The Kiss That Saved Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 2) (42 page)

No.
I think to myself as I put a slender hand up to my gills. My blue fingernails gently move across the skin, which feels tender, and I’m angry. I look at my other hand, realising I’m holding a helmet full of sand. It belonged to one of the Knight’s by the looks of the design and I wonder if the sand pouring out of it is all that remains of the soldier it once belonged to. I watch as Caedes rights himself with one flick of his tail, his spines flared out, his red hair dishevelled, and his black eyes spinning in their sockets.

“Ow,” he spits blood into the water and it dissipates before our eyes. He begins to move, circling me. I compensate, circling him too, two lions waiting for a weakness in the other. I’m clutching the helmet in one hand as epic battles continue around us, dances of death and struggles for survival raging on in an unending clamour. I drown out the noise, the cries of pain and the grunts of victory, focusing on the problem in front of me.
 

I feel the tension in the water rise momentarily; something is going to happen. He might kill me. It might finally be over.
 

Something does happen, but it’s not what I expect as a mighty cracking sound explodes through the air. I try not to let it distract me, as I don’t want to give any inkling of lapsing focus. Suddenly, as though fate has stepped in, Caedes falls to the floor unconscious. I gape, confused, looking around for an explanation. The back of his head is bloodied from a rock, the red fluid rising into the water like a twisting serpent.
 

In the distance I see the shooter; it’s the boy I saved, smiling at his improved accuracy. He nods at me and then turns, going back to shooting the people I’m defending with one flick of his muscular shark tail. I don’t have time to react because in what seems like only a moment, a shuddering is making the water around me vibrate visibly.
 

I turn and see a gargantuan cloud of sand and shards of glass hurtling towards me. The Alcazar is falling, a hundred tonnes of glass, stone, and debris collapsing in on itself and falling to the ground. I hear the sound around me seize as others finally notice what’s happening. I pause before turning and swimming, getting out of the main street, taking cover against one of the other buildings.
 

I look up as the cloud reaches us. The sand and displacement of the water feels like an immense wind, stinging my eyes and prickling my skin. I turn, trying to get out of its path, entering the building I’m leaning against to try and escape. Inside the doorway things are slightly calmer as the debris from the castle washes over the building. The rumbling eventually stops as I wait it out, suddenly realising where it is I’ve ended up. The armoury.
 

I look around, the walls are practically barren but there are a few pieces of armour that haven’t been taken. I frown. They look like Orion’s. I know I’ve seen him wearing something similar before. This thought suggests an interesting concept to me. Where are he and Saturnus? The Crowned Ruler and his Right Hand are two of the main people you’d expect to find either fighting or in the Alcazar, but now that is gone. I wonder if they are both trapped inside… or worse. My heart constricts a moment for my brother, who has been trying so hard to keep the city safe mere hours ago. I place the helmet on over my black locks and take some chainmail to wrap around my tailfin while trying to find a chest plate that fits, but nothing works over the top of my breasts. I growl at the lack of attire for women. Starlet was right; this city has major issues. I wish I had my pearl strung whip, but I had gotten rid of it after the last Psiren invasion… or rather Orion had confiscated it, not trusting me with weaponry. I sigh before pulling a broadsword down from the rack feeling the weight of heavy steel in my palms.
 

Yes, this will do nicely.

Out in the streets once more the fighting is still going on, but the numbers of mer are drastically reduced. Psirens are everywhere, some looking bored and others seem to be looking for something. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t want to be noticeable so I focus on the thought of Arabella, feeling my pupils dilate so they’re black. My tailfin has been reverting to its old electric blue lately, but I’m hoping the chainmail makes it look duller somehow.
 

I move forward toward where the Alcazar Oceania had stood only a short time ago, the streets scattered with broken sea-glass and the remnants of stained glass windows. I see wood too and I can’t help but cringe slightly because I know where it’s from. The thrones made from the olive trees native to where I was born. I hear a sudden inhale, something broken and strained as I move through the streets. I jump slightly.

“Az…” I swear it’s a call out to me, but as I turn around, nobody is paying me any attention. I look down, piles of sand and glass everywhere.
 

Suddenly one of them shifts. There’s someone under there. I look behind me again, making sure I’m going unnoticed before I allow myself to fall to the floor. I set about moving sand from the pile, clawing it so it’s behind me, taking care to keep brushing my palm back against the handle of my weapon, ready to grasp if it I have to. As the sand moves away, I realise that what it’s covering isn’t just anyone. It’s Orion.

“Orion,” I exhale. “Not an ideal place for a nap.” I snap, trying to seem mad at him. I can’t have him thinking I’ve gone totally soft.
 

I work about moving more sand, but in the end I figure it’s faster to pull him out instead. I rest my tailfin flat against the path; it was once lined with glass bottles but is now spiked with their shattered remnants. I feel my scales ripping slightly from my tail as I strain against the jagged glass, but it has to be done. I wince, trying not to cry out. Eventually, after much heaving and grunting, I’ve managed to prop him up against the walls surrounding the alley and away from the main street, that’s when I notice he’s injured.

“What happened?” I ask, moving to touch the stab wound, it’s red and angry in his gut. He winces.

“Saturnus. He…” he winces again, pulling himself so he’s sitting upright properly.

“Saturnus? You mean Solustus…” I begin; the Crowned Ruler is delusional…
 

Greeeeat,
I snipe internally.

“No! Saturnus. He’s evil, Azure. He can glimmer himself. He dropped the city’s defences. He was a Psiren all along,” he is gasping a little. I wonder what internal damage the knife has done. Fortunately for him he has accelerated healing, but it still probably stings like a bitch.

“Saturnus?” I say his name once more. I think back to every time I’d had a dodgy feeling about him. My gut clearly knew more than my brain did. I knew something was off there.

“Okay… I need to get Star. Then we need to get out of here. Can you move?” I ask him and he nods, wincing.

“Yes, I’ll be okay, I can feel the wound healing already,” he goes to rise.

“Rest a moment. Then you need to find anyone who’s still alive and get them out. This is a bloodbath. There’s nothing left for us here.”

“Go… Go where?” He looks up at me, his icy blue eyes full of fear.

“Anywhere you can think of that’s safe. We need somewhere to regroup.”
 

“How will you find us?”

“I’ll manage,” I promise him. He rises again, putting on his tough face and pressing his mouth into a firm line.

“Okay. Be careful,” he warns me and I cock a brow.

“Says the man who got himself stabbed. Yeah, whatever,” I turn from him, shrugging. I don’t do big emotional goodbyes after all.

I make it to the outskirts of the building where Saturnus’ office resides. Swimming as quickly as I can muster, darting in and out of the shadows while I try to stay out of sight. I am good at this, the high pressure, blood pounding, heart racing type situations are what every day had been like as a Psiren and so I relish my time invisible. I look up at the tower now that I’m here, the noise of a nearby Psiren smashing something makes me jump momentarily.
 

Okay, so maybe I’m not totally fearless,
I remind myself.
 

I could go in through the door, but that would be too easy and odds are it’s locked. Slowly, I rise up against the cylindrical turret, ascending to just outside the window.

“Psst,” I hiss over the top of the window, not looking first.
 

That was a stupid idea.
I chastise myself.
 

I place my hand on the ledge and suddenly something is gripping onto it, something pale and with dirty fingernails.

“Can I help you, dear?” Solustus’ tone reaches me, my heart stopping cold in my chest.
 

“I want my sister. That’s all,” I bite out, yanking my hand away. I ascend further upward, moving back so I can glimpse into the window properly.

“Oh, is that all?” Solustus has his pointed chin resting in his long bony fingers like a wistful teenager.
 

“Yes,” I glance behind his head as I reply and see a flash of icy blue. Starlet’s eyes catch the light and instantly I know the terror she feels. She’s bound and gagged.
 

“I think not,” Solustus smiles at me, his pointed features cutting me with their cruel response. I know he can’t get to me through the window, it’s too narrow, but I don’t like conversing with him none the less.

“Why? You don’t need her for anything! Let her go!” I retort and he laughs.

“Quite contrary, my dear, but if you want to fight me and my brother and the five guards I have posted outside the door, be my guest, but I have the distinct feeling that would only lead to your death.” He cocks an eyebrow, challenging me with a smile.
 

I think for a moment, my finger touching the handle of my sword. His eyes trace over me. “You? Think you can beat me with a sword? Dream on girl,” he laughs and draws the curtains, sick of the discussion. I debate stabbing him through it, but I worry he’d situate Star on the other side of the lush red velvet as punishment for my defiance. He’s wicked that way. I could take the door approach, but I don’t have enough strength to take on five guards, Solustus, and Caedes. I could barely handle Caedes on his own.
 

Instead I hang, placid and useless in the water, I need to launch a rescue mission for Star, but I can’t do that alone. I need mer with offensive magic. I cuss internally, what the hell use is being good if it means you have no power or control? I wouldn’t be in this situation if I’d stayed with the Psirens. I could save her.
 

Yes. But she wouldn’t want you to.
I remind myself that with the darkness Starlet and I would never be Starlet and I, because she wouldn’t want to be a sister to someone so despicable.
 

I look down on the rubble of the Alcazar Oceania, where Psirens are scavenging treasures from the ruins, moving rubble and picking off the last few mer who remain. I wonder how successful Orion has been in finding survivors.
 

I look back to the red curtain and hear screams from within. Turning away a single tear falls from my eye, devastated that I can’t save her. I had only just gotten her back. I should have heeded the warnings, the visions sent to me, but instead I had wallowed in my own darkness. I think of Starlet’s face, terrified and sparkling with tears, and my breath catches in my throat. I know we are supposed to be together.
 

It seems however that destiny, the bitch, has other ideas.

CALLIE

Vex and I propel through the water, leaving the Cryptopolis long behind us, not talking and reaching a speed bordering on urgency. Things are awkward after our kiss. I don’t want to give him the wrong impression, he’s hot and all, but now my form has returned to its old self, I can’t help but feel momentarily repulsed by him. His silver hair is greasy, his skin too pale, and his eyes too intense. He’s striking, but he’s not beautiful like Orion, or like any of the other mermen who were created by Atargatis. The lilac in his eyes is too pale, so much so that I feel shivers run over my skin whenever he glances my way. It’s creep inducing.