Rogue Wave (Waterfire Saga #2)(23)

I’m their principessa and I don’t have the first clue how to help them, she thought. “What do I do?” she said out loud.

“Do what you can. Like the rest of us,” came a gruff reply. Sera turned around. An older mermaid, harried and distracted, handed her a cup of tea. “My name’s Gia. I’m in charge here. Take this to Matteo. He’s in the living room near the front wall. Black hair. Blue eyes. Fever.”

Serafina took the cup. She found Matteo, sat him up, and helped him drink the tea. She held him when a fit of coughing overtook him, then eased him back down on his mattress. After that she went back into the kitchen, looking for more work.

“Take this to Aldo. He’s the guy on the door. He hasn’t eaten all night,” said a man dishing up stew.

Serafina dutifully carried the bowl through the house to the front door.

“Thank you,” Aldo said as she held it out to him. He was just about to take it when there was a knock.

“Starfish,” a voice on the other side of the door said.

“Hang on to that a minute, will you?” Aldo said. Sera nodded.

He looked through a small peephole, then opened the door. A merman in black, hunched over, swam inside. Aldo locked the door behind him. The merman straightened.

Serafina’s eyes widened at the sight of him. She dropped the bowl. “Sea scum!” she shouted. “Traitor!”

In a flash, her dagger was in her hand. A split second later, it was hurtling through the water.

Heading straight toward Mahdi.





“WOW, MAN. You really have a way with the ladies,” Aldo said.

“Not funny, Al,” Mahdi replied, holding Serafina off with one arm. His other arm was immobilized, because her dagger had pinned his sleeve to the door. “How about some help here?”

“He has death riders with him!” Serafina cried. “He’s a traitor! Aldo, help me!”

“Pipe down, merl, before every soldier in Cerulea hears you. That’s no traitor, that’s Mahdi,” Aldo said. He hooked a meaty arm around Serafina’s waist and pulled her off him.

“Don’t touch me!” Sera shouted. She broke free of Aldo and backed away.

Mahdi pulled the dagger out of his sleeve. “Hi,” he said to Serafina. “Nice to see you, too.”

“Are you going to turn me in?” Sera hissed. “Hand me over to your master? You may have Aldo fooled, but I saw you. In the Ostrokon with your soldiers.”

Anger darkened Mahdi’s features. “You’re kidding, right? If I’d wanted to turn you in, I would have done it then. I saw you too, you know.”

“You saw me?” Serafina said uncertainly.

“You were hiding behind a pillar. Thank gods the idiots I was with didn’t see you. I didn’t recognize you at first. That’s quite an outfit you’re wearing,” he said, nodding at her Lagoona getup.

Sera bristled. “How about your outfit, Mahdi? Decided to join the invaders, I see. The same ones who destroyed Cerulea and murdered its citizens. Ladies love a merman in uniform. Lucia must be beside herself.”

Aldo, who was picking up Sera’s bowl, looked at Mahdi and blinked.

“Lucia? Lucia Volnero? Really?”

“Aldo…” Mahdi said through gritted teeth.

Aldo looked from Mahdi to Serafina, sensing the anger between them. He quickly invented a reason to get back to the kitchen.

“Serafina,” Mahdi said as soon as he left, “haven’t you figured it out yet?” He was about to say more, but a child’s wail, coming from within the house, cut him off. He ran a hand through his hair. “This place is overflowing tonight. And there’s probably not enough food. There’s never enough food. Are you here by yourself? Where’s Neela?”

“None of your business,” Serafina snapped.

“You still don’t trust me.”

Serafina snorted. “Haven’t you figured that out yet?”

Mahdi swam close to her. “Do you have so little faith in me? What kind of merman do you think I am?” he asked, furious now. He grabbed the front of his jacket and ripped it open. His chest was bare underneath it.

“That move might work on Lucia, but it doesn’t do a lot for me,” Serafina said.

He held her dagger out. “Take it,” he said. “Go ahead, Serafina—take it!”

When she didn’t, he took her hand, put the knife in it, and pressed the tip to his heart. It pierced his skin. A thin rivulet of blood floated from his chest.

“What are you doing? Stop it, Mahdi!” she said. She tried to pull her hand away, but he held it fast.

“Go ahead. Use it,” he said. “Take me out. You can kill the enemy. If that’s who you really think I am.”

“Let go of me. Let go!” Serafina said.

Mahdi released her. She threw the dagger down.

“I don’t know who you are!” she cried angrily. “Not anymore! All I know is that I saw you with death riders. Rounding up merpeople. My merpeople. So tell me, Mahdi, who are you?”

“Serafina, you didn’t—” he started to say.

“Are you actually going to deny it? I saw you!”

“No, Serafina, you didn’t. You didn’t see me. What you saw was a lie. Like this uniform. Like my earring. Like the Lagoon and Lucia.”