Promises (Book One of The Syrenka Series) (26 page)

“
We have to get out of
here!” I demanded. “You five lead the way, the rest follow behind.”
We started to move back towards the tunnel that should take us to
the underwater cave. Julian was at the head of the group, not once
hesitating over his orders. I looked back at my mother’s body lying
on the cave floor. I wanted so badly to take her with us, but I
knew it could potentially mean the difference between life and
death. Not only had I turned Lucian down, but I had captured his
army. He would not let that slide this time.

“
Eviana!” Lucian was
yelling at me while single handedly fighting off four different
humans. “You have made a huge mistake! This is not
over!”

I shuddered at his threat knowing full
well that he planned on coming after us again. I didn’t think that
the humans could kill him and I also didn’t know how long my hold
over them would last once I was gone. In fact, I could already feel
him pushing against my mind in an attempt to win back control of
his subjects.

We ran towards the tunnel faster than
I’d ever run before. Brendan was directly in front of me now, and I
noticed that he tripped and stumbled much more often than the rest
of us. He still wasn’t healed completely but my command of his mind
had overpowered his body’s resistance to its injuries.

When we got to the pool I immediately
told everyone to change. The swim was too long for human lungs.
Julian ran into a side cavern and before I could call him back, he
came out with his arms full of seal skins. It was weird, but at
this moment weird would work. Daniel, Carissa, Kain, and I began to
strip off our clothes. My three friends dove into the water
together in order to encourage their transition. The ten or so
selkies that were still by our side also slipped into their skins
and plunged into the pool. Julian and I were the last two on
shore.

“
Your hold is slipping,” he
warned.

“
I know. I can feel it.”
Lucian’s presence in my mind seemed to suffocate me, and one by
one, I could feel my control drop away from individual humans. It
was like someone cut the cord from my power to theirs. “How long do
we have?” I asked Julian.

“
A few minutes at most.” He
put his arm around my waist and pulled me towards the end of the
rock outcropping. “We have to go now.”

I didn’t even get a chance to agree.
He pushed me in the water and nearly landed on top of me a few
seconds later. Even though I was scared, my bones fused with an
ease more akin to how the selkies change. I had never had a
transition happen so smoothly and when I was admiring my new
painless tail, I also noticed something golden reflecting on my
waist. The clan shield had made its way to me again. I had
forgotten about that when I threw off all of my clothes, but just
like Kain had mentioned a while ago, it seemed to want to be
attached.

Julian grunted at me under the water.
When I grabbed one last breath, I noticed a few humans emerge from
the darkness. Lucian had control of them now and we had definitely
overstayed our welcome. I dove down to the opening of our escape
route with Julian right behind me. Waiting there was my selkie; my
Brendan. I smiled for the first time in several days at the sight
of him. He blew a few bubbles in my direction before disappearing
head first into the tunnel.

The three of us moved so quickly that
the sediment from the bottom of the cave created mini vortexes and
virtually erased any visibility. The tunnel seemed to go on forever
and I had a brief moment wondering if we had gone into the right
one. Lucian and his group seemed to make that underwater labyrinth
suitable for their own needs, so who was to say that there weren’t
multiple entrances and exits.

That thought had me pushing Brendan
both mentally and physically to move faster. Until we were free of
this area, we weren’t safe. Just a few moments later we arrived at
the opening. Brendan and Julian shot to the surface, but something
in the distance distracted me. I couldn’t be sure, but it seemed as
though the water was shimmering and that the spot was moving
closer.

Curiosity got the best of me and I
used a few powerful kicks to get a better look. The quivering
particles reached out towards me and wrapped around my back. It
reminded me of a couple of octopi arms and they seemed to be just
as strong. I was pulled towards the far side of the pool where the
river became shallower and the rocks created a dam to hold back the
waterfall’s flow.

Struggling to break free of this
thing, I was able to breach the surface and call for help. I didn’t
know who would hear me, but someone had to be nearby. Once I filled
my lungs, I looked back underneath the surface to see a pair of
watery human arms wrapped tightly around my waist. Following the
arms, I searched for a face and almost screamed when one appeared
just a few inches from mine.

Twenty

His pointy teeth and oblong head
reminded me of his true nature. “Abhainn!” I screamed underwater.
We surfaced together and I immediately pushed him off of me. “What
are you doing? Let me go!”

“
Eviana, calm down.” He
moved away from me and raised his translucent hands. “I’m here to
help.”

“
Help? How did you get
here?” I looked around the perimeter of the pool and was delighted
to see my friends and the selkies emerging from the water and
changing forms.

“
Let’s just say that I can
be very persuasive,” Abhainn continued.

“
Huh?”

“
Apparently nereids enjoy
making bargains. It only took a few warm bodies to convince them to
let me go.” His lips curved up into a sinful grin sending chills
through my spine.

“
I don’t want to know,” I
said wholeheartedly.

“
Aye, perhaps some other
time then. But for now, ye need to get out of this
water.”

With one powerful kick, I
pushed myself onto the rocky beach and was again surprised that my
legs almost instantly returned to me. It was like I just had to
think
change
and I
did. Perhaps it was because of my new position, but regardless, I
was very much liking this new me.

“
Mistress Dumahl?” Abhainn
asked while staring at the shield still attached to my hip. He
looked at me with immense curiosity.

“
I’ll have to explain
later.” Right now, I couldn’t talk about it without grieving for
what I’d just lost.

“
Eviana, they’re coming!”
Julian yelled from the far side of the pool. I watched the water’s
surface, waiting for heads to pop up but no one came.

“
There,” Abhainn pointed
towards the top of the waterfall with an enormous smile.
Suspicious, I followed his lead and turned my head up to the
colossal rock outcropping. The water seemed to flow faster and the
pounding at the bottom was exponentially louder. But when a tidal
wave came barreling over the top of the falls, I watched in
fascination as the water flowed out and away from the river and
defied gravity. Two, three, and then at least several more tendrils
spilled from the wave and spiraled out towards us. As they came
closer to the ground, I could see the outline of a horse’s head.
First the snout pushed through the curvature of the wave, followed
by the top of its head and then finally a neck. As the figures
became more prominent, they also started to fill in.

The largest tendril produced the most
beautiful black horse I had ever seen in my life. His feet were
covered with long hair, making them look like massive stones. Every
muscle protruded from his body, highlighting the creature’s
magnificent curves. Each horse ran out of the water and onto the
rocky shore, dripping and shaking while calling to one another.
Aside from the black one, the rest were all pure white and by the
time the wave subsided, there were seven horses standing in front
of us.

The black one shook his long mane and
reared up on his hind legs. The rest of them followed suit, leaving
me in awe at their intricate dance. I turned to face Abhainn who
remained floating above the water.

“
What are they?” I
breathed.

“
Kelpies.”

“
Kelpies? They’re real?” I
gasped. In response, Abhainn raised an eyebrow and gestured to the
herd of horses positioned amongst my friends. Of course they were
real. “Where did they come from?” The black one, who appeared to be
their leader, walked over towards me. He was at least eight feet
tall and I couldn’t resist the urge to rub my fingers over his
snout. Lowering his head with permission, I rubbed the long lines
of face. The fur reminded me of Brendan’s seal skin sending a
familiar calm throughout my body. His dark black eyes moved back
and forth, keeping watch both over me and his herd.

“
I brought them,” Abhainn
continued. I looked at him in confusion. “I figured that ye might
need the extra legs. They will help get ye out of the forest much
faster.” The horse nickered and bobbed his head up and down in
agreement with that statement.

“
I…I don’t know what to
say.” Not only had Abhainn found a way to bargain for his own life,
but he had conjured an escape plan for us as well.

“
We will just consider our
debts even at this point.” He drifted closer towards the center of
the pool and began to sink into the dark depths of the
water.

“
Where are you going?” I
called after him. “Will I see you again?” There was a part of me
that would miss the unusual water sprite.

“
Aye, lassie. We will see
each other again.” And with that, he disappeared from sight. The
stallion pushed his head into my shoulder, encouraging me to move.
The rest of the kelpies began stomping their feet on the ground in
a sign of restlessness. None of us had mounted the horses, but when
mermaid heads began breaking through the water’s surface, we didn’t
hesitate.

“
Eviana!” screamed
Lucian.

“
Come on,” I yelled while
reaching towards Daniel. In pairs, we all jumped on the kelpies and
began riding away. We were the last to leave the waterfall, and
when I looked back at Lucian, his face was twisted in rage and
disgust. I knew that this wasn’t the last that I would see of him.
He would come after me and my clan with a vengeance. The only thing
that I could do now was get back home and prepare.

I kicked my heels into the side of the
kelpie and grasp the thick black hair of his mane. Daniel’s arms
were wrapped so tightly around my stomach I could barely breathe.
We didn’t look back again as we galloped down the river’s edge.
Each kelpie seemed to float effortlessly over the water as though
they were still a part of it. We dodged around low hanging branches
and jumped giant river boulders. I had never been on a horse
before, and if I hadn’t been running for my life, I might have had
a chance to enjoy how truly magical this was.

The moonlight reflected off the water
and the white kelpies making them seem like they were glowing. Kain
and Carissa were on the horse directly beside us. She was leaning
against his back with her eyes closed, giving total trust to Kain
and their kelpie. I remembered letting Brendan take care of me like
that. But after tonight, everything was going to change. Would
Brendan forgive me for taking control of him? Would my clan accept
me as their new leader after everything that I did? I knew this was
a turning point for me. Today was the day that I had to grow up. No
more selfishness. No more tantrums. I had to face the music, so to
speak, and I have to admit that I was more than a little bit
scared.

We rode down the river for at least
thirty minutes before the kelpies stopped. The forest was beginning
to disappear and it seemed as though this was as far as the water
horses were willing to go to avoid being discovered. After I
dismounted, Julian and Brendan made their way to my
side.

“
We can go to Keith’s to
get some clothes,” Julian said.

“
Who’s Keith?”

“
One of the selkies. He
lives a few miles up the road and he’s already on his way there for
a car. We all need clothing.”

It was true that every single one of
us was naked, leaving our belongings behind at the base of the
waterfall. Hopefully Lucian and his crew would take care of that so
as to not create any suspicion about missing human
swimmers.

I nodded my head in thanks and looked
past him at Brendan. He smiled weakly at me and that was invitation
enough. In two steps, I closed the distance between us and threw my
arms around his waist. With my head buried in his chest, I began to
cry. Brendan wrapped one arm around my back and the other rested on
my head. He kissed the top of my hair and just held me for what
felt like hours.

When he gently pushed me away, I
looked up into his green eyes and saw the one thing that I feared
most. Doubt. Something had changed between us and I didn’t know if
I would be able to fix it. “Brendan, I am so sorry for what I did
to you,” I stammered.

He immediately looked down to the
ground and let go of my arms. I noticed that Daniel and Julian had
left us alone. Presumably to give us some space. And although this
was not really the time or the place to have that ultimate
discussion, some things needed to be said right now. Brendan sighed
and ran a hand through his dark hair. I couldn’t help but notice
how the movement of his muscles was captured in the moonlight, or
the way the slight stubble on his face made him look a few years
older. Or the way that he would no longer make eye contact with me.
My heart began to break into pieces.