Sam London didn’t care for surprises. He didn’t even care for the idea of surprise birthday parties. In fact, he made his mother promise to never surprise him with one. The thought of having a bunch of people jump out and scare the living daylights out of the honoree of the party was not appealing in the least. Birthday parties were something to look forward to, not to be lied to about. Of course, there were exceptions to Sam’s surprise aversion, including surprise gifts, treats, and trips to the amusement park. But surprises meant to shock or stun an individual were not his cup of cocoa. Case in point, the surprise he received on the day he returned to Eklund Energy.
Sam London had already torn apart Lief’s master bedroom searching for any clues regarding the energy magnate’s involvement with Maris’s disappearance or the drilling beneath Ta Cathair’s colonies. Unfortunately, he’d had no luck on either of those fronts, so he decided to check on how Tashi and Vance were faring. Approaching the north side of the apartment, he looked ahead to the foyer and saw a puddle of water beside a massive aquarium. Was that puddle there before? he wondered. As he went to take a closer look, he heard two female voices from the other room—one was unfamiliar to him, but the other was definitely Iaira’s. He turned and headed toward the living room. Rounding the corner, he spotted the princess on the couch, staring straight ahead, and a woman standing beside her.
“Sam London, is it?” the woman inquired, but didn’t wait for an answer. “I’m Dr. Hawkins. A pleasure to meet you.” She reached out her hand to shake Sam’s, but he shifted his eyes to Iaira, who appeared to be in a trance.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“Iaira and I were just having a little chat,” Dr. Hawkins explained. Sam’s heart took a trip to his throat.
“Did you just say ‘Iaira’?” Sam asked. How would Hawkins have known that was Pearl’s real name?
The doctor let out a long, slow, menacing laugh, and that was when Sam noticed a trail of water that led from the puddle near the aquarium all the way to the doctor’s feet. He looked back to find that the doctor’s face was now pulsating as she laughed. Her skin bubbled up and began to disappear, as though it were being absorbed back into her body, leaving just a scaly, slimy surface behind. Her eyes moved farther apart across her face, then grew larger into vertical oval shapes that turned yellow as Sam watched in horror.
“Surprise!” Dr. Hawkins said with a monstrous smile. Sam’s eyes turned to saucers. “Mr. London. I want to thank you for all of your help. I will have to kill you, of course. But I did want to express my appreciation.”
Sam didn’t have a weapon to fight off the creature, but he did have reflexes, and quick ones, at that. There was a tall, circular glass table in front of him. It had a large—likely priceless—vase on it. He pushed the table as hard as he could toward the monster, who leapt back to avoid it. The vase and table shattered on the floor, and the noise was enough to snap Iaira from her trance.
She spotted the creature and screamed, “Finfolk!”
“C’mon!” Sam yelled, grabbing Iaira’s hand and pulling her off the couch. They ran toward the study. “We have to warn Vance and Tashi.”
“There’s nowhere to run,” the monster chided with an evil snarl as she stalked after the pair.
When they reached the study, they found Vance and Tashi soaking wet and unconscious on the floor. Their hands and feet were bound in seaweed. Sam could hear the creature walking toward them, her wet webbed feet slapping against the marble floor like suction cups.
“Wake up!” Sam yelled as he shook Vance, but there was no response.
“They can’t help you now,” the monster sneered. She stood in the entryway near the aquarium. Sam and Iaira took off down the other hallway, and the creature tracked them from a parallel hall, effectively blocking their access to the exit. As they reached the south end of the apartment, the finfolk leapt out in front of them. Iaira screamed, and Sam pulled her into the nearest room and slammed the door shut. It was Iaira’s bedroom, and the two began pushing the furniture in front of the door. A nightstand, table, chairs—anything they could find and had the strength to move.
“This is not going to hold that thing!” Iaira cried as a snarl reverberated from the hall. “The finfolk are very strong…and they have magic. We can’t fight it.”
“I know,” Sam told her. “We need a plan.”
“Can we call the police?” she asked.
“And tell them what? We’re being chased by a mythical sea monster? Even if they did come, who knows what that creature is capable of. She could shape-shift and convince them of anything.”
Thwack! The monster banged against the door.
“Come out, and I’ll let one of you live,” she said. “On second thought…” She banged again, but this time the wood splintered and the door buckled. They had a minute, maybe less, before it was curtains for them. Sam quickly scanned the room and spotted a laptop on the desk, and a lightbulb blinked on in his head.
“We need reinforcements. And I know just where to find them.”
Vance Vantana had wrestled a few alligators in his youth, but that was literal and figurative child’s play compared to the creature that pulled him into the aquarium in the Eklund penthouse. Of course, he was caught completely off guard and didn’t have a chance to take in a full breath. Stopping to form gills would have taken him out of the fight completely, so he held what little air he had in his lungs and struggled against the monster in the water—a monster he couldn’t see. The water was so thick with algae and other debris that he was unable to get his eyes on his opponent, but he could certainly feel the beast. Scaly hands were on him, pushing him downward, no doubt expecting him to drown. The doctor felt a rush of water—Tashi dove in to help. But the creature was unfazed by the Guardian’s attempt and grabbed both of them by their necks, before leaping out of the aquarium. The monster landed just outside the tank and threw the two onto the floor like sacks of potatoes. It quickly raised its hands and made a clawing gesture. Vantana felt his body freeze, but the sensation wasn’t like the paralysis he’d experienced with a banshee. That was a neurological seizing up, and this felt like being physically held down by an invisible force.
Vance immediately recognized the creature standing before them as finfolk. They were a legendary race of magical, shape-shifting sea creatures from Orkney mythology. Until this moment he had assumed they had all died out. No one had seen the finfolk for centuries. According to mer-people and selkie history, the creatures disappeared after their defeat at Ta Cathair. But here one stood. The doctor struggled against the enchantment that was keeping him from moving, but to no avail. Tashi was attempting to break free as well, with no luck.
“Human…as weak as all the others of your kind,” the creature said to Vance, before shifting her eyes to Tashi. She appeared amused by the Guardian’s inability to overcome the enchantment. “I expected more from you. But it appears the gryphon did not give you much magical protection. Oh, he made you formidable. Strong and immortal, if the rumors are true. But you can be stopped quite easily.” Vantana instantly recognized her voice as the one on the digital recordings. This creature must have shape-shifted and posed as Iaira’s therapist all this time in order to extract information. Before Vance could say a word, the finfolk suddenly clenched her fists and hissed. Vance’s eyes closed against his will and he lost consciousness.
Vance couldn’t tell how long he had been out, but when he awoke, things had changed—and not for the better. He was sitting on the floor, propped up against the wall of the study. His hands and feet were bound in seaweed, and the creature loomed over him.
“Oh good, you’re awake,” she said in a mocking tone. “I brought you some friends.” Vance glanced to his right to find an alert Sam and Iaira sitting next to him, tied up as well. Tashi was on his other side, also awake.
“Everyone okay?” Vance asked.
“Not exactly,” Sam answered.
“I’m so sorry,” Iaira said. “It was all my fault. All of it.”
“She used dark magic on you, Iaira,” Vance reminded her. “There was nothing you could do.”
“I betrayed my people by abandoning them, and then I betrayed them again by exposing them,” Iaira said.
“You sealed their fate, as well as your own,” the creature remarked with a slimy grin.
“So you’re working with Lief? Helping the very humans you despise?” Vance asked.
“He works for me. Does my bidding. Weak-minded fool,” the finfolk sneered. “When my allies in the oceans told me of your escape from Ta Cathair, I began tracking your movements. I was mere moments away from capturing you when you got caught in that net and those primitives pulled you aboard.”
“I remember it all now,” Iaira said. “I was being chased by something, I didn’t know what. And I raced into the bay but got caught up in the fishing net and hit my head on Lief’s boat, trying to get loose. Then I woke up on the deck. And I remembered who I was. I told Lief, and he promised to return me home and keep my secret. But then—”
“I changed the plan,” the finfolk interjected. “And I saw a need that only the human could fill. Thankfully, you were very forthcoming with the locations of the colonies, and that helped me make Lief a very wealthy man.”
“But you wanted to know about Ta Cathair…and I never told you,” Iaira said. “No matter what you tried, your magic couldn’t get it out of me.”
“Not then, that is true. But it eventually did.”
“What do you mean?” Iaira said, suddenly unnerved. The creature leaned down and ripped the coral pendant necklace off Iaira’s neck.
“The only remnant of your parents’ shipwreck. Your pretend parents, of course. And the pretend shipwreck. You were so sentimental that you never took it off.”
“It was enchanted,” Iaira realized with a heavy sigh.
The monster grinned. “I could hear and see everything.”
“The ships at Atlantis were yours,” Vance concluded.
The finfolk nodded. “I instructed Lief to follow you there, but it was simply the first sacred point. So we kept following until you led us right to Ta Cathair.”
“What will you do, creature?” Tashi asked. “Attack the city single-handedly? Even if you have brethren, your kind was defeated before—you will be defeated again.”
“I don’t think so,” the finfolk replied. “You see, Lief is above Ta Cathair right now, aboard the Pearl. The ship named after you will be the tool of your kingdom’s destruction. I designed it myself. Ironic, don’t you think?”
“The drill,” Sam blurted out. “That’s why you made Lief rich. You needed him to build a ship powerful enough to—”
“Free the Leviathan,” Iaira said, completing Sam’s thought.
“And the drill is moving beneath Ta Cathair as we speak,” the finfolk told them. “The Leviathan will rise up and kill your people. All of your people.”
“Just like you killed Maris?” Vance interjected, baiting the creature.
“Not yet,” she responded. “I kept him alive, just in case he proved useful. But now that you’re here and Ta Cathair is under attack, I can eliminate him. After I eliminate all of you, of course.”
“But the Leviathan can’t be controlled,” Iaira reminded her. “You’ll be dooming the world.”
“I’ll be dooming humanity, and they deserve it,” the finfolk responded angrily. “They pollute our life’s blood, and we must hide and cower? They deserve their destruction. Starting with these two.” The monster moved toward Sam and Vance.
Now, this is quite a pickle, Vance thought. He didn’t have a backup plan. And with Sprite and Penelope on some special errand for Phylassos, there was no cavalry coming. He racked his brain for a way out, but none appeared. The finfolk stood over Vantana and gestured with her hands. The ranger knew a spell being cast when he saw one, and given her recent declaration, it probably wasn’t going to make him more handsome. Sure enough, the air suddenly left his lungs in a whoosh. He felt his chest tighten as though he were being slowly suffocated by a boa constrictor. His body seized up, and the lack of oxygen was no doubt going to turn his brain into jelly. He could feel death closing in, when Sam suddenly cried out.
“Wait!”
The monster paused. Vantana inhaled as much air as he could.
“Kill me first,” the boy demanded.
“Sam!” Vance, Tashi, and Iaira exclaimed all at once.
“I’m serious,” Sam told them. “If we’re all going to die, according to the fish-woman here—”
“Finfolk,” the creature corrected him, irritated.
“Whatever. The point is, I want to go first. I love to go first. I love riding in the front of the roller coaster or being in the front on the log ride at the water park; you know, the one who gets drenched. I even like the first day of school and the first day after vacation. I like it when the teacher calls on me first. I actually try to be the first guest at any party I go to.”
Vantana had gotten to know Sam London well enough to know that he was stalling. But why? What was he waiting for? Was he simply trying to prolong the inevitable, or did he know something Vance didn’t? Whatever the case, the doctor knew when there was a time to pile on, and this was it.
“Now, hold on a minute,” Vance demanded, just as the finfolk had begun to shift toward Sam. “Don’t I get a say in this? I’ve competed my whole life in all kinds of things. From apple-pie-eating contests to bog snorkeling, and I never ever came in second place. I’m not going to start now.”
“How about I kill you both at the same time?” the creature suggested in a huff. She raised her hands again, and Sam interrupted.
“Can I choose?” he asked.
“Choose what?” the finfolk responded, growing increasingly more impatient.
“The way you kill me. Like the method or spell you use.”
“No,” it replied.
“Seriously? I mean, it doesn’t seem like that much to ask,” Sam said. “I’d just like to be able to pick how I bite it.”
“It doesn’t work that way,” the monster said, exasperated.
“Oh, I get it. That’s the only death spell you know,” Sam concluded.
“I think you hit the nail on the head, Sam,” Vance added. “If this finfolk here was an ice cream store, instead of thirty-one flavors on the sign outside, it’d just be a big fat one.”
“Yeah,” Sam chuckled. “A flavor called ‘Lame.’ ” They both laughed. That really upset the creature.
“Shut up and die!” it snarled, and raised its hands, preparing to unleash its magic.
“Finfolk, I too have a question,” Tashi chimed in. The creature eyed the Guardian. “How are you going to kill me, exactly?” Tashi must have spotted Vance and Sam’s strategy and decided to get in on the action, the ranger surmised.
“I haven’t decided,” the monster told her.
“But you have a plan?”
“What does it matter?”
“I am very hard to kill. Perhaps impossible,” Tashi said. “So I was wondering how you would do it. That way, if I knew it wouldn’t work, I could tell you now and we’d save a lot of time on trial and error.”
“Maybe I’ll just keep you as a pet,” the finfolk said.
“She’d make a terrible pet,” Sam told the creature.
“I’d be a great pet,” Tashi retorted, feigning offense.
“She would not,” Sam mouthed to the monster, then said, “But I’d love to take the pet option. Not ideal, but given the choice…”
“I agree,” Vance said. “I’ll take the pet option as well.”
“I wouldn’t mind the pet option,” Iaira chimed in.
“Enough!” the creature exclaimed, now thoroughly annoyed. “There is no pet option!” They all started to vocally complain, but the finfolk was done listening. She raised her hands again, and a swirl of bluish fire began to form on her fingertips. This is it, Vance thought. And then a male voice echoed through the penthouse.
“Hello?”
“Is she here? Do you see her?” a girl’s voice asked. The creature froze and narrowed her big fish eyes.
“Who is that?” she asked with equal parts suspicion and irritation.
“Sounds like we have guests,” Sam remarked with a wry grin.