But if she used her powers, Xaydin might shoot her with his bow. Just for spite.
He hates shape shifters. Don’t do it!
She tried not to panic, but how could she not? She couldn’t swim in her human body, and she didn’t know how to float in this nightmare. Not without pushing her companion to a murderous rage.
Just as she sank deeper, someone lifted her head above the water.
“I’ve got you,” Xaydin said in her ear. “Don’t fight me.”
Her heart pounding, she closed her eyes in relief and laid her head back against his shoulder. She was so grateful that if she could, she’d kiss him for this. No one had ever saved her before.
They’d only stabbed her when she fell.
With what seemed like no effort at all, Xaydin swam them to the ferry boat, then lifted her up so that Masakage could help her back in.
Gisela turned around to reach for Xaydin to return the favor when one of the merman broke the surface.
Before she could react, the merman grabbed Xaydin from behind and pulled him under.
“No!” Gisela tried to reach him, but he was gone so fast that all she could do was cry out.
Masakage started to dive into the water, but Ferris stopped him.
“They’ll tear you apart. You can’t!”
Gisela heard the words, along with her common sense that reminded her she didn’t know how to swim in her human body. There was nothing she could do for him without making him hate her completely.
Nothing.
And yet she couldn’t sit here and watch him die. Let him fight the monsters by himself.
Before she could stop herself, she dove back into the water and turned into her real form.
“Stop struggling!”
Xaydin slammed his fist into the merman’s throat.
With a fierce curse, the beast slapped him in the ribs with his fin. “Would you please stop?”
The please was what kept him from hitting the merman again. That and the fact that he realized he was somehow able to breathe underwater. “What’s going on?”
“My king wishes a word with you.”
Seriously? “He couldn’t send an invitation like a civilized creature?”
“Would you have come?”
So the merman had a valid point. Still…
“There are better ways to get my attention.”
The merman bowed to him. “Forgive us. We meant no harm or offense to you. Please, Your Highness.” He actually gestured in the opposite direction where a group of his kin were carrying what looked like a giant battering ram.
That must have been what they’d used to strike the bottom of the boat. Those bastards really were getting smarter.
“Do you have a name?” Xaydin asked his attacker.
“Captain Mersin of the Ningyoan Navy.”
