Kona? I reached out to him on our private path.
He didn’t answer.
Kona? I tried again. Initiating a bridge between us had never been my strong suit, but the island wasn’t that big. If he was around here, I should be able to reach him. Kona, come on. Where are you?
When he still didn’t answer, my uneasiness grew. Mahina? Zarek? I reached out along other familiar pathways.
Where are you? Mahina answered, and I was so glad to hear her voice—to find out that I hadn’t been abandoned on this island alone—that I nearly yelled at her for scaring me so badly. But it wasn’t her fault that I’d allowed my imagination to run away with me, imagining Mark and Kona killing each other with me sleeping peacefully, out of the way.
I’m at the pavilion, I told her.
Okay. I’ll be there in a minute.
Where is everyone? I asked as I settled down on a chair to wait for her.
She didn’t immediately answer, and the sick feeling in my stomach got worse. Mahina?
I’m coming! she told me, exasperation thick in her voice. And something else. Something that sounded an awful lot like panic.
I got up, started pacing. Where was everyone? I didn’t hear anything. No talking, no swimming, nothing.
By the time Mahina made it to the top of the west side of the hill, I was ready to scream. I settled for pouncing on her, demanding answers. “Where is everyone?”
“Most of them are down by the water on the east side of the island.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
She wouldn’t look at me.
“Come on, Mahina! Tell me!”
“A messenger from Kona’s lands showed up. He’d managed to sneak through the fortifications the Leviathan had erected.”
“What did he say?”
“That the Leviathan has gone crazy. That he was killing a hundred selkies every day, draining their spirit and drinking their blood in an effort to absorb their power.”
“Oh, God!” I started to run, heedless of the sharp rocks as they scraped and stabbed the bottom of my feet. I was still a little out of it though, and Mahina easily kept pace with me. “Where’s Kona?”
“He left.” Though her voice was calm, she looked as frantic as I felt, her eyes clouded with worry and something more. Something I couldn’t quite identify.
“Without me?”
“Without a lot of people. The other kings told him he was being crazy. That it was a trap and that we all needed to stick to the plan.”
“What plan? There was no plan, Mahina! No one could agree.”
“Which is exactly what Kona said before he took off. That he couldn’t afford to wait around for weeks while they hammered out a plan that wouldn’t work anyway.”
“That doesn’t sound like Kona. He’d been working so hard on being diplomatic in our meetings with the kings.”
“Yeah, well, that pretty much went out the window today.”
I nodded. I could understand that. I knew how much Kona’s people meant to him. Knew that it was killing him to be here while the Leviathan was ruling—and hurting—the selkies Kona had sworn to protect.
“How many people did he take with him?” I asked.
Mahina avoided my gaze. “Only about a hundred. He was going for stealth instead of numbers.”
Which didn’t make sense when I thought about the plan he had outlined the day before. He’d been a big believer of blasting our way through, as Dimitri had wanted to do, so this sudden stealth didn’t make sense.
“Why didn’t he wake me? He knows I never would have let him go off alone. I could have helped him.”
“He was in a hurry.” Again Mahina avoided looking at my face. “Besides, I think he was still mad from the fight.”
“Mad or not, that doesn’t mean he goes off half-cocked like this. Especially when it could be a trap. He doesn’t know what’s going on out there right now.”
Mahina nodded.
“Okay, what aren’t you telling me!” I exploded.
“Nothing, why?”
“Because you haven’t looked at me once. Something is obviously going on. You need to tell me what it is.”
“Tempest …” She sighed. “Mark went with him.”
I swear my heart skipped a beat, two, as my stomach turned to ice. “Mark?” It was a hoarse whisper.
Mahina nodded miserably.
“Why the hell would Kona take Mark? The last time they were together they were trying to kill each other!”
“The messenger had more news.”
“Oh, yeah? What is it?”
“There’s a bounty on your head. A big bounty. So big that neither Kona nor Mark thinks there’s any way to protect you out there. They tried to keep it pretty much under wraps between the messenger and everyone on the island, but it’s already all over the oceans. Every sea creature in the world will be gunning for you.”
“Which is what Tiamat was counting on.”
“Exactly.”
“So, tell me again why they decided Mark was the right choice to go with Kona?”
She gave me a patently disbelieving look. “You don’t honestly think Mark would let himself be left behind when your safety was an issue, did you?”
I thought of him through the years. Such a bad-ass. So determined to protect me no matter what the threat. “No. He’d never be okay staying behind if he thought there was a threat against me that he could stop. But what was Kona thinking? You can’t tell me he really thought it was a good idea to bring Mark along. How was he supposed to get back to Kona’s lands, anyway?”
“They took the yacht. Mark has scuba gear to use when it’s time, just like before.”
“What aren’t you telling me?” When she didn’t respond, I fought the urge to shake her. “Come on, Mahina! Spill!”
“I think it’s a trap.”
“You already said that.”
“No. I mean, all the way around. Remember how Mark said your dad’s girlfriend was the one who had helped him find you?”
“How could I forget? I didn’t know whether to thank her or punch her.”
“Well, she gave him something that’s supposed to help him breathe underwater. It doesn’t last forever, but it will last a few hours. Or at least that’s what she told him.”
“That’s ridiculous. Nothing like that exists.”
“Strictly speaking, that’s not exactly true,” Mahina said, looking like she wanted to be anywhere but here explaining this to me.
Which I could understand, as I felt like the top of my head was about to blow off. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Rumor has it the sea witch can cook up potions like that. She usually uses them to entice humans into her traps.”
“Tiamat? You’re telling me the potion Mark has came from Tiamat?” I was shouting now, but I couldn’t help it. My dad’s new girlfriend was working for the sea bitch herself? Just the thought of her being close enough to Dad, Moku, and Rio to hurt them made me insane. “Did you tell him not to take it? It could be poisoned. It’s not as if Tiamat likes me so much that she’s dying to help me out.”
“Of course I tried to tell him that.”