My hands roamed her back, slid into the soggy mass of her flaxen hair. Her sigh against my mouth was mellifluous and tasted like the salt of the ocean. I dug my fingers into her scales and she gasped a little moan of pleasure. Colors and images flashed in my mind—azure scales, orange coral, lake blue, and shark gray. They pulsed and spun faster and faster, beating a wild tune, and my body surged, dancing to the sound, drowning slowly. Together, the two of us raced to the escalating denouement.
I wasn’t aware of the cold until Kaeliora shivered against me.
She wrenched her lips from mine. “Stop,” she mumbled. “Stop!” she cried. Her lips had turned glacial blue and her skin as white as porcelain. Puffs of air bloomed from her mouth, clouding the space between us. Still under her thrall, I pulled her close again, my mind misty with desire. With a violent shove, she pushed me away, and I tumbled from the fountain, dazed, my fingers clenching with the need to take her in my arms again.
“No!” the mermaid shouted. “Stay back.”
Confused, I turned my head to see what the mermaid was staring at and saw a woman, full of fury and power. Her midnight hair stood out, floating around her and framing her face. Silver balls of light crackled in her palms. She stared down at me with a raw loathing, and as I watched, enthralled, her eyes turned from a dark olive to emerald to chrome.
The woman’s golden skin brightened, becoming luminescent. As she lifted her hands up, her body rose in the air. I was transfixed by her beauty, that is, until she threw her power straight at my head. That was the last thing I remembered before the world around me went white.
Chapter 35
A Dream Forgotten
Slowly, the white light faded. I groaned as shapes finally began to take form around me. Before my vision returned, I realized I was freezing. My body shook with violent tremors, and instinctively, I called upon the tiger, transforming to protect my human frame. Immediately, my body temperature rose. Rolling to my feet, I shook my whole body, my fur standing on end, and then opened my eyes, trying to figure out what had happened.
All at once, I knew. Ana had done this. She…she was mad about something. The last thing I remembered was the mermaid asking for a kiss. I sat beside her and…and…for the life of me, I couldn’t remember. Pacing up to the fountain, I saw the mermaid lounging in her pool of water. She was frozen solid, just like I remembered she’d been when I first saw her with Kelsey so long ago. But where was Ana?
Lowering my nose to the ground, I caught her scent. She’d gone back to the underwater lake. I rolled my shoulders as I walked. My muscles were as sore and as tired as if I’d just run halfway across India. I found Ana standing in the middle of the lake. She was soaked from head to toe and was currently submerged to just above her waist. It nearly blinded me to look at her, even in tiger form.
Waves of energy coursed off her body and steam rose from the bubbling water. The surface crackled with electricity. I knew the water was deep, so she was either standing on a platform or using her power to float there. Shifting to a man, I cupped my hands and shouted to her but she didn’t turn to look at me. Calling to her mind didn’t work either. All I got from her was a sort of dark static.
The water had changed too. It wasn’t plain seawater any longer, nor was it the color of milk like I remembered. Instead it was a vivid, boiling green. The smell was noxious. Toxic. In fact, it smelled awfully close to the juice from a poisonous plant we dipped arrows in when I was a soldier. I touched my toe to it and the water jolted me so my hair stood on end, but it wasn’t too hot to tolerate nor did it sting my skin.
Saving Ana from it became my sole motivation. Something terrible had happened to her and my first course of action was to get her out of danger. Despite the unknown risks, I dove in, and the pulses of energy nearly fried my brain. I was stunned to the point where I stopped breathing for a moment, but my inner power revived me enough so I could catch my breath, and I began swimming. Careful not to imbibe any of the water, I quickly made my way to her side. My energy drained from me faster than it could refill and I was exhausted by the time I got to her.
When I neared Ana, my hand brushed a rocky outcropping and I climbed up onto it, limbs shaking. The water parted around my torso as I made my way over to her. “Ana?” I took hold of her arm and shook her, but she continued to stare straight ahead, her eyes fixed on nothing as slow, steady tears dripped from her cheeks and plopped into the lake. Each tear fizzed like acid when it hit the surface of the water.
I inhaled sharply, remembering the Kappa demons who had been created from her tears. “Ana, love. Tell me what’s wrong,” I pleaded as I wiped the tears away from her cheeks.
“I…I threw the key into the lake,” she said quietly. “It sank to the bottom.”
“Okay. That’s not a problem. When I came here before with Kelsey, I had to dive for it anyway.” The water susurrated around my waist as it leeched power from my body. I imagined it was doing the same thing to her.
Despite the warmth of the water, she trembled. I ran my hands up and down her arms, trying to warm her. “Tell me what happened,” I said. “I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s wrong.”
“That is the heart of my problem,” she said. “I do not know why I was angry before and I do not know why I am sad now. All I do know is that I wanted to destroy something, everything, and now that feeling is gone. In its wake, there is a terrible misery in my heart.”
“Okay. Then, if you can’t tell me what happened, show me.”
Ana blinked. “Show you?” she asked with a small frown.
“Yes. In my mind. Open your thoughts to me.”
She shook her head. “I cannot.”
“You can.” I touched my finger to her chin and nudged her face up so she’d look at me. “You don’t have to show me everything, just what happened with the mermaid. I’m just asking you to try.”
After searching my eyes, she slowly nodded and touched her hands to my cheeks. She still kept most of her mind blocked but let me see her recent memories. In her mind’s eye, I saw me walking toward the mermaid, my steps hesitant, and then I kissed her.
I was shocked at how ardent the embrace became, especially since I had no memory of it. Through Ana’s vision I saw how Kaeliora pulled me closer and winked saucily at Ana even as she siphoned enough energy from me to fuel a small city. It quickly became clear that I’d lost my mind to the mermaid. My hands roved her form and I was blind to everything but her.
Softly, Ana said, “No more. That is enough.”
The mermaid ignored her.
“Sohan,” Ana called, “Come back to me.”
Still, the kiss continued. “Sohan?”
I heard a voice echo in Ana’s mind and recognized the siren. “He’s mine now. He’ll never come back to you once he’s tasted my lips,” she promised.
“No,” Ana said. Her breathing quickened. “No!” she shouted. “You will not take him!” Then she lifted her hands and rained down punishment on the deceitful siren.
I fell to the ground, drained and unconscious, while Kaeliora pleaded for mercy. The vengeful goddess paused a moment when the desperate mermaid warned that if she was harmed it would destroy me as well. She told Ana that I was tied to her now and that I would seek her out for the rest of my days.
Ana’s response was to freeze the siren instead of killing her, though, at the time, she’d desperately wanted the girl dead. After that, Ana numbly walked to the lake, hoping the freezing water would temper the fire burning in her blood. Instead, her pain seeped out, slowly polluting the water.
“She lied,” I said, stroking the wet tangles of her hair. “I feel no pull for the mermaid. She holds no sway over me.”
“But you did want her. I saw it on your face. In the way you held her.”