Finn again. She didn’t point out that he would hardly qualify as an employee. She was relieved to realize that, while there may be some residual concern for Brett, she had no such emotions about his boyfriend. Finn’s fate mattered not.
Countless twistsand turns in the winding staircase and one massive stone door later, Gwala ushered Sonia into a suddenly modern chamber. He left the door open behind them.
The space was out of place after such a long journey through what felt like the bowels of a medieval castle. The floor, walls, and ceiling all formed a rounded interior and made it feel like they had just stepped inside a globe. The surface was completely encased in a light-pink marble, with honey-yellow striations spiraling throughout the expanse. Sonia couldn’t tell if the stone room had been covered in the lavish rock or if the space had been carved out of the material. Even with her perfected vision, she saw no seams in any part of the marble. Golden sconces decorated the room, spaced out every three feet, their gaslit flames flickering—causing the huge space to seem both luxurious and homey.
Besides the golden sconces, the space had no other adornment. In the very center of the room was a circular, crystal-clear pool—the water shimmering purple from the hue of the flames reflecting off the rosy marble. The pool’s diameter spread out roughly fifteen feet, the marble floor curving delicately into the pool.
“It’s beautiful.” Sonia didn’t have to fake the reverence in her voice.
“Tonight, it is yours. You may do as you wish. I have only two exceptions, and then I shall leave you until our noonday meal.” He offered her another authentic smile. “Yes, in a few hours, we will lunch under the sun.”
For once, Sonia could not respond. She felt her throat constrict in excitement.
“You will see a young male. He will be the only one chained. He is not to be touched. He has become my prized bull in the past several years.”
He paused, waiting for Sonia to ask for clarification. She did not.
“The other request is this: the first one you must devour is a new acquisition from Hawaii. A mer child with dark skin, long black hair, and a green tail with blue patterns. He is the one that will enable your transition into the sun. Beyond that, you may drink as many others as you wish.”
He leaned over and kissed her cheek, then turned and walked toward the door. Before he exited, he looked back at her. “Actually, one more request. I would ask that you leave at least most of the females alive. Our bull needs something to make him worthwhile.” With that, he exited and shut the several-ton stone door as if it were made of insignificant fluff.
Sonia stoodon the edge of the pool. She turned, once again checking the door, quite unable to believe Gwala had actually left her alone. If this was truly what he claimed, it seemed atypical that he would not stay to gloat of his accomplishment of manufacturing a mer-breeding program and expecting her to grovel over his benevolence. Even this time of solitude was a gift, let alone that it was coupled with the possible ability to live in the sun once more. For once, she wouldn’t have to pretend to be thankful. She truly would be able to stand in the sun again. She would be beyond grateful.
Returning her attention to the water, she peered into its depths. It was crystalline to the point that she could tell the pink marble continued into the lowest point of the pool. She narrowed her eyes, trying to determine if she could see the bottom. It seemed like she could. Even from here, the gas lamps cut through the water and reflected back the blush hue from the smooth floor of the pool. She could make out no shape or form under the water’s surface. Thinking she might simply be seeing the reflection of the ceiling overhead and mistaking the mirror image for depth, she knelt and dipped her hand into the water. The water was warm and had the thick sensation of salt water against her skin. Her hand was perfectly clear beneath the surface. It made no sense. She could see the entirety of the underwater space and nothing was there. Surely if the mers were invisible, Gwala would have mentioned it. She let out a huff at her own stupidity. He’d described the mer he wanted her to eat first. Of course they weren’t invisible. So what was his game? A trap of some type?
She chuffed at herself once more, rising to her full height. “What is wrong with me? You would mistake me for the weak creature I was before.” Her words echoed around the chamber. She hadn’t noticed such a sensation when Gwala had spoken earlier.
She looked around one final time. Everything was as it had been. With a frustrated shake of her raven hair, she slipped the narrow sleeves from her shoulders and let her dress slide over her body to pool on the floor. She stepped out of her shoes and over the dress that had partially landed in the water and was quickly soaking up the moisture.
With a sure movement, Sonia stepped from the edge and entered the water. Her naked body was instantly submerged.
Without thought, she thrashed to the surface, her voice calling out, echoing once more. She clutched at the side of the pool, fingers slipping on the curved edge. With one panicked, powerful kick, she propelled herself out of the water and shoved the rest of the way out of the pool, then collapsed on the cold marble. Before she caught herself, she skittered a few feet away from the side.
Unnamed fear surged through her. A different fear than the one that lingered over her without reprieve. Her gaze tore across the room, searching for the source of her terror. Still she found nothing. She was the only living creature inside the sphere. Her violet eyes came to rest on the surface of the water, her fear spiking yet again. She started to edge back farther but caught herself, the source of her fear suddenly identified and all too familiar. In anger, she yanked away the wet strands of her hair that were clinging to her face. She ripped with such force, they tore from her scalp in large chunks. Without a thought she tossed the locks away from her, neither noticing the pain at the injury or the dry hair that sprouted and tumbled down the side of her face, replacing what was lost.
Sharks! She was afraid of sharks. Afraid wasn’t the right word—it didn’t even begin to capture the panic that was suffocating her. As terrified as she’d continued to be the entire time since her transition, this fear was even more distasteful. It was familiar. It was human. It was beneath her.
She shoved herself to her feet and let out a scream. She screamed until every ounce of fear was replaced by rage. As a human, she’d had a nearly crippling fear of sharks. A fear so strong that, despite being a native Californian, she never went into the ocean deeper than midcalf, and even that she’d avoided at all costs. The realization that she still contained that irrational weakness was beyond comprehension.
In one effortless motion, she dove over the several feet of marble and sliced into the salt water, plunging deep.
She forced her eyes to remain open and refused to let her body thrash around to check for encircling sharks. Gradually, she continued to drift farther and farther into the depths, each second certain that teeth would rip through her skin and tear her apart.
At last her fingers touched the floor of the pool. She remained in the same position, a dive frozen in time. Still she fought with the vestige of a human nature she’d thought had been eradicated. She let out another scream, the sound rushing toward the surface in a torrent of bubbles.
Rage filled the space the fear vacated.
When she once again felt like the monster she’d become, she allowed herself to right her body in the water and look around. The same picture met her eyes that she’d seen from above. Not only were there no sharks, there was nothing at all. The pool was a smaller replica of the globe above the surface—perfectly rounded smooth marble. A huge pool, to be sure, but no place for any creature to hide, let alone a fish farm of mermaids.
Just to prove to herself that she’d slaughtered the last bits of human fear hidden in her body, Sonia continued to rest on the bottom of the pool. She’d not thought of it, but the lack of need for oxygen obviously meant she didn’t need to surface for air. After ten or fifteen minutes in her frozen state, she casually pushed off the floor and began her rise to the surface. She had no idea what Gwala’s point had been, but the fury she’d called into her to replace her fear began to spill over onto the king. She didn’t care if he would be able to serve a greater purpose later on and that he might be the key to destroying her sire. She would find a way to kill him for this. For filling her with pointless hope. She’d been fine before the thought of being able to be in the sun had entered her. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to shake the crushing disappointment now that it had been taken away.
She was less than five feet from the surface when she saw it, and her hope flooded back one hundredfold. Unlike the room above the water, this globe was not perfectly smooth stone. There was a marble lip at the surface that wasn’t noticeable from above or below. Only now that she was even with it, was she able to see a narrow rectangular hole where the underside of the lip met with the curved walls of the pool.
One powerful stroke carried her across the space, and she darted into the dark opening without pausing to see what she was entering. She nearly collided with the wall ten feet from the entrance but noticed a light reflected below her in just enough time to pause her trajectory. Peering down, she was able to make out a narrow tube that curved around, hiding the source of the light.
Without further hesitation, Sonia dove through the water, the sensation bringing flashes of an underground tube at a water park she’d gone to years ago, the sensation of her human life superimposing itself on her present left her unbalanced. This time she didn’t let the panic touch her. At the end, the tube spread out into another spherical room.
She halted so suddenly that her hair continued moving and wrapped around her face. She swiped it from her eyes and stared, slack-jawed, at the scene in front of her.
