Page 129 of Cruel Tides

“Shit, wait!” I shouted, desperate for him to stay. If he could remove the trident from his body freely, I needed to knowhow. If there was a way to get the trident out of Leander, break the ties, then he wouldn’t have to suffer, would he?

“Don’t go.” I was practically begging. I couldn’t let him leave. Not yet.

The left side of the sea wizard’s lips tilted, somewhere between a smirk and a snarl. “Afraid you’ll miss me, little captive?”

My heart pounded so hard I could barely breathe. “No, I?—”

“I’d warn against using the shell to call on us, but you seem to have a habit of disregarding my warnings,” he said, cutting me off. Magic swelled around him, causing his white eyes to flash in the darkness. His smirk grew. “Always a delight.”

“No!Wizard!”

But he was already gone, swallowed up in a cloud of black smoke. “Poseidon’s balls!” I yelled, slapping the surface of the water as the smoke dispersed. My heart still hammered. I tried my best to calm down before searching for my way out. Even if the sea wizard had knowledge that could save Leander, that didn’t mean he would tell me.

“Dammit!”

A random head popped up beside me, causing me to startle. It was a merman with a heart-shaped face and eyelashes long enough to cradle heavy beads of water. His long, dark hair flowed around him as he held a transparent tube between his lips.

When he removed it from his mouth, his accent surprised me as much as his arrival had. “Miss? How did you get here?”

“I… got lost,” I stammered, knowing full well how idiotic that must have sounded. The elevator or stairs that led to the top of this tank were probably closed to patrons.

But instead of questioning me, the merman nodded and pointed with the hand holding the tube over to the far side of the tank. “There’s a rope, miss.”

I looked over, and sure enough, a knotted rope hung over the corner of the tank. “Thank you,” I said, having flashbacks of gym class as I secured my bag over a shoulder.

When I reached the rope, my arms welcomed the exercise. It wasn’t hard to lift myself out of the tank and onto the narrow platform beside it. It ran along the side of the tank, with a mesh bottom that made my stomach queasy.

“That’s lovely,” I mumbled, noticing how the metal bowed underneath the weight of the oxygen tanks sitting beside me. It was obvious the casino’s construction didn’t factor in the possibility of the merfolk getting cursed.

A pile of towels and an assortment of clothing piles were also present, and although I was soaked, I let them be. It wasn’t the merfolk’s fault that I’d dropped into the middle of their performance.

But before I took off, I checked my bag and was thankful to discover that both shells were still inside it. “Damn sea wizard,” I grumbled, feeling dizzy from the height. Maybe showing up covered in blood would have been the better option. Despite his grand plan, my shirt was still somewhat stained, but at least it looked more like a tie-dye effect and less like I’d gone on a murdering spree.

Crawling on my knees, I tried to ignore the light seeping through the mesh as I followed the length of the platform. “Stairs. Thank Poseidon,” I breathed out when I reached the end. But my relief was short-lived when I got to my feet and realized the stairs were as shoddily built as the platform.

Also, they seemed to be… vibrating?

Nope.I didn’t like that at all.

I stepped down between walls that were insanely narrow, painted a dark shade that rivaled the sea wizard’s hair.

Ugh. Why was I still thinking ofhim?

“Freaking magic. Freaking cecaelia,” I grumbled, bracing my hands on the walls, metal rattling underneath my feet as I went. Maybe the cecaelia weren’t the only ones at fault here. “Who the heck built this place? Merfolk?” It all suddenly made sense to me, and although I hastened my steps, I tried to keep my footing light.

I turned a sharp corner that clearly violated building code and gasped. “Laverne?”

“You—”She froze halfway up a step. She was hassling like a dog from booking it up the stairs, her tongue rolling out as she craned her neck.“I was coming to save you.”

Even her projected words sounded winded. Then her eyes narrowed, and she hissed like seeing me soaked and tiptoeing down a staircase had somehow insulted her.“I thought you couldn’t swim!”

“You… were going to save me?” I feigned a sniffle, feeling touched she cared that much. “Aww. Thanks, Laverne.”

A streak of lavender was next up the stairs. “Whoa!” Kai said, catching himself on the walls before he could topple over Laverne. “Why’d you stop? Claira needs?—”

Laverne cut Kai off, her neck jerking in a zigzag motion as she spoke.“That harlot doesn’t NEEDanything.”

When Kai looked up, his eyes went wide. Although his face was full of worry, there was a flicker of relief as he looked me over. “Claira,” he said, but was interrupted by Laverne spinning around to shoot between his legs.

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