Page 3 of Emerge

I stared at the faint purple scales on my leg. They glimmered in the blinking light on the top of the buoy. I poked at them and they felt slightly rough and squishy. I looked at my other leg, but it was normal.

"Holy shit, Riley." Ivy had sat back and was holding onto a metal bar as I moved my leg in her direction so she could get a closer look at the scales. The buoy swayed, but nothing like before. "You're a mermaid!"

A snort left me. "I'm a siren, Ivy. Not the same thing."

"They most definitely aren't."

Ivy and I both jumped at the masculine voice coming from below.

Finn's cat eyes stared up at us before they landed on my leg. The last person I wanted to see was Jax's father. He might have had his reasons for what he had done to me, but the fact that he'd go after an innocent teenager said a lot about him.

"Get away from us." My warning had no merit. It wasn't like I could fight him off, especially without my knife.

Not that I even knew how to fight with it. If I had, maybe I would have prevented the whole debacle we were in.

"They're already fading." He gestured to my leg. "That's not normal for sirens. You shift, like tritons do."

I was suddenly angry at that comment and glared at him. "Why are you here?"

"Bubba sent out a signal to Jax that I intercepted." He disappeared under the water for a moment then came back up. "Jax and Blake will be here shortly with a boat."

I didn't quite believe him. "Bubba barely left us."

Ivy shifted next to me and brought her legs to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. She was shaking, and if I watched carefully enough for the blink of the light, I could have sworn her lips looked blue and her face deathly pale. We needed to get her warm.

"He sent a signal through the water. Only my family can comprehend it. He's right under here, keeping other sharks away, if you'd like for me to get him and have him confirm for you."

What a smartass. Now I understood where Jax got his attitude.

"No," Ivy grit out between clenched teeth.

His eyes finally went to her. She was staring at him with wide eyes. I scooted carefully to the edge of the buoy, getting closer to Finn. I was ready to defend my friend if he had an issue with her knowing.

"If they're coming, then it's time for you to leave." I bared my teeth at him.

The sky was starting to gray as the night turned to day. It hadn't seemed like that much time had passed, but maybe being lost at sea makes the passage of time unmeasurable.

A flash of purple jumped over the buoy, landing on the other side with a small splash. "You heard my daughter. Leave."

My mom's head came into view and I was surprised that it looked human. She swam toward me and rubbed her hand over my leg that was hanging over the side of the buoy.

"Natalia." Finn's jaw clenched, and I bet if I could see his hands they'd have been in fists. "What are you doing here?"

She turned to face him and they locked eyes. He stared at her with a mix of anger and want. It was the same way Jax used to stare at me before he got his head out of his ass.

"I'm taking my daughter." She had her hand on my foot that was hovering right by her head. "Where's the knife, Riley?"

I was sick of everyone always wanting the knife from me. It was mine, and they had all taken it. Ivy reached over and put her hand on my fist that I hadn't even realized I had made.

"Dylan Gale took it." I was going to get it back from him somehow, someway, and then stab him in the chest with it. "That's why we're out here. He forced us off his yacht."

"The swim coach?" Finn dipped under for a moment again. "I looked into him and found nothing out of the ordinary. He's an extremely private man."

"Well, you didn't look hard enough. He was able to have some control over Ivy and said he was a siren." It was probably really easy for him to keep himself hidden with the ability to control people to an extent.

"That's impossible." Finn looked as confused as I felt.

I looked at my mom for confirmation, but her mouth was pressed in a hard line. Her silence was acknowledging she knew something but wasn't about to tell us.

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