Underwater (29 page)

He walked Saxon to the edge of the cliff, so close that I could see his toes hanging over the rock. Pebbles fell down, plopping into the choppy water under their weight.
You cannot argue with the Mere Monstrom! It demands a sacrifice tonight, and I’m going to give it one to keep this clan safe!
Darrow’s steely gaze landed on me, and he yanked Saxon’s arm behind his back, making him yowl in pain.
I’m going to keep this clan safe. There will be no rebellion. There will be no change. This is how we live. This is how it’s done.

“No!” I buried my face into Ian’s shoulder. I was so tired. My heart was empty and hollow. Saxon would die. And once he was gone, I would follow shortly thereafter.

The ear-splitting sound of a gunshot filled the air, hitching my breath in the back of my throat. Every Mer in the lake was rendered completely still, and when I dragged my gaze back to where Saxon was dangling above the water with his arm millimeters away from dislocating, I saw Isolde walk up behind Darrow.

This has gone on long enough.
Her voice trembled.

Ian gaped up at her.
What the…

Don’t sacrifice him, Darrow.
She used her spare arm to cover her crumpling face.
Saxon can help the clan. He can offer more to the Mer than I ever have. I can’t find a mate. I’ve compromised the safety of the clan. And worst of all…I’ve betrayed a friend. That is not the Mer way.

Darrow narrowed his eyes.
What are you offering, Isolde?

Take me instead of him.
Her voice was weak, and she shuffled to the edge of the cliff.

Saxon looked at her, grimacing. “Isolde, you can’t—”

I looked away right as the gun went off, and an agonizing silence filled the air as she fell from the cliff. The crowd gasped when her lifeless form hit water with the heavy splash of dead weight.

The Mere Monstrom dove toward her, snatching her body under the water with a revolting chomp. In the silvery moonlight, I saw a splash of bright red blood clouding in the water where she’d landed. The spiked back then arched downward, into the depths, its deadly tail flying up into the air, then sinking down, down, down, until the last scale disappeared with not even a ring left behind in the water.

And in an instant…it was gone.

Darrow’s mouth dropped open, bewildered. Every surviving Mer in the water glowered up at him, utter contempt filling the air. Rebellion was polluting the water, floating like spilled oil on the surface. And everyone—including Darrow, the only surviving member of the Council—knew it. With a disgusted grunt, he flung Saxon behind him, sending him to the ground with a roll.

The sacrifice has been fulfilled. You’ve just been saved.
He spat.
Your promises had better be accomplished. You will keep our clan safe, otherwise I’ll slaughter you—and her—like animals. Do you understand me?

Saxon sat up, grasping his shoulder, and nodded. Just once. Darrow jumped off of the cliff, bowing over the water with grace, as his skin rippled and his legs fused back together. When he was gone, Ian swam me back to the alcove.

Go find him. You’re safe now.

“Luna?” Evey ran across the rocks, embracing me as I pulled myself out of the water. I gripped her as tightly as I could, thanking God that my sister had been hidden out of view for the whole ordeal.

“Are you OK? Are you OK?” I repeated the words, wiping off of her cheeks. I pulled back, looking her up and down. Her nose had bled, presumably from when the Mere Monstrom made its cry. I looked over the younglings falling into their mother’s and father’s arms, and there were a few who had bled as well.

“Ian?” Hayden’s voice broke as he grasped Ian’s hands above the surface. When I looked back at Evey, her eyes filled with tears. Happy tears, for a change.

Luna?

The voice filled my mind, instantly making it warm and fuzzy. It was the voice I thought about night and day. The voice I loved. When I turned around, there he was.

Saxon was holding his shoulder with one hand. His face had been pulverized until one eye was swollen shut. Blood covered most of his right cheek, and purplish bruises had already started to swell all over his body. But it was
him
.

I held my hand out to him. “Sax!”

Falling to his knees at my side, Saxon pulled me onto his lap and smoothed down my wet, tangled hair.
It’s over now. We’re safe.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Note to self: It was easy to sidestep being grounded for missing curfew when you claimed to have been in a car accident. And Hayden’s car was busted up just enough to back up my story. Lucky me.

The Mer didn’t fare as well.

Saxon’s clan suffered ten deaths, including Mer caught in the Mer Monstrom’s strike zone and the members of the Council who’d been killed. Because of what he’d done to Bascom, Hayden had been warned to stay far away from the lake for fear of retaliation, though he’d announced on our way home that night that there was no way he would stay away from Pend Oreille or his brother.

He’d then grabbed my sister and planted a kiss right on her lips. I saw the whole thing.

Perla was back under the surface, recovering alongside Ian and Nathanial in what Saxon called the infirmary. Their injuries would have been serious on dry land, but apparently the Mer had access to plants that could speed up the healing process.

But there would be no recovering for Isolde. Her body was taken by the Mere Monstrom and pulled into the cave deep under Cape Horn, where it would lie dormant until the next sacrifice. Isolde’s surrender rocked the clan—and me—right down to the core. For someone I’d always viewed as pure evil, she’d given her life for mine and Saxon’s. She knew that when Saxon and I met, the key had slid into the lock and our connection had been made. Isolde died so that we could sustain that bond. I would never forget what she did for us.

Darrow lay low.

According to Nathanial, he was unwilling to let go of tradition, and his anger toward Saxon and his human companions grew by the day. Because the clan was now embracing Saxon’s concept of peace between humans and Mer, the Council’s validity was being questioned. The Mer wanted to be able to choose their own paths, even if it meant the dwindling of their numbers. Saxon vowed to find a way for Mer to continue their posterity without having to alter humans against their will. It was a tall order, but he would figure it out.

Scratch that,
we
would figure it out.

“You’re daydreaming again.” Saxon plucked a strand of my dark hair off of the grass and wound it around his finger.

I turned my head and faced him. It was hard not to feel hopeful when I looked into his eyes. We
would
find a cure for the Mer so that they could mate with their own kind—if they so chose. I didn’t know where or how, but we wouldn’t stop until we found it. I would do it to honor Isolde.

“No, I’m not.” I sighed and fingered the short grass.

My dad came home from his studio apartment in downtown Sandpoint to mow the lawn. It seemed as though he did more of those kinds of things—cutting grass, repairing the dock, stuff like that—now that he’d moved out. My mom said he was acting desperate, but Evey and I knew he missed the chaos around here.

“I’m thinking about Isolde,” I told Saxon quietly.

“Ah, yes. That.” He rested his head in his hands and stared up at the sky.

We’d been lying in the grass while Declan caught bugs in the woods nearby. My mom and Evey were grocery shopping and had warned Saxon and me—
twice
—that Declan was to stay in our line of sight. Though she covered it up as a request for me to watch my kid brother, we both knew that it was so Declan could keep an eye on us. I didn’t much care, though. For a while there, I wasn’t sure I’d ever have an opportunity to be this close to Saxon again. I would take this time. Even if it meant being chaperoned by a loud-mouthed ten-year-old.

I rolled closer, tucking my head in the crook of his arm. “We have so much to do.”

Saxon nodded. “I know.”

“How are we going to find a cure?” I traced the purplish lines on his face where he’d been cut. “I mean…I don’t even know where to start.”

He drew in a long drink of the spring air, then released it slowly. “I need to find other Mer. I need to ask what they do, how they find mates.”

My stomach tightened. The existence of freshwater Mer in the Pend Oreille Lake was still a baffling thought, even though I’d battled some a week ago. The thought of venturing to other lakes searching for more clans made me start to sweat. “So where do we start?”

He frowned. “I don’t really know.”

“So how exactly do you plan to do this?” I propped my head up on my elbow. “You know, with you needing to stay close to the lake and all?”

He put his palm against my cheek. Blessed warmth spread from his skin to mine. “I think I need to learn how to drive.”

Snorting, I pictured Saxon behind the wheel of a car, dripping wet as he poured bottles of water over his head. “Are you kidding?”

His expression dropped. Gone was the smile. “When we were thinking about running away, we considered riding a bus. But we both agree that would be risky. If I started to shift on a bus, it would be catastrophic. But if I could take a car we could pull over if the shift began.”

I considered his plan. My heart skittered at the thought of the possibility. For so long it’d felt hopeless. “But what would happen if we weren’t near water?”

“We’ll buy maps. Lots of maps.” His mouth pulled into a determined line. “We’ll stay within half a mile of rivers and creeks and ponds at all times. If I start to shift…I’ll run.”

I plucked a blade of grass out of the ground. “That might work.”

“Do you think your parents would let you go away on some day trips with me this summer?” He asked, the corner of his mouth tugging upward.

“Hey, I’m eighteen, I can come and go—” I stopped talking and looked over my shoulder at Declan’s bright red T-shirt visible through the trees. My mom was going to need me a lot this summer. And the last thing she needed was a teenager running away every few days. “I’ll…I’ll ask her.”

He laced his fingers in mine. “Good. Then we’ll start right after graduation. We just need to start mapping out where the local lakes are.”

“This is the northwest, Sax.” I squeezed his hand. “There are lakes everywhere. The real trick will be finding somebody with answers.”

He brushed the end of my nose with his own. “We’ll find them together,” he whispered, before pressing his lips to mine.

Excitement built in my stomach, bubbling over. I tilted my head to the side and deepened the kiss. He was alive. He loved me, and I loved him, and we would get through this together. If we could make it through prom night, we could make it through anything, right?

“Gross.” Declan’s voice startled us, and we pulled apart. Busted. Mom would undoubtedly hear about that.

“Sorry.” Saxon looked out over the lake with a contented smile.

We sat in silence, the sound of the water tickling the rocks a few feet away, lulling us back into that comfortable place we’d been in a few minutes earlier. I pushed all the serious talk to the back of my mind. One thing at a time…and the next thing was graduation.

I could do
that
. After all I’d been through, graduation was the last of my worries.

The sound of gravel crackling underneath the tires of the red minivan rang out, and Declan ran toward it.

“You two are so busted,” he sang. “I’m gonna tell Mom you were sucking face.”

Saxon stood up and winked at me. “Busted. Let’s go help your mom bring the groceries in, and maybe we won’t get lectured.”

He stepped away from me to retrieve my chair, and I laughed to myself. Silly boy. We would get lectured no matter what. A flash of white-blond across Moon’s Bay caught my eye, and my breath caught in my throat.

Ian.

I threw my hand up in the air and started waving. The corners of his mouth pulled into a soft, affectionate smile. His hand, a shock of ivory against the dark water, rose above the surface and moved in a silent hello.

“Come on, beautiful.” Saxon bent down to scoop me up and pressed a kiss to my temple. I beamed up at him and leaned into his touch.

“Look, Sax—”

My words halted. Ian’s face had melted into a frown. He had pulled the corners of his mouth down and pinched his brows together.

It was a face I’d seen from Ian before…once when we were still dating. He’d come out of his algebra class to find one of his friends flirting with me in the hallway, and we’d fought about it for hours after school. His face had the same expression that day.

Pure jealousy.

“What’s wrong?” Saxon followed my gaze across the bay.

Ian was gone before he could see him—barely leaving a ring in the water where he’d descended.

My heart was heavy in my chest. I put my arms around Saxon’s neck. “Nothing.” My voice was barely louder than a whisper. “Let’s go listen to my mom’s lecture.”

Saxon placed me in my chair, and together we started up the hill. Even though I couldn’t see anyone there, it felt as though dozens of eyes were watching me from just below the surface of the Pend Oreille. Eyes that belonged to a clan of innocent Mer just waiting for us to find a way to save their entire species.

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I forced myself not to look back at the water. I didn’t know how in the world we were going to do it, but we would find a way. Somehow.

Acknowledgements

This book never would have happened if it weren’t for two people who encouraged me despite my experience in the world of fantasy YA. Meggan Connors and Rachel Firasek, you two are supportive beyond belief. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

To Annie Melton, I am beyond appreciative for your hard work on
Underwater
. With your help, this book shines. And shiny, beautiful books are what my awesome readers deserve. Thank you so much.

To Ryan and Eedy, you inspired Luna and Evey from their looks right into their hearts. You two are gorgeous girls, with even more gorgeous hearts and minds, and I am honored to be your aunt. Love you.

As always, I want to thank my lovely wicked children and handsome nerdy husband. Without you guys, I would be nothing. There’s nothing better than seeing your smiling faces every morning. I love you guys so much.

And to my readers: You guys ROCK. No author is as lucky as I am. Thank you for all of your support. You’re incredible. And stay tuned…there are always more stories coming.