Page 22 of Tides of Time

Ariana clutched at her throat, even as her legs flailed to push her to the surface.

No!

She screamed, her eyes adjusting to the burn of the salt water far quicker than should have been possible. Her lungs screamed out for air because she wasn’t a mermaid, not now, not yet.

The moment was etched in her memory, burned into her mind with intense clarity. She could feel the crushing weight of fear pressing down on her chest, suffocating and suffocating until it seemed as though her lungs might burst from the strain. The pain was excruciating, a white-hot explosion that tore through her body like a bolt of lightning. It left her gasping for air, struggling to hold on to consciousness. Every fiber of her being screamed in agony, a melody of anguish that she would never forget.

Ariana stopped trying to force the water from her throat and began to attempt to push herself toward the surface. She could push herself up if she didn’t panic this time. She didn’t need to die at the hands of those fucking drug lords a second time.

Kicking up as hard as she could, she almost broke the surface until a hand shoved her under.

Ariana kicked and tried to slam her hands against the arm attached to the hand that drowned her in the alternate timeline, but she was too weak.

Almost sixty seconds had passed, and her body would begin to shut down at any moment.

Something went wrong.

The whisper-light thought passed through her mind. She’d saved Orion. She was supposed to stay stuck in time.

But you aren’t. You’re drowning again because some drug lord used your boat as a getaway vehicle.

Ariana tried to channel the peace she knew could come from being under the waves, but as her lungs began to cry out, the peace slipped away. Her thoughts grew slow as the oxygen vanished and couldn’t be replenished.

Ariana wasn’t a siren.

She was a human.

And Orion wasn’t a merman to save her.

Everything grew cold the longer the hand held her beneath the waves. Her head smacked on the boat asa vicious current moved her, and her vision started to fade.

“You’re going to owe me for this,” Galene swam in front of her.

With a touch, everything went black as Ariana foolishly opened her mouth to scream underwater for air.

She sputtered, and everything went black.

Her mind was free, drifting somewhere, and then it wasn’t.

Ariana’s eyes flew open, and she screamed.

This scream did not suck water into her lungs.

Galene's emerald green eyes glared at her, the sharpness of her gaze piercing. Her thin eyebrows were furrowed, and her lips were pursed in anger.

Ariana took a deep breath and then another.

“Why wasn’t I a mermaid just now?”

“Because you somehow fucked a timeline up beyond repair.” Galene growled.

“Be kind. How would you feel if it were me?” Liam’s familiar baritone came from Ariana’s right. He was always the calm to Galene’s emotions.

“If you’re so pissed, why did you save me? How did you know where I’d be without Orion to bring you here?” Ariana glared down at her tail as if trying to singe it off.

“That would be my doing.” A very disgruntled voice came from the depths before a man - not a merman - seemed to rise from beneath them.

Ariana knew Poseidon’s voice. It was sensual but commanding and somehow gentle but terrifying, all in a single note. It was his person she’d never seen before.

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