Chapter 19

NINETEEN

Merrick

I couldn’t take her anywhere that there was likely to be mers. So that left one place: the siren shrine.

It wasn’t anything grandiose or morbid. It was simply where the center of our village used to be, hundreds of years ago, before the sirens had disappeared. The old structures were now derelict and uninhabitable, but it would be a safe place to leave Jesse as long as the jellyfish paste kept her scent hidden. The clan avoided it out of superstition and shame, but as guppies they took us all once on a trip to talk about our history.

The sight made me sad then, and I didn’t feel much better about it now. It didn’t make sense to abandon such a stronghold—it would have been a much better place to house all the clans that came for the festival.

Mer were a very superstitious lot.

The old village was much, much deeper than our current one, so far down that bioluminescent seaweed and other plants had been purposefully placed in the village. They grew out of control now, similar to the bright lights of the human city with all the clashing colors and violent tangles. Instead of being cloaked in darkness, it shined like the human city up above. Well, sort of. This light was far more preferable than the blinding lights of the surface.

Nevertheless, it would be perfect to hide in. The glow would help camouflage our flashing scales. And there was something artistic and beautiful about how silent and untouched the city was a shrine and tomb from a different time.

I pushed aside a giant, bright blue plant and ushered Jesse into the half-collapsed stone building behind it. The high seaweed would cover what had degraded from the structure over time. Jesse swam in behind me, wary as she floated around the small space.

“This isn’t creepy at all,” she muttered.

I was learning that when humans said one thing, they actually meant the opposite.

“We used to live here down in the deep to protect our young and the females,” I explained.

She rubbed at a patch of green algae on the wall, revealing crude, red scratches of a mer and a female. Two smaller mers were etched next to them, and a long string of scratches spelling out a name—Meruse.

A child’s drawing from many lifetimes ago.

“I bet this place would clean up easily.” Jesse turned to me, her hair swishing around her neck with the quick movement.

“This is the part where you tell me to stay put again, isn’t it?” she asked, disappointment in her voice.

“I just need to ensure my father is on my side,” I pleaded. “I cannot protect you against everyone. Having the clan leader will go a long way to keep everyone else in line.”

I hoped.

But my blood pulsed in my veins, insisting otherwise.

“I will only be gone an hour or so. I promise,” I protested vehemently, putting my fist to my chest to indicate my sincerity.

Jesse bit her lip. “All right,” she conceded, floating down to a flat, curved section on the floor. “I’ll be here. Besides, this looks fun to explore.”

I turned and darted away, knowing that if I didn’t leave her now, I never would. My instincts had been screaming at me since the moment I saw her in her siren form, and they hadn’t abated in the slightest. It had taken all of my self-control not to take her when my hands had caressed her bare breasts.

I wouldn’t do that though. I wasn’t that selfish. If Jesse had every mer in the world to choose from, I would give her that choice. Tying her down to me wasn’t fair.

She is mine.

I told my instincts to shut up, and swam back to my clan. The trip was long, and I was already exhausted from everything that had happened. Our clan village was much closer to the surface, forcing me to swim up and up, adding to the ache in my muscles. I kept close to the surface for safety, just like they’d taught us. It made it easier to escape large predators. Soon enough, the ocean floor slanted upward, covered in the flowing red algae that indicated I was close. It swayed softly under the water, calm and soothing.

I hoped my father was alone. I drew up close by the door, smelling over twenty old mers.

Fuck , as Jesse would say.

He wasn’t alone. And not only that, but he was also with the entire council of elders.

I steeled my nerves, and straightened my shoulders. Perhaps this would be for the best. If I could get all the elders to agree to protect Jesse, they could control the younger mers.

I swam through the door, trying to look confident.

Gastor, the leader of the Jackfish clan, had been talking. He shut his mouth immediately as I strode through, the shark tooth necklace around his neck clinking loudly as it bobbed and flowed through his wild gesticulations.

“Where is she?” my father demanded, before anyone else could.

So much for subtlety. My chin snapped up, my fins flaring out in an unconscious gesture of trying to appear larger than I really was. I couldn’t even control it. My face flushed, and I struggled to keep my anger in control.

“Hidden, her scent concealed,” I replied. “You will not find her without me.”

The other elders growled. I wasn’t sure why I had been convinced they would help me. Of course they’d rather find Jesse and claim her for themselves and their own clan. Who wouldn’t? And what if Jesse liked one of them better?

The thought deflated me, and for half a second I considered leading them to her. She should have a choice after all, shouldn’t she?

“My clan will give you all of our wealth and our five guppies for the female,” Oran shot out, turning his attention to my father.

I jerked back, shocked. Give away guppies?

“Why limit her to one clan?” shouted another elder with white scales, whose name escaped me. “We will all make payment to your clan and we can all share her. Then all of us benefit.”

Rage erupted in my veins and before I knew what I was doing I’d pumped my tail and shot across the room, my hands and claws wrapped around the elder’s neck. Scales flashed and tails thwacked against my body as they forcibly removed me, still hissing and spitting.

“He reeks of her . His pheromones are everywhere.”

I didn’t know who was speaking. It didn’t matter. All of them would bleed for suggesting they pass Jesse around like a prized breeding cow. I’d rip out all of their throats before they touched her.

“Where are the others?” I asked sharply, noting the absence of their scent in the water around the village.

My father arched an eyebrow. “You said there was another siren born on land. We sent them hunting while we decided what to do with the actual siren in our midst.”

It would be smart to let them think they had any say in what Jesse did or didn’t do. Unfortunately, my instincts were louder than my brain.

“She’d rather die than get near any of you,” I sneered before I could think better of it.

My father’s eyes narrowed, and the sharp tang of fury flooded the surrounding water. Not just from him but from every clan leader I’d just insulted.

I swallowed heavily, but held my ground. Maybe I could distract them.

“We met the sea witch. She seems to know a lot about what happened to the sirens. If we ask her—”

“The what?” my father asked, incredulous.

“Sea witch,” I answered back. “She had an old mer with him, but something was wrong with him. His scales were black, and—”

“He speaks nonsense. He’s gone mad. He’s not fit for a female!” Aris’s father, of course.

“She’s already sunk her teeth into him; he won’t give up anything unless we force it,” Gastor helpfully added as the elders tightened in a circle around me.

My father’s eyes widened in alarm, but he did nothing to stop them and their voices came at once.

“Merrick, we just want to speak with her,” Father pleaded with me. “Please. We aren’t like the other young mers, we—”

Why were they treating me like an invalid?

“Tie him up. Force him to tell us.”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures. She’s the only siren—”

“STOP!” I cried out, alarmed.

Hands came at me from all sides, pinning me down and grabbing onto my tail so I couldn’t move. I tried to writhe and twist away, but there were too many of them, and they all knew how to fight better than I did. Perhaps, I should have taken more of an interest in combat lessons when I was younger, instead of always focusing on my art.

Fists pummeled the side of my head, and knives slashed at my face. My arms were trapped at my side. My father made an enraged, sorrowful, keening sound, and dove at his friends. His spear flashed out of nowhere and dark blue blood swirled around me. The elders hissed in pain and suddenly my tail was free.

Did I still have a tail? Everything hurt. I couldn’t tell if the blood in the water was mine or from the others.

“GO! Get her away from here!” Father commanded.

I didn’t wait to be told twice.

I beat my tail as hard as I could and swam as fast as I could back to the siren shrine. Pain was secondary. The burning sensation in my face and head was secondary. The only thing that mattered was getting back to Jesse alive.

Don’t think about the trail of blood you’re leaving.

Just swim .

Don’t think about how your body burns in pain from too many places to count.

Just swim .

Just swim.

Swim.