Frederik steps forward like a shadow at my side. He shouts, “Form
ranks!”
Kurt turns to Sarabell. He lowers the crackling prongs of the
trident to her face. She stares at the lightning, then at his face.
“If you lie to me, witch-”
“I’m not lying!” Sarabell cried furiously. “Adaro wouldn’t listen
to me. He wanted to come to your aid, and then came the silver witch.
Adaro threw me off the ship and the others fought. I could hear them.
They said they would wait until your barrier was down.”
“All of our avian shields were destroyed,” Frederik says aloud.
“After you entered. Aren’t you one of the sea folk rarely gifted?”
“Aye. But as Lord Sea knows…” Her smile is slow. She trembles in
the cold. “I am not the only one.”
Gwen doesn’t flinch. Rain washes away the dirt from her, head to
toes.
Sarabell raises her hands slowly. I can feel the spark of her
magic pulling from the air around us, directed right at me. I raise my
scepter at the same time Kurt does his trident.
Neither of us are as fast as Rachel, holding her crossbow. The
crowd stands back. The spring is released and it flies past my ear.
Sarabell’s open mouth gapes at the air, unable to scream as her body
breaks down into foam under the rain.
My heart is a hammer in my eardrums. I look to Rachel and all I
can say is “You?”
“I owed you,” she says.
There is no time for thank-yous. Frederik freezes, listening to
the air as if there are voices only he can hear.
“They’re coming ashore,” he says.
We race through the archway and onto the boardwalk.
Dozens of them. Rot and death cutting through the fog. I hold my
scepter by the hilt over my head, casting a light over our first line.
The vampires are fast and strong, but the merrows come in massive
numbers. Archer leads the way, curved swords in each hand, and hacks
at anything in his way. The blue fire of Adaro’s ship is coming
closer, threatening to crash against the pier.
“Call them back,” I tell Frederik.
“What?”
I break into a sprint, jumping over the railing and onto the sand.
“Just do it!”
Archer doesn’t see me. He’s confused as the Thorne Hill Alliance
retreats so willingly.
Tap, tap …my fingers to my forehead, my utterly silent Morse-code
prayer.
I flip the scepter. Point the quartz down. Earth-shaker, Kai
called it. I slam it into the ground, and like a ripple, the earth
shudders and opens beneath our feet.
The crack in the ground spreads like broken glass.
Water fills the hole quickly, pushing the merrows into the
opening. It disrupts the path of the sea and a wave crashes over us. I
feel hands all over my skin and I blindly lash out with my scepter.
The light pulses, suspended underwater. Their open mouths swim at me
from all sides. The tide pulls us back and I push my arms harder and
harder to get back to shore. I stab the ground once again. The tremble
shakes all the way to the boardwalk, rippling the wood as I close the
wound, devouring the merrows, trapping them in the earth.
Another wave crashes, and the next line of Archer’s army slithers
onto the sand.
I hold up the scepter as a light beam.
And then they’re running onto the sand. The merrows fall away in a
mudslide of melting flesh as the Alliance crashes over them in a fury
of fangs, claws, and swords.
Kurt’s encircled by a breeze. In his hands, the trident is a torch
of lightning, pushing the creatures of the deep back into the
shallows.
I unsheathe my dagger, cutting cleanly across the neck of a
merrow. He breaks apart at my feet and I move on to the next one. This
time the merrows are faster. Stronger. Every time I kill one, more and
more spring right out of the sea.
I go to the aid of a vampire; a merrow with the head of a
swordfish is ramming needle-like fingers into the vampire’s heart. I
come from behind and stab the merrow through the back of his head.
“Good thing it isn’t wood,” I say.
He growls but manages a wry grin. “Still hurts.”
“Take the wounded to the Wreck,” Frederik says, suddenly a flash
beside me. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. He spits over
and over but is dissatisfied. “That is the most wretched thing I’ve
tasted in my life.”
Something hits me from behind and I fall on top of him. The wave
crashes behind us and we start retreating farther up the beach.
They’re like hydras-we cut off their heads and more keep coming out of
the sea.
I flip the scepter back to the ground but Marty screams at me.
He’s covered from head to toe in oozy, black merrow blood.
“Don’t! Not unless you want to decimate the boardwalk. That
thing’s barely holding on as it is.” He swings a sword and grimaces as
another merrow breaks away at his feet.
“I’m sorry,” I scream, back to back with him. A ring of the
gnarliest mermen I’ve ever seen, scarred in patches like Archer, forms
around us. “I know when you woke up, killing sea creatures wasn’t the
first thing on your mind.”
“I did.” Marty breathes like a bull. “I had lox on my breakfast
bagel.”
My laughter confuses my opponent and I jab him in the jaw. He
doesn’t move but keeps charging. I freeze as tentacles wrap around his
face, slithering through his nose. His body convulses as a small gray
thing slides out from his nostril. The whites of his eyes are
spiderwebbed with black veins until he bursts. As he washes away, the
tentacles turn into hands. Penny’s face is surprised and ecstatic.
Marty pulls his blade from another pile of merrow mush and
grimaces at Penny. “You are one sick mother-”
Marty tenses. A long red needle pierces through his chest. My body
follows his to the ground. I press my hand on the wound. The blood
pools all around his neck. Behind me, Frederik is paler than ever.
Marty’s trying to speak, trying to joke.
“Don’t talk, Marty.” Frederik pushes my hand away and replaces it
with his own. Marty tries to laugh but he spits out blood. I scramble
for my pockets until I find the tiny bottle. I twist off the cap.
Frederik asks, “What is that?”
“It’s all that’s left,” I say, dropping half the contents on the
wound and tipping the rest into Marty’s mouth.
“Of what?”
“Their secrets,” I say. “Take him.”
Frederik looks torn. Marty’s slack in his arms. “You need me.”
“He needs you more.”
I turn around, hoping that my last drops of spring water can save
Marty. I run around the dead bodies on the sand. The merrows are
frantic at the smell of blood. They stop fighting and devour, leaving
them defenseless against our swords.
Even Archer can’t get their attention, but he’s busy on his own.
Kurt blasts him with crashing electricity that would reduce a man to
ashes. But Archer lies on the wet sand with eyes wide open, like he’s
drawing life from the water. He gets right back up and barrels into
Kurt. Kurt presses his feet on Archer’s stomach and flips him over.
Kurt swings the trident across Archer’s face.
He doesn’t need my help, so I run to Thalia. She’s got a nasty
slash running down her arm. She glances at it like it’s no big deal
and helps one of the Alliance-a wire-thin guy about my age with
glowing yellow eyes. Our numbers are falling faster and faster. More
merrows are coming in with the waves. We reform our line, even closer
to the boardwalk. Kurt steps in beside me.
“We can’t let them get into the city,” I say to Kurt.
“There are so many of them,” he replies.