Tangled Tides (The Sea Monster Memoirs) (34 page)

That part I knew about. The needle to the heart was the shocker.

He said he would have to inject me with evil gorgon blood, but we planned on a slow-drip IV. He said it would be worse than any pain I could imagine, but I agreed to it. If it kept Treygan safe, I would have agreed to anything.

I couldn't remember the rest of the plan. Details blurred. I tried to ignore the deepfreeze spreading through my body. I gasped in agony. "How?"

"Cling to important memories. You said you still have our first day with the worms. What did you do with the worms?"

"Worms?"

Treygan screaming threats at everyone made it hard to focus. I hated hurting him like this. Would he think I betrayed him?

"Yara!" Uncle Lloyd shook me. "What did you believe about the worms?"

I squinted through the blue haze covering my eyes, concentrating on Uncle Lloyd's face. "They—I wanted them to cross the sidewalk."

"Why?"

"Because … I didn't want them to die."

"Right. You believed they should make it to safety. Just like the sea creatures. Remember your beliefs, Yara. Whatever happens, hold strong to your beliefs."

I squeezed his hand, shivering and buckling over in agony. "I'm scared," I whimpered.

"Fear is natural." He rubbed my fingers between his hands. "It's what you do with that fear that changes your fate. You can save all of them. You're strong enough. Stay true to your heart, even in your darkest hour."

"Treygan," I whispered. He was pulling and rearing against Nixie, trying to get to me.

Uncle Lloyd looked over his shoulder. "Let him go."

In a flash, Treygan threw Uncle Lloyd across the room, letting out the angriest roar I had ever heard. Uncle Lloyd landed on a floor vase, shattering it before rolling across the tile and finally stopping against a wall. The sirens screeched and wings flapped all around me.

Treygan was above me, his fingers lacing with mine.

"No," he begged. "For the love of Poseidon, no, no, no." He cradled my head while his eyes swept over me. "How could you do this to her?" he yelled. "That was blue gorgon blood. Evil blood. It will kill her!"

The pain grew sharper, but so did my vision. Everything looked clear and crisp. Red blood dripped from Uncle Lloyd's fingers and forehead as Rownan helped him to his feet.

I found Treygan's cobalt eyes again. My voice came out strangled. "This was my decision. Everyone has always made decisions for me. This time I got to decide."

"No," he pleaded.

"She's part siren, selkie, and mer," Uncle Lloyd panted. "Turning her to stone will take much longer than anyone else. You have time to get her to the gate before it happens."

A white heron flew into the room, landing near me on the floor. I stared at it, realizing it was the same bird I had seen many times since being turned.

The eyes didn't look like a normal heron's. They were sad, familiar and haunting. They were the eyes of my mother.

T
reygan glared at our father. "How could you do this?" He glowered at me, his jaw muscles flexing. "I will never forgive either of you for this. Never."

Lloyd spoke to the sirens as if nothing had happened. "Get them to the gate before the sun sets."

Before I knew it, Mariza had her arms around me. Otabia had Treygan, and Nixie flew off the back deck in front of us, carrying Yara into the sky.

The sisters flew in a wide triangle. Nixie took the lead position. Otabia glided through the sky to the far right of me and Mariza. Treygan occasionally kicked and squirmed and shouted at her, but I couldn't make out what he said. He was too far away and the rushing wind drowned out his words.

"Mmm, do you smell it?" Mariza sniffed the air. "Despair, anger, fear, time ticking away. It's so tantalizing."

The old man's plan had to work. If it didn't, the selkies would shun me, or kill me—if Treygan didn't kill me first. What if the sirens didn't take us to the gate? How could Lloyd trust them?

"Why did you agree to this?" I asked Mariza. "You and your sisters don't want the gate opened."

Her cinnamon eyes glinted and she flicked her head. "We are obligated."

"Obligated? To whom?"

She nodded at the white heron flying beside Nixie. "Cleo, the meddling twat. She couldn't die and leave us in peace. Had to hang about and order us around."

I stared at the heron flying ahead of us. "Holy shit."

The spirit of Yara's mother was communicating through a bird? What the hell was this world coming to? How many people—or ghosts—did Lloyd have working on this plan?

Nixie stopped. Her wings flapped as she hovered above a dark circle of water. The gateway was below us.

"Which one of you boys wants her?" Nixie asked. Yara hung limp in Nixie's arms.

Treygan practically growled. "Nixie, if you give her to Rownan, so help me gods, I will make your existence hell."

"Ooh." Nixie licked her lips. "We've progressed to threats, have we?" She looked at each of us and scrunched her shoulders to her ears. "Oops," she sang, lifting her empty arms above her head. "I dropped her."

Yara splashed into the water. Otabia released Treygan and he dove in after her. Nixie, Otabia, and the creepy heron I was still trying to believe was Cleo all stared at me, wide-eyed.

"Listen to Yara," Nixie commanded me in a harsh voice. "Whatever she asks, you do it."

Before I could say a word I fell through the air, plunging feet first into the water. My coat instantly changed into my seal skin.

I
wasn't sure how many selkies Jack had taken with him to the house, but at least fifteen were gathered at the entrance to the Catacombs, along with thirty or so merfolk. Selks and mer, separated like two gangs ready to attack at the first signal.

I swam past the crowd, not making eye contact with anyone. Treygan had Yara cradled in his arms. He and the Violets were deep in conversation. Yara barely turned her head, but her face twisted with pain. Her eyes stopped searching when she saw me.

Do it
, she thought to me.

Do what?

Drain me of my blood over the tombs.

What the hell?
Lloyd didn't tell me that part of the plan. I told him I didn't want to hurt her. Nixie said I had to do what Yara asked, but that couldn't be what she meant.

Rownan!
Yara mentally shouted.
You have to, before it's too late.

I turned around, scanning the crowd of selkies. Dina and Eve hovered near the front, watching me intently like everyone else. I extended my sight so everyone could hear me. Thankfully, they couldn't hear my heart pounding.

Someone has to distract the Violets and Treygan while I take Yara away from him. I only need a couple seconds. Enough time to get her into the Catacombs.

No one but me, Treygan, and Yara could safely swim into the Catacombs. They all knew that. No merfolk would attempt to follow me.
Do whatever it takes to keep Treygan away from me.

Eve turned to Dina and a few others. After a minute they all nodded, and Eve looked at me again.
You better be right behind us. They'll know we're up to something.

Eve, Dina and four other selkies swam toward Treygan and the Violets. Indrea turned first, her body tensing like she expected a fight. Eve took off her wristband, holding it out in front of her. I had no idea what she said, but Indrea's suspicious glare softened.

I circled high, acting like I was swimming past everyone into the Catacombs, then u-turned and swam full speed at Treygan's back.

Merfolk screamed and poured forward, but I was too far ahead of them. I rammed Treygan with one powerful blow. Eve and the others had each grabbed a Violet. In Treygan's moment of distraction, Dina pried Yara from Treygan's arms. I snatched Yara from her, swimming as hard as I could into the Catacombs while Dina and another group of selkies tried to restrain Treygan.

Yara dug her fingers into my chest.
Do it
, she urged.
While they can still see. Cut me.

I didn't want to, but in the craziness of my adrenaline pumping and with the chaos behind us I didn't hesitate. I sliced open her arm from shoulder to wrist. Blood flowed into the water around us.

Thank you
, she thought.

A red and dark blue cloud trailed from her limp arm. The evil gorgon blood was already so much a part of her that she was bleeding both colors. Lloyd was right. It hadn't killed her, but what if the blood loss did? I weaved through tombs, passing blurred stone faces.

The gate was just ahead, but the sun had almost set. No gorgons were there, no light shined through. It wasn't opening.

Yara touched my chin. She felt like a block of ice in my arms.
See, you can tell them you tried. My blood didn't bring the lost souls back to life. You were loyal to your kind.
Her eyes rolled backward and her lids fluttered closed.

Even underwater my eyes burned. After all I had done, all I had put her through, she still cared about me. Lloyd said she would be in more pain than any of us could imagine, yet she pushed through the pain to help me appear loyal to a group of monsters who wanted to kill her.

I'm sorry
, I said to her.
I'm so sorry.

But what good were my words if she couldn't hear them?

Treygan crashed into my back like a wrecking ball.

Yara flew out of my arms and I smashed face-first into a stone statue. Pain exploded through my skull. For a second I thought I was blind. A few blurry blinks later I saw pieces of shattered tomb sinking to the ocean floor. I sank too, rattled and numb from the hit.

Treygan grabbed me by the hair, yanking me upward. I locked one hand around his throat, squeezing as hard as I could. His veins bulged, but he didn't flinch. I extended the claws of my other hand and slashed open the skin on his chest. His fingers closed over my wrists.
I'm going to break every bone in your spineless body.

I managed to wiggle my right arm out of his grasp, but he snapped my left wrist like it was a piece of coral.

I howled in agony and tried to swim away, but he yanked me back.

You heartless bastard,
he said.
I'll see you in hell.

One of his hands clenched my jaw, the other wrapped around the top of my head. He would break my neck and it would all be over. He had more than enough strength to do it, and I deserved it. The gate wasn't opening. I would never see Vienna again. My brother hated me. My father was ashamed of me. I had nothing to live for.

This is my hell. Go ahead,
I urged.

A soft, deep moan resonated through the water. The fury disappeared from Treygan's eyes. He loosened his grip and turned away from me, looking at Yara. She hung onto the arm of a stone merman. She was so pale she almost looked like one of the tombs, but with yellow hair. Treygan released me and swam to her.

My sight had returned, but my head throbbed. Was I imagining a snake slithering over Yara's shoulder? I swam over to apologize, and to make sure I imagined the snake.

But the snake in her hair was real. Worse than that, Yara's fins had turned to stone. Treygan's worst fears were coming true. I didn't want to see it go down like this.

Treygan's tail changed into legs. Every one of his hallmarks swirled. His skin pulsed between dark blue and gray. He sat on the ocean floor with Yara in his lap, pushing the snake and her floating hair from her face over and over again.

I sank down on the other side of her.

The crackling was the worst sound I had ever heard. Stone formed inch by inch, moving up her tail, leaving nothing but rock where life used to be.

Yara's eyes were open. She and Treygan stared at each other, but I didn't try listening to what they were saying. Treygan shook his head. Yara reached up and touched his cheek.

When he leaned down to kiss her I looked away. My brother kissed his soul mate a first and final goodbye. Life had never been fair to him.

Yara's other arm floated upward, brushing against my stomach, but she didn't look at me. She was still gazing at Treygan. The stone had only spread to her stomach, but her lips were hard rock.