Raging Sea (Undertow, #2)

“What the hell are you people involved in?” Sloan demands.

“Bex Conrad does not have to die,” Arcade says. “If you value her life, then you must put her safety first. She will most certainly die if we take her to the camp. Leave her here where she will be safe.”

“I’m the only person she has left in this world,” I cry. “If I dump her here, she will never forgive me. She’s been abandoned so many times, I just can’t do it to her again. She’s been by my side nearly every day since the fifth grade. How do I walk away now?”

“Look at yourself, Lyric Walker. Look at me. We are Alpha. She is not one of us. This is not her fight. The men who are following us already tried to kill her once. Do you think they will go easier on her when we break into their camp? If she dies, it will have been avoidable and it will be as if you killed her yourself.”

Arcade is right. Leaving Bex here is cruel, like letting a puppy loose on the freeway because you can’t take care of it anymore, but at least she’ll live.

“We can take her, of course,” Lucas says.

“When we are done, we come back for her,” I insist.

“If that gives you a reason to fight, then so be it,” Arcade says. “In the morning we depart on our own. I must go and speak to the Great Abyss.”

“The great who?” Lucas says, but Arcade doesn’t answer. She stands and vanishes into the shadows, leaving Sloan, Lucas, and me alone.

“So, you’re being followed?” Sloan asks.

“I blew up the world. Didn’t you hear about it?”

“I heard things,” Sloan says.

“Not true things.”

“Gimme some truth,” she says.

“My mother is what is called a Sirena,” I confess.

“Which one is that?”

“As close to a mermaid as it gets.”

“So you’re half mermaid? Do you grow a tail?” Lucas asks after he takes a swig.

“Nope. Sorry if that’s what you’re into,” I reply, snatching the bottle for myself. I take a cringing gulp.

“It’s horrible, isn’t it? I thought it would get better after a few drinks.” He laughs.

“Can the two of you focus?” Sloan complains, then peers around again to make sure we’re still having a private conversation.

“She was part of a group of twenty who came to the surface to learn about humans, and before you ask, yes, she was a spy, but she didn’t know it at the time. She’s a good person.”

“With a tail,” Lucas says. He’s a little drunk.

Now I laugh. “With a tail.”

“They say you made that tidal wave,” Sloan says.

“They say a lot of things about me. The truth is I tried to stop it, and in exchange, someone kidnapped my parents and put them in a torture camp, along with a bunch of Alpha and their children.”

“And that’s Tempest? Where you’re going tomorrow?” Sloan asks.

I nod.

“Tough girl, huh?” She gets up from her seat and gives me a nod. “Good luck. I’m gonna go feed the dogs.”

A moment later, she’s gone. I turn to Lucas. He is all smiles. I know that look, full of nerves and anticipation. I know that he’s working on his bravery, and Sloan left because she’s trying to help him. Nice wingman.

“I’m not going to kiss you,” I say, blurting it out a little too harshly.

He looks at me hard for a minute, then shrugs.

“That came out wrong,” I backtrack. “You’re cute enough. It’s just, I’ve got a . . . I’m in love with somebody.”

“Lucky guy.”

“I hope so,” I whisper.





Chapter Nine


BEX!

I wake with a start. I’m in an old army cot in a dusty room filled with broken theater seats and yellowing movie posters, and I’m all alone.

I left her with a boy I don’t know, and now my mind is working overtime, conjuring up endless ugly scenarios of what he did to her. Rule number one of the girl code is not to leave your friends alone with boys and not to let yourself be alone with one for too long. I’m not saying all boys are bad, but some boys are very bad. If she’s hurt, I will never forgive myself. I can’t believe I ever considered leaving her here with these people. I have to find her—now!

I push through the door into a hallway I don’t recognize. It feels like I’m underground, though—it’s cool and slightly damp. I find a flight of steps and race up and find I’m backstage. I step around the curtain, hop off the stage, and run up the aisle past sleeping people. She’s not in the auditorium.

I charge into the lobby and up an elegant staircase. It leads to the second-floor balcony and the projection room. I push open one door after another and peer inside, waking up entire families. They stare at me in bewilderment. I don’t stop to apologize. I find a door with a sign that reads STAFF ONLY, and I force it open. There I find my friend sobbing.

“Bex?”

“Hey, what up?” Duck is sitting on the floor, no shirt, but wearing a sheepish grin.