Something cold and sharp sliced through him. “Does Mom know?”
His sister emitted a dark laugh. “Her number’s been changed. All her social media accounts have been deleted.”
Merrick cursed under his breath. He’d checked his mom’s accounts yesterday. What could their father have said to make her abandon her own children? The more Merrick thought about it, the hotter his blood simmered. If Hiroshi didn’t want their mom found, that gave Merrick all the more reason to find her. He’d convince her they would be safe together. That man would never hurt her with his words, his power, again.
“Get what you need,” Merrick said. “Change of plans.”
Maya jumped up and down, then ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. “You mean it?”
“I do. But hurry before he gets back.”
He left her to finish packing and entered his own room. His duffel bag waited under his perfectly made bed, and his neatly folded clothes were stacked in color-coded order. This had not been the maid’s doing. They were not allowed to touch his room upon his father’s instructions.
“If I could keep my barracks shipshape, you can do the same with your own space,” Hiroshi had said.
It wasn’t that Merrick minded being tidy. But he wanted to do it on his own terms, in his own ways. His father’s constant military-style inspections were enough to make Merrick hate his room. It had never belonged to him. A mere holding place until freedom came.
He grabbed some shirts, pants, underwear, and socks from the drawers. A hoodie and jacket from the closet. A few necessities from the connecting bathroom he and Amaya shared. He knocked on her door from inside the bathroom and said, “Five minutes,” then headed downstairs.
The song had changed from classic rock to an upbeat dance tune. Mrs. H stood on a step stool in the family room, dusting the bookshelves and mantel. Her daughter was in the kitchen and the granddaughter must have been cleaning the bathroom for all the loud singing coming from that direction.
When Mrs. H spotted him, she climbed down and wiped her brow with the back of her hand. “Leaving so soon, Mr. Merrick?”
“Yeah. Don’t want to be in your way.”
“I thought Mr. Hiro was coming back for Miss Maya. He asked us to keep an eye—”
“I’ve got it from here, Mrs. H. No worries.” Merrick cringed. He didn’t want to lie to the kind old woman, but he also didn’t need her nosing around or calling his father. And Hiroshi wouldn’t have let Maya out of his sight unless he knew Mrs. H would watch out for her.
The last thing he wanted was for her to get fired. So Merrick grabbed a pen and pad of paper from the old rolltop desk drawer in the foyer and scrawled out a quick note. Then he handed it to Mrs. H. “Give this to him when he gets here, okay?”
“But, Mr. Merrick—”
“Ready!” Maya hauled her bag down the stairs. It clunk, clunk, clunked behind her. “Thanks, Mrs. H!” Maya hugged her as if the situation was perfectly normal and headed out the front door.
“I’m sorry,” Merrick said and followed his sister before he could change his mind.
He ran through the note he’d written in his head as Grim pulled out into traffic and Maya messed with the radio station.
“Doesn’t this car have Bluetooth?”
“Sorry, kiddo.” Grim roughed up her hair. “We do things old school where I’m from.”
Maya found the least static-filled station she could and began talking Grim’s ear off. Merrick wondered if his friend would be sick of them by the time they reached his beach house.
He stared out the window from his spot in the back seat, saying a silent good-bye to the life he had. Not that he’d miss it, but still. What else did he know? His phone vibrated in his pocket, but Merrick ignored it. It would be his father, furious with the note he had written.
His own self-satisfaction lifted his mood. The man’s face would have been priceless. He couldn’t stand to lose control.
To Whom It May Concern,
I’m taking Maya to find Mom. Wish us luck! And hey, don’t blame Mrs. H. It’s not her fault we never want to see you again.
—Your most disappointing son, Merrick
Nineteen
Coral
Coral thought she’d met darkness. She believed they were acquainted.
She was wrong.
Those long nights staring into deep blue while Jordan tossed in her sleep were nothing compared to this. And Duke’s hungry stare when the shadows threatened to steal life and sound from color? Mere shadows in contrast to this place.
The Abyss was a typhoon.
A numbing Coral couldn’t begin to explain encased her heart. No light. No sound. She couldn’t even tell if she had a body, a tail. Torture. Were her eyes open? Closed? Halfway between awake and asleep? She no longer sensed her grandmother’s—the Sorceress’s—presence. Had she abandoned Coral, deceived her into trusting her as the story said?
The Sorceress enjoys deception. She would have naive little mermaids believe she alone holds the power to provide a cure, an end to the curse.
Why would her grandmother keep this from her? How could Coral trust a mermaid who willingly swam in darkness?
I have chosen to swim through darkness too. Maybe she is more than the stories claim.
The colorless nothing around Coral left her mind to wander. To fill in the blanks of every conversation she never had.
The fight she and her father never shared. All the things Coral was certain he thought but never said.
“You’re cursed, Coral. Like your sister. Weak. Pathetic. Diseased. I never loved her and I never loved you.”
Then there were the unspoken thoughts of her sister Jordan.
“She looks nothing like me,” Jordan might say. “She can’t possibly be my sister.”
And Duke. He’d certainly have an opinion and he wouldn’t be afraid to share it.
“She will infect us all,” he’d jeer. “She deserves to drown in Red Tide.”
Coral would reach for her ears to shut out the voices that weren’t there, but she couldn’t feel her hands anymore.
Her oldest sister, her best friend, was gone.
Her family looked at her as they would a stranger.
“If I am nothing to no one,” she said to the black, “am I anyone at all?”
The silence that met her question encased her heart in ice.
The darkness of the Abyss seeped into her pores. Mixed with her blood. Flowed through her veins.
And.
Then.
It.
Awakened.
Coral opened her eyes. She released the bubbles she’d held in for far too long, then shielded her vision. But where she expected light, there were only shadows. Where she’d hoped to see color, only gray remained.
Ready to drown, Coral shook and shivered. She focused on the Sorceress—the human—before her.
“Welcome to the other side,” her grandmother—the Sorceress—said with a tip of her chin.
Coral narrowed her eyes and followed her grandmother’s gaze down the length of her own body. Her tail, scales, fins . . . vanished. She stood on two shaky legs, water dripping from the skin that now matched her torso.