Raging Sea (Undertow, #2)

Everything feels hot and red and sharp. I study Darren’s face and then Calvin’s as they escort me back to my room, wondering if they can read my mind. I’m sure everyone knows what Doyle and I are planning. Feeling a hint of the old madness I felt when I was locked in the cell. They can see into your head. They will tell Spangler. It’s irrational, but I can’t shake it.

“Lyric, what’s wrong?” my father asks as he rises from the floor. He’s been doing pushups again, and Mom has been scolding him.

“Spangler killed Tom Benningford.”

“Angela’s husband?” my father asks.

“And a few more of the human parents,” I cry.

Arcade steps into the room. She eyes me warily, and I gasp.

“I didn’t expect you to still be here,” I say to her.

“Finish your story,” she demands.

I shake off the awkwardness the best I can.

“Spangler decided the kids needed some kind of tragedy to motivate them, and it worked. They can all use the gloves now.”

“Bastard,” my mother says through gritted teeth.

“Doyle is going to stop him. He wants me to help,” I whisper. I have no idea if we are being monitored, but it seems smart to listen to my paranoia and be careful.

“What are you going to do?” Bex says.

I walk over to the Japanese soaking tub and turn on both faucets. It causes a racket in the room so loud, I hope we can’t be heard. Everyone gathers around while the sound drowns out our words.

“He wants me to bring all the kids back into the park for another training session tonight. He’s going to turn off the security system. It connects a whole bunch of things—the cells, the tanks, and the EMP that blocks my connection to the water. Doyle says it takes five minutes to reboot the computer, and then everything gets locked up again, but the EMP has to be manually reset. The switch is outside. When he blows the system, he wants me to raise hell and destroy as much as I can on my way to the tanks. Then he wants me to open them all and free as many Alpha as possible while he destroys the EMP reset console.”

“Lyric, this is dangerous,” my father says, his voice struggling with being low. “Can you trust him? Doyle has betrayed you over and over again.”

“I don’t see any other way.”

“You can’t do this. It’s one thing for him to play hero and another to use my daughter as part of the plan,” he argues. “What happens when Spangler sends soldiers after the two of you?”

“He’s going to kill Spangler.”

Everyone is as quiet as if their words are locked inside a trunk at the bottom of the ocean. I sit down on the side of the tub and try to catch my breath, while fighting back a wave of nausea. My mother takes the space next to me and rubs my back with her hand.

“Doyle knows Spangler will come out there himself to reset the machine, and that’s when he’s going to do it.”

“All right, how do we get you out of this?” Bex says.

I shake my head. “If there’s a chance to get out of here, shouldn’t I take it?”

“There’s no going back afterward,” Bex whispers. “I have nightmares about it every night.”

“Bex, what are you talking about?” my father asks.

“I shot Russell,” she says. Her expertly built walls crumble around her, and tears escape. Days before the Rusalka appeared in Coney Island, the same night that her stepfather helped a gang beat Shadow to death, Bex vanished with the “just in case” gun my father hid at the bottom of my backpack. Three days later she came back, but my family was knee-deep in the just-in-case we had always feared. There was no time to ask her what happened, and as days passed, I lost the courage. Maybe I didn’t want the answer.

“I told him to meet me on the rooftop over the furniture store. I told him he could do whatever he wanted to me if he left Tammy alone.”

“Rebecca,” my father says, reaching for her, but she flinches.

“I let him kiss me, let him . . . I tried to be strong and make him think I was into it, but I started crying.”

“Bex, no.”

“But it only got him more excited. I realized he wasn’t attracted to me at all. My tears were what did it for him. He was never going to stop, so I shot him.”

“Honey,” my mother gasps.

“The bullet missed, and the kickback made me drop the gun. When I knelt down to pick it up, he tackled me, and we fought for it. He told me he was going to do the same thing to Tammy that he did to Shadow, and he was going to make me watch. Then he was going to do it to me, and then . . . I still don’t know how I got the gun back, but it was in my hand, and I pulled the trigger again. The bullet went right between his eyes, like in a cowboy movie. Smoke came out, and then he called me a bitch, and then that was it.”

I leap up from my seat and rush to her, pulling her into my arms. She turns her face away and tries to free herself, but I hold on tight.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask.