Page 34 of Sustaining
“What the fuck was that?” Rime reaches for me, and Sinister releases me, falling back to a slower pace. His breaths fan out in heavy heaps, and he looks like he needs just as much assistance right now as I do.
“Water women. They’re very much real, it seems.” Sinister keeps swimming toward the shore, and Chaos falls back a little to swim at his side.
Rime’s gaze flashes over every move the sea makes, his fingers digging into my hip so painfully I gasp, but he never releases his hold from me. Even when he starts to wade through the water, he simply cradles me to his chest and keeps me close. My fingers dig into his slick shoulders, my head feeling weighted and tired.
“You killed one of ours,” a voice like the howling wind says from behind us.
The stiffness of Rime’s shoulders becomes impossibly more rigid. He turns, keeping me tucked against him.
A beautiful, enchanting woman sways in the sea. Pale skin is tinged with a hint of soft blue, while big silver eyes look from me to Chaos, who stands just two feet from the dangerous mermaid. Her shiny black hair clings to the perfect curve of her breasts, and the small of her stomach disappears beneath the waves, leaving the rest of her body a mystery. But I know. The tail they have isn’t glittering and pretty like other mermaids. It’s long and snake-like. Dangerous. Deadly.
“I like trades, though. Perhaps we can trade.” The glint in her steely gaze slides toward Chaos.
The moment her attention falls on him, a spell of some sort falls across my mate. I can see it in the way his big shoulders settle, his lips parting without words.
An icy breeze sends a chill shooting down my spine, and without thought, I’m shoving away from Rime to stand in the deep waters. She slithers a little closer, closing the distance between her and the shifter standing senseless in front of her. Her long, thin fingers reach out to him like knives waiting to sink right in.
“Wait.” Rime halts her movements, and with confident steps he moves past me, past Sinister, coming closer and closer to the beautiful, deadly woman. The ice dragon is just as dangerous, though. His confident steps should be a warning to her. Rime walks in water like he’s walking on air. Nothing is in his way.
Not right now. Not when a water woman has her sights set on Chaos.
“I like trades, too,” Rime finally says when he’s near enough. A soft, boyish smile that I’ve never seen before tilts Rime’s lip. It’s a flirtatious look, even if he shyly never meets her eyes. His bare arm slides against Chaos, and the empty look in Chaos’ eyes is hard sight to see. “I think a woman like you is deserving of more than just one man, don’t you?” Rime tips his jaw up to her, and that sparkling, hunger grows in her gaze.
She pulls her attention and sets it fully on Rime. Something in my heart aches, blooming pain through my chest to see him willingly so close to such an alluring woman. That throbbing agony sears into me, and all I can do is wait to react. My emotions are building with each ticking second, waiting to release the anger and hurt that’s rising higher and higher inside my chest.
Her blue lips ghost over his, her long fingers threading into his white-blond hair. The flick of her tail has her rising up from the sea. She lifts herself until she’s above him, her mouth so close to his it hurts to look at.
When his steady palm slides against her collarbone, caressing her skin, I almost snap. Until his steady fingers drift higher. And higher.
With one quick move, he rams his fingers beneath her gills, ripping a scream like waves of agony through the air. Frost billows around them, and that scream cuts away as ice forms around her throat. His frosty knuckles turn white like he’s clutching tighter beneath her thin gills. Long nails slice at Rime’s smooth shoulders, but he never releases her. The scream, the clawing fight of her survival, the strength that’s shaking through Rime’s body, it’s terrifying, nothing compared to the deadened anger that’s glinting in his gaze.
Another spasm of power ripples through his shoulders, and the ice at her throat bursts, shattering, raining down onto Rime’s chest just before she slackens in his arms. Her arms dangle against him. He heaves her up and tosses her out into the sea with a heavy splash.
Violent screams echo into the air, and it’s such a chilling sound, my heart nearly stops beating. The sea, the sea does stop then. The waves flatten. The intake of the ocean, the crash of the water, the very movement of the water itself stops entirely.
It happens slowly at first. One head bobs up from beneath the sea of glass. Another and another and another. Hundreds of them slither closer, surrounding us on all sides while the corpse of the dead water woman floats between us.
“Arrie, we need to go,” Sinister whispers on the quietest breath.
On cautious steps, I wade toward him. Thousands of sparkling silver eyes watch my every move. Beneath the deep water, my hand slides into his. With just as much caution, Sinister grips Rime’s shoulder. Rime pulls Chaos’ arm, but Chaos seems dazed and unresponsive.
All I can focus on are the creatures slithering closer and closer, though.
“Do it now, Arrie,” Sinister cuts out from clenched teeth.
I try. I try my hardest to vanish the four of us away just as I did back in Valencia. Something is off now. I feel weighted with the touch of Sinister’s hand in mine. My heart thrashes for me to do it. I have to do it. I can do it. I’ve done it once already. I need that vanishing power now more than ever.
“Do it, Arrie!”
“I’m trying!” My shriek sets the vicious mermaids into a frenzied pace.
Long black tails slink through the water while sharp teeth shine in the moonlight.
And still that magic inside me feels pressed, harnessed, retained.
A single pale hand lifts from the water so terrifyingly close to Chaos’ arm. The water from those sharp claws drips down his skin just as her nails scratch against his flesh.
Magic rips through me. The pent-up power storms through me in a flash.
