Page 23 of Oceansong
Angie stood over his body, numb and fighting back tears.
His arms and legs sprawled out, his face serene and pale. Bright red blood pooled on his chest around the spear protruding from his heart.
It sickened her to see him lying murdered and exposed. A bitter tang coated the inside of her mouth.
A low vibration of pain thrummed while she called Bàba, who was still at home, and told him what happened. After a strangled noise, he hung up the phone. He’d be heading there now.
She dialed the Creston Police Department to report the murder. Once they confirmed her location and that they were sending an officer, she put her phone away.
“Luke, what happened?” she whispered, kneeling beside his body. “I asked you not to go near the water. You promised.” She wiped tears gathering at the corners of her eyes and rose to her feet, bowing her head. “Why did you come all the way out here? Did you see something? You were supposed to have met me at the break house.”
So many questions, none of which she could venture an answer for.
Regret squeezed her chest. If she had told Luke about the danger of mer instead of dancing around the issue, he might have taken her warning more seriously. She berated herself for not being more forthcoming.
Now she’d never know if that would have saved him. Her stomach knotted.
A flicker entered her peripheral, capturing her attention. In the distance, a maroon tail rested around mossy rocks protruding from the sea. She couldn’t see the mer’s body, but she already knew.
Kaden.
Her heart weighing heavy, she retrieved a spare blanket from storage and laid it over the teenager, and waited for the police officer to arrive, keeping Kaden in her peripheral vision.
A stocky, mustached officer came after twenty agonizing minutes, and after a short chat of what she found and when, he thanked her.
Thoughts of the boy gripped her mind while she trekked to the merman.
Possibly, Kaden was the one who killed him. Fueled by the notion, she pressed her lips together and quickened her pace, hands balled into tight fists.
Their gazes locked when she approached.
He pushed himself up on his palms, facing her. “What are you doing here?”
“I saw you out of the corner of my eye. Didn’t seem like you were making much of an effort to stay hidden. Thought we could have a little chat, you and I.” Angie widened her stance and folded her arms across her chest, holding him in a challenging stare. His eyes shifted back and forth, as if caught off guard.
“Okay, I suppose I can oblige. You patched me up, after all.” He pushed off his tail and hands so he landed back in the water. He swam to and climbed atop a lower rock closer to the seaboard. Closer to Angie and out of the gangway’s view.
She stepped back.
“You ‘suppose you can oblige?’ I suppose I should be flattered. I’m not. Did you kill that boy back there? Put a spear through his chest?” Her voice emerged rough and demanding, anger seeping from her throat.
“What? No! I haven’t killed any of your disgusting kind!” He drew his shoulders closer to his ears, adopting a defensive posture.
“It’s too much of a coincidence that I happened to find his body and then see you right after. You seem to be the only mer hanging around the surface lately. I can’t decide if you’re brave or stupid.” Angie thought again of Luke. A gust of fury swept through her, quickly followed by heartache at his untimely loss.
“It’s none of your concern why I ‘hang around the surface,’ as you say. And I swear on the Sea Goddess’ watery embrace that I haven’t killed anyone. There were patrols in the area recently. Looking for the humans that killed four of ours.”
She studied his face. Somehow, the earnestness in his tone, the softness in his gaze, and his body language reflected hints of remorse, asking her to believe him. For now.
Kaden’s shoulders relaxed in tune with this tail, which he kept wrapped around the rock in a loose hug. “Two of the dead were royal sentinels. A male and a female, a joined pair.”
The fine hairs on Angie’s arms stood on end, a chill shooting through her veins. “Did they have markings on their bodies?”
“Yes. The royal guard wear paintings on their bodies and faces to mark them as such. How did you know?” Kaden’s eyes narrowed.
Angie pressed her lips flat, shoulders sagging. “They were captured and brought back as trophies. The divers were celebrated for outsmarting and killing them. The first mer I ever saw that close.”
“Humans gloating about catching unsuspecting prey. Typical,” Kaden sneered.
