And then...
Impact.
Thirty-Five
Proteus
He was death.
He was destruction.
He was ruination.
Proteus had never been so angry in his entire life. He'd been imprisoned before. The undine had attacked him all those years ago, making it very clear that they wished he was dead. But even then he had understood their actions. He had forgotten those reasons while imprisoned. Hatred had eventually festered as it always would with enough time to think about the actions of others.
But he had never cared about anything so much that it hurt to lose it. As he watched that undine swim away with the one person who had ever truly mattered in his life, he knew he was going to make them all suffer.
It didn’t take him long to track down the blue undine. The male had holed himself up, though, perhaps the best way to keep himself out of Proteus's reach. The stones that he had wriggledthrough made it impossible for him to be reached. Even for someone who had arms as long as Proteus.
He had tried. For hours. He had pounded his body against the stones, raging against the currents that tried to pull him away from the male. He would tear him limb from limb, bathing the sea in the blood of the fool who thought to take her from him.
But his rage had changed as the sea finally showed him what she wished for him to see. There was another scent on the water. Another scent that was important.
While the blue undine smelled like Ellie, it was faint. He wasn't keeping her in those stones with him, and so Proteus had moved on. The acrid scent of dead eel had originally repelled him, but now he understood the trick for what it was. And though the male screamed for him to return, Proteus focused on the scent that still lingered in the water.
Few could track like he could. Partly it was the scent, and the other part came down to the powers that the ancients had given him. The ability to know what had come before pulsed through the water, highlighting the image of a yellow finned bastard who had taken Ellie next.
He'd found that one at another outpost, although the yellow one wasn't nearly as smart as the other. He'd been trying to get out of the water to hide in what looked more like a bubble than an outpost. It was a foolish choice.
Proteus clawed through his fluke, rendering him nearly useless until he healed, which would take a very long time.
With a curved claw, he'd hooked his fingers through the gills of the chuckling male, forcing him to stop laughing for a second and look Proteus in the eyes. "Where did you put her?" he said, his tone almost bored.
"Inside the outpost." The male had coughed, looking at the bubble behind him. "Release me and I'll get her for you."
"She's not there. You will tell me where she is." He twisted his claw, digging into sensitive soft gills. "Or I will kill you."
The male didn't want to say, and that told Proteus more than he knew. With a flick of his wrist, he dropped the male into the sea and started off toward the town he knew the mortals had built. They wanted it to stay a secret, but Proteus knew everything that happened in these waters. They'd brought her to their den, it seemed.
That was a foolish choice.
They should have known that he would find them. Proteus was the god of the sea, so even if he hadn't known where the town was, the sea itself would have told him, eventually. He would get what he wanted, or he would tear down the world around him.
The moment he'd seen the domed city, he had known something was wrong. The journey had given his mind time enough to clear, and he knew without a doubt the humans would do something stupid. They would take one look at him, and they would risk her life to control him.
If he wasn't careful, he was going to lose her. They would always sacrifice another before they would themselves.
His hearts were nearly beating out of his chest as he barreled toward the town. He intended to strike one of the main buildings. They would be so focused on stopping the leakage, trying to control what they were losing, that they wouldn't notice him gathering Ellie up. He knew once she saw him, she would try to get to him. They were connected, she and him. They were one being, one breath.
But then he scented her blood in the water.
It was as if someone had struck him in the hearts. Had they killed her? His Ellie? They wouldn't dare. They had to know that if they had done that, he would destroy them all.
His stomach twisted. His hearts ached. He felt as if someone had plunged a hand into his chest and grabbed onto the organs.
She was hurt. And he hadn't stopped it from happening.
He turned direction toward the scent and just barely caught sight of her body. It was dark, so there was very little light in the water to guide him, but he would have seen her from an even greater distance.
