Page 69 of Hot Summer's Prey

“Good,” he says, looking it over. “I’ll bring this to her. You want to come?”

Oh, he’s asking me. Zephyr shoots me a weird look—almost insulted.

“I promise this is important,” I explain to them.

They just shake their head and storm back into the house.

“I can’t,” I say. “Unless you have a way I can breathe underwater.”

He chucks the nautilus necklace my way so fast I almost get bonked in the head with it. A little panic seeps in.

“Is Slugger okay?” I ask.

Kalixto nods, holding a slug in his hands. Its skin is a dark black-blue with raised green stripes going longways across its body. Midway down there’s little green things that look like a mix between wings and coral and leaves. The slug lifts its head, showing off orange ear or horn-looking things and an underbelly of orange.

“Oh my god, he wasn’t kidding,” I mutter to myself. “Is that Slugger?”

Kalixto nods, submerging his hands again.

“Why are you bringing me?” I ask. “If I was Pacari, I wouldn’t send my merman friend to go bring my girlfriend into the middle of certain doom.”

“We need someone she will listen to,” he explains. “Whatever she liked about my voice, it’s past. At least in her current state. But it will be very dangerous.”

Oh, cool. Very relaxing. But if Pacari is willing to risk his life for me, I can do the same.

30

TEAM HUDDLE

TERESA

Traveling with a siren is a lot different than traveling with Pacari. For one, it’s a lot less intimate. Instead of swimming together, Kalixto sings to move us quickly through the water.

“How does that work?” I ask, holding his hand tightly.

The currents are so intense, I am terrified of getting lost.

“It vibrates the waters. Makes them move fast. Lowers density,” he explains as if it’s obvious.

“Oh, neat,” I say.

Listening to Kalixto’s song is both relaxing and empowering. With every passing minute, I feel like I can conquer the world—or at least talk things out with the Lantern Witch and save my boyfriend. As we get deeper and deeper, it becomes harder to see—so much worse without Pacari.

The darkness is worse for other reasons too—all the animals we saw on our way down the first time are gone. In fact, without Slugger, we wouldn’t be able to see at all. As we go further down, Kalixto sang something that seemed to have brightened Slugger’s glow so much it has helped illuminate the nearby waters like a flashlight. The little slug is navigating for us, too, swimming ahead happily.

Or at least, it seems to be happy until deep vibrations reach us through the waters. I can feel them in my bones, and they’re fucking terrifying.

“What is that?” I ask Kalixto.

“The Lantern Witch upset the Abyssal Ones. They’re fighting,” he says.

“The Abyssal Ones?”

As we get closer, I can make out the Lantern Witch’s light. It illuminates giant, constantly moving shapes. As another moves around her, I can see the little suckers that can only belong to an octopus. I think back to when we were trying to pinpoint what Anelisa saw in the car, and now I can’t help but think maybe that’s what she saw.

Oh—I thought it was an octopus. But some of the flashes show almost human-like body parts—chests and arms like ours, though definitely not a head.

“C’mon,” Kalixto whispers, pulling me down into a dark cave.

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