Page 94 of Storm and Sea

“Come at me, fucker!” Nephi roared, his glee uncontained.

Nyel shouted something, but Nephi ignored him, eyes locked on his opponent. He could have dove into the surf and transformed, but where was the fun in that? It’d be too easy. He preferred the disadvantage.

“What do you say? First to draw blood?”

Atreus responded with another dive at Nephi, claws raised. Nephi dropped to the sand, rolling on one knee and landing a perfectly timed punch to Atreus’s lower back. Atreus balked, his entire lower half momentarily numb. All Mer had a conjunction of nerves right at the base of the spine, above the tail. And Nephi loved using it. Atreus stumbled as he tried to regain control. It was all the time Nephi needed. He spun, swinging his boot into his opponent’s rib cage.

But as Atreus fell to the sand, he flung his tail, slashing Nephi’s cheek with a barbed fin. Nephi recoiled, feeling warm, sticky blood dripping down his face. He touched it, admiring the beads of red on his fingertips. Maniacal laughter exploded from his throat.

“Well done. Barbed fins, what a weapon. But if you actually knew what to do with them, I’d be cut to ribbons by now.”

Atreus stood as though to strike again, but Nephi held up a hand.

“I honor my word. You’ve bested me.” His gaze lingered on the single blood-tipped barb on Atreus’s tail. “By a scratch.”

He took a second to admire the Mer’s body. Nephi’s Mer form had advantages, but he was a defensive creature, bulky and built to withstand blows. Atreus’s body, with its size and array of natural-born weapons, was an offensive attacker—a predator.

Someone worth keeping around, Nephi mused.

He turned to his brother, who was whiter than before. His eyes followed the thin stream of blood running down Nephi’s neck.

“I will not be a part of your delusional life with these humans.”

If my Pod were here, we’d burn this island to the ground.

“But I’ll be close.”

As Atreus dried and regained his human form, he hissed in frustration at his tattered shirt; only his pants had survived the change.

“Damn it. Leo gave me this,” Atreus lamented.

Nephi was half tempted to ask about the human—about Leo—but he held his tongue.

“Spar me again sometime, Bluey. If the humans don’t kill me, I’ll likely die of boredom,” Nephi said, turning his back to them. He kicked off his boots and tossed aside what was left of his coat.

Diving into the surf, Nephi felt the shallow mark on his cheek knit itself together, the salt of Spuragin—the Spirit of Tides—healing his wound. He crested the surface, showing off his crimson fins before diving below the waves and away from the beach.

Nephi swam the perimeter of the island, noting its rocky cliffs on one side and the bay on the other. A sandbank wrapped the edge of the island, stretching like a crescent moon, protecting the inhabitants from ships. At the tip of the crescent sat a mini island with a single lighthouse at its peak.

Nephi couldn’t explain it, but an unsettled energy hung around Baia Vita. This place had hardly seen any conflict, yet clashing species walked its shores. Corallina, a hidden village, lay below the waves. Right under where these humans fished. How had they managed to remain separate while practically on top of each other?

In the north, Mer and humans lived leagues apart. Oceans stretched between settlements, and yet they sought one another out to fight. The proximity made Nephi’s scales itch from the strangeness and the need to paint these white beaches red.

He thought of Tariq and Dema. Of Giselle and… and Ludomir. What they could do to this place. What they’d done to countless other coastal towns just like this one. The victory it would bring to the Mer.

“We are children of the sea. And we will keep our Mother pure of mankind’s touch. By the salt, we are born, and by the depths, we will fall.”

Nephi could hear Tariq’s voice as he recounted their mantra. It felt more like a prayer. They followed its words, eliminating the parasite one human body at a time. But then…

The fires of hell tasted flesh. Molten agony as scales melted into muscle. Heat so vicious it tore him apart. And the scream… the last scream.

My Ludo.

Nephi was too weak to finish the job. But after they saved him, the rest of the Pod lay waste to that human village. Usually, they only targeted the boats and fisheries. But after everything—after losing one of their own—Nephi wished he could have heard the dying squeals of the humans as they were slaughtered like swine.

Not even the little ones were spared.

Yet the revenge wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough to satisfy the boiling rage inside him. He wanted to kill. To take from the humans what they’d taken from him. Baia Vita was helpless. Pathetic in its blindness.