She tried to scream, but no sound came out. The venom had paralyzed her. Her breathing slowed. Her heart rate dropped.
All she could do was watch in terror, eyes frozen open, as the thing that wasn’t Mahdi picked her up and dragged her away.
“ANY SIGN OF HER?” Becca called out anxiously, her heart heavy with dread.
“Nothing yet,” Ling shouted back.
The two mermaids, together with Neela, Desiderio, Yazeed, Coco, and Coco’s shark, Abelard, had been searching for Sera in the Darktide Shallows for over three hours. They’d ridden out of camp before dawn, after it was discovered that Serafina was nowhere to be found.
Neela, busy with Sera’s uniform, had continued to work for several hours the previous night. When she finally went to the barracks to sleep, she saw that Sera’s bunk was empty. She went to look for Des, thinking maybe they’d never gone to sleep and were sitting by a waterfire somewhere, but he was in his barracks.
Worried, she and Des had raised the alarm. Word of Sera’s disappearance spread quickly through the camp. A goblin named Regelbrott had hurried to headquarters just after the news broke.
“I couldn’t sleep last night,” she said, “so I left my barracks and went for a walk around camp. Someone streaked by on a white hippokamp. I saw a tail, so it was a mer, not a goblin, but I didn’t see the rider’s face.”
“Where was she heading?” Des asked.
“Toward the Darktide Shallows,” Regelbrott replied. “Do you think it was Serafina?”
“Why would she leave camp at night?” Neela asked. “She’s knows it’s dangerous in the open water.”
Just then, a breathless groom arrived at the HQ cave. He was holding Sera’s note. Minutes later, Desiderio and the others, plus twenty armed goblins, were speeding toward the Shallows on hippokamps.
Along the way, Ling had stopped to ask other sea creatures if they’d seen Sera. Shoals of cod and mackerel confirmed that a mermaid with short copper-colored hair had been spotted heading away from the camp. When the group arrived at the Shallows, two pipefish said that they’d glimpsed a mermaid riding toward a place called Cuttlefish Hollow. The search party had hurried there, and ever since they’d been peering into every cave and thicket.
“Hey! Abbie found something!” Coco called out now.
The others sped to the merl’s side. She was lifting something from the silty seabed—a dagger. They all recognized it as Sera’s. Next to it was her old Black Fin jacket.
“What’s that doing here?” Yazeed asked.
“Maybe someone used it to track her,” Ling suggested.
Becca’s heart sank. Her eyes swept over the seafloor, hoping for another clue that could tell them who had taken Sera, and where. They fastened on an object near where the dagger had lain. She stooped to pick it up.
“It’s a conch. They’re not native to these waters,” she said. She held it up to her ear and listened to it. Her face was pale by the time she lowered her hand again.
Desiderio took the conch from her. He cast an amplio spell so they could all hear it.
“That’s not Mahdi,” Ling said when the message ended. “It only sounds like him. He never would have asked Sera to meet him alone in a place like this. It’s a trick.”
“I wonder if Lucia’s behind this,” Neela said.
Desiderio shook his head. “No way. She’s too busy looking in every mirror she swims past. Vallerio’s responsible, I just know it. He wanted Sera dead. He found a way to do it without risking his troops—or Guldemar’s anger. And Sera fell for it. How could she be so stupid?” Des shouted, slapping his tail fins against a rock.
Neela, glowing bright blue with emotion, leapt to Sera’s defense. “Because the message made her think Mahdi was in danger,” she said. “That’s why she came here. Out of love. And whoever sent the conch knew she would. Because that’s who she is.”
“Love’s nothing but a loaded weapon. It got Sera killed,” Des said bitterly.
“Don’t say that!” Neela shouted. “Don’t even think it! Sera’s not dead. We’d feel it if she was, Ling and Becca and me. We’re bloodbound. If she was gone, a piece of us would be gone, too!”
Becca, who’d been quiet all this time, finally spoke. She’d thought through everything that had happened, sifting it for meaning, just like her ancestor Pyrrha, a brilliant strategist, would have. “I think Neela’s right,” she said. “Sera’s not dead.”
“How do you know that? You don’t!” Des yelled. “You’re just going to give everyone false hope!”
“Stop it, Des. Right now,” Ling ordered. “I know you’re upset; Sera’s your sister. We’re all upset, but we can’t come apart. We have to work together to figure out the next step, okay?” She looked at the others, each in turn. They all nodded. “Good. Let’s hear Becca out.”
“If Vallerio did this,” Becca ventured, “it’s because Sera’s more valuable to him alive than dead.”