Blood of a Mermaid (11 page)

“Where am I?” she wondered aloud. Her words didn’t echo, but fell flat as if absorbed by the darkness.

She heard the grinding scrape of metal-on-metal, a latch being slowly pushed open. Seconds later the outline of a door appeared out of the darkness, an illuminated rectangle on a wall of black, as the door itself swung inward. Kae clutched the thin blanket, not sure what to expect.

The mermaid who entered the chamber carried a small, rusty lantern in one hand and a bowl in the other. In the faint glow, Kae could see the girl’s skin was dark blue and her long flowing hair was straight and shockingly white. Kae’s stomach gurgled and she suddenly realized she was starving. “Is that food?” she asked hopefully, pointing to the bowl.

The blue mermaid didn’t answer, instead placing both the lantern and bowl on the floor and quickly swimming out the door, pulling it shut behind her. Kae heard the sound of metal scraping again, but ignored it as she moved closer to the bowl.
Food.
She ate quickly, not stopping to consider the source of the unfamiliar-looking sushi, or that it might have been poisoned, until she’d almost finished it all.
Too late to worry about that now
, she decided, and devoured the last few bites.
If someone wanted me dead, they could’ve killed me in my sleep
.

Her hunger sated, she turned her attention to her surroundings. The lantern was rusted and old, the handle so worn that Kae feared it might break if she held it at the wrong angle. A soft golden glow came from a single jellyfish trapped inside, bobbing up and down within the glass globe, the tips of its poisoned tentacles pointing directly at Kae.

Holding the lantern and its deadly contents at arm’s length, she slowly swam the perimeter of the cramped chamber, inspecting each of the four walls and ceiling. All were solid rock except for the outline of the door, which was also made of rock with no visible hinges or knob on the inside. Where three of the walls were rough hewn and uneven in texture, the wall with the door was flat and smooth to the touch, the door fitting perfectly into its frame. She ran her finger along the rectangular outline, so straight and precise.

The floor was also solid rock, which explained why she’d been so uncomfortable. She could see now that the scratchy blanket she’d been sleeping with was made of flattened reeds of some sort she didn’t recognize, crudely woven together. Not at all like the carefully woven linens she’d become used to in her years of living with the royal family.

“Trapped,” she said out loud, feeling as if the walls of the chamber were closing in. No windows, no openings – so how was the fresh water circulating through? Or was it? Was there enough oxygen in the small rock room for her gills to keep pumping?

She started to feel lightheaded and suddenly realized she was breathing the water in and out far too quickly, hyperventilating. She closed her eyes tightly, making an effort to slow her breathing to something resembling normal. She took in a deep mouthful of cold, salty water, exhaling slowly through her gills as she counted to ten and opened her eyes again.

She was still so tired. She needed more sleep, but two questions kept circling her brain.

Where on earth was she?

And why?

“It was so kind of you to share your van ride to the airport with us,” Martha MacNamara said, handing her bag to the driver and indicating that Shea should do the same. She turned to smile at Gloria Thompson. “When Shea told me we were going to be on the same flights all the way to Greece, I couldn’t believe it!”

Gloria laughed. “How many flights could there be from Boston to the island of Santorini, right? It’s no bother at all.”

Shea climbed into the van, passing Chip in the middle row of seats, who stared out the window pointedly ignoring him while his earbuds leaked loud music into the vehicle. Settling into the open seat next to Hailey in the last row, he nodded toward her brother. “What’s wrong with him?”

“He’s pissed at mom again.” Hailey shrugged. “So who’s taking care of Lucky while you’re away? Too bad you couldn’t bring him with you, but I guess it’s a long flight for a dog and with quarantines and all it would be kinda bad…”

“He’s staying with Mrs. McFadden,” Shea told her, cutting her off mid-sentence. He could still picture the look on the dog’s face when they’d left him with the neighbor, the dog’s grey eyes full of worry. As if he knew Shea was headed for trouble. Shea shook his head at such a silly thought, and refocused the conversation back on Hailey’s brother. “What’s Chip got to be upset about? I thought he hated Cape Cod and would be happy to be getting out of here!”

Hailey smirked. “He just got offered a job as a lifeguard at that motel over on Shoreline Road, and Mom’s making him come to Greece instead. As if there won’t be even more pretty girls to talk to on a Greek island!”

At the mention of pretty girls, Shea’s attention slipped away from Hailey’s steady stream of chatter. He pictured Kae in his mind, wondering where in the world she could be right now.

It’d been five long days since she’d disappeared without a word. Well, she’d said goodbye, but for different reasons. If she’d gone on her journey as planned, he wouldn’t be in this van on the way to the airport, or to Atlantis.

He hadn’t slept all week, lying awake at night wondering where she was, if she was okay. Wondering if she was alone, or scared, or hurt.

Why hadn’t there been any word, any demands made by kidnappers? If Demyan was behind her disappearance, what was he waiting for?

After his meeting with King Koios, Shea had been sent home, accompanied by Kae’s mother Kira. It seemed Kira and Martha already knew one another, apparently having spent years passing letters back and forth between them for Shea’s mother and father. Letters Shea knew nothing about. He had no idea his parents had kept in touch for all those years she was away, or that they had planned to be together again someday. Planned to reunite as one big happy family.

Well, that wasn’t going to happen now. Because of Demyan.

His dad, his uncle, and his grandfather were all dead because of Demyan’s machinations. And now Kae might be caught up in those schemes, too. But no one was telling him anything.

Here he was almost a week later, headed to Logan Airport with Hailey’s family, ready to journey to Atlantis to testify. He knew he had to go, but he’d rather be out there in the ocean, helping search for Kae.

Martha had insisted on making the journey with him, although he still wasn’t clear about whether King Koios knew his grandmother was really a mermaid. He was the king, right? Shouldn’t the king know things like that?

Shea also wasn’t clear if Martha planned to travel with him after they’d reached the coast of Santorini. Kira had explained which beach they needed to be on to meet up with the merfolk from Atlantis, but beyond that Shea didn’t know what would happen.

“Are you even listening to me? Earth to Shea?” Hailey poked him hard in the ribs, bringing Shea back into the present. “Honestly, you are such a guy sometimes,” she said with a disgusted shake of her head.

Shea laughed. “That’s because I
am
a guy, you weirdo.” He nudged her shoulder with his own. “Sorry, I’m just a little nervous about flying and all. I’ve only been in a plane once, you know.”

“It’s no big deal,” Hailey assured him, patting his knee as if he were a two year old. “Six and a half hours to London, which probably means we get to watch two movies. Then change planes and another three and a half hours to Athens. After that it’s a little puddle-jumper plane for the last hour to Thira.”

Shea scrunched his brow in confusion. “I thought we were going to Santorini?”

Hailey laughed. “We are, knucklehead. Thira and Santorini are the same place.”

“So why does it have two names?”

“I think it’s because there’s more than one island. Santorini was the Latin name for the whole place, and it’s the biggest island, but there are other, smaller ones too,” Hailey explained. “In fact, the whole place is kind of shaped like a giant crescent with the middle sunken below the ocean’s surface, as if the islands are just what remains from the tops of mountains. Some theories say that the whole area used to be much bigger, almost another continent, and that’s where the lost city of Atlantis used to be.”

That got Shea’s attention. “Atlantis? What do you mean?”

“Well, I’ve done a lot an awful lot of reading about Santorini since Mom took the job, and let’s just say there’s a humungous amount of info and research that points to those legends of a sunken city being true.” Hailey lowered her voice to a whisper. “Is that why you’re really going to Greece? To visit an underwater kingdom? Is your mom really there on business-business, or is it like
mermaid
business?”

Shea glanced over at Chip, to make sure he wasn’t listening. As far as Shea could tell, Chip couldn’t hear anything except the music blaring from his headphones. Still, he shouldn’t take any chances. “I don’t want to talk about this right now,” he whispered back to her, his words sounding harsher than he’d intended.

“Fine.” She shrugged and looked out the window. “I’m surprised your girlfriend isn’t here to say goodbye. Did she get held up in a fish traffic jam or something? Is that why you’re all grumpy, because you didn’t get one last kiss from her? Or am I completely wrong and she’s meeting you once we get there?”

Shea felt his back stiffen. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly as she continued to tease him.

“You know, I was curious. When you guys kiss, is it like all salty? I mean, Chip always talks about kissing girls with flavored lip gloss and whatnot, but I’m guessing Kae doesn’t go for cherry Chapstick, right?”

He unclenched his fist and leveled his gaze on her. “We’re about to spend the entire day traveling. Together. Do you really want to pick a fight with me right now?”

Hailey’s eyes flew open wide, her words spilling out in a torrent. “What do you mean? I was just teasing, you know. What happened? Did you guys break up?”

“Not exactly.” He’d spent too much time over the last few days thinking about that last time he’d seen her, about the argument they’d had right before she left. And way too much time parsing that Pacific merman’s words about Kae. About how
familiar
she seemed with that green-haired dude, whoever he was. That she swam off with her
boyfriend
. Could she have met someone else?

“What do you mean,
not exactly
? How can you…”

He cleared his throat. “Actually, Hailey, I’m not sure what happened.”

While they’d been talking, the driver had finished loading the luggage and started the van, heading out of Windmill Point. Martha and Gloria were settled in the van’s first row, deep in conversation and Chip had turned his iPod up yet another notch. Shea could clearly hear the guitar riffs from the latest Three Days Grace song floating through the van. After teasing him so relentlessly about Kae, Hailey had grown suddenly and uncharacteristically quiet.

Which was just fine with Shea.

The sound of scraping metal woke Kae from a fitful sleep. She’d been dreaming she was surrounded by great white sharks, screaming for someone to rescue her as the sharks circled closer and closer. She knew that any minute the beasts were coming in for the kill, and there was nothing she could do.

“Kae? Are you okay?”

At the sound of his voice, Kae’s eyes flew open. She immediately had to squint them against the bright light shining in from the hallway, and raised a hand to shield her face. “Shea? Is that you?”

“No, it’s me. Xander.” He sounded disappointed as he pushed the door open all the way. Her eyes finally adjusted to the light and she saw the green-haired merman hovering in the doorway, looking around the cell as if searching for something or someone else. “I heard you screaming for help and swam here as fast as I could. Bad dream?”

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “I guess so. I don’t really remember. I’m having a lot of trouble remembering things.”

He crossed the room and hovered by her side. “Don’t worry about that. It’s probably because of the physical exertion. Long journeys can take their toll. How do you feel now?”

“Better, I think.” She sat up and stretched her arms over her head, testing her muscles. They were no longer sore from the long swim. “How many hours have I been asleep? Where…where are we?”

Xander took her hand, giving it a squeeze. A flood of warm feelings instantly filled her, and she relaxed. He reached over and gently stroked the side of her face, sending little shivers of pleasure running through her with his touch. She was suddenly glad that he was here with her, wherever
here
was.

“You’ve been asleep for almost two days. I was beginning to worry that the Nerine sedatives were too strong for you.”

Her eyes flew wide with shock as she struggled to pull her hand free. She remembered that bowl of food she’d eaten. “Sedatives? You poisoned me?”

“No, no, I would never do that,” he reassured her, holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “It was for your own good, to allow your body to heal from the hard journey. I’m just used to measuring doses for larger mermen, like soldiers and such. I had no idea you’d be asleep for so long. I was starting to worry.”

“So you’re a…healer?”

He smiled, his dark eyes looking sad as he took her hand in his again. “Something like that.”

She felt that pulse of warmth flow through her again and forgot that she was upset with him. But something about what he’d just said tickled her mind. “Nerine,” she said, and frowned. “Does that explain why the water is so cold? We’re all the way up in the Arctic Ocean?”

Xander nodded and pulled her into a hug, pressing her close as she wrapped her arms around his waist, feeling his rough scales beneath her fingers. When he spoke, her thick curls muffled his soft words. “We are in the Arctic, but you’re safe with me, Kae. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

“Hurt me? Who’s going to hurt me?”

“That would be me,” said a gravelly voice.

Her head jerked up to see a dark merman at her door, this one frighteningly familiar. She gasped and struggled to untangle herself from Xander’s embrace as the dark merman swam through the opening, a long shining sword hanging menacingly by his side. “Prince Demyan!”