Rownan or Nixie. I was terrified to enter Harte, but I couldn’t sit back and wave goodbye and good luck as Rownan went on an eternal vacation to hell.

You can’t go like this
, I told Rownan, swimming closer to him.
Let me take you to the Violets so they can heal you.

I’m fine. I’m going now. If the three of you want to try to stop me, then so be it, but you’ll have to kill me because I won’t give up.

Damn it, Rownan,
Treygan said.
You’re injured. Don’t you want to give yourself the best chance of surviving? You need to be as healthy and strong as possible.

Heartbreak makes me invincible. No amount of physical pain can stop me from getting to Vienna as soon as possible.

I flashed a worried glance at Treygan, knowing we would never win this argument. Treygan wouldn’t hurt Rownan badly enough to stop him from going into Harte. Neither would I.

Fine,
Treygan said.
Be stubborn.
We’ll go now.

I took a deep breath. We were really doing this.
My eyes locked with Rownan’s. I nodded in agreement with Treygan.
But when you can’t keep up and we have to carry you, expect a resentful I-told-you-so.

Don’t worry your pearly little head. I’ll keep up.

You are mad! Insane!
Nixie mentally shouted at me.
You are throwing away your new position and your entire life.

You know my philosophy, Nixie. Love until it kills you, because there’s nothing better worth dying for.

Stheno and Euryale were right,
she hissed.
You’re not nearly intelligent enough to take Medusa’s place.

I flinched. I would expect Stheno and Euryale to say something like that, but it hurt to hear Nixie agree with them.
We’ll see about that.

I turned and swam away. Rownan and Treygan followed. I heard Nixie break through the surface. I didn’t know if she would travel to the gate with us or desert me, but it didn’t matter.

Treygan, Rownan, and I didn’t say anything else to each other as we swam closer to the dark border of Rathe. I had so many things I wanted to discuss with Rownan. I wanted to thank him for helping me on the Triple Eighteen, for enduring torture from Jack so that Treygan and I could be together, and for protecting me from being sacrificed by the selkies. I wanted to tell him his father truly did love him and was proud of him. But everything I had rehearsed in my head didn’t feel adequate. We all stared ahead and swam in silence.

Rownan was first to spot Poseidon’s marker. The rocks were taller than I pictured, but there was no mistaking the black mountain made to look like a trident. That alone should have been a severe enough warning to stay away from it.

“Never cross Poseidon’s trident,” Treygan recited.

A legendary proverb we were foolishly choosing to disobey. I realized everything had gone still and quiet. There had been no plant life for miles. No creatures in the sea or air except
for us. Even the waves crashing against the rocks made no sound.

My hands were shaking. I looked at Treygan. His jaw was tense, and he was breathing hard. I glanced at Rownan. I had never seen him so pale. I spotted a vibrant red shimmering in the far distance. Nixie was perched on the ledge of a cliff several peaks to the right of Trident Rock. She hadn’t deserted me after all.

My tail felt ice-cold beneath the water, probably because all my blood was being used to fuel the supersonic beating of my heart. I stared up at the towering pillars of rock. I tried swallowing, but my mouth was bone-dry. “You’re sure we’re doing this?”

Treygan squeezed my hand. Rownan gave one firm nod. I took a deep breath, and we swam into a foreboding mist, entering the shadow between two of the spears.

A burning jolt shot through me. We were thrown backward by a curtain of electricity. The shock was so powerful that we were launched up out of the water. I landed in a hard belly flop that stung the whole front of my body. All of my hair was standing on end. My skin felt like a crackling fire.

“What the hell was that?” Rownan gasped.

Treygan shook his head as if trying to shake off the pain. “It felt like lightning hit us.”

I searched the sky to see if Nixie had created an electrical storm to stop us, but saw nothing except spires of black rock silently mocking us.

Rownan swam forward again, only to be thrown back even harder. His body flew in an arc as if he had been punched with a powerful uppercut from an invisible giant. He skidded across the water. He was much more shaken up by the second jolt.

Nixie flew toward us.

“Stay right here,” I told Treygan. “And don’t let him try again until I get back. We don’t need him shocking himself to death.”

I flew up into the sky to meet Nixie.

“I thought this would be one of the most depressing moments of my life,” Nixie said, grinning. She was biting her lip so hard I couldn’t tell if it was bleeding or just her natural shade of crimson. “But Rownan getting trounced a second time was pure bliss.”

“We couldn’t cross. Do you have any idea why?” 

Nixie shrugged. “No clue.”

Sage curved forward, her diamond-like eyes blinking at me as her scales warmed against my skin.
Sea monster worlds. Part human.

My wings drooped as I looked over my shoulder at Treygan and Rownan waiting below. I muttered to myself as the truth hit me. “It’s a gate between two sea monster worlds. The three of us are all part human.”

“What?” Nixie asked.

Of course. I swooped down to Treygan and Rownan. “We can’t pass through the gateway because we all have human blood in us. Only pure-blooded sea monsters can pass through
it.”

“Ohhhh,” Nixie cooed behind me.

“No! No way!” Rownan punched the water while yelling like a maniac. Treygan and I let him throw his fit. He deserved to lose control. I would have too if someone had told me there was no way to save Treygan from a damned world.

I looked at Treygan and tried to imagine it. What if he was in Harte and I couldn’t get to him? Technically, we had only been together for weeks, but our bond was already so strong. Rownan and Vienna had years together before they were separated. How does someone ever accept that they have to give up on reuniting with their soul mate?

Rownan finally stopped punching and yelling. He clutched his face in his hands. “This can’t be happening.”

Treygan and I kept silent. Nothing we could say would help. My heart broke for Rownan, but I felt heinous because a big part of me was relieved that we couldn’t enter Harte. If we couldn’t enter, we couldn’t not come back.

“I’ll kill him.” Rownan dove beneath the water. His tail shot away from us faster than I had ever seen him swim.

“Where is he going?” I asked Treygan. “Who is he going to kill?”

Treygan shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Our father.”