Descending (The Rising Series) (32 page)

Sara frowned, obviously not satisfied with her answer.

“I’d
like to say we’re going to have no trouble, but the truth is, my mom is smart. You can’t survive two thousand years in hiding without learning some survival skills.”

“Do you think you have a baby sister out there?”

Gretchen’s eyes teared up. “Or a brother.”

“
How long has it been since you’ve seen your mother?”

“Fifteen years, the day I left her.”

“You haven’t seen her since?”

“Only in my nightmares. She was never a good mother. I’ve seen things so horrible, even years of therapy haven’t been able to erase them.”

“I always wondered what you needed therapy for. I’ve never seen you anything but happy, controlled, and confident.”

“Yeah, I can put on a good front. Actually, that front is what saves me. If I can control myself, my world, I’m safe. Things got messy in
Honolulu, and my careful control snapped. You know, that’s what scares me the most.”

“What?”

“That I’ll lose control and become my mother.”

“I know you
well enough to know
that’s
not ever going to happen.”

“I’m not so sure.
I can be pretty vicious when someone threatens those I love.”

“
Well, that’s what makes you different.”

“What?”

“You can love.”

Kyros and Drakōn swam north-northwest. They were following
Sara’s hunch. Drakōn remained silent at his side—of course, he never was one for chitchat. Kyros knew the Dagonian had to be struggling. Kyros had suffered enough in the short time he was with Aella. Drakōn had been with her much longer.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Kyros answered.

Drakōn didn’t answer him.

“I didn’t think so,” Kyros mumbled and spoke up. “If there’s going to be a problem keeping
a cool head, I need to know.”

“There’s no problem.”

“I hope not.”

“There is no problem,” Drakōn snarled.

“That’s not what I’m seeing.”

Drakōn whipped around and stopped in front of Kyros. “What are you
seeing, Kyros?”

“I see someone
who is on the brink of losing control,” Kyros said.

Drakōn clenched his jaw. “I’m perfectly under control. I’m going to catch the witch and rip her heart out, or if my suspicions are right and she has no heart, I’m going to tear her head off her shoulders. It’s as simple as that. There is no problem, no conflict. If I see her, she’s dead.”

Kyros frowned at his posturing, but if anyone deserved to be upset besides Gretchen, it was Drakōn.

“Fine
,” Kyros said. “As long as it’s understood we are also looking for a child—a babe.”

“Any
offspring of hers should be destroyed too.”

Kyros roared and slammed his fists against Drakōn’s chest. “Watch
yourself, Dagonian. Panthon Prison would gladly welcome you back to its filth and despair.”

Drakōn looked shocked for a moment before his eyes widened in understanding. He bowed his head. “My apologies. I wasn’t thinking of Gretchen. It was wrong of me to speak so. Gretchen is nothing like her mother.”

“And this babe will be nothing like her too.”

Drakōn gave a curt nod.

Kyros swam on, putting Drakōn behind him. However, the Dagonian was not willing to be left behind.

“I do have information Gretchen might be interested in
,” Drakōn said.

Kyros furrowed his brows. “And what would that be?”

“Her father’s alive.”

Kyros stopped. “What?”

“Aella filled your head with lies. She wanted Gretchen to believe her father is dead, but he’s alive.”

Kyros shook his head. “Why would she leave a human alive?”

“Her father’s not human. He’s a demigod.”

“Do you swear by Olympus you speak the truth?”

“I do.”

“Who is this demigod? Who is his father?”

“She didn’t say. Only that he was immune to her voice.”

“Promise me you will let me try to get this information from
Aella before you destroy her.”

“We shouldn’t delay
,” Drakōn said. “Aella is dangerous.”

“I know. But I know Gretchen would want to know who her father is.”

Drakōn frowned. “I’ll try to give you time. But if she’s not cooperative, I will kill her—whether or not she divulges Gretchen’s father’s name.”

Kyros nodded
. “Okay.”

They
could see the place where the yacht had been anchored. “Sara has good instincts,” Drakōn said. The coral lay scattered, broken by the anchor’s drop.

“She swam that way
from here.” Drakōn pointed north.

“Yes, I remember. How long was she gone?”

“She’d be gone about two and a half hours.”

“
The destination is probably about an hour’s swim from here.”

“That would be my guess.”

The ocean terrain was nondescript, and the trip uneventful. Still, they scoured the sea bottom, looking for any sign, any clue that Aella had been there. They came up with nothing.

Kyros
heard a growl coming from Drakōn.

“Sorry. I’m a bit hungry.”

“Perhaps we should stop and feed. Your stomach rumbling could give away our position.” Kyros smiled. He looked around him and spotted a small lemon shark. “Strange, lemon sharks are schooling creatures. This one seems to be alone.”

“That
is
strange.”

Unbidden, Kyros’s incisors elongated as he tasted the tantalizing flavor of the animal.

“What do you think?” Drakōn asked.

“I think we should look for other prey. After those beasts saved our lives in the city, I don’t have much appetite for them.

Drakōn shrugged. “Sure.”

A large bonefish
swam in the distance. At nearly three feet long, it was more than enough to satisfy their appetites. “There,” he whispered, pointing.

“You stay here. I’ll get him,” Drakōn said.

Drakōn set himself up in ambush. Floating low, the creature swam into his view above. He shot up and pounded into the fish, stunning it. He ripped it in two and handed the more flavorful end, with the head, to Kyros.

“Thanks.” Kyros had
nearly devoured his half when he noticed the lemon shark hovering near.

His stomach was stretched full, but not too full to impede his search for the mermaid. He pushed the carcass toward the shark
. “Go ahead. I know you want some.”

The shark moved in and snapped his jaws at the meatiest part of the carcass. Kyros chuckled
. “Well, don’t be shy.”

The shark continued to eat, seemingly unconcerned with Kyros’s or Drakōn’s presence.

“That creature’s a strange one. Perhaps it has brain damage.”

“Yeah, we might want to keep our fingers to ourselves.
I’d hate to lose a digit or two.”

“I agree.”

They swam on, hoping beyond hope that their reasoning would pay off. Kyros wanted nothing more than to destroy the greatest threat to Gretchen’s life.

“Kyros,” Drakōn
whispered. “Look.”

He glanced behind Drakōn
and found the same lemon shark following them. He shook his head. “Great, now we have a pet.”

“I knew you shouldn’t have fed it.”

Kyros stopped to turn around and shush it away, but it kept going, nearly touching them as it passed by. Kyros frowned. “Don’t tell me we’re going the same direction?”

The shark circled back and stopped for a moment before he continued on the same path.

“Does he want us to follow him?”
Drakōn asked, stunned.

Kyros shook his head.
“Sharks aren’t intelligent enough to act like this.”

“Actually,
” Drakōn said, “they were pretty well organized when Sara brought them up from the depths to the Dagonian city. Could this one be under the influence of a mermaid?”

Kyros and Drakōn drew their swords.

They followed the creature, searching for an ambush—any kind of a threat. The water brightened, growing shallower. He looked ahead and found the ground rose in the distance. It rose so high that it disappeared above the surface. It was an island.

He wondered if the shark me
ant them to leave the water. But the shark turned. He was circling around the island. They followed.

The far side of the island was rocky, barren. The s
hark continued its way around the shore. And they were back where they started. And the shark kept going, circling the island again.

“
This is pointless. He must mean for us to go to the island.” Kyros swam forward and surfaced. Drakōn followed closely behind.

They kept moving forward as the waves batter
ed their backs. Kyros pulled himself forward, dragging himself onto the beach and waiting for the change. Each time his body went through it, it seemed to hurt less. It still hurt like Hades, but not as much as the first time. Drakōn roared as his own body made the change. They pulled a pair of shorts out of their belts and slipped them on.

They trudged up the beach and
looked at the island. It was small with towering palm trees and thick shrubbery. He walked down a path.

“I don’t know why we followed a stupid shark,” Drakōn said. “Why would a mermaid choose to live on land?”

Kyros raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know. Perhaps to escape the sea creatures that wanted to kill her?”

Drakōn cracked a smile and shrugged.

They walked along the path and enter
ed a tropical forest. They were just cresting the first hill when they saw it—an old, wooden mansion in the distance.

“I thought she lived in a cave
?” Drakōn said.

“
Gretchen
lived in the cave. Her mother was rarely there with her. Perhaps this is her second home.”

“I don’t think we should approach the house in the open in broad daylight
,” Drakōn said.

“You’re right
,” Kyros said. “She’s sure to see us coming.”

“She’s probably not home
,” Drakōn said. “I bet she’s sinking an ocean liner even as we speak.”

“Or compelling a man to kill his brother
,” Kyros said. “Speaking of which, is Robert still with her?”

“No. He split while I was there.”

“He split? Do you mean…?”

“Don’t ask. I’d rather not think of what she had me do to him.
Speaking of which, let’s get in the earplugs before she has me do to you what I did to Robert. Believe me; you are not worth the splitting headache it takes to resist.”

“I know what you mean.”

From then on out, they had to rely on hand signals. They couldn’t chance speaking loud enough to be heard.

When d
arkness fell, it was time to go in.