Blood of a Mermaid (15 page)

She blinked. Why was he even in her head?

She tried to picture Shea instead, and wondered what he was doing right at that very moment. At least he was safe, back in Windmill Point. With no access to sunlight and no meals to mark her time, she had no idea whether it was morning or evening on Cape Cod. Would he be walking with Lucky along the beach, watching the sunrise and looking for Kae among the waves? She smiled at the image in her mind, wishing she could be swimming there now, in Nantucket Sound, with Shea by her side.
Maybe he’ll miss me and come looking for me. Shea will rescue me.

Or no, wait. She’d told him that she was leaving for Atlantis for the trial, and that she wouldn’t see him again until September.
Does he even know I’m missing? That I’m being held as a prisoner?

Well, he’ll know soon enough
, she thought with a frown. Xander was headed to Windmill Point with her bracelet. Proof that Demyan held her hostage. She was being used as bait, to lure Shea north into some kind of trap. What did they want with him, though?

She realized it didn’t matter what they wanted, or that Shea would obviously know it was a trap. He would come, because he loved her.

The image in her mind began to shift, rippling as if someone stirred the surface of the water. Now when she pictured Shea, he was walking on the beach with Hailey instead, hand-in-hand and smiling. Where was this idea coming from?

Although she knew logically that Shea and Hailey were “just friends,” as Shea was so fond of pointing out, she also suspected Hailey wanted more from their friendship. Doubts crept into her mind, like ghosts haunting a shipwreck, making her rethink what was real and what wasn’t. Hailey was the opposite of Kae in so many ways, with her dark eyes and darker hair, and her absolute knowledge of all things drylander. She talked fast, could ride a bike without falling, and didn’t get confused by words like
Nintendo
or
flip-flops
. Hailey had so much more in common with Shea, both growing up in the human world rather than the underwater world where Kae lived.

With Kae out of the picture, Hailey would have her chance.

“Maybe I’m going insane here, all alone in the dark,” she said out loud. She shook her head, trying to dispel the troubling thoughts. Hailey would never do that to her. And Shea said he loved her, despite the fact that she was just a servant and he was heir to his grandfather’s throne. He shouldn’t be in love with her, but she could tell from his kiss that he meant every word. Her fingers strayed to her lips as she remembered their last kiss goodbye.

Shea was the one in real danger. Demyan was using her as bait to lure Shea into his clutches.
But why?
Kae gasped as she realized the “why” was the same reason he shouldn’t be in love with her – he was heir to King Koios! Either Demyan was planning to use magick to make Shea one of his puppet followers, or…use him as bigger bait to trap an even larger fish, like the king himself. Either way, she needed to escape. There was no way she wanted to be the catalyst for another attempted coup in the Atlantic.

The stone under her hands began to shift, startling Kae. She swam backward in the dark room as a thin outline of light appeared along the wall. Part of her hoped it was the mermaid with food – at the moment, she didn’t care if it was drugged or poisoned. She needed to eat. But another part of her, which was growing stronger in its convictions by the moment, wondered if she should make a swim for it, rushing past the guard or mermaid servant and zipping into the hallway to escape…but to where?

Kae had no idea where in Hades Hell she was. The Arctic Ocean, yes, but how could she sneak through hallways when she didn’t know where it was she needed to go to reach open ocean?

Her fists curled into determined balls. “I have to try,” she whispered. She couldn’t let Demyan use her to capture Shea. The door swung open silently and she held her breath, not knowing what to expect, or what to hope for.

There was no way she could’ve anticipated the merman standing in her doorway. She’d recognize his profile anywhere.

“Father!”

“Hailey, wake up!” Shea shook her arm, willing her to open her eyes. He could see the surface of the water rising steadily outside the window. A trickle of blood oozed from a vertical cut down one side of Hailey’s forehead, but otherwise she looked okay. Just unconscious. Shea flicked open the clasp on his safety belt and reached over to unclasp hers.

“Is she okay?” Chip’s hand was heavy on Shea’s shoulder, the tipped floor of the cabin making him lean in.

“Knocked out but breathing.” Shea turned to look at Chip. “We need to get out of here.”

Chip nodded, looking anxious. “Once the water starts filling the cabin, the plane will sink faster and we won’t be able to push the doors open. I read about this one crash, off the coast of South America, where…”

Shea cut him off. “Save it. We need to move now.” He looked around the cabin, seeing that most of the passengers were either knocked out, like Hailey, or still in shock from the crash. Very few were on their feet like Chip. Shea stood and moved into the aisle with him before leaning back over to drag Hailey out of her seat. The cabin crew was nowhere to be seen. “Where are all the flight attendants?”

“Up in first class maybe? Isn’t that where their little fold-out seats are, near the cockpit?” Chip grabbed Hailey’s arm and helped Shea lift her out into the aisle. “Come on, Hail, wake up! We’ve got to get going!”

“Can you swim?” Shea knew Hailey was a strong swimmer, but had never seen Chip go near the water.

“Varsity diving team back in New York,” Chip said as he maneuvered his shoulder under his sister’s arm. Other passengers were starting to rouse, many of them moaning and holding their heads. The storm still raged outside, lashing the windows with walls of rain and waves. Somewhere in the very back of the cabin, a woman started screaming.

Chip and Shea slowly moved forward, dragging Hailey between them. Shea looked around at the dazed and injured passengers and couldn’t help but feel responsible.
This is all my fault
. “We need to help these people,” he told Chip. “Someone needs to take charge.”

“Yeah, right,” Chip said, grimacing as he shifted Hailey to take more of her weight. Her eyes were still closed, the blood still flowing from her head wound, leaving a thin red trail down one cheek. “We’re only teenagers, not EMTs. Who’s gonna listen to us? Let’s just find Mom and your grandmother.”

He knew Chip was right, but still Shea worried. So many of these people looked totally unprepared to survive. Just then, the overhead lights flicked off, leaving the cabin in shadows. With his enhanced vision, Shea could still see perfectly well, but behind him Chip stumbled. A moment later, small pinpricks of light blinked on along the edges of the aisle, emergency lighting to lead the way to their escape.

The bolt of black fabric continued to separate the first class seats from the rest of the cabin, as if reality would be different if you paid more for your seat. Pushing the curtain aside, Shea saw there actually was a difference in that there was a lot more light in first class. The crash landing had somehow ripped a large hole in the side of the fuselage, right where the flight attendant station and main door must have been. Shea could see the dark storm swirling overhead and the white-capped waves reaching up toward the opening like eager tongues, as if the water itself wanted to taste the inside of the plane’s cabin.

The door to the cockpit was still closed tight, and Shea wondered about the pilots. At least one of them must’ve lived through the crash to help steady the plane’s descent through the harrowing storm. If they hadn’t leveled off at the last minute, there would be even more destruction.

Two of the flight attendants were still strapped into their seats, eyes closed, rocking back and forth to the sway of the cabin. A third was helping a woman in the front row who was bleeding profusely from a gash down the side of her face. The man beside her in the aisle seat was slumped over, bleeding. There was a chunk of stray fuselage sticking out from his neck.
The first casualty,
Shea noted.
Will he be the last?

Right next to the hole, the front row of seats was empty. In the second row, Shea’s grandmother was unbuckling Mrs. Thompson’s safety belt. Martha glanced up at Shea and raised one eyebrow. “Did you feel that?”

“No time to discuss. We need to help these people.”

Martha nodded. “The stewardess said there was a self-inflating raft behind that door, but it’s stuck.” She pointed to a spot next to the gaping hole. “See if it’s still in there while I revive Gloria. Chip, hold onto your sister.”

Shea let go of Hailey’s other arm and wrenched the door open. “Something’s in here, Gramma,” he called back to her over the roar of the wind. “I don’t know how to get it out.” The flight attendant was suddenly by his side, chattering in Greek and motioning for Shea to help her. They removed a hard plastic cover and together dragged what appeared to be a large roll of yellow vinyl toward the hole in the side of the plane. A long rope tethered one end of the roll to the bottom of the closet, unfurling as they moved.

After pushing the yellow rubber out of the hole, the flight attendant yanked on the end of the rope and the boat began to inflate on its own, unrolling itself into a good-sized life raft. She turned to Shea and spoke again in rapid Greek. He held up both hands and shook his head, trying to gesture that he couldn’t understand what she was saying. “American.”

She took a deep breath and tried again, this time in halting English. “The plane. She is sinking. This raft fits maybe fifty people.”

“So many?”

She grabbed his arm. “We need to get out fast.”

“Agreed,” Shea said, nodding to show he understood the urgency. He hurried to where Chip stood holding Hailey, still trying to rouse her. “Chip, get your mom and sister on the boat, then come help me.”

“Okay.” Chip sounded uncertain as he looked down at his unconscious sibling.

“Now,” Shea urged as he pushed him toward the door. “Gramma? You’ve got Mrs. Thompson, right?”

Martha nodded, lifting the dazed woman to her feet. “I’ll stay by the door to help the stewardess get the others into the lifeboat.”

Shea ripped the curtain from its rings, feeling there was no more need to separate the classes. In the main cabin, several men were clustered in the row by the plane’s wing, trying to force open the emergency door, which must have jammed upon impact. More were crowded in the aisle nearby, watching and waiting to escape. Others still sat in their seats, dazed or unconscious. No one was screaming any more, but the noise level had risen dramatically as everyone struggled to be heard over the noise of the storm.

“There’s a life boat at the front of the plane,” Shea yelled, trying to make his voice carry over the din. “It’s big enough for everyone and already inflated.” The men who’d been trying to open the emergency door and the passengers waiting in the aisle all turned and rushed forward, knocking Shea out of the way in their haste.

Getting back on his feet, Shea looked around the cabin and decided to start at the front and work his way back. Many of those who were still seated were awake, but seemed confused as to where they were or what they were supposed to do. He unlatched seatbelt after seatbelt, helping people to their feet and pointing them in the right direction. “Follow the row of lights on the floor,” he kept repeating. Many of the passengers had minor head wounds like Hailey, but a few seemed to have broken limbs as well.

As he bent over to unlatch one older woman’s belt, she looked into his eyes and asked in accented English, “Are you an angel? Am I dead?”

“No, ma’am, you’re not dead,” he reassured her, putting a hand under her elbow. “But you need to stand up if you can and get off the plane, right now.”

“But I don’t know how to swim,” she said, her eyes widening as she looked past him to the window where the waves still buffeted the airplane.

“It’ll be okay,” Shea told her. “What’s your name?”

“Teadora,” she said, her Greek accent thick. Water began to wash along the floor of the cabin and Shea could see panic in her eyes as the ripples soaked through her leather shoes.

“There’s nothing to fear from the water,” he said, helping her to her feet. “It’ll be okay.” Shea guided her partway down the aisle, and was grateful when Chip took Teadora’s wrinkled hand from him. His grandmother stood at the opening, assisting passengers as they stepped through.

He turned to help the next passenger, surprised there were still some who were unconscious.

“Shea, we gotta go,” Chip called back to him over the noise of the storm. “The plane is sinking faster.”

“Let me get these last few people out of here.”

“What people?” Chip looked confused. “How can you even find them in the dark?”

Shea stood over another older guy and shook his shoulder, trying to wake him. Chip’s hand wrapped around his upper arm. “No, Shea. We have to leave now. They’re gonna cut the rope so the raft doesn’t get pulled under!”

The man in the seat started coming around. Shea shrugged off Chip’s hand and grabbed the man’s shoulders. “Sir, can you stand up?” When he finally started to rise, Shea glanced at Chip. “Take this guy forward with you. I’ll catch up.”

“But…”

The water was getting deeper, already halfway to Shea’s knees. “Go. I’ll be fine. I want to wake those two in the last row and check the restroom.” Shea turned away from the other boy and trudged through the steadily rising water to the rear of the plane. When he reached the last row, he checked to make sure Chip had followed his instruction and saw he and the older gentlemen were already at the front of the plane, heading out the opening.

Shea bent down over the remaining two passengers, a middle-aged couple who were holding hands, fingers intertwined even in their unconscious state. From their sunburned noses and the man’s brightly colored tropical shirt, Shea guessed that they’d been traveling in Greece on vacation. “Sir? Ma’am? Can you hear me?” He shook their shoulders and saw the woman’s eyelids flutter. “Ma’am? You need to wake up. The plane is sinking.”