The Sea Witch (The Era of Villains Book 1) (23 page)

“Yes, I did. I
killed her,” said Serena, using her low, authoritative,
queenly voice, though it shook with anger at the end. She seemed
impervious to the destruction of the rowboat. “And I would do
it again if it meant saving you. Don’t you see how I love you,
Triton? Don’t you see that I want only the best for you? I
would kill all of them a thousand times to protect you.”

“All of them?
What do you mean, all of them?”

Serena’s mouth
clamped shut with an audible snap. Her eyes flicked downwards, no
longer boring into his.

“My God,
Serena?” said Triton, backing away from her.

The sadness that
crossed his face for a moment clawed at Serena’s heart. He
would never have believed her capable of such evil, and yet, she had
done it. What did that make her?

“Who else have
you killed?”

She said nothing and
bit her lip, and he could see the glossy shimmer of tears in her
eyes. His face twisted in agony when realization dawned. He let out
a sound like a wounded animal.

“My parents? You
killed my parents?” He ran a hand down his face and through
his beard, and a small sob escaped him. “The strange illness
that only took them…yes, of course. One of your nasty little
concoctions, I suppose?”

“Nasty little
concoctions?” said Serena with a snarl.

“Why didn’t
I see it before?” he said.

“Hard to see
through the inky waters of love,” said Moira with a cackle,
amused by the whole exchange.

Serena sucked in a
breath, and her lips became a hard line of warning as she looked at
her mother. There was no way Triton would ever take her back if he
knew he had not ever truly loved her. She was sure she could
convince him that Athena’s death was necessary, that his
parent’s deaths were necessary, but only if she could remind
him that he had once loved her.

“I don’t
know how I ever loved you,” he said, and the look of disgust
on his face felt like a mortal wound to Serena.

“Don’t
you?” said Moira, one eyebrow raised playfully.

“Mother,”
Serena hissed through her teeth.

“I suppose you
were too caught up chasing that new pretty tail to notice Serena’s
new taste in jewelry.”

Triton blinked at
Moira, confused, but then his eyes zipped to the place where the
locket had rested for so long. He stared for a long moment, putting
it all together: his sudden desire for her all those years ago, her
refusal to take off the locket, and his sudden change of feelings
towards her when he first kissed Athena. Fury found its way back
onto his face, baring his teeth.

“My father was
right! You did bewitch me! You killed him because he figured it
out!”

“I killed him
because he would not let us be together just because I was a maid,
because he feared and envied my power!” said Serena, matching
Triton’s outrage. “I was right for you, Triton. I still
am. We belong together, and both your parents were going to keep us
apart because of their own vanity and greed.”

He stared at her, took
in the mad light in her eyes, the desperate shriek in her voice, and
suddenly he felt extraordinarily weary.

“You’re
insane,” he said softly, shaking his head.

Serena ground her
teeth. “What did you just say?”

But Triton was no
longer looking at her. Once again, he had eyes only for Athena. The
deck of the ship was almost submerged now. Triton, though, was
looking at the net attached to it.

“She broke your
spell when my father and the Trident could not,” he said, a
small smile on his face.

Hate slammed into
Serena like a tidal wave. Her beautiful face transformed into an
ugly snarl.

“And I broke
her,” she hissed.

“And for that
you will be punished,” said Triton through a clenched jaw.
“All three of you…perhaps four. What role did you play
in this, octopus?”

“So you have
forgotten my name?” said Casius, his skin deep crimson.

“You there,”
said Trion, pointing to a ray nearby on the reef, “Did you see
the octopus take part in the queen’s death?”

The ray looked from
the glaring eyes of Serena and Moira to the prongs of the Trident
and came to rest on the Trident.

“Yes, my lord.
He held her in place when the ship appeared. He got stuck in the net
with her, but Queen Serena cut him free.”

“So the life of
your pet is more important than hers?” said Triton.

“Pet?”
said Casius.

“His life is
worth hers ten times over,” spat Serena.

Triton’s lip
curled in a cruel smile. “Perhaps since you love octopi more
than your own kind, you should be one. And since all three of you
are so much alike, it would be a shame to lose that family
resemblance.”

“What do you—?”

The golden mist
surrounded the three sea witches before Serena could finish. They
cried out in unison as their bodies began to change. Their tails
ballooned at the base and split at the fins, branching out in eight
directions. The scales fell away and were replaced by rubbery skin.
Their eight new limbs grew suckers on the undersides. At the crowns
of their heads just along their hairlines, thin, black tentacles
nearly as long as their hair sprouted up and wriggled like sea
snakes, fanning out from their heads like strange crowns.

Moira’s scream
was loudest of all. She stared down at her new tentacles with her
eyes wide with horror and her mouth a perfect ‘o’ of
terror.

“It’s
hideous! My tail, beautiful tail! What have you done?” said
Moira. Her hands went up to touch the thin tentacles at her
hairline. One looped around her hand, and she screamed and yanked it
free, knocking her crystal crown loose. She gasped and reached up to
grab it, but one of the new tentacles on her head beat her to it and
placed the crown gently back on her head just behind the line of
tentacles.

“You shall live
the rest of your lives as cecaelia: half human, half octopus, and
mermaids no more,” said Triton. “Now you are as ugly on
the outside as you are on the inside, and all merfolk will distrust
you. You will find it much harder to destroy any more lives with
your manipulative magic.”

“You will pay
for this, Triton!” said Moira, her aquiline face predatory.
“We will restore ourselves to our full glory, and then we will
take back what is ours.”

“Moira,”
said Triton with feigned pity and a click of his tongue, “you
know the Trident’s magic cannot be reversed by any power save
the Trident. In that way, it is even more powerful than your own
magic.”

Moira shrieked with
rage, her fingers bent into claws, and she began to chant a curse in
ancient Atlantian, but after only a few words, she choked, put a
hand to her throat, and slumped in the water.

“Easy, Mother.
Be calm,” said Serena, but her own face was anything but calm
as she stared down at her new body. She looked from it to Triton as
she spoke, terrible hurt on her face. “Your power is drained.
You will exhaust yourself.”

“Do you wish to
finish what she started?” said Triton. He looked Serena in the
eyes. His face was creased in anger, but his eyes were dull with
sorrow.

Serena stared back at
him. Her fists clenched at her side for a moment, and then she
sighed and let them fall limp.

“I cannot harm
you, Triton.”

“You already
have, Serena.”

“Don’t say
that,” she whispered.

Triton pointed the
Trident at Casius and a golden beam surrounded him. “You,
Casius, shall no longer change the color of your skin. Hunting will
not come easy, and you will have to rely on your beloved witches to
sustain you. Pray you do not fall out of their favor, or you may end
up like my beloved.”

Casius cast down his
eyes, accepting his punishment in silence.

“All of you are
hereby exiled from Adamar. The city will be closed off to you
forever more.” He looked at Moira. “Your curses shall
not penetrate it.”

He raised the Trident
above his head, and there was a loud crack. Serena, Hazel, Moira,
and Casius were all flung back from the reef as if smacked by the
tail of a whale. Triton swam towards them and stopped a few feet
away.

“Triton, what
about my children?” said Serena. She swam towards him with her
hands clasped together in a pleading gesture, panic in her eyes at
the prospect of never seeing her daughters again. She collided with
an invisible barrier that knocked her back. She gaped in wonder for
a moment and then looked at Triton with true fear. “You must
let me see them, Triton. Please.”

Triton shut his eyes
and turned his head away. He sucked in a deep, shaky breath. When he
looked at her again, she watched fury and sorrow war across his
face.

“Do you see now
what you have done, Serena? You’ve created a life that is a
lie. You did not win my heart; you took it hostage. You created a
false life for yourself. You left gravestones in your path to get
it, but those were not your only victims. Don’t you see what
this will do to our daughters, to know that their mother is a
murderer, to know they can never see you again because of what you
have done?”

“They know I
love them. They will understand. Just let me explain to them.”

“You will do
nothing of the sort!” said Triton.

“I may not be
able to come to them, but they will come to me,” said Serena,
matching his fury. “You cannot stop them! You cannot keep them
from me!”

Triton closed his eyes
again and sighed.

“Yes, I can,”
he said, his voice soft and sad. “I can spare them the pain
and shame of knowing what you are. I can give them the mother they
all deserve.” He looked once again at Athena’s body.

“You wouldn’t,”
said Serena, her eyes wild.

“I can spare the
kingdom too,” he said. “No one in Adamar will remember
you as anything more than a sea witch. Athena has been their one and
only queen these past seventeen years. The princesses are all her
daughters.” Serena’s mouth dropped open. She tried to
speak and could not. “Celine and Ariana will not remember you.
They will not remember that they have powers, given to them by you.
They will not remember your lessons. None of your daughters will
know you. Every memory they have of you will now bear Athena’s
face. Their mother died at the hands of pirates this very day, and
they will mourn her well. The only soul in Adamar who will remember
any of you is me, and that is only so that I can keep this city safe
from all of you. If only I could pluck you from my memory, I would,
Serena. Be gone from this place. I must recover the body of the only
mermaid I ever truly loved, and I do not wish to feel your presence
while I do it. I never wish to see your face again.”

Serena slammed her
fist against the barrier, and a golden light sprung up around her
hand and dissipated outwards. “Triton, you bastard! You can’t
do that! You can’t!” Angry tears stung her eyes. Her
heart raced so fast in her chest she felt nauseous. She slammed her
whole body against the barrier, snarling like an animal. Her
tentacles smacked against the invisible wall with a nasty slurping
noise as the suckers latched on. “I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU, YOU
BASTARD! YOU CAN’T TAKE MY DAUGHTERS!”

Triton plucked the
still sleeping Cordelia from her basket and rubbed his beard against
her face. Her eyes opened, and she shoved her little hand into his
beard. He tossed the basket aside and turned away from Serena and
towards Athena.

Serena slammed herself
against the barrier again and again, bloodying her nose and her lip,
bruising her arms and her new tentacles. She screamed incoherent
words and curses, oblivious to the pain. She did not stop until
Hazel and Casius gently pulled her away, whispering softly to her.

“We must go to
Arcanus,” said Hazel. Her face was scared and uncertain, and
she turned to Moira—still looking for comfort in a place where
it simply did not exist. “Right, Mother?”

“Oh, my tail,”
Moira moaned, her hands cupping her face as she stared down at
herself. “My beautiful, beautiful tail.”

— — —

Triton felt as though
he had not slept in weeks. There was a pressure on his chest and he
could hardly breathe. But still, he swam up to the top of the
tallest spire of the palace and raised the Trident above his head.
Golden mist poured out of it like a fountain and spread across
Adamar. Merfolk and sea creatures alike looked at it in wonder as it
swirled around them. They breathed it in through gills and noses,
and for a moment, their eyes went still and clear as glass. When
they blinked, the mist was gone, and they all went back to mourning
their dear, beloved Queen Athena who had just today been slain by
pirates. They mourned for Triton, who had loved her so dearly, and
for her six daughters, who would have to grow up without her.

— — —

Not far from the city
of Adamar, there was a mostly barren patch of sea floor where small
underwater volcanoes stuck out of the ground like jagged, black
teeth and spouted jets of hot bubbles up towards the surface. In the
midst of this wasteland was a large, black cave formed from volcanic
rock. The opening danced with strange, purple light. Rumors about
this cave spread throughout Adamar. It was said three cecaelia
witches with extraordinary powers lived there, and they could grant
you your heart’s deepest, darkest desire if only you could pay
their price. It was said that the eldest witch, the one with the
strange tattoos that some merfolk swore could move, wore a beautiful
crystal tiara on her head just behind her ugly tiara of tentacles,
and many wondered if perhaps she had been royalty in some far off
and forgotten city. But, according to rumor, she was not the most
powerful of the three. The witch with the rich brown hair and deep,
haunted, dark eyes was the leader, the most powerful, but she was
also said to be the most volatile. The eldest crooned with a sultry
smile, the youngest simpered in the corner, but the middle one
sneered as though each client, with their petty wishes and eager
eyes, disgusted her. Her laugh was a cackle that sent chills up a
merperson’s spine. But still, more and more merfolk began to
flock to her, to whisper about her.