MERCILESS (The Mermen Trilogy #3) (20 page)

He then told her about the text he’d read and how a violent tragedy took Salla’s life.

“So the island is Salla. It explains why she’s so crazy and paranoid,”
Liv said.
“Her story is like one of those movies about those poltergeists whose souls stay trapped in their violent deaths.”

“Only this isn’t a horror film. This is real,” Roen pointed out.

“Still just as scary,”
Liv said.
“What am I going to do, Roen? I can’t stay here like this forever, and I can’t go steal someone else’s body. I’m not like her.”

“We need to set her soul free. We need to push her out of your body.”

“But then what, Roen? My heart is…well…it’s part of this place now. And I don’t know how to do what she did and just make one or pull myself out of here or whatever.”

He had not told Liv the other part of the latest chapter, but he knew he had to. “Liv? There’s something else I need to share with you.”

“Oh boy. From the tone of your voice, I’m biting my nails. If I had nails. Which I don’t. This is so damned awful.”

“She’s pregnant. Or your body is pregnant.”

“What?”
she barked. “
No. No, no, no. She can’t do that.”

“I think she has.”

“Why the hell did you fuck her, Roen?”
Liv yelled.

“I’m sorry, but we both know I thought I was sleeping with you.”

“Jesus Christ. She’ll kill our baby.”

“We don’t know that, Liv.”

“Oh. So you think she’s going to be a loving mother who takes care of the baby after she almost wiped out your kind and killed all of the children as revenge when the first lucky settlers tried to leave?”

“No.”

“She’s probably going to suck the soul right out of the tiny thing or tear out its heart and get inside it.”

“Who knows what she plans to do.”

“Roen, this has to end. After the baby is born, you have to kill her. You have to end her.”

“If I destroy your body, we lose all hope of getting you back, and what’s not to say that her soul won’t come right back here. As for the baby, if she truly is pregnant, then I fear what her evil soul is doing to it. I think we need to act now.”

“I wish I could get closer and feel her. Then I might know what’s going on. But she’s too far away. She’s just a faint noise like anybody else.”

“You feel others?”

“I feel everyone, Roen. It’s like a low vibration in the air. But I feel the ocean, I feel the trees and the birds and fish. It’s really goddamned freaky.”

So the island truly was connected to the rest of the world. He wondered about the other stories of the island being the spark of life.

“Can you communicate with anyone?” Roen asked.

“No. I’m not like Salla. I haven’t had the time to practice being a giant asshole like she has. But I think it explains how she was able to get to me and Dana when we were back in Wrangell. Or why those pirates and Dr. Fuller dreamed of this place. I think it takes a lot of energy to reach out like that, but I’m sure it can be done if you have enough practice. And a giant stick of vengeance up your ass.”

Roen laughed. Even now, in the face of such a colossal cluster foke, Liv was still Liv. “If it makes you feel any better, she’s really bad in bed. I was beginning to dread having sex. Like sleeping with a cold fish.”

“Whoa. Stop right there, merman. I don’t want to know.”

“Understood.” But he felt guilty as hell.

A few long moments of silence passed, and then he heard Liv sigh.

“Liv, you need to know that no matter what happens, I will never abandon you. I will stay here with you until my last breath.”

“You’re not saying that because you’re afraid I’ll turn all psycho-Salla, are you?”

He smiled. “No. I’m saying it because you need to know that my heart belongs to you. No matter what.”

“Thank you, Roen. But if there’s a baby, it can’t grow up here. It needs to be somewhere happy and beautiful. This shithole is no home for a child.”

“I might have agreed with you three weeks ago, but now…”

“What? No. You
are
leaving here. You should set up camp somewhere else with the rest of your people. When they decide to leave.”

Did she not know? “I think they’d be opposed to that, Liv. The island is changed.”

“Changed how?”

He told her all about the flowers and the trees. He told her how good it felt to be here.
“I think it’s you, Liv.”

“If only I had hands, I’d so be writing up my doctoral dissertation on this place. But, Roen, the reality is that Salla said she chose me because I was the only one strong enough to pull this off. But I think she’s wrong, Roen. I feel like every day that passes I feel weaker and more hopeless. It’s only a question of time before I end up like Salla. Batshit crazy.”

“Then we will have to find a way to fix this, Liv.” Though he had no clue how.

“The only thing you need to worry about is protecting that baby and killing that fucking bitch. That’s it.”

“We lose nothing by trying, Liv.”

“Yes. We do. If she suspects anything, she’ll use that baby as leverage against you. That is what she does, Roen. She uses those we love against us. She always has, and she always will. It’s probably the only reason she wanted a baby in the first place. She’s always five hundred steps ahead and she had to know you’d catch on sooner or later.”

Liv had a point. “I am going to gather everyone together to discuss what to do.”

“You can discuss all you like, Roen, but this decision is mine. And I’m not afraid to die. Especially if it will end Salla once and for all. Let the baby be born far away from this place and destroy my body. With luck, she’ll be too far away to come back here.”

That was taking a huge risk on a huge assumption, and not that he didn’t understand Liv’s point, but she couldn’t understand what it would do to him if she died. And growing up without a mother…well, he wanted better for his child. They had to try to undo this.

“We have to attempt to bring you back, Liv. We have to try to release Salla’s soul. Please. If not for me, then for that baby. Our baby.”

Liv remained silent for several long moments.
“Okay. We’ll try.”

Roen wanted so badly to hold her in his arms and kiss her. He loved her brave heart. He loved how selfless and strong she was. How could he have been fooled by that bitch parading around in Liv’s skin?

Liv was special and she was strong. And like her, he would not go down without a fight.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Liv listened to the voices bouncing around inside the Great Hall. Roen, Lyle, Dana, Holden, Dr. Fuller, Amelia, everyone was there. Even the mermen who were once loyal to Shane now ranted with anger over what had been done to Liv.

And then there were those whom she’d never met. She couldn’t count them all, but there had to be well over a thousand women, some standing inside the cavern and just outside, every one of them vowing to do whatever it took to save Liv.

It was very touching.

“We will not let history repeat,” said Jason, who was one of the men who’d thrown her to the maids to be eaten alive. Of course, he had been under orders and mermen were notoriously loyal, so she didn’t exactly hold a grudge. “I owe you and Liv everything, Roen. You gave me back Amelia. You freed us. I can’t…”

I don’t believe it. Is mister tough-guy merman crying?

Liv listened to a crack in his voice followed by the distinct sound of a hiccup.
Ohmygod. Why can’t I see this?

“Roen, please tell me someone is videotaping this just in case I get my body back, because I really want to see a merman cry.”

“Hey. Do not make fun of me,” Jason grumbled.

“You can hear me?”
Liv asked.

“Yes. I can.” Even he sounded surprised.

“Anyone else?”
Liv asked.

An ocean of voices responded.

“But how? Why now?
” Liv wondered aloud.

“I think,” Roen said, his voice deeper and louder than all of the others, “if you open yourselves to Liv, you’ll be able to hear her.”

“Liv? Oh shit. Liv! Are you okay?” Dana said.

“I’m here, honey. I’m fine.”
Liv felt the connection growing stronger.

It’s amazing
. For years, she’d hypothesized that the bond between people wasn’t simply mental or emotional. There was something real that connected one person to another—mothers and children, soul mates, siblings, best friends—however, people today simply lacked the science to measure it. But her thesis paper had focused on this very thing. She’d even gone as far as creating experiments to measure brain waves of a person when someone who loved them thought about them. It proved that the connection between people far exceeded the sentimental realm. Love’s reach went beyond what anyone could see or sense.

She glowed with a sense of deep, humbling emotion. She couldn’t see, but she could feel the connection with these people who loved her. Of course, the connection with Roen and Dana felt stronger.

“If I had a body right now, I’d be passing out hugs. Thank you, everyone. Can I ask a question here?”
Liv wondered aloud.
“I read some of the old translated text. One of them said that your people once had the power to control the air and water around them. It said that mermen and mermaids were once beautiful and magical. If this place draws from the energy of everyone, would it—I mean, wouldn’t I be more powerful if…well, you know?”

“You mean that we should stop drinking the water,” Roen said.

“It suppresses the fish gene—or whatever,” Dana pointed out.

“We are not fish, woman,” chimed in one of the men.

“What I think Dana is trying to say is that in our human forms,” Roen said, “we are weaker because we are not in our natural state. If we were to return, we could be more powerful.”

Liv could feel everyone connecting the dots, just as she had. If they were all connected and she and this place could literally draw their energy, wouldn’t she be more powerful if they were more powerful?
“I might be able to push Salla out if I were strong enough.”

“We owe everything to you and Roen,” said Lyle. “I will stop drinking the water.”

“No. You should stay here by my side,” Roen argued. “I may need you if something should happen to me.”

“I think we should all stop drinking the water,” Holden said. “Everyone except for Lyle. Hell, who knows? Maybe we’ll like being fish again.”

Multiple people booed him. They hated being called fish.

“Then it’s decided,” Roen announced. “We are going to stop drinking the water immediately and give Liv everything we can so that she can send Salla straight to hell. Or wherever the foke evil souls of our kind go.”

“
Roen…”
Liv said.
“I didn’t mean we’d do this today. We have to wait until after the baby is born.”

“So she’ll have a chance to kill it? No. We do this as soon as possible.”

“My body has no heart, Roen.”

“You will do exactly as Salla has done.”

Meaning she’d do what? Make a heart out of water and push it into her body?

“I don’t know how,”
Liv said.

“Liv, let me ask you this: do you believe that Salla has good intentions for our child? Do you believe that she wouldn’t kill it in a heartbeat to serve her own purpose?”

“No. And no.”

“Then we must take this risk. If you fail to push Salla out, I do not believe she’d give up your body or destroy it—she’s wanted her freedom for far too long.”

Roen had a point. If Liv failed, little would change. And she agreed that Salla would not give up her body or change course. They lost nothing by trying.

Liv wanted to draw a sobering breath, but that was what people did—people who had lungs.

“
Promise me,”
Liv said,
“if anything goes wrong, if it looks like she’s going to threaten the baby, that you’ll all back down.”

No one spoke up and Liv could feel the anxiety spike.

“There’s been enough dying,”
Liv said,
“and now we all know the truth about this place, about her…it’s only a question of time before we end Salla. Let’s not do that at the sacrifice of one more innocent soul.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Later that evening after the meeting concluded, Roen called Salla and set the wheels in motion. He had only his faith in his love for Liv and the ruthless instincts he’d cultivated in his human life to guide him through this.

“What? You’re at the island?” Salla barked over the phone.

“I am not well,” Roen explained.

“Oh. When did this start?” she said innocently.

“I think the moment I left the island. I don’t know for sure, but I passed out, and when I woke, I asked the pilots to fly me here.”

“Did you drink the sacred water?” she asked.

“Yes. But—” he coughed for effect “—it only gave me temporary relief. I thought if I came back here, I might heal. I don’t know what that foking island did to me.” Roen didn’t want her to suspect that he’d caught on. He had to convince her that he was still blinded by the body and face of Liv.

“How are you feeling now?” she asked.

“I won’t lie; I feel the same.”

“I’m coming there.”

“No,” he protested. “There’s nothing you can do and the island is not safe for you. Now that you’re carrying our child, you must stay away from this place.”

“Roen—”

“Listen to me, Liv. You heard how I spoke to you before. I treated you like shit, and I didn’t care. Something is happening to me. Something bad. You must stay away.”

He heard a loud sigh. “If you are not well, I must be at your side.”

It was exactly as Roen hoped, but they weren’t quite ready for her yet.