Page 14 of The Hunted

“Please, let me die in the sea …”

“Poe,” Arelle begged, “Poe, stop!”

Even above the shrieks of her sister, her own cries, and the woman’s pleas, Arelle realized she could hear something else through the water.

Something outside of the water.

“Anthia!”

Footsteps pounding against earth accompanied the painful calls.

“Mother!”

• • •

Eryx

“Mother!”

The water bubbled and swirled in the canal, bursting with rising purple streaks that almost seemed to glow with electricity when it reached the surface.

Blood, he knew.

But did it belong to his mother, or one of the mermaids?

He couldn’t be sure.

And that fucking killed Eryx.

But then the bubbles began to swirl, and through the murky water of the canals, he could see shimmering scales moving. Twisting and circling, making water kick up near the surface, although that was about as much as he could discern.

His heart thumped hard in his throat, his fingernails digging deep into the soft earth of the side of the embankment. More than anything, he wanted to get in that water, but the skies raged overhead, water dumping harder than ever, and he wasn’t nearly as strong as a mermaid was in the water.

That much, he knew.

It would be like throwing himself to the fucking wolves. Had they been on land … if only he had a sword in his hands … But he had none of that. He was the weak one here.

The water shifted again, changing and spreading with more purple. The shimmering a few feet below moved, and it was only his desire to find or see his mother that sent Eryx rushing to his feet. It probably wasn’t the smart thing to do, and the sea was most dangerous when the storms raged overhead, but he pushed to his feet and followed the bubbling, swirling water.

Where was she?

Why had she attacked the merwoman when he had been seconds away from turning the situation around?

Oh, he knew …

Of course, she’d want to protect him. His entire life had been about her protecting him. Like an instinct his mother couldn’t ignore, and one he shouldn’t expect her to.

Eryx shouted for his mother over and over, chasing the moving water in the canal all the way down the orchard. He ducked the swinging branches, cold wind and icy water slapping against his bare chest even as he tried to keep from stumbling over muddy earth and the roots of the trees that stuck up everywhere.

He was failing again.

He would never be able to help her.

“Mother!”

He couldn’t keep up with the movement in the water, and by the time he reached the end, the purple streaks of blood began to spread farther out into the sea. Overhead, the clouds screamed with their rage, tunneling dangerously with what he knew would soon touch the ground and devastate everything.

Him included.