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Katrina
Some strange instinct called me to it, drawing me to a force I didn’t quite recognize, but couldn’t resist. I didn’t know where I was going, but I swam there with foreign confidence. As I followed the draw, I searched for my mom in the water without luck. Still I pressed on, following some innate primal instinct in me that I didn’t know I had.
Chunks of stone from the old fort came floating down around me as they continued dropping into the water from above. I thought of Bellamy and shivered at the notion that he might just be lost in all this, cold and alone, drifting in the chaos. He deserved so much better. Milo once said life had always been unfair to him. He was right. I choked back some tears in sadness and anger, and I couldn’t help but think to myself that if Serena didn’t bring down justice on Bastian after that, I’d do it myself.
But Bastian was on a demon ship, sailing away to save his pathetic ass. And here I was, flipping my tail through some mystical pathway to answer a call only I could feel, unable to fight it. And through the ocean I swam, until I saw a light in the distance under the water. As I neared, the elegant shape of another mermaid welcomed me—my mom.
Mom, how did you get here, too? Where are we?
My mom tilted her head. She looked so rejuvenated in this form, as though she was still herself, but herself with an inhuman beauty about her. Especially here, suspended in the open ocean. Her brown hair framed her face that had been softened with an ethereal touch. Her eyes held some strange, feline charm that was never there before, and right now they were the same ocean blue hue as mine. It was almost hard to look away. Was that how I looked to others in my siren form?
I don’t know. I just…came here, she said.
Great. So neither of us understood why we were drawn here.
Above us the water rippled, and a whirlpool formed, with the funnel’s wide part at the surface. It spun and trailed down right before us, then whisked back up to reveal Serena in its place. She was in her mermaid form, her glorious tail nearly reaching the seabed, but this Serena wore a warrior queen’s expression. Beneath a furrowed, tense brow, her sharp eyes flicked back and forth between my mom and me.
I’ve called all the sirens in the sea, and only you two remain. I prayed it wasn’t so, but I had to know for sure.
Of course that made sense. We were drawn to Serena, our queen. She was the Mother of Sirens. It was impossible to resist her call. Whatever she asked of us, we would do.
I need you to protect him while I face Bastian. Take care of him and get him somewhere safe so that I can focus on destroying that bastard.
She waved a hand, revealing Bellamy secured in a giant bubble. His eyes closed, that black hair contrasting harshly against his deathly white face, and the dark red bloodstain across his chest, all untouched by the water around him—it was an image I didn’t want to see. But we were charged with guarding him, and that was something I didn’t need a siren queen’s command to do.
My mother and I swam to Bellamy’s body, taking up either side of him with knowing nods. Serena said nothing more but fixed her gaze on the dark shadow looming above on the water’s surface in the distance. Bastian’s ship I presumed. Serena took off toward it, but stopped to look back at us one last time as she entrusted us entirely with the body of her beloved.
I wasted no time telling Mom to help me carry Bellamy back to the surface. There was no safer place for him I could think of than with Milo. I used my song-call to tell Milo what was happening, and he planned to meet us at the shore.
We swam with Bellamy between us, one arm in each of ours, careful not to disturb his peaceful appearance. Up on the shore, Milo waited for us, and he’d managed to reunite with Noah and McKenzie. We passed Bellamy up to them, and together they laid him on the sand.
We were careful to stay out of sight, as the entire side of the fort crashing into the sea had obviously drawn attention of the locals and authorities. Nestled in a corner away from the flashing blue lights and police tape in the distance, we ensured no one saw the two mermaids with a dead body meeting their friends ashore.
“I can’t just stay here,” I said, unable to tear my eyes away from Bellamy. I couldn’t make myself believe that I’d never hear that snarky accent or see that stupid, cocky smirk again. I’d just healed up from my grief from losing Milo. And now a new wound was created. Ripping at the still-healing seams of my heart.
I clenched my fists and closed my eyes as I allowed the reality of it all to set in. Losing Bellamy the first time was unfortunate, sad even. But I’d barely known the real him then. But now, now was different. We’d crossed oceans together. We’d stood by each other in pursuit of things others would call impossible. We’d watched each other’s heart break and heal again. Losing him after all we’d been through together, even if it was technically his choice, just didn’t seem fair. The tears burning behind my eyes reminded me how I first learned to control water aboard his ship. And the way he found me a blubbering mess on the pier in the twilight, mourning. And the way he faced Bastian even when he didn’t want to, just for me to have the chance to get Milo back. He’d said it was a death sentence. I didn’t think this was what he meant. And something told me he didn’t either, at the time.
I opened my eyes and let them follow the ripple created from the tear that fell. A thirst for vengeance rose in me, and I wasn’t sure if it was me or the siren, but I didn’t try to resist it. “I’ve got to make sure I see Bastian pay for this.”
We watched as in the distance a ship’s silhouette flashed against a midnight sky, lights of gold and white bursting like fireworks around the masts. Explosions of water and light leapt forth from the sea as Serena and Bastian battled. From here, it almost just looked like an ordinary storm out at sea, instead of a duel between two oceanic immortals. It was probably a good thing, given the attention the crumbling fort was drawing.
Ignoring Milo and my friends’ pleas against it, I dove down into the water and flipped my tail as swiftly as I could manage toward the ship in the distance. I couldn’t help but wonder what was taking so long. Serena was supposed to be able to kill Bastian when she regained her power. Whatever this battle between them was, and however long it was supposed to last, I didn’t have the patience for it. Bellamy deserved his justice now. And Serena had better truly be powerful enough to overthrow him or I’d try my hand at overthrowing them both. No—that was the siren talking.
My siren vision allowed me to see perfectly in the dark, so I could easily make out the scene of Serena, in her grand goddess power, held high as the ship’s masts by the hand of the waves enrobing her from the waist down, fending off Bastian’s attacks with her own. In a vortex of water I assumed was controlled by her, the ship bobbed in place, tilting and tipping as the water kept it from sailing out of Serena’s reach. The sails in the masts strained against her hold, and the ship groaned with agonizing creaks as it drifted about.
In a clash of Bastian’s black water against her golden waves, the forces of their waters raged on, turning the sea around them into a choppy, ominous abyss. Supernatural lightning struck between them each time their power collided, and the moon dripped its glow down upon it all as I neared. I was in awe at how easily Serena wielded her power, holding back Bastian’s ship with the tide while striking him with magic waves streaked with golden lightning.
“I told you to guard Bellamy!” Without even turning around, Serena immediately knew of my presence, even as she dueled with Bastian from her post above the water.
“He’s safe!” I shouted over the roar of the churning water around us and the creaking of Bastian’s ship. “I came to help!”
“Your human side allows you to defy me.” She shook her head, stopping just long enough to turn and make her point clear. “I don’t need you, little mermaid! You possess no power that I don’t already have tenfold.”
As she spoke, a blast of darkness collided with her, knocking her into the water with me. As she resurfaced, she turned to me with a cold threat in her eyes that pierced me like harpoons. “You’re distracting me! Leave now!”
A spout of black water came spinning toward me, but Serena launched it away with a burst of golden light from her hands. “If I have to waste time to protect you, you aren’t helping!” She hissed.
“What’s the matter, Atargatis?” Bastian’s voice echoed around us in a cloud of shadow on the water. We looked to see him walking to the edge of his ship. He cocked his head and pretended to think. “Can’t get your pet to behave? Perhaps if you’d spent more time protecting your mermaids in the first place they wouldn’t all be extinct now would they?”
