The city was quiet and still, save for the luminous manta rays gliding overhead like shooting stars. Her pulse wasn’t calming. Every intake of breath seemed to make the drunken feeling worse. She squinted through the holes in the coral wall at a figure muttering to himself, shrouded in a murky haze. Somewhere to the right and well off into the distance, shadows moved, and a foreign hum more akin to a chirp bounced between buildings. The figure in front of her was a merman leaning against a coral stalk, peering nervously around it with a hand pressed to his side and a cloud of blood issuing violently from a chunk of his missing tail.
He was close enough for Yemi to smell it. Her stomach seized, and her gums itched as if her teeth were priming themselves. A violent hissing filled her head, all the words unintelligible but a rousing whisper ofFlesh.
She tried to drown it out but couldn’t tear her eyes from the target.
Prey.
Despite herself, she tugged at the wall, hoping for a weakness. It was the only thing in her way. And what had Selah said about hunting? Could this have been what she meant? Selah had implied this was natural, this hunger, for descendants of the shark.
A smile crept across Yemi’s lips and she felt herself fall away, relinquishing control to something within her that she was too exhaustedto fight. And the less she fought, the less the hiss persisted. It felt so good to give in.
“You there. Friend,” she heard herself saying. Her voice was distant, a seductive growl.
The merman turned toward her, but his face was lost in shadows. Yemi’s breath hitched in excitement and desperation.
“Come to me. You seem upset,” she said.
“Who’s there?” His voice trembled. “Help me.”
Meek. Lost. Befitting a meal.
“I will help you,” she purred, fingers stretching through the holes in the wall. “Come closer. Take my hand.”
He hesitated to come out of the shadows. His mind was elsewhere, on some other threat. “I don’t… I can’t…”
“Come here!” she roared in a voice unlike her own. She slammed a hand into the wall so hard, a fist-sized chunk of it fell away and she was able to reach through it.
A manta drifted by, illuminating the space between them. And in the instant the blue light moved across his horrified face, Yemi felt herself shocked back into control of her body, sober and in silence, the hissing abruptly ended.
“Commander Hurand?” she blinked.
Confused realization dawned on his face as he squinted at her. “My… My Light?”
The distant chirp turned into a thundering shriek as half a dozen of the Hollow darted out from between buildings and followed Hurand’s blood trail.
Without another word, Commander Hurand fled into the city below, the Hollow pursuing him closely.
“Wait!” Yemi shouted, but to no avail. “Fuck.”
She left the room and flew down the empty nighttime corridors of the palace toward the entrance where her spear was held.
What was Hurand doing here? If he was Mer now, chances were he had drowned and Ursla had saved him. But why would he havedrowned? Had Dahlia’s people attacked him for disloyalty? Were there others? And why were the Hollow so far into Abyssa?
A guard who was not Horus but seemed similarly gruff and bored hovered about the entrance.
“You there. Soldier,” Yemi called as she came upon him.
“Excuse me?” He frowned, shifting uncomfortably at the sight of her.
“There is a man, injured and being chased through the city by Hollow.”
“What man?”
Yemi scoffed. “Does it matter? They took off northward and down. Fetch a security detail.”
“On whose orders?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” She grabbed her spear despite his muttered protest and took off.
