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Thea watched Liam stride towards the buildings beyond the beach. Resentment at the ease in which humans moved between worlds, treating hers as recreation, burned. Until they got out of their depth. Then it was a different story.
Had it worked? Would this incredible throwback do her bidding? The boy looked back towards where she watched. Finding him changed everything, but only if he returned with Hunter. She could hardly believe her luck.
When Liam vanished from sight, Thea sank away. She was counting on his hatred. Nothing was as strong as hate, not even love. Unless it was a combination of those two. Then, it was lethal. She gloated at the delicious perfection of it all. How incredibly well the pieces were moving into place. She couldn’t have planned it better.
It would not be the first time she had wielded the powers of others. She had played on the Seers’ dark pride, driving them towards treason, pointing them to Hunter as the essential conduit. No one knew - not the long-dead Seers, not Jarrod, and not even Hunter - that she had been behind it all. And no one need know. Now it was winner take all; losers, die.
Her descent led her among sleek shapes moving through the waters of the bay, silent and smooth as shadows. A shiver of sharks, so common at dusk, lingered into the night, passing slowly along the deep contour of the beach. How often she had observed foolhardy swimmers, frolicking barely a touch away from predators of more than one kind.
Her ominous silent companions paid her no heed. Oblivious to her, they swung away from the shore, disappearing into the dark sea.
She had no worry for her two guests waiting below. Under her Mesmer they were all but invisible to sharks, and in no danger. ...Not from sharks anyway. She smiled as the dark short-cropped heads came into view. So...sweet. She had unfinished business, with one at least.
