Raging Sea (Undertow, #2)

“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.

“I didn’t want to tell anyone,” she whispers as she studies my father.

He shakes his head. He’ll keep her secret.

“Bex, what happened to his body?” he asks.

“There was a gap between the furniture store and the apartments next door where the buildings had shifted. It was just big enough, so I rolled him over to the edge. No one would ever find him there, at least not until they demolished the buildings.”

“The tidal wave made sure that would never happen,” I say.

“And the gun?” my mom asks.

“I dropped the gun over the side.”

“Russell killed Shadow. He did horrible things to you and Tammy,” I remind her.

“But the most horrible thing he did was turn her into a murderer,” my father says. “Killing changes a human being. I shot a man who was attacking people with a knife on the boardwalk, and it has never left me. I’m not saying I wouldn’t do it again, or even that Spangler shouldn’t be stopped, but there are repercussions to taking a man’s life. Doyle is the soldier. He has been trained to kill. Let him do it.”

“He can’t do it by himself. What if he fails? There’s only a couple days left,” I say. “What if I wake up tomorrow and find out Spangler’s killed more of the parents? I couldn’t live with myself.”

“If you kill Spangler, you might stop the children from being sent back to Coney Island,” my mother says to me, then turns to my father. “It could save their lives.”

“You must,” Arcade says. “Look around you. Look at what he has created. He has to pay the price for this evil.”

My mother takes my hands and kneels before me.

“Do it,” she says.

“Summer!” my father cries.

“This place is death, and the people who work here feed off the corpse, Leonard. Spangler is the worst. If Lyric can stop him, she has to do it. She’s the only one who can,” my mother argues, then turns back to me. “Lyric, you are Sirena, my daughter, and the greatest regret of my life is teaching you to hide from it. Our clan is built on diplomacy, but your blood is made of countless warriors. You must fight like your grandparents and their parents before them. It is time for this camp to learn that you count yourself among them. If Doyle manages to turn that machine off, then I want you to hit this place hard and wipe it off the map.”





Chapter Twenty


IT ALL GOES DOWN AFTER DINNER. I MOVE FOOD AROUND ON MY PLATE, unable to shake the thought that I’m about to help a man kill another. Spangler should die, but with each passing minute, I feel my role in it getting heavier and heavier.

Bex sits next to me. Her hand is on mine underneath the table. She has not abandoned me, though I know there have been times since we left Brooklyn when it made perfectly good sense to walk away. It was she, my besty, who steered me off a course of death. Sadly, I have found myself back on it.

My father is trying to be strong for me. My mother is resolute, revealing a side of herself that I never would have expected. And all around me are the children, eating their dinners, making ice cream sundaes, chattering away about the battle they are all so eager to join. I ache for what lies ahead if something isn’t done to make sure they never get there. Spangler will drop us all into the middle of a bloodbath, but he can’t if he is no longer breathing.

I give the people I love a quick glance. My mother nods. My father does as well. Bex takes a deep breath and tries not to cry. I give her hand a squeeze, a little promise that I will not let this change me. I don’t know if it’s possible to keep my word, but I’m going to try.

“Have the kids meet me in the park,” I tell Darren.

He calls over some guards, who offer to escort me, then calls Spangler on his radio.

“I love you,” my mother says.

“We all do,” my father adds.

I look to Bex.

“Good luck,” she whispers.

“Do not fail,” Arcade says. “And do not hold back.”