Page 90 of Jewel of the Sea

Clenching his teeth, Arkon halted.Calm. Quiet.He’d seen the hunters’ weapons. A headlong attack would only expose him to their gunfire and would do Aymee no good. He forced his breath to slow, but his tension did not ease.

He reached up and grasped the ledge, rising just enough to peer over it to the second level. The humans were just outside the hallway in a ring; Joel held Macy, his hand covering her mouth, and Aymee was bent forward, one of Cyrus’s hands fisted in her hair. He held a pistol in his other hand.

Randall stepped toward Cyrus. “Cyrus Taylor, I am hereby—”

“Shut it already, kid. You want to go by the book?” Cyrus fired his gun from the hip. The sound of it was thunderous as it bounced off the concrete walls. “We’re going by theoriginalbook.”

Aymee and Macy screamed. Randall stumbled backward and collapsed on the floor.

“What the fuck, Cyrus?” Chad shouted.

“Randall Laster has been relieved of command,” Cyrus replied.

“We never talked about shooting him!” one of the others said.

“He chose his side, Hassan, and it was going to come down to this either way. We bag these fucking fishmen, and Randy’s sacrifice will have been worth it. We’ll tell his father he died in the hunt. That’s more than he deserves.”

“We’re not supposed to kill our own, Cyrus!”

“The fuck you think the Culver Hunters started out doing? We hunted traitors and deserters, kiddies. When that wasn’t a thing anymore, we moved to bounty hunting — running down anyone who pissed off the wrong people. Shit, you haven’tliveduntil you’ve hunted a human. Nothing like it...but these fish-men are pretty damned close. Don’t know why the hell we stopped.”

Cyrus moved closer to the railing, dragging Aymee along with him. She clawed at his wrist. He shook her forcefully, and she returned her hands to her hair as though to relieve the pressure. “After what this bitch did to me, I have zero issue with putting a slug in her gut. You come on up here and talk to us, or we lay her out next to Randy and come down there.”

Arkon’s fingers flexed; brittle concrete crumbled beneath them.

Calm, he reminded himself, but the word possessed no immediate meaning to him. Aymee was in danger, her life was at risk, and he wasn’t there with her. He might lose her forever. If he moved quickly enough, he could get to Cyrus and strike a mortal blow before…

“You’re a monster,” Aymee said.

“I’m the only thing standing between you and the monsters,” Cyrus growled.

Monsters…

Arkon wouldn’t give them the monster they wanted to slay.

He lowered himself. Perhaps he might have compared Cyrus to Kronus, once, but there was a stark difference — Cyrus was not held in check by fear, or honor, or anything of the sort. He’d been left battered and bloodied, and it had only pushed him towardthis.

Arkon looked to his companions; Jax — whose expression was a jumble of terror and fury, of helplessness and desperation, mirroring Arkon’s emotions — was still restrained by Dracchus.

Arkon could not lose Aymee. Would not.

A hook needs to be baited if you want to catch a fish.

He knew then what he had to do.

Go around, Arkon signed.

Confusion flicked over Jax’s features, but he nodded. Dracchus released him, and together the two kraken crept along the wall, toward the far steps.

Arkon drew in a deep breath, filling his lungs. Life had no meaning without risks.Everythinghe cared about was at risk now. Almost everyone he loved. At least Sarina was safe.

“I am coming up,” Arkon called. “There is no need to harm the females.”

“Arkon, no!” Aymee yelled.

“And here part of me thought you’d dive into that water and swim as far away as you could,” Cyrus said.

“Fuck!” Joel exclaimed. “She bit me!”

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