A loud crash roused me from the depths of oblivion. Just as consciousness found me, so did the headache. Searing pain the likes of which I’d never before experienced dug hooks into my brain. And my brain was acting like a frenetic marlin trying to escape the gigantic hook in its mouth. It crashed and danced as it slammed from one side of my head to the other.
My stomach decided to join the action. Apparently, it was pouty and sad that it hadn’t been called to play. Acrid bile rose up my throat and met the immovable force of my teeth. It splashed up into my nose and made my eyes water as I choked.
Now my face was on fire, my brain was an inferno, and my belly was an angry angler fish intent on my sole destruction. I blinked, trying to find the surface of the world again. Any small hint of what was going on had to be better than the tsunami of awful that raged war with my system.
It took long moments of dedicated breathing and focus, but I managed to right my internal environment. I was leaving the emotional mess for a different day.
Soft sounds in the room had me opening my eyes just a bit. A full contingent of Naval security guards ranged themselves in a small circle around me. Their weapons were up and aimed at me. Through my bleary eyes, I noticed that all of them were set to kill.
Blinking, I looked around my dwelling. What the hell were they doing here? Who the hades did they think they were that they could just smash into my hom… Wait.
I looked around the small room. Saw nothing that was familiar. “Where the masu am I?”
A few jeering snickers sounded before they were cut off with a sharp cough. “Seren, you are under arrest for the murder of Captain Turpin,” a male said with way too much glee.
Glaring up at the familiar voice, I searched him out in the crowd that stood around me. When I finally found him in the shadows, I caught him with my gaze. “Come say that to my face, you coward.”
Lieutenant Jerthen stepped forward. A smile to rival a great white shark on his face. “You’re under arrest, Seren. You might as well give in gracefully. It will be something new for you.”
“I haven’t killed anyone.”
Jerthen pointed behind me. “Say again?”
Oh shark scat. Horror and disbelief rose up inside me like a tidal wave as I turned around and saw what appeared to be a mutilated pile of flesh and bone in a puddle at my back. “What the masu is that?” I rolled away. Breath pounded through my body as my pulse attempted to shatter my eardrums. I found myself once again in a battle to keep the contents of my belly firmly on the inside.
“He didn’t report for duty this morning. The pubkeep said he left with you.” Jerthen’s tone made me rethink my stance on vomiting in public. He would look much better with my bile drenching his crisp uniform. “And what do we find when we come looking for him?” Jerthen crossed his arms. The look of superiority and pleasure on his face had me clenching my hands into fists to keep from punching him in the rod.
I shook my head. “First off, I have no idea who you’re talking about. Second, I have zero idea what that—” I jerked a thumb over my shoulder, “—even is. And third, isn’t there some kind of policy that says you can’t arrest your former lover?”
The group of security guards shifted uncomfortably around me. Gazes changed from righteous fury to discomfort and suspicion.
I nodded. “Oh, he didn’t tell you that before he dragged you out here?” I looked out the smashed door. Once again, nothing looked familiar. “Where is here, anyways?”
“Seventh Ring,” one of the female guards supplied softly.
My brow furrowed as I tried to piece together last night. The last solid thing I remembered was going to the Fourth Ring to start spending the credit Commander Winona had given me. After I’d Sent Mom to the ocean on the other side.
Well, shark scat. I looked around the small dwelling again. A broken bottle lay as a casualty of war on the floor. The telltale scent of red algae that would be my downfall. “Gourami.”
“On your feet, Seren,” Jerthen said, nastiness in every vowel. “For your crimes, you are to be cast out.”
“I think that’s a little overboard, don’t you, Seren?” a male said from the threshold.
My blood froze in my veins. Kenton. He was here. Why the hades was he here?
I got to my feet, each joint and muscle screaming in protest. But I did it. And not a single tear fell from my eyes as pain surged through me. What the masu was wrong with me? I’d never experienced this kind of pain before.
It felt like my muscles were made of rusted metal that stabbed and scratched at me from the inside. Meanwhile, my organs had turned to coral overnight. They sat heavy and brittle within me.
But I pushed it all aside. I tried to, at least. This was the male who had my mother killed. He snuffed out her life in cold blood. I would never allow him to see me weak or broken. Not him.
“Yes, I agree with you, sir.” I dipped my chin. “Thank you.”
He smiled and nodded. “Good. Come with me, my dear. We’ll get all of this sorted.”
“But sir!” Jerthen began.
Kenton raised a hand, silencing the idiot with a single gesture. I almost wished I had that kind of power. I wished I could slice through Kenton with nothing more than a wave of my wrist. Chop him in two and then scatter the pieces.
“I said I will take care of it, Lieutenant. If you would like to bring up the matter, please use the appropriate channels. Your report of this whole incident is required in two hours. Have it ready, or be prepared to answer for failing in your duties at that time.” Kenton placed a cool hand on my back. “Come with me, Seren.”
I walked out of that unfamiliar dwelling and felt like I’d just plunged myself into the Deep with my tail cut off. But I would see it through. I would go on until everyone knew what was being kept secret. No mer would forget that we were being lied to by those who were supposed to protect us.
My belly revolted as a headache took up residence behind my right eye.
“What brought you to my aid, sir?” I asked as Kenton escorted me to the nearest sluice.
“It seems you were busy after I left you.” He looked down at me. His smile was fierce as a great white shark. It was almost as if he scented my blood in the water.
Masu. “I guess it depends on what you consider busy.” Had he found out about the notification outlets and the messages I’d left? If he’d killed my mother so quickly, then it stood to reason that he was already aware.
Walking down the ring, I searched out any messages on the communal spaces. But there was nothing. Not a single notiz had been left. They were clean and clear as the day they were placed.
I blinked. Tried to clear my gaze. Maybe the red last night had left me partially blind?
When I looked again, my heart squeezed in terror as my bones quaked. Scat. He knew. He knew, and he was going to silence me. Just like he had with my mother.
“Oh, I think you know what kind of busy. When I had one of my associates clean up after you, I was surprised to hear that you had alerted almost every Notice Office. That’s quite industrious. But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you made good use of your new free time. Too bad you couldn’t have put that free time to better use.”
We stopped and waited in line to use the sluice. The morning rush of people going about their regular lives hadn’t stopped just because mine had. I hated them just a little for that.
“Where are we going?” I asked as we neared the front of the line.
“To Naval headquarters. We have some more professional matters to attend to.” He braceleted my wrist, squeezed until I felt my bones rub together. “You don’t want to do anything that will make me have to seek you out again, Seren. It will not end well for you.”
I nodded and held still. Maybe if I didn’t provoke him, he would let me go. I might not be a ranked member of His Majesty’s Navy anymore, but I still had friends there. They would support me. They would help protect me.
We went through the sluice. He was waiting for me out in the bigger ocean. His black, emerald, and yellow coloring was distinctive even in the low light out from under the magical sun that illuminated our kingdom. He was a shadow of a shadow.
A chill ran up my spine at the thought. This was not a male I should anger. Considering what Captain Winona had said about him before I left her office the last time, I should have thought longer and harder about going to all of the Notification Offices.
An indignant rage built inside me. If I was subject to the rules of the Navy, then so should he be. And if no one else was brave enough to stand against him, I would do it on my own.
And I would be…as soon as my system settled down. I made a mental note not to drink so much red in the future. It wasn’t worth any of this.
But I pushed it aside. Concentrating all the hateful things this male had done, I focused that nausea into a blazing fire in my heart. By the time we made it to headquarters, I had enough spite and anger inside me to wreck a human ship with nothing but a flick of my hair.
This male was going to answer for what he did. He would answer to the women and men and families of those fallen at the Incident. He would answer to me for taking my mother. This male would pay.
Kenton bypassed the normal sluice I used when I worked here—all of a couple rotations ago. No, he took us up. And up and up. We entered through a sluice near the top of the dome that protected Aiseiri and dropped us into a small holding room that allowed the atmosphere to shift between water and air. For whatever reason, the second shift between mer and biped made my stomach shift and roll. Once again, I bit back the bile.
Coughing to get rid of the acid that threatened to overwhelm me, I cleared my throat. “When did this get installed?” I asked as I followed him down a long hallway I’d never seen before.
“You don’t need to know that information,” he said. He didn’t even bother to turn around and address me directly. Amberjack.
The hall we traversed was full of former colleagues. Some of them were even friends. But as I waved or nodded at each person, I was met with blank stares and confusion. It was as if they didn’t even know who I was anymore.
“A little lonely out on the edge of the Deep, huh?” Kenton asked. A tone in his voice had me looking up at him. Cunning and evil filled his eyes, hardened his body. He waved me through a door I hadn’t noticed. “Right this way.”
Confusion rolled through me. There was no way he could influence that many people in so short a time. He couldn’t have turned all of those friends and coworkers against me. They probably just hadn’t recognized me out of uniform. And I probably looked like a dead fish floating on the surface.
I stepped into the room. My breath backed up in my throat as I saw what laid beyond the threshold. Masu. I was in so much trouble.