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“Wake up. Come quick.”
She paused, the voice familiar. Then she gasped when it registered who was speaking. Yu alternated between shaking her shoulder and frantically flying around.
“Yu? You can talk now?”
“Rick. Help.”
“Rick helped you?” she deduced, still incredulous. “With Fae magic, I presume, since no one can learn a new language that fast.”
“Rick. Help.”
It clicked when her gaze finally fell behind her and found the spot empty. Emerald whirled back to face Yu, then looked around. She froze when she heard something flit in her ears…music, but why would there be music in the cave?
“Yu, where’s Rick?”
The pixie understood and pointed repeatedly to their right, where the bank of water was located. It was dark just like the rest of the cave, but Yu’s expression had her crawling toward it. When she did, the music became clearer and transformed into a woman humming a melody, her voice like magic and temptation rolled into one. Just as it faded, a warning crawled down her spine. Yu flew closer to the water—
“No!” she yelled, grabbing the pixie and heaving him down with her. A human-shaped head popped out of the water and bit the spot where they would have been, serrated teeth glinting gold and reddish eyes glaring. Darker red tresses fell all around that face, framing it to look hauntingly beautiful. The creature took one look at her glowing hands before descending back into the water.
Emerald leaped to the edge again, glimpsing a scaled golden tail that only meant either of two things: mermaid or siren. The voice leaned on the latter. Then her gaze locked in on what the siren was dragging under and her heart stopped.
“Yu, stay here. Watch the cave entrance for trouble and stay away from the water.”
She didn’t hear his response, but she saw his nod just before she threw herself into the bank. What should have been waist-deep water changed now, some hole opening up below that led to a body of water so deep, it stretched on for miles in all directions. She chanced a glance above, noting the visible opening, then followed the tail that was moving too fast. Just before she lost sight of it, her magic shot out to wrap around its tail—and it sent her careening into a frenzied ride as the siren tried to get away from her and ended up dragging her.
Dizzy and overwhelmed, it took Emerald a while to gather her wits and infuse more magic into the string, then her arms. When she felt it was enough, she heaved with all her might and was thrown backward at the force of her pull. The good news was that it dragged the siren back…the bad news was that siren now went on the offensive and was bulldozing toward her with one obvious intention.
There was more good news: Rick visible now but unconscious as the siren clutched him in her long, webbed hands. Emerald only had a second or two to weigh her options before she stayed where she was, waiting for the siren’s charge. The reddish eyes glinted, triumphant. Just before it chomped on her, she twisted downward and gripped the siren’s hair, transferring more magic into it.
The siren stilled, riddled with pain. The siren thrashed around when that pain traveled to its flat chest and bony arms. As soon as they reached the hands, Emerald snatched Rick out of the way, pushing the last of her offensive magic to her feet. It shot her up like a rocket, and all she had to do was position herself so she didn’t crack her head on a closed ceiling. That was easier said than done as Rick’s weight pulled her down and her neck prickled. The siren was coming in three, two—
They burst out of the hole and were thrown to the side, the siren following in their wake and heaving its body to the ground. When it could only get half of its body out of the water, Emerald continued dragging Rick away and knelt in front of him.
“I dare you to come here and attack me. I dare you to steal him again.”
Her hands glowed. The glaring reddish eyes changed, and she glimpsed real fear since their first encounter. Not taking it to chance, she lassoed a string around the bank of water until the siren backed fully into the water. Its screech echoed across the cave and rattled her teeth before it descended and the sound was cut off.
“Oh, heavens. That hurt my ears.” She glanced at Yu, who was nervously fluttering at the entrance of the cave. “No trouble?”
“No trouble.”
“Stay out of the water,” she warned again.
“Rick dead.”
Her heart stopped again before she comprehended that it was a question. Emerald scrambled to Rick, who had remained unconscious. He was also paler than normal, sickening her stomach. Willing her body to produce more energy and more magic, she flattened her palms on his chest, then ran them around his body to warm him up.
“Rick? Please wake up. Please don’t die on us.”
She felt liquid inside him and cursed. Then she abandoned her magic and went for the human route: pumping his chest, blowing air into his lungs, and everything a few books taught her about first aid. The minutes were filled with the sounds of her pleading, pumping, and Yu’s restless wings. Then he was retching the water out, sighing…and returning to unconsciousness.
“Rick, wake up. You’re supposed to wake up now,” she scolded.
Fear licked at her skin for the first time since she saved him, aware that she might have been too late. She shook him, her hands trembling, and straddled him to shake him further when there was no response. Yu wandered close.
“Kiss.”
She looked up in confusion. “What?”
