He stood, set one foot outside the beached boat. Where did they come from?
From the corner of his eye, he saw another figure. Merrick turned his head. A man. On the beach. Watching the young woman and the girl.
The girl stared toward Merrick.
The woman sank. Then floated to the surface. Facedown.
Merrick didn’t think, he moved. He got behind the beached boat and tried to push. It budged an inch. Two. This will never work. Of all the times not to know how to swim.
The man walked toward the water now. That look in his eyes . . . It rubbed Merrick the wrong way. Come on, stupid boat. Come on. He dug some sand out from around its sides, then tried again. Finally he gained some momentum and gravity did the rest. He didn’t know if it was the sudden adrenaline or the sand-digging or both. Whatever it was, Merrick found himself seabound with one paddle and no experience in an old boat that might sink.
What have I gotten myself into?
“Is that everything?” The officer’s hand flew across his notes.
Merrick nodded, then noticed the officer wasn’t looking at him. “Yes.”
He didn’t mention the part about beating that man off the girl when he’d grabbed her.
He also didn’t tell the officer how much her gaze still haunted him. It was clear the woman had been someone close to her. A mother? An aunt? A sister?
“I’ve gotten everything I need. We’ll still need you to fill out your own statement and sign it for our records. Then you can go. Do you have someone who can pick you up?”
Merrick was eighteen, but he lacked transportation and his shallow pockets proved he needed his father to bail him out. Not an option.
“Yeah, I can call someone.”
As he headed to the lobby to finish up his paperwork, Merrick pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts. He was taking a chance on the old number, but he hit Call anyway, his chest pounding.
After three rings, a voice he hadn’t heard since he was twelve sounded through his speaker. “Grimsby residence, how may we serve you?”
“Hey, Grim. It’s me.”
Merrick didn’t even have to tell his friend who “me” was before he heard a car engine roar to life in the background.
Thirteen
Coral
An eerie silence draped the palace like a funeral garment on a mourning widow. Which was appropriate, of course, as the crown princess’s farewell procession had taken place that very morning.
The guests had long since been ushered away. Now all that remained was family. The palace staff cleared the buffet table, and the musicians packed up to take their leave. It was all too . . . normal. Routine. And far too quiet. Where was the heart in any of it? Where was the soul?
Jordan floated beside Duke in the now-empty grand hall. The same hall that had been used for Coral’s celebration two days prior. Coral lingered at the center of it all. Staring.
How is this real? My oldest sister can’t be gone.
It was as if it had happened to someone else. As if Coral was removed from it all and simply watched these horrific events unfold within the timeline of another’s story. Except . . .
This happened to me. So why can’t I feel anything?
Jordan hadn’t spoken a word to her since Red Tide came and left. Her last words echoed in Coral’s mind.
“You are nothing to me. Nothing.”
The king avoided her.
Coral was completely and utterly alone.
Still, she couldn’t let go of what she’d witnessed.
My sister had legs. She was mermaid. She was human.
How was it possible? Could the crown princess have found a way to possess a human soul?
“Mermaids do not have souls,” Jordan had said once. “We become as the foam of the sea when we die. And then we are no more.”
Did they really . . . stop existing? Coral couldn’t quite wrap her mind around the idea. If there was a before, a now, there must be an after.
Right?
The human boy. Where had he taken her sister? And why did no one speak of the matter?
“I’m ready to go.” Duke’s irritated tone drew Coral from her musings.
She peered through a slit between her lashes.
Arms crossed and face pinched, Duke resembled a sour-faced guppy more than a merman. “I’ve been here all day. Staying longer won’t make her less dead.”
Anger boiled. How dare he. How dare he. Coral opened her eyes fully and whipped her head left and right, hoping her father had heard the despicable comment. But . . .
Oh.
Right.
The king had been the last to arrive and the first to leave.
Duke opened his mouth to speak again but Jordan eyed him in warning. While the merman made Jordan out to be weak, terrified the cursed Disease would come for her, she showed herself to be quite the opposite.
Jordan approached Coral then. She lifted a hand toward Coral’s shoulder, then pulled back. “Duke will be staying in the palace for a while. Father needs all the support he can get. He hired Duke as second in command.”
Coral’s jaw dropped. Behind her sister, Duke caught her eye. The way he’d held on to her the other night—it wasn’t the end. If given the chance, Duke would take everything.
The thought invited the shadows. A shudder raised her scales. She hadn’t told anyone how Duke had grabbed her twice in one night. Nor had she said a word about the human scaring him off. Would anyone believe her if she did?
Jordan would marry Duke eventually. If Coral said something now, accused him of . . . What? Almost harming her? No. She couldn’t risk that he’d take it out on Jordan when they were alone.
“Now that I’m the oldest, the new crown princess,” Jordan continued, “whomever I marry will be next in line to the throne. Duke will need to begin training as Father’s heir.”
Coral had a wicked wish then. An evil, guilt-inducing wish she at once regretted and longed to be true.
I wish that human had ended Duke for good.
The human. Why couldn’t she get him out of her head?
Because, when all others ignored her, in the end, the human was the one to help, to hear her sister’s cry.
The same inky darkness of nothing that had threatened to take over at Duke’s touch encroached now. Colors blurred together until all became black. Their sounds faded. The music of her constant rainbow died. Not one hue could be distinguished from another.
Coral felt. Nothing.
I am. Nothing.
It was in these nothing moments she believed the Disease had taken over.
And there was nothing under the sea she could do to stop it.
She blinked and blinked and blinked again. Harder. Swifter. A tear never came. Had she imagined them before?
She glanced at Jordan, retreating quietly to Duke’s side.
“Jordan.” Coral swam after her sister and took her hand, ignoring Duke. “What about Red Tide?” The burning under her eyelids returned. She wanted to rub at them but pinned her arms at her sides instead. “Our sister knew it was coming. Almost as if it was her . . .” Coral swallowed. She’d sound crazy but she had to know. “Her choice. As if she invited it.”