Sea Spell (Waterfire Saga #4)(51)

Becca cut him off. “What if the scouts couldn’t see us? Until it’s too late. It happened once before. At the invasion of Cerulea.”

Becca’s words hung in the water. She knew her idea was bold and daring, and almost impossible to pull off. What would the others think? The friends all looked at one another, their eyes asking the same question: Can we actually do this?

“It’s genius, Becs,” Ling said decisively. “We’ll use Vallerio’s own move on him.”

“We could surprise him the same way he surprised my mother—by using terragogg ships,” added Des, his voice eager now, instead of angry.

“Our troops are ready to go to Cerulea,” Ling said, with a mirthless smile. “Sera planned to tell them it was all a fake-out. Guess it’s not anymore.”

“Wait! What about Mahdi?” Neela asked. “If we attack while he’s there, he could get hurt in the fighting.”

“We could get word to him of our plans,” Ling said.

“Can we get a courier there in time?” asked Neela.

“We don’t need to,” Des said. “We’ll attack the day of his wedding. That’s the day he’s supposed to escape from Cerulea. The plan is for him to have a big bull shark party the night before, for all his merman friends. He’s going to pretend to overdo it, and then say he’s really sick the following morning. While everyone thinks he’s sleeping it off, he’ll cast his transparensea pearl and haul tail. We attack later that day, while everyone else is in the palace getting ready for the wedding, and capture the whole rotten bunch.”

“Mer? You’re forgetting one pretty major thing,” Yazeed said. “We don’t have Rafe Mfeme, or Orfeo, or whatever he calls himself, helping us. We don’t have his access to gogg ships.”

Becca had been quiet while the others deliberated her idea. She’d been arguing, too—with herself. She looked at her fellow Black Fins now and said, “Maybe we do.”





“WAKE UP,” a voice commanded.

It was cold, the voice. As cold as a blizzard wind.

Sera forced her eyelids open, groaning in pain. The heat of the sea scorpion’s venom still burned inside her. It was agony to move, to breathe.

She remembered things…Mahdi’s voice, his face…a long journey…the scorpion forcing her to eat…

Little by little, her vision cleared. She realized she was sitting in a chair. In a room. Her room. She recognized the mica panels, the furniture, the anemones on the walls.

I’m hallucinating, she thought. It’s the venom. She closed her eyes again.

“I said, wake up!”

This time the command was followed by a hard, stinging slap.

Sera gasped. Her eyes flew open. Her hand rose tremblingly to her cheek.

Lucia Volnero was right in front of her, leaning on the arms of the chair. Her hair, long and loose, plumed around her head. Her face was only inches away. Sera could see her sapphire eyes gleaming with malice.

Lucia smiled. “That’s better,” she said, straightening. “So, you met my maligno,” she added, pointing at the creature floating motionlessly in a corner. “Isn’t he a perfect likeness? It took him quite a long time to do his job. I was worried you’d die on the way back and spoil my fun, so I cast a velo to speed his return.”

“Why…why are you—” Sera struggled to speak.

Lucia cut her off. “Because you enchanted Mahdi, and I plan to break that enchantment.”

“I didn’t…cast an enchantment…” Sera murmured. It was so hard to make words come. But it didn’t even matter. Lucia wasn’t listening.

“You tricked him. And then forced him to spy for you and your shabby little resistance. But I’m going to free him by killing you. It’s the only way to truly make him mine.”

“Lucia, no…” The mermaid was as evil as her parents. She was going to murder her in cold blood. “Please…don’t do this…”

“I won’t. I’d just plunge a knife through your heart, and that would be too easy a death. I want you to suffer. A friend of mine’s going to see that you do. Give her my best.”

Sera made one last desperate attempt to escape. She rose from the chair and took a few, faltering strokes, but then, overcome by pain, she collapsed to the floor. As she rolled onto her back, the room started to swirl. She could see the chandelier above her. It seemed to come alive before her eyes. Its bronze arms, green with corrosion, became as fluid as an octopus’s tentacles.

Now Sera knew she was hallucinating.

“It’s over, Serafina,” Lucia said triumphantly. “I win, you lose.”

She barked an order at the maligno, and seconds later, Serafina felt it take hold of her arms and yank her up off the floor. She fought it, clawing at it. Her fingers gouged its cheek. Instead of blood flowing from the wound, silt poured out.

Sera screamed.

“Sicario, do your work,” Lucia said.

The sea scorpion scuttled out from under a table and cruelly stung Serafina again.

There was pain, white and blinding, and then Sera dimly felt the maligno throw her over his shoulder, as if she were nothing more than a sack of garbage. The pain grew. The paralysis took over.

The last thing Sera saw was Lucia’s cruel, mocking smile. The last thing she felt was Lucia tugging at her hand.