Tempest Revealed (36 page)

In the end, we didn’t bother with a sneak attack. Didn’t bother trying to be stealthy or anything else. It was too late for that. Instead, the seven of us swam straight into the middle of Kona’s town square, lobbing grenades at the bunyip and shark-men.

Tiamat and Sabyn were nowhere to be seen. The cowards.

I thought the bunyip would run away like they had last time, but the grenades only stirred them up. They swarmed us,
hundreds of the ugly little creatures surrounding us on all sides, jabbing spears as we dodged and weaved to avoid getting hit.

At the same time, the shark-men circled us from above, looking for an opportunity to strike. Mark was shooting at them while Kona used his own powers to hold them at bay. In the meantime, Zarek, the guards, and I concentrated on taking out the bunyip.

It should have been easy—Kona and I had powers that far outgunned those of our attackers. But there were so many of them that we couldn’t keep up. We took out fifty or a hundred of their ranks to every one of us that they got, but that wasn’t good enough. Not when there were only seven of us to begin with.

One of Kona’s guards—the one whose back was to mine—cried out, and I glanced behind me in time to watch his body go lax. A bunyip sword had pierced his neck, nearly ripping it clean off. Seeing the opening, and frenzied with bloodlust, several of the shark-men started to swarm. I threw my hands up, prepared to shoot a blast of energy straight at them. But Kona got there first, sending a shot of raw power right through the small group of them. One screamed in agony while the others quickly swam upward, all nursing horrific wounds.

Within minutes, we were down to just the four of us—Mark, Kona, Zarek, and me. I knew it was torturing the healer that he had been unable to help the fallen soldiers, but he had other powers that were aiding us in keeping Tiamat’s minions at bay. If he dropped his concentration even for a second and tried to heal them, all would be lost. We were under attack
from all sides, and it was taking every ounce of strength each of us had to defend our given side.

The water around us grew red with blood. Selkie blood, bunyip blood, shark-shifter blood. It all blended together until the water was so saturated I could barely breathe through the thickness. The inside of my mouth was coated with the stuff, the sharp metallic tang of it fresh on my tongue. It was taking every ounce of concentration I had not to hurl. Or cry. Nothing that had ever happened to me had ever been this bad, this horrific, before.

Another wave of attackers came at me and I turned to meet them head-on. My barely healed stomach screamed at the sudden movement, barely healed muscles knotting at the effort. Desperate to get through this, to escape, I concentrated on building an orb of near epic power. It was difficult because I couldn’t concentrate on it—like Zarek, if I stopped fighting for even one second, we would fall. So I added to it slowly, in between blasts of energy and telekinetic movement, until it was as strong as I could make it. My own homemade bomb, as explosive as anything Mahina had cooked up in her laboratory.

I bided my time, looked for an opening. And when I saw it in a mixed swarm of bunyip and shark-men, I took it. I lobbed the energy bomb straight into the middle of them. Seconds later, the whole group of them blew up, vaporizing right in front of us. It terrified me even as it consoled me. Though I was grateful in situations like these to have this kind of power, it was horrifying to realize just what I could do if I ever slipped the leash. If I ever failed to control myself. People weren’t meant to have this kind of power—I wasn’t meant to have it.

The bomb, or more likely the vaporization of their friends, did what none of our other powers had been able to do. It chased our attackers away. As the hundred or so remaining creatures scattered in all directions, I relaxed a little. Bent in half and took a few breaths. We did it. We—

I glanced up in time to see Mark, Kona, and Zarek staring straight ahead. I followed their gazes, realized that it wasn’t my bomb that had sent the bunyip and shark-men scattering. It was Sabyn and Tiamat.

They were coming toward us, their eyes glowing with power and corruption and a bloodlust that had every nerve in my body lighting up in alarm. This was it. This was the moment that would decide everything. And I was so exhausted I didn’t know if I had anything left for what might very well be the last fight I ever faced.

Without thinking, I shoved Mark behind me. He squawked indignantly, then turned. Tried to do the same to me. I wasn’t budging, though. No matter what happened, Tiamat was mine. And like I’d promised Rio before I left home, I wasn’t going to take her shit anymore. I would die to stop her, would do anything I had to in order to keep the people I loved safe.

I glanced at Kona, saw him taking aim at Sabyn. Mark was doing the same thing, though he had no powers. But his gun was in his hand and leveled straight at Sabyn’s chest.

When their attack came, it wasn’t from the front like we expected. It was from the water itself, a burning, poisonous acid destroying the bodies of those around us and creeping inexorably closer to us with every push and pull of the ocean’s current.

As one, we tried to move backward, but Tiamat had cast
some spell that had us totally surrounded by the hideous stuff. And at a respectful distance behind the acid were the bunyip and shark-men. They hadn’t been fleeing, just getting out of the strike zone.

I tried not to focus on it, tried not to think about what I was seeing. Or about how that acid would begin eating away at our flesh the second it came into contact with us. But it was easier said than done.

Still, I had to act now. Anything else would result in certain death, especially since Tiamat and Sabyn were waiting to tear our burning, disintegrating carcasses limb from limb. I racked my brain, tried to figure out what to do. I’d already used every weapon I had against the two of them in previous battles and had failed every time. What did I have left to try? What could I do that—

Suddenly, it came to me. I knew it was a long shot—both of them had strong mental and physical shields—but it was the only idea I had. The only thing that might not just injure Tiamat, not just imprison her, but annihilate her from the depths of the ocean once and for all.

Quickly, carefully, I tried to gather as much energy as I could. But pulling it from the water was difficult—it was so polluted with blood and acid that there was almost nothing left for me to reach for. But Tiamat was shifting, the bloodlust in her eyes growing sharper, and I knew we were out of time.

Desperate but determined, I did the unforgivable. I thrust every ounce of power I had into Kona and Zarek, Mahina and even Mark, raking psychic claws through their bodies as I harvested all the strength and energy I could garner from them. I
wasn’t gentle and I wasn’t easy—I could hear them screaming on a psychic plane—and it made me sick. But I didn’t relent. I kept going, kept gathering everything I could from them.

When I was done, when there was nothing left to take, I turned on Tiamat. And using everything that I had inside me and everything I had taken from them, I launched a telekinetic attack straight at Tiamat.

I arrowed straight through her shields, grabbed on to a corner of her mind, and raked talons of power and desperation straight through her brain. She screamed, her hands coming up to clutch at her head. I didn’t relent. I couldn’t. This was the only chance I had to keep Kona and Mark, Zarek and Mahina, alive.

It was over in seconds, but it was the most horrific thing I had ever done. I shredded her brain until it looked more like confetti than a functioning organ. That one aborted scream—and a final blast of power that shot harmlessly by me—was all she got out before she died.

I glanced behind me to make sure Sabyn was the last threat, and that’s when I saw him. Zarek. He was lying on the ocean floor, hands clutching his stomach as he bled out into the water. That last blast of energy Tiamat had gotten out hadn’t been so harmless after all.

Kona!
I screamed.
Help him!

It’s too late
. Zarek’s words were soft, disjointed, and I could tell it took every ounce of effort he had to force them out.

No!
Kona and I raced toward him, but even before I got there, I knew he was right. His head was resting on the ground, his eyes closed, and his hands had fallen to the ocean floor beside him. Zarek was dead.

Nausea gripped me, followed by a hatred so black I could feel it in the depths of my soul. This man had saved my life more than once, had saved Kona’s, had even traveled thousands of miles to save my baby brother. And now he was dead because Tiamat, even in death, had to destroy everything she could.

Enraged, in pain, I turned on Sabyn. He’d been trying to slink away in the confusion of Zarek’s final moments, but there was no way I was letting him escape. Not after everything he’d done to me and those I cared about. When he realized I was once again locked on to him, his eyes grew wide in horror. He threw a hand out to ward me off, but I wasn’t who he had to worry about. The poison had dissipated with Tiamat’s death and Mark and Kona had broken free. The bunyip and shark-men scattered, just like they always did, which left Sabyn totally at the mercy of my boyfriend and my ex.

They slammed into Sabyn like a runaway freight train, began beating him within an inch of his life—and were taking great pleasure in it, from what I could see. I started to stop them, but a hand from Kona and a look from Mark’s suddenly cold brown eyes froze me in place. This was payback, pure and simple, for what he’d done to me. In this they were in perfect accord, and I knew there was nothing I could say to dissuade them.

They didn’t stop until he was a bloody, battered mess on the ocean floor. It didn’t take long—not with both Mark and Kona in towering rages. And without Tiamat’s strength to bolster him, Sabyn was a broken man.

When they were done, he was still breathing—barely—but he wouldn’t be a threat to another creature, ever. I started up to
get Mahina out of her cage, but Kona beat me to it. I watched as he gently helped her out. She threw her arms around his neck, pissed and terrified and elated all at the same time. He looked surprised, then hugged her back as tightly as she was hugging him.

I swam to Mark, who was standing over Sabyn’s prone body, still seething.
I’m sorry
, I told him awkwardly. The psychic attack I’d launched at him had seemingly opened up a pathway of communication between us. I hadn’t planned on that happening, but I was glad it was there. Or I would be, if he could forgive me.
About what I did to you—

He grabbed me with one bruised hand, pulled me flush against him.
You saved me. You saved all of us. Never apologize for that
.

I couldn’t help it. The full extent of the prophecy, and my power, had finally been revealed to me and it nearly swallowed me whole. Nearly destroyed everyone around me. I had done it for what I’d thought was a good reason, but it could so easily have gone wrong. So easily have gone bad. Like my mother when she’d murdered those innocent people, when she’d allowed Hailana to control her and use her as an assassin, I was shocked at how easily I could have been tempted to let my power take over my judgment. My sense of right and wrong.

I never wanted that to happen to me. Never wanted to be so full of power that I was intoxicated with it. These last few minutes had been close, and while it was amazing and invigorating and trippier than I could ever hope to disguise, it had also been terrifying. I never wanted to feel so power bloated again.

Mahina and Kona joined us, and for long seconds we just
floated there, staring down at Sabyn. He was on the ground and he wasn’t moving at all.

Is he dead?
Mahina finally asked.

Not yet
, Kona answered grimly.

Good
. She pulled back her foot and kicked him squarely in the ribs.

We watched as a few of Kona’s guards came out of hiding to take Sabyn away to the dungeon—karma really was a bitch—and Kona’s people slowly started pouring into the streets. They surrounded him, everyone wanting to thank him or touch him or apologize. As they did, four selkies took Zarek’s body away.

Mark and I stepped back to let him have his moment with his people. And took a moment of our own.

“I love you,” he said as soon as we made it to the surface.

“I love you too. Thank you for saving me.”

He laughed. “Thank you for saving me.” He paused. “I’m not going back to La Jolla, you know. You can’t be trusted to stay out of trouble on your own, so I’m sticking around.”

I nodded. I knew. “So, you think you’re up to being the first human merKing?” I asked.

“If not, I’m sure you’ll get me in line soon enough.”

“That sounds about right.”

It wasn’t going to be easy balancing his humanity with my merness. Our families and friends with our duty. My need for the water with his inability to live away from land. But this last year had been a long one. We’d come a long way from that cloudy La Jolla day when my legs had become a tail and I had nearly drowned. Mark had saved me then, I’d saved him since, and today we had saved each other.