I couldn’t let him take everything and everyone away from me.
I wished desperately for him to transition into his human form. Why couldn’t it happen now? Why couldn’t the universe be on my side, just this once?
A thought ran through me like ice. What if Medusa had lied to us? What if her allegiance was with her son, and she’d purposely led us into this trap?
“My people beat you before,” I said. “They’ll do it again.”
Pain exploded across my lower back. It penetrated my whole body, digging deeper. It burned my skin, my blood, my bones. I writhed, screaming, unable to control myself. A singular thought ran through my head, desperate and consuming:Make it stop.
How could anything hurt this badly? How had I not passed out?
Abruptly, Adaro released the pressure. I heaved, trying to gasp for air that wasn’t there.
“That was before I understood my full power over the Host of Eriana.” His voice came slow, distorted, as though from the other end of the ocean.
The press of the iron was gone, but the pain stayed. I bit my lip to stop from moaning.
All those times I’d slain a mermaid—every one of them who died on the Massacre—was this what they felt? Was I the cause of this unbearable pain in hundreds of mermaids? I thought back to the first mermaid I’d killed—Panopea, Lysi’s cousin. I’d burned her face with an iron lantern. How could such a young child cause that amount of pain?
I thought of Lysi’s scar, how my own father had given it to her that day he found us on the beach. My eyes filled with tears.
“You have one precious thing left, Meela, and that’s your own life. You might as well tell me where the rebels are and save it.”
“No!”
He was wrong. My unconditional love for Nilus had never faded during all the time he’d been ripped from me—and now that same love filled me for my nieces. They were a part of me, my blood, my heart. I would die before betraying them.
I screamed before it happened. The iron rod jabbed the same place on my lower back. A pain like nothing I’d felt exploded through me, worse than a broken bone, worse than the torn and bleeding tissue I’d experienced on the Massacre.
I only had to say that one name, as Deiopea had done.Kori Maru.Saying it would end all this pain. But I couldn’t do it. For Nilus, for his family, and all of the Reinas. To say that name would be to put everyone there in danger. They were this war’s glimmer of hope. They were our chance of winning freedom from King Adaro.
Thinking of them kept my heart beating and my jaw clenched tight. I ground my teeth until my ears rang, refusing to let a single word pass over my tongue. Through the endless pain, I thought of my parents and friends on Eriana Kwai, who had shown me love and compassion through the most difficult moments of my life. I thought of Lysi. I thought of the day we’d met, and the way our hands had lined up perfectly, like two halves of a broken stone. I remembered the shade of her eyes, the sound of her laugh, the smoothness of her skin, the purity of her heart, and the way I felt when it was the two of us together—like the world was perfect and peaceful.
Abruptly, Adaro stopped and whirled around. He squinted into the distance. Someone was coming.
A young merman jetted towards us at top speed. He skidded to a halt with a blast of bubbles that hit me in the face. He clutched his chest, mouth opening and closing.
“Your Majesty. It’s Utopia.”
Lying limp on the rock, I fought past the spots in my vision. I couldn’t find the energy to lift my head. My whole body felt too heavy to move.
Needles tingled in my hands. I wiggled my fingers. Even in my stupor, I understood the sensation meant blood was flowing back into them. The ropes must have loosened a little in my struggle.
While Adaro was distracted, I worked my wrists. I was able to twist them better than before.
“Is it another explosive?” said Adaro.
“No. It’s—” The merman choked on his words. He glanced around at the serpent.
“Speak!” roared Adaro.
“Y-your Majesty, it was an army. Mostly southern.”
Adaro’s temper rose, prickling the surrounding water. I worked my wrists faster, feeling the ropes strain and loosen. It took every bit of strength to keep moving, when my body wanted to collapse from exhaustion.
“They have overthrown the g-government,” said the merman. “Nemertes is d-dead.”
Southern army. Utopia. Nemertes dead.Did this mean what I thought?
