Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 97188 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97188 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
But that’s the least of my problems. Lucky is back, and this time they have a webbed bag full of tools to patch the hole. Not on my watch.
I wait until they turn to their task before I shoot up out of the darkness. I move fast as lightning, intent on surprising them. They’re part mermaid, they can’t drown, which means I’ll have to find another way. A broken neck, like the water horse. Or blunt force.
But the moment before I strike, Lucky spins. Ready for me. Hands outstretched and a wicked grin on their face. A trap.
And I swam right into it.
I’m going too fast to divert my charge. That’s the only thing that saves my life. I catch sight of the glint of a knife in their hand as we collide. If I had turned, they would have attempted to gut me.
I knock them into the side of the ship hard enough to rattle my brain in my skull, and pain pricks my side as they drive the knife into me. But I won’t go down that easy. In this form, I have a thick shield of blubber to keep me warm in even the coldest temperatures, and it protects me now. Being stabbed hurts, and I won’t be able to fight indefinitely, but I’m not going to slow down yet.
I thrash, battering them against the side of the ship with everything I have. If I can make them drop the knife or knock them unconscious, the fight will be over. They cling to the weapon, stronger than they have any right to be. Over and over again they stab me as I slam them against the ship repeatedly, desperate to end this.
I break away, but I’m moving far less smoothly than I was previously. I shouldn’t have taken my protection for granted. My blood joins Siobhan’s victim’s, coating the water around us. I dive deep, desperate to put some distance between us, to assess how bad the injuries actually are, but the mermaid follows me, intending to attack my exposed back.
I twist at the last moment, slapping them with my tail and sending them spinning away from me. They catch themselves almost immediately. I can’t see how they’re moving so well, not when they’re mostly humanoid. They aren’t quite as fast as I am, but they’re agile enough to be a threat.
They charge me, and it’s everything I can do to spin away before they make contact. I might be able to hold my breath for a very long time, but that doesn’t change the fact that I do have to breathe eventually, and the fight is taking more energy than I expected. If I make it out of this alive, I’m going to train in underwater combat so that I’m never this helpless again.
Lucky keeps coming. I dodge again and again, but far too late I realize that they’re driving me deeper into the depths. Farther away from the air I need to survive. In desperation, I swat at them and bolt past, heading for the surface.
I can feel them behind me, and if they’re not gaining, they are close enough that I’m not certain I’ll make it. Even as the thought crosses my mind, their hand closes around my tail and jerks me back. Bubbles escape my nose, precious oxygen.
We’re close enough to the surface that I can see the light of the moon glinting off the waves above. To my right is the lurking darkness of the Crimson Hag. So close, and yet with this mermaid crawling all over me, slashing and stabbing, it might as well be on another realm entirely.
I was so confident when I told Lizzie I didn’t need her to watch my back. What a fool. My thoughts go muddy and strange, but I keep fighting even as my movements weaken, becoming sluggish and slow. The mermaid’s bleeding me out, a thousand small cuts to do their dirty work more effectively than one big attack.
I catch movement out of the corner of my eye, and my despair gains wings. I could barely hold my own against a single combatant. How can I possibly do it against two? It’s over. I’m dead. I don’t stand a chance.
I’m sorry, Lizzie. I love you. I’m sorry.
But when the third person collides with us, it’s not me they go after. They wrap their hands around the throat of the mermaid, and even as blurry as my thoughts are, I can hear the snap as they break Lucky’s neck and then rip their head from their body. Blood is so thick in the water that I can’t see, can’t think.
Instinct guides me to the surface, to take the breath that I desperately need. It’s as if that influx of oxygen conveys to my brain just how desperate my condition is. It’s bad. Really, really bad.