“Deep sea? Is that why he looks so much different?” There wasn’t judgment in his voice, but I still felt a twinge in my chest.
Yes, beyond their color differences, the other four looked very much alike in their true forms. Their spines, which ran along their lower backs down their tails and on their forearms were on the short, wispy side, whereas mine were large, sprouting from my back like spikes. My dorsal fins, while smaller, were a similar shape.
The differences did not stop with just the tails and spines, as my skin was sickly pale, if a little blue, my fangs and tail longer. Overall, much more menacing looking than the men at my sides.
“Can we talk about this later?” Jason asked, panic evident in his voice.
The tension was high, and my protective instincts called for me to do something about it, but there wasn’t an antagonistic villain to fight at the moment, only our own worry for the woman we had quickly come to care about. For the time being, I had to keep calm and follow the bond which drew me to her.
The thrum in my chest sped up, prompting me to push harder.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Ajax
I watched the deep-sea Mer as we tore through the water. I could tell he was extremely worried underneath that calm exterior. The others were just as bad, their fear crashing in on me like a two-ton anvil, and it took everything in me not to reach out and pull the emotion from them. The fear they felt was good. It was what pushed them to move faster and kept them alert.
One benefit was that their emotions were enough to distract me from my own panic. I had tried not to let myself care so much about this girl I had only just met, but she warmed my heart. I constantly found myself thinking of ways to make her happy and feel the little fire of her warmth race across my senses.
Suddenly in the back of my mind I felt another wave, but this time it wasn’t fear. This emotion was coming from the one called Jason. It was like I had just swallowed a gallon of rotten milk. A sickly churning in my lower stomach. It was guilt.
Jason should rightfully feel guilty after what he had said to Atalanta, but he had been scared when Atalanta pulled him up from the pool. Scared for her or himself I couldn’t completely tell, but I knew how that could cause people to say things they didn’t mean. It didn’t stop my own feelings of resentment towards him, but it was a little satisfying that he at least felt bad about what happened.
This emotion I should remove, at least temporarily. We needed him to focus. Swimming closer, I brushed my arm against his, pulling that guilt into me. I almost tripped over my own fins, if that was possible, as the sickening feeling I had sensed from him doubled as it settled under my skin.
Jason’s head whipped around to look at me directly. “What did you just do? I feel so much lighter.”
“It’s part of my ability.” I said.
His brow furrowed. “I thought you were just an empath. I wasn’t aware you could actually affect our emotions.”
I looked away from his scrutinizing gaze. “I don’t broadcast it for a reason.”
The few people who knew about that aspect of my power in the past either wanted me to use it to their advantage or outright mistrusted me. After a good fifty years, I learned to just keep my mouth shut about it.
He nodded. “Makes sense.”
I blinked, surprised I didn’t feel any resentment or mistrust from him. Jason seemed to be the one amongst us with the most to work through emotionally. Well, besides… my eyes automatically shot to Theseus, who emanated a slew of dark emotions. Whenever I was near him, it was hard to not want to take away all of it or simply run from him altogether. I didn’t believe he was a bad guy per se—in fact, he was a genuinely nice person—but he certainly had his own mess of issues to work through.
On the outside of my radius I sensed someone else, yet every time I looked no one was there. As they didn’t have any malcontent and simply seemed curious, I brushed it off. I had heard of a few with the ability of camouflage but didn’t think I knew anyone personally who had it. At least if they did, they never divulged it. Such an ability would be about as useful as mine.
“We’re getting close!” Percy called back to us.
I looked up. We might have been deep enough underneath the surface to not feel the violent churning of the waves as intensely, but lightning was flashing across the sky, giving enough light to see the giant shadows of waves as they crested. I shivered with the knowledge that waves like that could easily destroy a small fishing vessel.
Taking a deep breath in through my gills, I focused to expand the radius of my ability. I felt it extend beyond its usual sixty feet, and I knew the moment I reached Atalanta and her family because soul-gouging fear slammed into me.
I curled in on myself, trying to breath heavily through it. Theseus, who had been slimly behind me on my left, halted with me but I shook my head and doubled my previous speed. My larger tail allowed for me to perhaps be the fastest of the five of us.
I shot past Percy and shouted, “This way!”
Damn if I wasn’t panicking more than they were.
Ahead, I saw the boat as another bit of lightning streaked across the sky, a dark grey form amidst the blackness of the water surrounding us. I saw as a wave particularly large wave slam into the boat, pushing it further away from our group.
“Hip! Can you try and calm down these waves?” Jason shouted as we got closer to the surface the currents pushing us around and making it harder to get to the boat.
“I don’t know how!” Hip yelled back as a current swept us off course again.
“You were able to control the pool water!” Jason shot back.
“I didn’t do that on purpose!”
“Well, try!” Percy and Jason shouted at the same time.
He held up his hand, concentration straining his features. I felt the water around us still, but only for a moment as His gasped and held his hand.
“It’s too much!”
My eyes snapped away from the struggling Hip when I felt stomach dropping terror coming from the three humans. I watched helplessly as a wave crashed into the boat nearly capsizing it. Pain was added to the mix of terror and panic.
I thought I saw something fall overboard. My heart dropped, thinking it was Atalanta, but I still felt her on the boat. Focusing, I felt someone else, but only for a second as they quickly swept far out of my range.
I looked over to Hip. “I think her sister fell off!”
I pointed in the direction I felt the other person. He nodded and shot off in the direction I pointed. Looking back at the boat, my heart plummeted as I saw a second, more familiar form fall into the water.
“Fuck!” Percy swore.
We were too far. The water was pushing us around as much as the boat.
My own muscles burned as I fought the current, trying to get closer to the form that I knew was Atalanta. Each strike of lighting made her silhouette clearer to me. Her small body was being tossed around like a rag doll.
I watched, powerless as her body slammed into the side of the boat before going completely limp, another wave pulling her beneath the water's surface.
Desperation tore through me, pushing my body to its limits. Trying to work against the current to get to her.
Somehow, Jason was able to reach her first, scooping up her body and dragging her to the surface for air. Moments later, we reached them.
The surface was chaos incarnate, rain pouring down on our heads almost as hard as hail, lightning flashing and thunder crashing as if it was trying to outdo the powerful sound of the ocean as the waves crashed and collided over and over.