Down and down we went, and then across. The water was stuffier here, scents of rock and dank searing my nostrils. I had no sense of how long we’d been traveling—maybe half an hour, or many hours.
Hunger and exhaustion clouded my mind. When my fur-clad knees struck slimy rock, I collapsed forward, grasping at the slick floor with my webbed hands. There was a shuffling, grunting, and a swish in the waters surrounding me.
“Release her,” said an authoritative voice, edged with darkness anddeath but also silky and seductive. I knew that voice—I’d heard it in my mind many times before.
The blindfold was yanked from my face.
From where I crouched on the floor, I saw I was in a dark stone chamber, candlelight flickering with the swell. Above me loomed a long dining table set for two, laden with food, and above it hung a massive oil painting.
“Untie her hands. Let her stand.” That voice again.
Teachie leaned forward, grunting, and the stench of stale rum burned my nostrils once more. A meaty fist wrapped around my arm, drawing me to my feet.
“Why is her face bruised?” The voice had become a snarl as the shadowy speaker moved forward.
“S-she struggled, My Lord.” Teachie’s hands were trembling as he quickly released my arm and stepped away from me.
“I’ll deal with you later. Now leave us.”
The stink of rum faded with the shuffle of Teachie and Rackham’s retreating footsteps. The room swayed before me, and I blinked and blinked through my exhaustion, willing my eyes to focus.
A merman hovered before me in the candlelit chambers, his pale white tail glittering in the gloom. I dragged my eyes upward. Sandy hair, dark brows and lashes, chiseled cheekbones, and a muscular chest.
Fear stole the air in my chest. I knew this man—I’d seen him before at Samhain, and in a cloud of darkness beneath the sea. I’d seen him in my visions, entering the dark cave where the shadow of Manannán had claimed him.
My breath caught in my throat; there, scrawled on his chest, was the tattoo my grandmother had described in her diary.Amor perdot nos.Love will destroy us.
Taranis. The hairs in the back of my neck prickled—Manannán inTaranis’s body. I stood before the merman responsible for all the drownings, Mer drained of blood, and the impending war.
“Hello, amor meus,” the merman purred, and his dark eyes flashed red.
“You.” I curled my fists, eyes narrowing, but my pulse was pounding in my ears. “You killed the Captain and Abalone. The Mer strung up on crosses.” My whole body trembled as I stared the pale-haired merman down.
He looked at his nails. “All is fair in love and war. The Captain had foreseen his death at my men’s hands—he went willingly.”
“That doesn’t make it okay.”
The merman rushed forward, cupping my cheek with his webbed hand, his dark eyes searching mine. “Oh, Siana, my love, I am so glad you haven’t changed. I do love these little fights that we have, always about the same thing. You killed so and so... tortured this and that... but then we will be tangled together in no time, because some part of you likes this dangerous dance with death.” His thumb traced the line of my bottom lip, and watery shadows curled around us both.
“Get off me!” I stumbled backward.
“Now, now, is that any way to treat your old lover?” He tsked as his eyes roved over my body.
I reached for my dagger, but it had been removed from my hip.
The merman noticed and let out a low, wicked chuckle. “You don’t need that here, amor meus. If you behave like a good girl, I won’t hurt you.”
I continued to step backward, my eyes flicking across the slick stone chambers for a way out. There were two doors, a Drowned standing guard at each one.
That low chuckle again as he prowled up on me.
My fingers brushed cool stone. I’d backed myself into the far wall of the chamber.
“Thousands of years passed, and I waited for you. Time bent aroundyour absence. Empires crumbled, and our love became a legend. I forgot the man I once was, but I remembered you.” The merman’s irises flashed red and dusky tendrils of liquid shadow crept from him, curling around my waist, arms, and throat, pinning me against the wall. “Now you would deny me?”
My body threatened to tremble uncontrollably as I cast the darkness from me with a rough sweep of my palm. A flicker of pain passed his face, as though I’d dealt him a blow.
I turned inward, searching for a speck of the silver power I’d grown used to, but there was nothing. My stomach sank, but I pushed back my shoulders and leveled him with a defiant glare. “Who are you? Taranis or Manannán?”
