MERMADMEN (The Mermen Trilogy #2) (20 page)

“What did you say?”

The maid stopped swimming and carefully pushed out her words. “Shut her out. Shut her out.”

“What do you mean?”

The maid poked at the skin over his heart. “Close here. You let in. You push out.”

The mermaid’s words kicked down the walls of the dark cave he’d been living in since coming to the island. He had chosen to let the island in the night he fought for leadership. He had decided.
He
let her into his heart. So it only served to reason he could shut her out, and if he could, they all could.

“Wait,” he told the maid. Roen clenched his eyes shut and attempted to imagine his heart closing, but nothing happened.

He opened his eyes. “I’m not sure I know how,” he said to the maid.

The maid swam a few laps around his body and then popped her head up. “Speak to her. Say she must go.” The maid pointed to his head and poked him with her black claw.

He thought he understood what she meant—tell her to leave. Plain and simple. But could it be that? So simple? It was worth a try.

This time Roen closed his eyes and silently said,
I no longer accept you. You are no longer welcome in my heart. I revoke my connection with you.
He visualized the doors in his heart slamming shut and blocking out the intruder.

Light instantly poured inside his mind, filling every dark corner with vivid clarity. Every minute of every day for the last three months had been shrouded in a murky cloud. “Bloody hell. She’s been blinding me.” Fresh images and thoughts flashed inside Roen’s head. He now understood everything he’d seen and learned—the texts, scrolls, folklore, and stories. The conversations he’d had with his men and the elders. He’d been working for months learning everything he could, but somehow the island had kept him from connecting any dots.
Like little foking partitions in my head.

The answers were right in front of him the entire time.

“We’re all afraid of her. An island.” He laughed. Yet, she had no hands to punch with, no legs to kick with. Her only real means of physical contact was through that water, which they gladly drank every goddamned day—why wouldn’t they? It made them strong and indestructible. It made them fearless. He didn’t need the island for that. Neither did those men.

Without their willingness to let her in and drink that water, her illusion of control vanished. She could do little more than inflict pain. And death? No. She needed them to do that. Otherwise, she would’ve mowed men down on her own. It was all one big illusion, masterfully woven with fear and manipulation.

Roen smiled at the bobbing black face snapping her lids open and shut in an awkward birdlike rhythm. “You’re a genius,” he said. “I think you’ve figured out how to save us.”

She shook her head and growled.

Oh. He hadn’t figured out how to save the maids, had he? Thankfully, his mind felt like a razor-sharp sword, ready to cut down anything in his way.

The stories said the women engaged in sex and were bitten. But knowing the island’s adeptness at playing smoke and mirrors, what was missing? He’d bitten Liv, and she had been fine. No, they hadn’t had sex, but was that really the trigger?

It’s the water.
Everything led back to the water, and Liv had drunk some before being bitten. In fact, because of her resistance to the water, Holden, their healer, had mentioned in passing how he’d given Liv an entire IV bag full of it before he’d seen an effect on Liv’s dehydration that day she’d first come to El Corazón.

Was that the key?

The men’s bites had some sort of, well, for lack of a better word, infectious substance, similar to the folklore related to the effects of a vampire or werewolf bite. Of course, those species weren’t real. But mermen were. And if the women ingested any of the sacred water, it would prevent their venom or whatever they carried from taking hold.

Now, how it all worked out so that the men’s mates didn’t drink any sacred water during claiming, he didn’t know. There were a million ways the island could rig the “game.” For example, he could easily see the old bitch whispering in the men’s ears to give their particular woman a sip of water, making the night last much longer. Those women went home thoroughly worked over, filled repeatedly with potent sperm, and ended up pregnant. No surprise there.

Foke. That must be it.

Roen looked at his companion. Her big bright eyes were glued to his face.

“Have you ever been given any sacred water?” he asked.

She held up her sharp claw, trying to form a word. “Swim in sunlight with it.”

Roen winced. His arms cramped in the cold water. “You mean, the other day when the ship was attacked, some of the maids drank sacred water?”

The maid nodded. “Caves,” she ground out the word. “Filled with it. We drink.”

Sonofabitch.
The water had disappeared from the pool in the great hall because the island had diverted it into the ocean. The maids, who lived beneath the island, taking shelter in the underwater caves, were flushed with it, which is why they were able to come out into the sunlight and attack the women.

Had the island done it on purpose, knowing that would be the outcome? Perhaps. Regardless, it stood to reason that the women had been partially “cured.”

Roen now felt the warmth of full sunlight on the back of his head while his arms made excruciating rotations in the cold, salty water. He looked to his side, and there she was right below the surface, her long, sleek black body floating in the water, her tail undulating like a dolphin’s. The sunlight did not seem to affect her one bit.

Roen wanted to scream with joy. He could end this nightmare—permanently—for everyone, including himself.
I can be with Liv,
he realized.
Holy foking hell. I can be with Liv!
This goddamned challenge had turned out to be the biggest damned blessing in disguise of his life.

Roen looked up at the bright blue sky and enjoyed the feel of the sun on his cold, raw face. He felt a hard bump from behind and saw the mermaid snarling, flashing her razor-sharp teeth.

“No.” He shook his head at her. “We’re turning around.”

The maid blinked her big eyes in question. Despite her shocking, monster-like appearance, with the inky jet-black skin and ropes of hair resembling charred seaweed, she was beautiful in an exotic sort of way—high cheekbones and full lips. Her chin came down into a little point and her wide eyes gave her face a look of innocence.

The maid dashed toward him with her chomping jaw, aiming for his shoulder. Those razor-sharp teeth sliced the skin.

“Aahhh! What the hell did you do that for?”

The maid smiled happily at him.

“That fucking hurt,” he griped.

She stared with her devilish grin.

Was this some form of mermaid play? For foke’s sake, they were brutal.

“Can you help get me back to the island?” he asked.

She blinked at him. No answer.

“I’m not completing the challenge.” He’d get to El Corazón, share his news, and by the time Shane arrived, it would be too late for him to throw a wrench in anything. “And just in case anything happens to me along the way, I think giving you the sacred water will heal you.”

The maid shook her head.

“You don’t believe me?” he said, barely treading water and out of breath.

She shrugged.

“Well, there’s only one way to know for sure. We have to get back and try it.”

~ ~ ~

Whoever this maid was, Roen would save her first. She was an angel who’d rescued him from death and opened his eyes. Because of her, El Corazón was now only minutes away, and Roen would finally see justice done.

Floating on his back, Roen tried to relax his cramped muscles to make the exhausted maid’s work less difficult. He was a large man, not designed to reduce drag in the water, and her pace had slowed to a tenth of what it was.

“Fucking sharks,” he heard the maid mumble in a gravelly voice.

Roen opened his eyes at the precise moment something bumped him hard from below.

Godfokingdammit.
They were both so weak.

The maid pushed him from behind, smacking his back with her tail. “Go, merman.”

“No. We’ll fight it together.” Their chances were better if they ganged up on it. Alone, they had no chance.

“You go!” the maid barked.

“No, I won’t leave you—”

The maid smacked him with her long black tail in the back again. “Go. You save them. I fight shark. Hungry anyway.”

Roen looked at the creature, who kept ducking her head beneath the water, watching for the shark.

Her head popped up. “I am one. They are many.”

“I don’t think I can make it,” he said.

“One mile. You can,” she replied.

The shark’s fin popped from the water, heading straight toward them.

“Go!” she screamed and dove into the water, swimming to intercept the large predator.

Roen wanted to stay and protect her. Everything in his gut told him not to leave this creature who’d saved him. But she was right; she was one and there were many to save.

Bobbing in the rough waters, Roen filled his lungs with air and began swimming. Where the strength came from, he didn’t know.

A loud howl filled the air. He caught a glimpse of the mermaid shooting from the water, the shark snapping at her tail. The maid dove under and then shot up again. This time the shark caught her tailfin, and the two disappeared beneath the surface in a tangle of teeth and blood.

Roen’s heart cried out for her. He could only pray she’d survive. She deserved her life back.
And so do the other thousands.

He swam with everything he had, and when he finally spotted the golden shore, his heart filled with hope.
Only half a mile more. Think of Liv. Think of seeing her again. Think of her smile and warmth.
Everything he now knew meant they could be together.

Roen kept his head down, imagining that each stroke and kick pulled him closer to Liv.

Almost to the shore, Lyle emerged from the tree line and ran to retrieve him from the waves. “I knew you would return, brother.” He wrapped Roen’s arm around his shoulder for support.

“How did you know?” Roen panted his words. His entire body shivered violently and his feet and hands had gone completely numb.

God, I hate the foking ocean.

“Because you hate the ocean,” Lyle replied. “You’re not about to die in it.”

Roen made a shallow laugh while Lyle deposited him in the warm sand to sit. Roen had made it, and now it was time to gather the men and make things right.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Roen had not wanted to drink anymore of that goddamned water, but he’d been far too weak to fight off Holden and Lyle when they pinned him to the tile floor in Holden’s kitchen.

“You will drink it, Roen,” Lyle had said. “You’ve come too far to die now, and Holden says you have hypothermia.”

“Listen to your little brother.” Holden had grunted while prying open Roen’s mouth. “And stop moving around; you’ll make me spill it.”

Apparently, the island had kept her word and turned on the spigot after Roen and Shane left; then the water miraculously stopped again a few hours ago.

She knows what’s coming.

Luckily, Holden had been smart to stockpile what he could, filling every bottle, jar, mug, and pot with water. Like the island or not, when faced with a fatal injury or condition, most people would choose to live. Which is why Roen finally gave in and drank.

Now healed, Roen asked four of their strongest to catch a maid and bring her to the hall, before having the bell rung.

The men poured in and crowded anxiously around him and Lyle. No doubt, everyone felt shocked as hell to see him.

Roen held up his hands to silence the excited voices.

“How did you beat Shane here?” Jason asked the moment the other voices died down.

Roen crossed his arms over his chest. “I did not finish the challenge for a reason I will explain in a moment. First, I must ask everyone to declare your connection to the island severed.”

The room echoed with loud voices questioning his demand.

Roen waved his hands in the air. “To show you proof without her interruption, you must do it. And if I’m right, you will see I’ve found a way to break the death grip she has over everyone, and that your women, all of them, can be brought back. Starting right now.”

That got their attention.

“Anyone who does not wish to do as he’s asked may leave,” Lyle said.

No one did.

“Good,” Roen said. “Now look into your hearts and silently tell her she is no longer welcome here.”

The ground shook violently beneath them, and the men began screaming, clasping their hands over their eyes in agony.

Roen repeated, “Shut her out! Tell her to go! The pain will cease if you shut her out.” It was a gamble, but he was proof, wasn’t he? The island had not touched him.

One by one, the men shook their heads and stood up straight. Roen almost felt like a fool. All along, the solution had been right there. So damned obvious.

Just then, four men stormed in, carrying a wriggling black mass with a thick cloth bag over its head and claws tied behind her back. Roen immediately felt pained thinking of the maid who’d saved him, saved them all, really.

“Move aside!” Lyle commanded.

The room watched in silent angst while the men placed the maid on the floor in front of them and removed the bag. The mermaid snapped her sharp teeth like a crocodile and hissed like a snake.

“Hold her steady,” Roen ordered and then uncapped the bottle he held in his hand.

She wiggled her head from side to side while Roen managed to pour some of the water in. It immediately had a calming effect. He poured a little more, and this time, the maid drank it up.

Roen stepped back, praying he hadn’t miscalculated. The minutes ticked by, but the maid lay there, dazed.

Nothing happened.

How could I have been wrong? I must’ve missed something.

The men exchanged glances—some frustrated, some confused, some angry.