“That is not the only thing I want you cast out for.”Her cold smile curved into a sneer.“And, yes. We fight with what Moheetla provides.”
“Oh, and Moheetla just conveniently dropped off some spears for you to use?”
If I expected reprimand for my casual use of Moheetla’s name, I was disappointed.“Moheetla provided us the skills and talent to craft the weaponry needed.”She motioned toward my hands with disgust.“Your demon mother gave you what you need. Whether that need is to be fulfilled by offering or sacrifice, time will soon tell.”
My lips curled back in a teeth-clenching snarl. I managed to not retort, for once.
With fierce intensity, Syleen’s arm slashed through the water above her head and punched toward the surface, the spear in her left hand pointed down toward the seabed. In the same motion, she shot upward through the water.
As a unit, the rest of the mers began to rise, spears and blades stretched up in imitation of Syleen’s fist.
Too slow, I trailed behind them.
I’d only pushed off the sand when I realized I wasn’t the only one left behind. I turned. Therin was beside me, eyes averted.
Pausing, I looked between the ascending group and Therin.
“What are you doing?”
He didn’t answer me, only focused on what his hands were doing.
I tried again. “Come on! Let’s join them before the sharks show up.”
He winced at my tone. I rolled my eyes. Of all the times to care about propriety. I looked back at him, a red haze now shimmering between our faces. I flinched and made a sweeping motion with my hand in an attempt to brush the discoloration away.
Therin winced again, and my eyes followed the motion his hands were making. A deep gouge ran from Therin’s wrist up to his elbow. Before I could comprehend what I was seeing, he punctured his wrist with the tip of the blade again and began to pull it upward in a parallel cut. Suddenly, I realized why the absent blood from the fish wouldn’t be a problem.
I reached out and grabbed his wrist, forcing the blade’s trajectory to cease.“What the hell are you doing, Therin? The sharks will kill you.”
He looked into my eyes.“That is for Moheetla’s will to determine.”
“Fuck that!”I yanked on his arm, trying to get him to follow, and unintentionally caused the blade to slice higher.“Come on!”
“No!”The strength of his voice caused me to pause, and then it softened.“It has to be me. It is my time to initiate the Presence.”
I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but it didn’t matter.“Why? Why you?”
His eyes softened to match his tone.“Because of my transgression.”The water was now a thick cloud of crimson around us.
“Transgression? What transgression?”
A soft smile curved his lips for the briefest of moments.“You.”
I stared at him, dumbfounded, trying to let his meaning sink in. Trying to focus on one thing, one detail, one thought that would help me make sense of the insanity unfolding. It started to click.“You’re gonna sacrifice yourself to a bunch of damn sharks because you had sex with some demon girl on the beach one night and I happened to show up?”
I felt strong fingers curl around my shoulders and begin to pull me upward.
Therin broke his gaze and returned to his carving.
I was three feet above him when I had the sense to struggle. I was able to recover half the distance lost when I began to lose ground again. I could see nearly black ribbons unraveling from Therin’s arm, widening into red streams swirling around him.
The water over my skin began to boil. I could feel the heat surging, and I let it come. The hands released my shoulders, but before I could react, the stone spears were shoved under my armpits and used as levers to pull me up through the water.
Greylin’s voice didn’t have the softness I’d heard before.“Control your fire, Brett. Setting the ocean ablaze will not aid your father.”
I glanced to my right to glare at him. Instead of Greylin, Tattoo had his hands on either side of the spear pulling me upward. Turning, I found Greylin on my left.“I can’t let him do this. We have to help him!”
Greylin pulled in sync with Tattoo.“We will. When the time is right.”He motioned toward Tattoo.“Wrell would no sooner lose your father than would you.”
