Chapter 9

9

H udson’s laugh bounced off the trench walls and faded as it echoed away into the darkness. She heard the screams from the small patrol of Talon scouts who had followed her into the narrow darkness. Her smile was wide, though her lips remained pressed together. The satisfaction of a plan working was a warm tightness in her chest.

And yet, it made her ache to have another’s body pressed against her own. Memories of pressing her body against Honour’s flashed in her mind, but she shook them off as soon as they dared take over her thoughts.

No, this wasn’t the time for them.

This was war. And while it had all started a little earlier than she had expected, one of her many skills had always been her ability to improvise. The top of the trench was one of the only places she could easily see the edge of Talon waters. It curved, following the path of nature’s current, marked with the streak of gray that had been the marker for the tribe since its inception.

She’d seen the scouts and the idea had formed easily enough.

She had lured the scouts into the ravine. Once their bigger bulk made them unable to continue on and going back meant facing her men, they found her very persuasive.

They answered her questions. And the answers made her feel even longer and stronger than she had ever been. Talon’s leaders were finally paying attention to her. They had set ambushes for her and her men. Ambushes weren’t needed for the weak or the incompetent.

Now she knew without a doubt they were scared.

She would meet them in their water, at the edge of the gray strip.

Had they really thought she would be surprised or thrown off-kilter by their choice of battlefield? She hoped so.

She did enjoy when people underestimated her.

Contrary to Talon belief, not only were mermaids not stupid or weak, they were also quite capable of listening and learning.

And now she had hurt them again.

The Talon were hemorrhaging, and she was the blade that split their skin. She would continue to split every one of them until they died bleeding over their archaic regime and failure.

“Time to meet them head on.” She roared into the ripples of water surrounding her. “Let’s move.”

“Yes, Hudson.” Cryoc’s own blood lust filled his voice as he gave a battle cry.

Her men chorused Cryoc’s words, and she threw her head back. Another burst of laughter escaping her lips before she dropped her chin forward again.

The smile disappeared, and her lips curled up into a sneer.

“Time to kill them all.” She screamed and led her troops over the top of the ravine once more.

They didn’t rush. There was no need to spend all their energy, but they made enough ripples in the water to ensure the moment they touched on Talon land they were warmed up and ready.

“Stop!” The word was wrenched out of Hudson. It ripped up her throat and the tang of copper touched her tongue.

Her body halted so suddenly nausea roiled in her stomach.

It couldn’t be.

It simply wasn’t possible.

But there, swimming out in the open, just outside the border of Talon territory, was a figure she recognized instantly. Long and darkly colored, the mermaid she watched swam with a haphazard distraction that worried at the pit of Hudson’s stomach.

What the hell was Kyree doing here? And where was Honour?

Hudson scanned the space around Kyree’s slowly meandering swim.

A part of her remained vaguely aware of the shuffle and confusion that was taking place behind her. She wouldn’t have survived all these years if she hadn’t been able to multitask and remain vigilant.

Waves of water buffeted her back, but she remained strong, holding her place and refusing to turn back around and face her troops. Not until she knew how to contort her face, and into what expression.

Her fluke flicked lightly at the water beneath her, keeping her buoyant but not moving forward.

“Hudson?” Cryoc’s voice was rough and strained.

She understood the strength it took to pull back the urges once battle fever had pulsed within their blood and veins. The power of it pushed her breath hard and fast from her chest. She needed to fight, to let out the rage and revel in the power she took for herself, the power she took back from those who would control her life without thought or consent.

“Hudson?” Cryoc’s voice lowered to sound more like the mechanical beasts than a merman.

She still couldn’t answer. Not yet.

Instead, she looked over her shoulder and caught Cryoc’s eye for a mere second before turning back around in search of that beautiful silhouette again.

Kyree’s silhouette.

Finding her once more, Hudson felt her concern grow stronger.

She followed Kyree’s slow progress and caught her breath when she swayed over the border line and into Talon territory. She was as good as dead if she went any farther.

Moments flowed by. Hudson continued to hold her breath. But then nothing happened.

She watched several more times as Kyree swayed over the line and then back out of dangerous waters once again.

Hudson realized she was slowly shaking her head back and forth.

Many merfolk had called her insane over the years, from the Talon tribe and from others she had encountered throughout her time preparing for this war. She wanted to believe the final thread on her sanity had snapped.

“Cryoc?” She finally forced the word out. She needed to be sure, despite the rapid beating in her chest that told her everything she needed to know.

“Hudson?” He asked as he swam up beside her.

From the corner of her eye, she saw his eyebrows furrowed as he followed her line of sight.

“What the fuck is she doing here?” Cryoc’s voice carried many things, some Hudson could guess at and others she knew for certain. The anger and accusation toward her were all too familiar.

Not from him perhaps, but from enough of her tribe to know exactly what he would be thinking.

“I don’t know. She obviously survived longer than I expected.” Hudson didn’t lose another beat. She couldn’t afford to. She had worked too damn hard to lose all she had worked for.

“Obviously,” Cryoc murmured.

“We need to pull back and rethink the plan.”

“Because of a pet you once played with?” Cryoc’s anger was laced with unspent warrior’s energy. Hudson knew that, but she also knew that while it contributed to her halt on the attack, it wasn’t the entire story.

“No.”

“Bullshit.”

“Cryoc.” Hudson turned to him, her lips rolling back from her teeth as she smiled.

He flinched, and she reveled in the enjoyment of his fear. He didn’t lower his eyes, but he was struggling to maintain the contact.

“I’m not a man. I can think with both brains at the same time. But can you?”

His look of confusion was enough to answer that question. Even her best man was still after all a man.

“She swam into Talon territory.”

“She’s on the line,” he responded.

“And she has crossed over many times already in the time we’ve halted here. And yet?” She lifted her arms, both palms raised to the water above them.

“Where are they?” He looked around as though expecting to spot them poorly hidden in the very place where they were. “Is she bait?”

“I don’t know,” Hudson confessed, though she leaned heavily toward the negative. “But there’s something our little scouts have forgotten to tell us.”

“Which is?”

“Something I plan to find out very soon.” Hudson turned away from Kyree though her body screamed for her to turn back around, to make sure the mermaid, one of the mermaids, who had intrigued her so much, was safe and out of Talon’s grip.

“Would you like me to collect her?” Cryoc’s words seemed stoic enough. But Hudson knew when the man was groveling, and right now he was groveling hard.

“No.” Hudson pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at him. “You and the men will stay here. See if one of you can’t figure out how to use both of your brains. I’ll find the answers I need.”

“What if they come out from wherever they’re hiding?”

“Then,” Hudson spoke slowly as though to a mere pup. “You save the biggest one for me.”

She smiled and turned away before any of her men saw the sneer that replaced the grin. Her men were loyal, at least to the point where all men of Talon could be. But when it came to Kyree, and to Honour, she had found her patience and understanding no longer held the sway that it once did.

Hudson kept to the shadows, making sure Kyree was never lost from her sight for more than a ripple or two.

Kyree’s body sagged as she swam, her head dropping forward before snapping up over and over again. The exhaustion rolled off of her in waves. Hudson waited until she was certain neither her men nor any warriors hidden in the waters of Talon territory could see them before she finally approached.

“My my my, you aren’t the pretty thing I expected to see wandering through a battlefield.” Hudson purred as she slid her body up to Kyree’s, their arms brushing together in the wave of her movement.

Kyree turned her head slowly and found Hudson’s eyes.

Her eyelids drooped and dark bruises marred the skin beneath her eyes. Hudson moved closer, hands out as though ready to scoop Kyree up into her arms, but she stopped herself just in time.

Kyree’s smile was small and sad as she looked down at Hudson’s arms no longer moving closer but still up and outstretched.

“What are you doing so close to Reine?” Kyree’s voice was softer than Hudson had heard before, and it sent a shiver up Hudson’s spine, a shiver she didn’t enjoy in the least.

“We’re leagues from Reine.” Hudson’s concern grew. What the hell had happened? Where was Honour? Because there was no way Honour would let Kyree wander on her own out here. That much Hudson had been sure of.

“No. I need to find them.”

“Oh.” Hudson smirked. She slipped so much easier into this conversation. The concern ebbed a little, though she couldn’t shake it entirely, and that was even more unsettling than the vacant expression that threatened to overtake the last spark she saw flickering in the depths of Kyree’s eyes. “Out searching for your precious Honour are you?”

“Honour?” Kyree asked, a deep crease forming in the center of her forehead. A sense of presence returned to Kyree’s eyes, and she rolled her shoulders, pushing herself up a little higher so she was eye to eye with Hudson.

“Oh come now, Kyree.” Hudson reached out her fingers and gently stroked down Kyree’s arm, from shoulder to elbow. Small bumps followed in the wake of her touch, and Hudson bit back the smile of satisfaction that wanted to stretch across her lips.

“You can’t tell me you reacted so…” Hudson stopped talking as she licked her lips and moved her eyes slowly down to where Kyree’s slit currently hid behind her scales “…deliciously just to little old me. It’s okay. I won’t tell anyone about the fun you and Honour have been having traveling alone together. It can be our little secret.”

“You don’t really think I’ll fall for that, do you?” Kyree said in a voice far more familiar than the one Hudson had heard so far.

Seeing the spark in Kyree’s eyes, and the attitude in her voice, was a wash of relief.

“Oh come on. I saw how the two of you gravitated toward each other,” Hudson teased. She wanted to know as much about the two of them as she could, and it was inexplicable. She’d never been so damn curious about another mermaid in her life.

“She was hurt.”

“Was?” Hudson lifted her eyebrows as she asked. “Does that mean she’s all better now? Did your healing touch have its magic effect?”

“Why do you care? Why does it matter to you so damn much?” Kyree was back to that moping fool of a mermaid that unnerved Hudson. She wanted the strength that had been there when they’d first met. She wanted the feisty woman who was smart and used her brain.

“Who says it matters to me?” Hudson knew she’d said the wrong thing the moment the words slipped from her mouth.

The soft smile and warm eyes from Kyree confirmed just how big the error of her words had been. They had come out too fast and too defensive. Scrambling for some kind of comeback, Hudson swam up close, grasping onto Kyree’s upper arm and dragging her in closer. Their lips nearly touched when she harshly whispered, “But I wish you two would’ve at least let me watch.”

“I didn’t think you were the one who wanted to do the watching. Though you did seem to enjoy being watched.” Kyree’s spark was back, but the flatness in her eyes still played on Hudson’s mind.

She was trying to be her usual self. But the most intriguing thing about Kyree had been that she had never tried. She had simply allowed herself to be exactly who she was.

“What happened while you were gone?” Hudson asked, skimming her fingers up Kyree’s shoulder to her neck, sliding her fingers into Kyree’s hair. “Where’s Honour?”

Kyree bit her lip and shook her head, pain flashing across her eyes. It was a deep pain, one that Hudson had never been able to touch within her own life, nevertheless someone else’s. And yet Kyree drew her into it, wrapped her in it. Pulling Kyree close, Hudson pressed Kyree to her chest.

“We need to move,” Hudson murmured. “We’re too close to Talon territory.”

“Talon territory?” Kyree whispered against Hudson’s chest.

Hudson hummed an answer. She wrapped Kyree in her arms and dragged her away, swimming as fast as she could away from Talon territory and away from her troops. She had to protect Kyree, and this was the only way.