“Have you taken appropriate measures in preparation for the hunt?”
I’d like to say I didn’t turn around at his words, that I kept going through the thin walls of kelp. That I didn’t give in to the desire to berate him more. I’d like to, but then I would’ve passed up the chance to act like a bratty sixteen-year-old. Again.
“I don’t even know where to begin, there are so many things wrong with that question.”I whirled on him.“Appropriate measures? How should I know what those are, Therin? I didn’t even know what the hunt was about! You know who might have been able to help me with that? Help me prepare for this Neanderthal hunt? That asshole who claims to be my father. But no. He’s too busy hiding away from his embarrassment of a son. Maybe even hoping the big hunt will solve the problem of what to do with his shameful offspring. If it weren’t for Lelas, I wouldn’t even know what we are hunting. With her feelings about the hunt, I doubt she has any idea how to prepare me for it. Unless leaping over the waves will help somehow.”
“Leaping over the waves?”He looked at me in genuine confusion.“The two of you were at the surface this evening?”
“What? Did I miss curfew? Put a scratch on the car?”Ever since all this shit started, I swear I’d been regressing. In another month or two, I would break out in prepubescent acne again. Daddy issues morphed into grandfather issues until they were just one big muddle of shit.
His tail untangled from the strands of kelp, and he swam toward me, long hair flowing in his wake. He reached out to grab my arm, then paused, his hand frozen in the water between us.“You should not be at the surface. It is not safe for you there. Even less so for Lelas.”
“Oh sure, the surface is so deadly, don’t let me go there. Facing an enraged shark unprepared, unaware, and unconsenting? That’s totally fine.”
He didn’t respond.
This wasn’t the first time I’d experienced such feelings about the way I’d been born, so my anger at him didn’t make sense. Well, it did, actually. I had every reason to be mad. I could make a very long, very exhaustive list and feel quite justified in my response. But I wasn’t merely angry. I was… I was what? Furious? Disrespected? Scared? Yes, but that wasn’t it. Hurt. I was hurt. I hadn’t been so hurt since being thrown out by my grandparents. The abandonment by the only family I’d ever known, the rejection by the ones who claimed to love me. Rejection by people I loved.
Loved.
I felt my eyes widen at the thought, and try as I might, I couldn’t stop their reaction, nor could I tear them away from Therin.
Love.
It seemed equally irrational and childish. I loved Therin. In the few short weeks together, without realizing it, without saying it to him or myself, he’d gone from being Therin to being Dad.
He seemed to feel the shift in me and swam closer once more.
My arm jerked up between us, and I put my hand out. His eyes held mine. With force of will, I ripped my gaze away and finally left his hut.
Fourteen
BRETT WRIGHT
Notten minutes had passed in my own hut before a large, wispy hand shoved through the kelp tendrils and gave a decisive flick of the wrist before pulling out once more. Not sure what good that would have done if I’d been sleeping, but that wasn’t going be an issue. Before even responding, I knew what the hand meant. Hunt time.
Slipping out of the dwelling, I was aware of how dark it was. I’m sure it was equally dark a few minutes earlier when I arrived from Therin’s, but I must have been too caught up in my flight from him to notice. Glancing upward proved I indeed could see no hint of the surface or any type of light. It had to be at least an hour before sunrise.
Spending the night before a hunt on the surface followed by daddy-issue central was probably not the most brilliant use of my time. Although swimming with Lelas had given me what seemed to be a bottomless cavern of energy, I now felt as if I’d not slept for days. My eyes stung as if I’d been crying. Maybe the bags under my eyes could scare the shark away. To top it all off, I felt like an emotional basket case.Damn Therin!
Without needing to be told, I followed the shadow figure in front of me. The form was easy to make out. No other mer looked as skeletal and weak as Zef. I also didn’t need direction as to where we were going. The kelp meadow. Where else? For long-lost mythical creatures that even other mythical creatures didn’t believe in, the mers sure knew how to fall into a rut and be monotonously dull.
Maybe I needed to be told more than I thought I did. From the dark shapes hovering about the meadow floor, I appeared to be the last one in attendance. Past Zef’s shape, I made out five other mers, although from a distance, I couldn’t discern any identifying details, only that they each had some type of spear or other weapon in their hands. Talk about not getting the dress code memo.
The first mer we came to was Syleen, of course. The glare she gave me left no doubt to the lateness of my arrival. The next was the gorgeous tattooed merman. His gaze was focused intently on the ground. There was no sense of fear around him. He radiated determination and power like some humans exude body odor. I doubted he’d have noticed me if I’d gone over and kissed him.Kicked him. I mean kicked him!The other three were ones I’d seen in passing, but not discernable enough for me to place a name or details. Two mermaids and one merman.
I took my place a little outside the group, as far from Syleen as I could be without looking like I was trying to avoid her. Once I was as far as I thought I could be and still have some modicum of pride, I turned around. Zef was right behind me. I’d been unaware he was still so close. His uneven face gave him a sinister look in the darkness. I had to stop myself from moving backward. He gave me a small smile, instantly transforming him into a kind, kindred spirit, despite the unnatural curve of his lips.
“How do you fare as we embark, Brett?”His kindly deep voice instantly eased my nerves, and to my surprise, he stretched his hand out and grasped me firmly by the shoulder. Only Lelas had dared to touch me, if I discounted Zef’s actions on the surface. This was different.
Even with his kindness, I couldn’t hold his gaze, and looked past him. My eyes fell on the tattooed warrior behind him, and I tore them away from there as well.“Nervous, honestly. I don’t know what to expect from a shark hunt.”
He gave my shoulder a squeeze.“It is not bad. Hunt one animal, you can hunt any animal.”
“I’ve never hunted anything in my life.”
He inspected me as if I was the strangest thing he’d ever seen.“Did you only eat vegetation where you are from?”
“No. I’ve always been a big meat eater.”
