Hunters? Halen's skin charged with a new wave of sparks when Ezra shouted the word. She didn't understand. Had he come to harm her, or was there a bigger threat outside?
"Move it!" Tage's frantic scream, slapped her out of her confusion coma.
The boy came to her house with a knife. Right now, he was the biggest threat. Halen bolted for the door, but Ezra grasped her arm. Tage thrust her weight into his side, and he collapsed, letting go.
Sparks combusted along Halen's skin, and she couldn't restrain them any longer. The floor shook with a thunderous rumble. Ezra clutched the coffee table, his free hand clamped around the handle of the switchblade when the concrete cracked with a long fissure.
Tage pulled open the door and shoved Halen across the threshold. "Go. Now!"
Her feet hit the compact sand with a jarring thud. Winter rain had pushed the powdery grit into a flat surface, perfect for running. She often trained on the beach, but to her surprise, Tage was faster. She'd never seen her in a pair of sneakers, but Tage's long stride made it hard to keep up.
Ezra called out to them; his words lost in the crashing waves.
Tage stopped. Placing her hands on her knees, she bent over, her breath ragged. "We have to go in the water."
"Are you insane? It's freezing." A wave licked her ankles, and she jumped back. "Let's keep going." Scanning the row of beach houses lining the shore, she spotted a light. "We can make it to the neighbors."
Tage grabbed her wrist, twisting her skin so it burned. Her determined stare locked with Halen's. "Trust me."
"No way!" Warning sparks laced through her bones. "Do you know that guy? He was yelling about Hunters. What the hell does that even mean?"
"There's no time to explain." Tage wriggled out of her jeans and took off her shirt. Her pale skin glowed; tattoos lined her arm, disappearing beneath the strap of her bra. "Take your clothes off. They'll weigh you down."
"I'm not going in." She crossed her arms. "We'll freeze to death!"
"We'll wade out a just little way. Wait a few minutes tops—just until he's gone."
"There's a storm coming!"
Tage ran into the ocean. A wave hit her legs, knocking her off balance, but she righted herself and waded out farther.
Halen groaned. She couldn't let Tage go in alone. She was the stronger swimmer. Damn it, Tage. She peeled off her clothes and hugged the thin fabric of her tank top as she entered the frigid water.
Waves crashed against her father's friend Darla with a deafening boom. She imagined the current shoving her toward the beast, slamming her into the rock serpent as every bone snapped with the crushing force. They had to go back, but when she glanced at the beach, the lunatic with the knife blocked their exit.
"Stop!" Ezra kicked off his sneakers.
"He's coming in!" Halen spun in the water.
"He won't come in. He'd be stupid to follow." Water filled Tage's mouth, and she spewed it out.
"As stupid as us?" Halen swam toward Tage. "We're going to die out here!"
Already, Ezra was waist deep; waves beat against his bare chest.
"Dive." Tage back paddled.
"No! Are you nuts?" Her voice cracked with hysteria.
"Dive under." Tage dived.
Though every part of Halen screamed for her to get out of the water, she inhaled a deep breath and followed.
Darkness shrouded her, spreading her fear like a virus. Tage brushed her side when a hand grasped her other arm. Ezra? She kicked hard, breaking the bond and swimming away. But he was just as fast.
Again, a hand clutched her arm, this time pulling her toward the surface. When she breached the waves, she faced Tage. Her liner dripped like black tears down her cheeks, and Halen saw for the first time something she had never seen in Tage's eyes before—fear.
Ezra popped up with his fist raised in the air.
"Behind you!" Halen shouted.
Tage whipped around to face him. "You want to go for it? You need to catch me first." Grabbing him by the neck, she dived, dragging him down with her.
"Tage!" Panic swelled, sending her sparks into overdrive. Diving beneath the choppy waves, she sliced the water, spinning. Her heartbeat thrummed, echoing in the depths of her father's watery grave. She surfaced. "Tage!" she shouted. "Where are you?"
She kicked harder, working her way across the white crests as the sky darkened above. How could Tage have done something so stupid? They should have stuck together. She glanced back, hoping to find Darla, but the rocks were nowhere in sight.
Ahead, lights flickered from the shore. She could still search for Tage from the beach. At least on land, she could call for help. She stretched one arm over her head in a front crawl. Though the freezing water cut through her, thoughts of Tage propelled her forward.
What the hell did Ezra want? She thought of his hungry gaze focused on her silver bracelet. Had he come to rob them? She should have just thrown it at him. But he had said something else—something that made her sparks charge.
Hunters.
Her mom would be home soon. If there was a danger, she had to warn her.
Halen picked up her pace when her nerves ripped with a static charge, stopping her in her place. She tread in the water, barely keeping her chin above the surface as the sparks skipped, catching fire within each of her cells.
She wasn't alone.
Her body thrust forward as something thumped her legs. She screamed, tucking her knees to her chest. Saltwater slipped down her throat, and she spewed it out, coughing. She spun, searching below, but found only darkness. And though the sky rolled with blackening clouds, the ocean calmed, the surface flattening like glass. Halen spotted Tage; her arms floated beside her like broken wings; her face cast up toward the bruised sky.
"Tage! I'm here," she cried out, and the water cut with waves once more. Kicking harder, Halen's legs worked like scissors slicing through the current. "I'm coming." A wave rolled over her head, shoving her back, but she dug through the next wave—fighting the ocean—ignoring the warning sparks.
She stretched, reaching toward Tage's limp body. Her fingertips gripped her shoulder, and a blast of sharp pricks sprung up her arm as if a nail gun unloaded against her flesh. She screamed, letting go.
Tage's face morphed with a cloud of smoke, revealing a girl with wide eyes, dark as a corpse's nails. Thin black veins marred her alabaster skin. Her inky, slick hair glistened like a web along the water. Her full lips spread over needle-pointed teeth, as a silvery scaled tail rose behind her, curling over the girl's head.
What the...? Her gaze fixed on the fanned tail. Fish?
"Mermaid," the creature whispered as if reading Halen's thoughts.
No way. No freaking way. Halen churned the water as she kicked toward the shore. You're hallucinating. Hypothermia is setting in. Mermaids aren't real, she assured herself, though the raging sparks beneath her skin screamed otherwise.
The mermaid slapped her fins against the water, and Halen flew back.
"Leave me alone!" She didn't see the tail underwater, but she felt the pressure as the slick scales curled around her waist.
The mermaid's fierce gaze fixed on her as she dragged her hooked talon along Halen's birthmark, stopping when her nail caught on the silver bracelet. The mermaid tugged at her wrist, bringing the bracelet under her nose. Her glistening eyes narrowed, and she shook Halen's arm so forcefully she thought her bones might break. Halen twisted out of the mermaid's reach as two others circled.
The howling wind swept the waves around her, and the mermaid who caught her by the wrist rose from the water, her scaled chest gleaming. She spread her webbed arms, commanding the waves so they formed a wall of rippling water. The mermaids parted, and three more liquid barriers sprouted from the ocean.
Halen screamed, shoving against the water wall, but she could not penetrate the rippling force. Beneath her, another translucent barrier slid into place, so she was no longer floating but standing. She reached toward the sky as the last liquid barrier sealed her inside.
The mermaid pressed her face against the water wall. Her black lips rounded, as if blowing a kiss, and the barriers crackled to ice.
"Let me out!" Halen pounded the walls; her fists cut with pain, but she hit the ice harder.
Where were the sparks now?
With each strike, she weakened until the chill snuffed her flames entirely. She hugged herself tightly, wincing when she touched her ribs. She shuddered when she glanced at her blood washed fingertips. As the dizzying pain consumed her, she collapsed to her knees. Hands on the frigid floor, the cage plummeted into the ocean's depths, fueled by an inexplicable force.
Her throat burned with her cries; her mind raced with the illogical notion that ice shouldn't sink. But then again, mermaids shouldn't exist either.
The mermaids swam beside, their silver fins flashing. Orbs of soft light flickered through the translucent walls, illuminating the deadly decent.
A snorted hysterical laugh bubbled up her throat. Would she drown, freeze, or bleed out first? Death had options.
The ice creaked and moaned with the sinking pressure. A crack worked its way along the ceiling, followed by another and another. The cracks merged with a loud burst, puncturing a bullet-size hole in the cube. The ocean gushed in like a geyser, and she kicked the walls, hoping to expand the fissure before the cube filled. Sucking in a deep breath, Halen braced her hands on one side of the cube. She kicked again, her heel working against the ice like a hammer until the crack split, shattering the wall.
The mermaids' lights dimmed as she wriggled free.
Shrouded in darkness, she couldn't tell which way was up. She paused for a second to let buoyancy guide her when a fin swiped her side.
She screamed. The ocean rushed to fill her throat. The mermaid slapped her tail against Halen's head, and her neck snapped back. Halen's eyelids slid shut.
The boy from her notebook flashed before her. His gaze flickered with rage. His mouth parted wide as if shouting.
Why are you here? She fought to open her eyes as her head swelled with dizzied thoughts.
No more drawings.
This is goodbye.
Maybe her mind was playing a trick on her, not wanting to be alone with death, but for the first time, the boy answered her back.
Not yet.