Page 66 of Hot Summer's Prey

“So pretty… such a gorgeous voice,” she murmurs, floating closer.

He raises his voice, the melody strangely jaunty against the dark mood.

“But unfortunately…” she growls, darting forward. “So, unfortunately male.”

My claws extend as I watch her threaten my friend. Kalixto is baffled, his eyes wide. He keeps singing, even as she presses in on his throat. I grab at her, try to pull him off of him. She shakes me off easily, but lets go of Kalixto.

Moving slowly, she turns as her eyes fall on me. “Seducer.”

“Witch of the Lantern,” I greet.

“No more magic?” she asks mockingly. “None of your offerings?”

Her mouth draws open as she inches closer.

“No, but the second half of our deal,” I remind her, holding Slugger up for her to see. My stomach drops as I realize she could eat us both despite her earlier promise. “Your eyes. You can return him to his true form.”

But she pulls him from my grasp instead.

“Such a strange little creature. Humans truly like such animals?”

He does look much stranger in the water, with his hair billowing around him. In some ways, though, it looks even better than it ever did on land.

“Oh, they love dogs,” Kalixto confirms. “I didn’t even have to sing to lure them in when I held this one.”

I glare at Kalixto, angry he’s drawing attention to himself, potentially bringing danger back his way.

“The things you made me see,” she growls.

She drags the dog to an altar, arranges stones in the water and chants in her strange language. With her focus drawn, it’s then I can make out the strange shape she dragged along. A tentacle. An extremely large tentacle.

Kalixto sees it too.

“I’m sorry,” I say honestly. “I never intended it.”

“Never intended,” she scoffs. “Just like a man.”

With a few more words, the dog transforms back into a nudibranch in a flash of light. The necklace drifts to the altar. With the nudibranch back in its true form, the ocean calms just slightly.

“Well, let’s have the final part of your deal then,” she growls, turning back to me.

“The final part?” I gasp, racking my brain. “What else is there?”

Panic sears through me as I think of the tentacle, wonder which Deep One went up against the Lantern Witch and lost. If they lost against her, I have no hope of fighting back—especially not with only a siren by my side.

“Answers, seducer. Information. Did you think I sent my eyes for nothing?”

The Cliffside Lady.

“I’m sorry I—”

“Betrayer,” she growls, opening her jaw wide.

“Her name is Nina Martinez. Her grandchild inherited the house she once lived in,” I ramble off, thinking of anything I can give her to save myself. I look to Kalixto, but he’s gone. I don’t know whether to panic or be relieved that he’s saved himself from all of this.

“News, seducer,” she hisses, her teeth pressing into me.

Creatures of the deep do not move quickly. This death will be drawn out. Painful. I would fight, but it would only make it worse. If I wait until she has swallowed me whole, perhaps I can claw my way out through her insides.

---