I let out a breath. I hadn’t even been aware I’d been holding it in. This was it. The signs couldn’t get any clearer. Go home or back to land, whatever the case. Clarification wasn’t needed. I’d been contemplating leaving the mers, and there was a ship headed straight for me. I didn’t need a map to figure this one out.
Though at the speed the ship was traveling, it would be upon me in a matter of minutes, I began swimming toward it, cutting through the mass of seaweed that floated between us.
“No fire.”
Before I could fully register the words or consider their source, I was yanked beneath the surface, traveling down so quickly, the roof of kelp above blocked out direct sunlight.
I shoved at the blurred form wrapped around my waist. At my force, I shot upward while the body was propelled deeper.
“Brett, do not return to the surface.”
This time, the voice and thin form came together in my mind.“Zef?”
Already the merman was rising up to me once again, the small slivers of light that cut through the kelp playing across the scar over his upturned face.
“What are you doing? You’re lucky I didn’t burn you to a crisp.”
“I told you not to use fire. The question is, what are you doing?”His dark hair billowed around him as he paused when he was parallel to me.
It was only now I was aware of the tingling sensation in my clenched fists. It really was miraculous that the merman wasn’t completely charred. Therin’s lessons must have worked.
Zef followed my gaze, looking down at the bubbling steam rising from my skin toward the surface. “Are you able to remain safe?”
Anger flashed through me at his accusing tone, only increasing the boiling water between us.
Without waiting for a response, Zef looked over his shoulder. Following his gaze, I saw the shadow of the humongous ship speeding toward us, the silver metal of keel slicing effortlessly below the water.
His eyes flashed as he turned back to me.“Again, I tell you, no fire.”
Before I could react, he darted forward, his left arm snaking across my chest, his narrow hand gripping under my arm with surprising force. His propulsion carried me over backward, and we sliced through the water headfirst.
The shadow of the ship passed, and then it was gone, heading farther west into deeper water.
I was so focused on not bursting into flames that I was unable to fight back.
When we were a few yards above the sandy floor, Zef paused, released his grip, and drifted back several feet, his bluish-gray tail beating steadily.“The surface is nothing but death. You are to remain with the tribe. If there is a reason to rise to the air, others will accompany you.”
I started to close the distance between the two of us once more, then thought better of it, as I felt in less control by the moment.“I am not your prisoner, Zef. Not Syleen’s, Therin’s, or anyone’s. If I want to go home, I can.”
“I do not mean to imply that you are a prisoner, Brett. I am only teaching you how to stay safe in the ocean. The surface—”Zef flinched, an unidentifiable emotion flitting across his unfortunate face.“You are returning home? To land?”
Feeling like a child caught trying to sneak out of the house, I sidestepped his question.“The surface isn’t unsafe for me, Zef. I’m not a merman.”
His gaze traveled up upward, focusing behind me, probably on the retreating shadow of the ship, if it could still be seen.“It is now. It is no longer safe for you.”
“Just because you haven’t been to the surface, doesn’t mean it’s unsafe.”Before he could respond, I realized what I was saying.“Actually, yeah, it would be unsafe for you, if humans discovered that mermaids were real. But I don’t have a tail, remember? I’d just be a person stranded out in the ocean.”
Zef studied me without any response for an uncomfortably long period of time.“I have been to the surface. I do not speak of things I do not know. I have lost those I love. The surface is not safe. Not for a mer and not for you.”
I started to remind him that I wasn’t a mer, but the feeling behind his words stopped me. They also stripped me of my anger. I couldn’t detect fear in him, just an impenetrable sadness.
He must have been able to read my feelings without any help from me.“You are a mer, Brett. More mer than anything else, if you will recall.”
Without waiting for any other response from me, he turned and swam toward the kelp forest.
I followed. What else was I supposed to do? Chase after a yacht that was long gone? I could have swum to shore on my own. Easily. Maybe Zef’s interference was a sign. There was no danger for me on land, at least nothing bigger than the vampire I’d already faced, but there was a possibility there was more for me under the waves than there had ever been above them.
Before we slipped back through the towering trees of kelp, Zef turned toward me once again.“While I am certain demons are not pleasant creatures, Brett, there are much worse things on land. At least if you are a merwhich you are.”
