Raging Sea (Undertow, #2)(87)

A figure steps out of the water and approaches me. At first I cannot make out her face, but she feels familiar. She’s tall and thin and wearing . . . a tube top?

“Tammy?”

She takes a drag of her cigarette.

Take care of my girl, she says, before shifting to Deshane, then just as quickly to Gabriel.

I was wrong about you, he says as he runs his hand though his bushy black hair. Suddenly, he transforms into Mr. Ervin, then Donovan Spangler. He gives himself a shake like a dog caught in the rain, and Mrs. Novakova is suddenly in front of me.

Nope, she says in her thick European accent. She morphs into David Doyle. Doyle looks down at himself as if unsure of whether or not he likes what he’s seeing. He sips from his coffee mug. I did what I thought was right, Lyric. Please forgive me.

“I do,” I say.

I watch him make one final change into a round-faced Latino boy with shaggy brown hair—a face I remember and love very, very much. He smiles at me, holds up his smartphone, and presses the record button.

“Shadow?”

I have to document this. His voice feels distant, yet right in my ears. No one is going to believe what you’re doing!

“Am I dead?” I ask. Did the second glove really kill me?

He laughs.

No, you’re not dead. You are still kicking it.

“Is this real?”

He shrugs and looks around. Feels real to me.

“But . . . how are you here?”

Damn, Lyric, what’s with all the questions? I am here because you need me to be here. I’m what makes sense to you right now, a friendly face, you know?

“So you’re not really Shadow?”

I’m sort of everything. You’ll understand one day.

“Like God?”

He sighs. How about you just stick with Shadow? How’s Bex?

“She misses you.”

She admitted that? Things have changed.

I turn and look at my surroundings. The baby Undine surround me. The mama is on her way. My friends are struggling to survive. Chloe is in danger. But all of it is frozen and still.

“How is this happening?”

Here’s the thing, Lyric. Right now the gloves are giving your brain a reboot, so you’re kind of in a time-out. When it’s done, you’re going to be Lyric 2.0, a brand-new version.

“How new?” I worry.

New new. You’ll probably like it.

“Probably?”

He smiles. Probably, but you’ll need it. It’s just going to get harder from here, especially when you get to the big twist.

“What big twist?”

They’re not what you think they are. Actually, they’re not what they think they are. But, that’s all the spoilers you get. Well, friend, we’re almost done. I love you. Give my girl a hug for me. I miss her a lot. Tell her that Duck guy was a douche.

“Wait! Do you know what is going to happen next? Am I going to survive?”

He shrugs. I can’t wait to find out.

There’s a whoosh, and I’m yanked back to the here and now, watching a tentacle crash down from the sky, ready to crush us all. I reach up and touch it, and it freezes in midair, then shrivels and blackens and turns to dust. I realize that I just drained all the water out of it with a simple touch.

“Woah,” I say.

“Lyric!” Riley cries as he staggers to his feet. There’s blood leaking from a wound on his arm, and I know I can make it stop, so I do. I caress his hand, willing the blood to do as I ask, because the blood is made of water, as is every part of his body. I suddenly realize that the nosebleeds were just my growing control. My blood was trying to help.

“How did you do that?” he asks.

“It’s complicated. Riley, get the others to safety. I’m going to end this right now,” I say as I focus the blood in my own body to repair my busted ankle.

“Lyric, you can’t fight that thing by yourself!” he cries.

“Actually, I can.”

I wave my hand over all the baby Undine, and like their mother’s tentacle, they shrivel and die.

“Lyric Walker?” Fathom says.

“Stay with my people,” I tell him.

I run through the Undine as they turn to dust around me. When I hit the shoreline, I dive in headfirst, feeling my gills and scales form. My gloves pulse with energy here in the depths. I feel even more control than I ever thought possible. I can sense things from miles away. I can feel a hurricane brewing, hear the currents racing past the continent, hear whale song hundreds of miles away. I can tell where the Rusalka are hiding and know that I could destroy them with just a thought. I decide to let them live. Let them crawl under rocks to escape me. The Undine mother is my only concern.

I shoot straight up out of the water, riding a spout that reaches fifty feet into the air. Once there, I let the moisture around me take over, and it keeps me suspended. The Undine mother knows something has happened that has tilted the scales, and I can smell its fear. It howls and wriggles with indignant anger.

There’s a shriek that forces my hands to my ears, an ancient cry that rips open the sky. The mother’s limbs swat like lightning, and one connects with me. I crash into the water, and the beast plunges down after me. It hits me again, and I’m flung onto the beach. I stagger to my feet, and it barrels over me, knocking me aside as it charges inland.