Blood of a Mermaid (14 page)

A ferocious anger surged through Zan, uncontrolled magick simmering just below the surface of his skin. The air around him started to swirl, dust rising from the floor of the hanger. Takis backed away nervously, a trickle of blood dripping from the guard’s nose, as Zan sputtered, barely able to put his thoughts together.

“He…he…left? For Santorini? He gave Kae’s bracelet to…to a
drylander
?” As Zan repeated the guard’s words, he became increasingly agitated by the situation. He’d been so convinced of the simplicity of Demyan’s scheme, it never even occurred to him that Shea would do something different than expected.

Zan expected him to
care
about Kae.

How could he ignore the warning in that letter?

The trickle morphed into a red geyser and Takis slumped to the floor, his uniform awash in his own blood. Zan’s attention snapped back to the present moment, quickly realizing he’d lost control. Takis was dead.

Zan spun on his heel and walked away from the body, out into the sunlight, gusts of wind still swirling around him. One dead Daeira traitor was not his problem.

A missing Shea, however, was a dilemma that needed to be solved.

He watched as an airplane with the large “Olympic Air” logo across its side increased speed and took off from the ground, quickly gaining altitude. His anger increased again, as did the wind, rocking the wings of the small plane as it climbed into the blue sky.

The boy could not be allowed to reach Atlantis, where he would be out of Zan’s reach. He needed to capture him and take him north as soon as possible. Demyan told him he’d spare Kae’s life in return for delivering Shea.

Zan didn’t care what happened to the boy. But he’d promised Kae he’d keep her safe from Demyan.

And he always kept his promises.

The airplane shuddered from side to side as it left the safety of the runway and ascended through the cloudless sky. Shea gripped the hard plastic arms of his seat, wondering if he would ever get used to the sensation of flying. This was his third take-off within the last twenty-four hours. He’d been hoping it would get easier.

Because, at the moment, all he could think about was crashing.

This was the smallest plane he’d ever been on in his life, with only two seats on each side of the middle aisle, not all of them filled. The din from the plane’s twin turbo prop engines thundered just outside the window next to Hailey, spinning so fast the propellers were merely a blur against the blue sky.

The first two rows up in the front were blocked off by a thin black curtain, hiding the handful of first class passengers from the rest of the cabin. Shea’s grandmother was up there somewhere with Mrs. Thompson, while Shea sat with Hailey and Chip. Shea was glad the two women had hit it off so well, and even more glad he didn’t have to be included in their conversations about curtains and wallpaper patterns.

Only about fifty or so passengers were making the trip to Santorini, a far cry from the huge, over-crowded British Airways flight with which he’d started the day.

Hailey patted his arm and leaned her head closer so he could hear her over the roar of the engines. “There’s an awful lot of turbulence for such a clear day,” she said. “I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about. Probably because the plane’s so small.”

Chip leaned across the aisle, punching Shea in the shoulder. “The card in the back of the seat says this is a Bombardier Dash-8,” he said. “Just like the commuter plane that crashed in Buffalo a few years ago. Remember that?”

“Crashed?” Shea hoped he didn’t sound as panicky as he felt.

“Killed everyone on board.” Chip settled back into his seat, smiling.

Hailey frowned. “Thanks for nothing, Chip. It’s probably the wind off the ocean. I mean, wow, look at the waves down there.” She pointed out the window, trying to distract Shea.

“Wind. Right.” Shea grimaced. He knew firsthand the damage that wind could cause. He’d witnessed tornado destruction back in Oklahoma, when he’d lost his dad and their farm. Wind could be devastating. And deadly. He needed to focus on something else. Maybe curtains and wallpaper weren’t such a bad thing to talk about after all. “Tell me again about this lady who hired your mom to decorate? Why is it she can’t pick out her own curtains?”

Hailey laughed. “Decorating is about more than curtains, you troglodyte. It’s about creating a whole look and feel for a home.”

The plane gave another shudder and Shea closed his eyes. “And why can’t a person decide for themselves how they want their home to feel?”

“Obviously they know what they want. The problem, as my mom says all the time, is knowing how to achieve in reality what you picture in your head.”

A deep male voice crackled through the overhead speakers in rapid Greek, followed by English. “Attention, passengers. This is your captain. Please keep seatbelts fastened as we try to steer clear of this turbulence and find a pocket of better air.”

“A pocket of better air?” Hailey shook her head. “What does that even mean?”

Chip leaned back across the aisle and grinned. “Maybe this air is broken?” The light streaming through Hailey’s window shifted as the plane changed direction and Chip’s grin faded. “It looks like he made a ninety degree turn. That seems kind of drastic.”

“I’m sure the pilot’s done this a million times,” Hailey snapped, looking out her window again. “Ooh, look at that lightning over there! It’s like a fireworks display!”

Shea resisted the temptation to look out the window. His stomach already felt queasy enough, and now a storm? A slow tingling sensation engulfed his toes. “How close?”

He was surprised when Chip laughed at him. “Don’t be a wuss. A lightning strike wouldn’t bring an airplane down,” he explained, his voice matter-of-fact. “Airplanes these days are designed to be able to absorb lightning and then to be able to get rid of the static electricity. Problems only occur when the lightning actually hits an electrical circuit – like, a direct hit – and causes a short circuit. What are the odds of lighting finding just the exact spot, right?”

“Oh, look out there now,” Hailey interrupted. “Water spouts!”

Shea felt the blood drain from his face. “Water spouts? Like, tornadoes on the ocean?”

Hailey glanced back at him and gently patted his knee. “This isn’t Oklahoma. I’m sure everything’s going to be fine,” she said as she pulled the plane’s information card out of the seat pocket in front of her. “But I guess it never hurts to review a plane’s emergency procedures. Looks like the closest exit is two rows back, over the wing. Mom and your Gramma are up there next to the main door.”

As she removed her hand from his knee to point at the diagram, Shea felt the tingling course through his legs, zinging from his toes up into his stomach. It was as if some switch in his body had flipped into high gear. Sweat beaded on his forehead and dripped down his back. The air inside the airplane cabin suddenly felt like it was clinging heavily around him, as if it were charged with electricity and Shea was the only magnet on board. He’d felt this exact sensation before, back at Plainville High School.

On the day of the tornado.

“
Magick
,” he whispered out loud as a couple of the overhead compartments snapped open, spewing their contents into the aisle and onto his fellow passengers. He wrapped his fingers around his transmutare medallion, taking a deep breath as he felt the magick pulse through his body.
Someone’s controlling the weather, causing this turbulence on purpose
.

“What did you say?” Hailey was still focused on the information card. The silver bracelet still hugged her wrist, and Shea had a horrified thought.

What if the kidnappers thought he wasn’t planning to meet them at the Piraeus docks?
Is crashing the airplane some kind of twisted Plan B?
If Demyan and his henchmen could create a killer microburst tornado in the middle of Oklahoma, was it such a stretch to imagine they could make a storm to crash an airplane over open water?

Shea grabbed the plastic card from her hands as the cabin began to convulse violently and the pains shooting down his legs increased in speed. “Where are the exits? Because this plane is going down.”

“That’s not funny,” Hailey started, her voice shaking along with the plane. Behind her, Shea could see the water spouts through the window. As he watched, several thin spindles of wind and water began to merge together, forming a solid wall of savagely twisting seawater, drawing closer and closer to the airplane.

The captain’s voice came over the speaker again, the English first this time. “Attention. Prepare for a water landing.” Shea hoped the torrent of Greek that followed was directed mainly to the crew, because as far as he could tell, everyone else was too busy panicking to follow any directions whatsoever.

He quickly glanced around the cabin at the passengers, all searching under their seats for their inflatable life vests and flotation cushions. Random pieces of luggage fell from the overhead bins, adding to the chaos and panic. Where was his grandmother? Were the passengers behind the curtain going through the same preparations?

The wind and water lashed against the window, the sudden storm battering the small airplane. The plane’s nose began to dip at a decidedly dangerous downward angle, the wind howling loudly. Duffle bags and packages slid down the center aisle toward the first class curtain, as more items rained down on the passengers from the overhead compartments. Hailey’s knuckles turned white as she gripped both plastic armrests, and Shea placed his hand over hers on the armrest they shared. There was nothing he could think of to say that would reassure her – the plane was definitely going down. And it was his fault, he was sure of it.

“We’ll be okay, won’t we?” Her voice sounded so scared and small that despite his own fears, Shea felt a strong urge to comfort her. But he didn’t want to lie.

“I hope so,” he told her. “The plane is over water, so at least it’s a softer landing.”

“Umm, I read that hitting water at high speed is almost like smashing into solid ground,” Hailey said, her eyes wide. “If we hit at this angle, the plane will smash into bits!”

“Well then, we have to hope for the best and be ready for the impact,” Shea said, twining his fingers with hers and giving them a squeeze. Their heads were inches apart in order to hear each other, so close he could smell the strawberry shampoo she must’ve used that morning. He tried to concentrate on the fragrance and not the intensity of the pain streaking down his spine. “We can do this, Hailey. You’re a strong swimmer.”

“Yeah, but my mom’s not,” she said.

“Gramma is,” Shea said firmly. “She’ll help your mom, don’t worry.”

Suddenly, the nose of the plane pulled up, leveling off the cabin. Seconds later, the plane tipped slightly to the right and smashed onto the surface of the water, bucking along through the waves in sickening jolts as pieces from the front of the aircraft ripped free and whizzed by the windows. Shea’s body slammed forward with each jolt, straining against the confining seat belt, his head banging into the seat in front of him. After what seemed like a lifetime, the plane stopped moving forward.

And began to settle, sinking slowly into the sea.

The glow from the lantern finally sputtered and died, and Kae found herself awash in darkness once again. Even without the ability to hear the thoughts of sea creatures, she’d known the jellyfish in the lantern was starving and desperate to escape. There was nothing she could have done to help it without being stung by its poison. She was as much a prisoner as that poor creature had been. At least now it was free.

She hoped Fate, and Demyan, would be kinder to her. She didn’t want to die in this prison cell. But she held out little hope for mercy from the Adluo madman.

At least Xander had kept his word and made the guards bring her a real sleeping mat and cover. That had been the last time anyone visited, when a dark blue Nerine merman delivered the bedroll. The door hadn’t opened since.

Her stomach rumbled. How long had it been since her last meal? She frowned, remembering that Xander had drugged that food to make her sleep. But at least he’d made sure she was fed. No one else in this place seemed to care if she went hungry. Did anyone even remember she was locked in here?

In the darkened silence, she heard the echoes of whispering voices. Was there someone in the hallway?
Are they bringing food?
Pushing her blanket aside, she swam slowly through the darkened cell, arms straight out to feel for the wall so as not to bang her head. Her hands found the stone of the cell wall, and she cupped them around her ear, straining to make out the words as the whispers grew louder…and then faded away.

“Hello? Is someone out there? Anyone? Hello?” She slammed her fists against the stone, trying hard to make enough noise to attract attention. But it was too late. Whoever was swimming down the hallway must be too far away to hear her now.

She was alone in the darkness once more.

Kae bit her bottom lip and closed her eyes, willing herself to take a deep breath and remain calm. She uncurled her fists and flattened her hands against the stone wall. Xander had promised he wouldn’t let Demyan harm her. She needed to trust him.

Except…Xander had been the one to kidnap her in the first place. And his name wasn’t even really
Xander
. It was Zan. The sorcerer. And he seemed to have a crush on her.

The thought made her shiver.

He’d used magick to make her trust him. To make her follow him. To capture her and bring her to Demyan. And she knew he’d been part of Demyan’s scheme back in Nantucket Sound to kill King Koios. It was Zan who bewitched the king’s own sister into joining the plot.

An image of that seaweed green hair and those dark, dark eyes filled her mind. She wondered about the haunted look that she had glimpsed behind those black eyes. Was that even real, or was the vulnerability an act to gain her compassion? No, it had to be real.

After the way he stood up for her with Demyan, she knew without a doubt that he would protect her. From what she’d learned of the Adluos, no one defied Demyan. Ever. And yet Xander had, and had kept her safe. She shook her head again. “I mean
Zan
kept me safe. Jumping jellyfish, I’ll never be able to get his name straight in my head.”