The Sea Witch (The Era of Villains Book 1) (22 page)

The top of Athena’s
head was only centimeters from the waves on the surface. She could
see the eager, bloodthirsty grins of the pirates above her. The ones
nearest the edge who were not holding onto the net raised their
harpoons, the iron, arrow-like tips ugly and cruel and sharp as a
shark’s tooth.

“Cordelia!
Cordelia!” said Athena, her voice trembling and her chest
heaving with sorrow.

The first harpoon cut
through the water and Athena’s smooth, alabaster skin just
below her pink shell top, cutting off her cries for her daughter
whom she now believed dead. It was not the last; half a dozen
harpoons broke through the surface with an odd, muffled whizzing and
then made a terrible
thunk
as they found a home in flesh and
scales. Blood spread out in the water, rolling in the waves and
staining Athena’s pure white tail. Her body moved no more, but
her beautiful hair defiantly clung to life, dancing in the water,
shaming the crimson blood with its vibrant and vivacious color.

Serena watched
Athena’s lifeless body thump against the side of the ship and
felt nothing. No shame. No guilt. No relief. No happiness. No fear.

“It’s
done,” she said, and it almost sounded like a question.

“Hardly,”
said Moira. She looked towards the reef and the fish pretending not
to stare. “We’re going to have to perform a serious
memory spell. And there’s still the matter of what to do with
the little urchin.”

“We have to get
out of sight first,” said Serena. “Triton will have been
looking for Athena for a while now. He could be here any minute.”

“We’ll go
behind the reef. If we stay close, the stupid little creatures won’t
dare speak against us. If he approaches the reef, we’ll use a
cloaking spell. You’ll have to do it though, Serena; my power
is drained.”

“Shouldn’t
Captain Kaidan be leaving with his prize?” said Serena with a
look of distaste towards the ship and the swaying net as she,
Casius, Hazel, and Moira swam over top of the reef and positioned
themselves behind it.

“The idiot’s
probably waiting around for a bonus,” said Moira. “That
or they’ve already popped open the barrels of rum in
celebration. Mermaid tails fetch a high price—even with holes
in them.” She laughed at the idea. “No matter. All the
better if Triton sees her body, especially in the hands of pirates.
It will detract from any doubt he would have had in our story. He
needs to see
that
one’s body too, or he’ll never
stop searching for her.”

Hazel drew the basket
holding the sleeping Cordelia closer to her body when Moira tossed
her head at it. Moira’s eyes narrowed.

“We have to get
rid of her,” Moira said. She turned to Serena. “Surely,
you must know this by now. Now that her mother is gone, he’ll
favor her more than ever. He’ll probably declare her his heir
instead of Maren. Do you really want to let your daughter’s
rightful title be snatched away?”

“Serena,”
said Hazel, pleading with Serena with her eyes, “Athena
deserved what she got. She was a sneaky little tramp who swept in
and tried to take what we had, what
you
had, but Cordelia has
done nothing to you. Does it not make you ill to think of murdering
a child? Can’t you feel it in your scales, as I do, that it is
wrong? I agree that she could cause us problems when she grows up,
but let’s just take her far away. She won’t know who she
is or where she came from. She will bother us no more.”

“You know where
my tentacles are planted on this, Serena,” said Casius.

Serena’s eyes
moved slowly between her mother and sister, considering.

— — —

Triton had made short
work of the tiger shark. One bolt from the Trident and the mighty
shark transformed into a shrimp. Triton had crushed it in his hand.
He had healed up the injured guard’s wounds with just as
little effort, but he could not recover the arm. He had stayed with
them just long enough to tell Kale to get the now armless man back
to his home and then resume the search. He’d set off back to
the place he’d left Athena, but to his dismay and mounting
unease, she was not there.

Something evil was at
work. He could feel it. The shark had eluded him for two years, and
then it had suddenly shown itself not a mile away from him on the
day his daughter went missing, and now her mother was nowhere to be
found. It was too strange.

He called Athena’s
name as he looked for her and tried to convince himself that she’d
just been too anxious to keep searching for Cordelia to stay put as
he had asked, but he could not quite convince himself. He wandered
aimlessly for a while, unsure which direction to go in first, unsure
which way she would have gone. Then it hit him; he was not far from
the reef. Perhaps Athena had gone in search of Serena to see if she
knew yet that Cordelia was missing and if she could use her magic to
help find the baby. He decided that must be it and headed towards
the reef.

He froze when he saw
the ship. He approached the city’s edge cautiously and looked
up at it. Something was dangling in a net in the water beside it.
The shape inside the net bobbed up and down in the surface waves.
There was blood everywhere. The water had carried the blood all
around the ship, but it was no longer thick and dark red. As it
spread, it became light pink and somewhat transparent. Triton
squinted up at the shape. It was large for a fisherman’s
catch, and he feared one of his dolphin friends had been
accidentally snared again. But then he saw the black sails. Not
fishermen. Pirates. He was even more confused. Then he saw the pure
white tail and, though it was far above him, the unmistakable red
hair. His vision blurred, but not before he saw the glint of the sun
on the harpoons. His stomach heaved, but nothing came up. Instead,
the sound that ripped out of his throat was the low, deep moan of a
dying man. The tears were hot in his eyes, and he could hardly
remember where he was. He could hardly breathe, and his sobs were
quiet and choked. It couldn’t be true. He couldn’t lose
them both all at once. But there she was. He could see clearly
now—one of her arms sticking out of the net, her head lolling
limply on her neck, parts of her white tail marred with ugly red
wounds, the harpoons sticking up with their ends pointed towards the
surface. The site of the cruel iron marring her lovely form turned
his choked cries of sorrow into a cracked growl of rage. He clenched
the Trident in a white-knuckled grip and was tensing his muscles to
rocket towards the surface and blast the ship and its crew into a
million tiny pieces, when a flash of color made him whip his head
towards the reef. The reef was full of colorful fins, but he had
caught site of three that did not belong. The reef was above him, on
a slope of the sea floor that was closer to the nearby island and
the surface and slightly to his left, and from that angle he could
see three tails pointing out from the reef on the side farthest from
the ship, as if the tails’ owners had their hands pressed up
against part of the reef, peeking over the top at the ship. One was
blue, one was green, and one was black.

The sight shocked him
out of his sorrow for a moment. Were they okay? Had they seen what
happened? And then a terrible suspicion crept from his solar plexus
to this throat with the cold burn of ice. Why had they not done
anything? Their magic was just as powerful as his own. Why had they
not saved her?

He tried to shake off
the ugly thoughts, but he approached the reef as quietly as he
could, forcing his eyes not to drift back to the body of his beloved
wife. He stopped short when he got close enough to hear their
voices.

“What do you
mean you haven’t decided?” said Moira. “There is
no more time. If you won’t make the decision, I will. Hand the
little brat to me, Hazel; I’ll kill her myself.”

Triton’s blood
ran cold, and a knot formed in his throat, cutting off his airway.
They had Cordelia? Moira wanted to kill her? None of it made sense.
His brain clicked futilely, trying to understand.

“Mother, you
will do nothing until I say so,” said Serena, her voice the
angry hiss that had become familiar to Triton the past few years.

“Oh please,
Serena, don’t act all noble now. She’s as much trouble
as her mother, so she must receive the same fate. We can put her in
the net, make it look as though Athena found her and then died with
her in her arms.”

Triton’s chilled
blood warmed up and then came to a boil.
Moira
. The name was
a snarl in his head. She was behind it all.

“It’s a
good plan,” said Serena.

There was a sharp
inhalation from Hazel, but she did not object.

Triton’s stomach
flipped. It wasn’t just Moira. Oh, how he wanted it to just be
Moira. How could she? His dear Serena as wicked as her mother?

“Of course it
is,” said Moira with a scoff. Then her voice changed to that
terribly sweet croon that Triton hated so much. “Have I ever
steered you wrong, darling?”

A moment of silence.

“No, Mother.”

The rage took over
again. How could she? How
dare
she? How could any of them? He
extended the arm holding the Trident so that the prongs pointed
towards the pirate ship. His arm bent slightly at the elbow as a
lightning bolt blasted out of the tip. It struck the front of the
ship just below the wooden woman carved into the prow and blew a
massive hole in it. The three mermaids cried out at the sound.

“Your pirates
will find a watery grave,” he said, his anger making his voice
an almighty boom, “and for your treachery, you shall all
receive a similar fate. Come out and face me like the nobility you
have pretended to be these past seventeen years, unhand my daughter,
and perhaps I will make your deaths quick.”

“Pretend?”
said Serena, showing her face. There was such terrible fury upon it
that he almost backed up when she came swimming straight at him. He
could have sworn he heard her hair crackle as it stood on end. “You
call what I have done as queen pretending? Did the people not cry
out to me and call me beloved? Did not you yourself say Adamar had
found the height of prosperity under my reign? I
am
nobility.”

Triton sputtered a
moment before he said, “You are a murderer!”

“No, I am your
wife. I am Adamar’s true queen. I gave you and this city
everything I have—my love, my time, my body, my mind, my
magic—and you both tossed me aside like broken fishing line as
soon as she batted her eyes! How is that fair? If you can answer me
that, I will gladly lay down my head on the chopping block and you
can swing the sword yourself.”

“I did not toss
you aside, devil woman!” said Triton. At her words, guilt had
seeped into his heart like poisonous gas, but he did not want to
feel it, and so he ground it out by stoking the fires of his rage.
The Trident glowed like a hot iron. “Are you not still queen?
Are you not still my wife? For a few more moments anyways.” He
pointed the Trident at Hazel’s heart, and she shrank back.
“Give me my daughter, witch!”

Hazel flung out her
arm, clutching the basket in her hand, her eyes shut tight and her
head averted as if expecting a blow. Triton snatched the basket and
opened it. His sigh of relief momentarily softened his face.

“Am I still your
wife, Triton?” said Serena, tears stinging her eyes. “When
was the last time you gave me a sweet word or a soft touch? When did
you last come to me when you were troubled? When did you last desire
my company at all? I know precisely when. The last time you paid me
any mind was the morning before you met
her
!”

“That’s
not true!” said Triton, his voice like thunder. “You
pushed me away, Serena!”

“No, I pushed
her away, and you went with her. After all those years you just
turned away. You didn’t love me anymore. I was nothing to you
any longer. I could see it in your eyes! And yet, I went on loving
you just the same. How do you think that felt, to see you toss
everything we had aside for a skinny little tramp who only wanted
your crown? She tricked you, Triton. She just wanted to use you. She
didn’t understand you or care for you. She was going to take
the throne from our children too, Triton. Our children!”

“Are you mad?
Athena wanted nothing but my love and your friendship, and you
refused to give it to her.”

“You’re
blind! She was just like all those other useless mermaids you let
dangle all over you when you were young.”

“What are you
talking about?” said Triton, throwing up the arm holding the
Trident in exasperation, momentarily forgetting to keep it pointed
at the three sea witches and the octopus. The hand holding
Cordelia’s basket stayed safely nestled at his side.

“She was just
like your parents!”

“My parents?”
His eyes were wide with incredulity.

“They all just
wanted to use you. Those other mermaids just wanted your crown. Your
mother treated you like her plaything, her little prince to dress up
and coddle. Your father saw you as his ticket to immortality. They
were vain and cruel, and they were teaching you to be the same. You
would not be the king you are now without me. I did what was
necessary.”

“YOU SLAUGHTERED
HER! YOU WERE GOING TO KILL OUR CHILD!”

A roar burst from his
chest and the Trident aimed at her heart, and for a moment, he meant
to kill her, slaughter her as she had slaughtered Athena, but
something held him back—an echo of a laugh from sweeter times,
the faces of his children. Instead, he turned back to the pirate
ship, which was sinking fast, only to find that much of the crew had
piled into a row boat and were headed towards the island. He
swiveled the Trident from Serena to the boat, and with an almighty
war cry, he shot a bolt of golden energy that blasted the rowboat
like a barrel of gunpowder. The pirates flew into the air, screaming
and bleeding (those who were still in relatively one piece, at
least). The water ran red once again.