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Skye wasn’t strong enough to keep Thea from ripping Hunter away from her, and Hunter was clearly too weak to defend himself. His eyes were half closed, and he was struggling to keep his head upright.
Thea held Hunter with his back against her chest, her arms wrapped around him, nestling her cheek against his. “I couldn’t be sure how this would play out,” she gloated, “but watching you, watching him die, works to perfection.”
“You can’t let him die,” Skye screamed, prying at Thea’s fingers, which were closed like steel around Hunter’s arms, her arms locked across his chest. Skye tried to get around behind Thea to choke her until she released Hunter, but Thea laughed, swirling playfully around in the water while Hunter’s head bobbed with the momentum.
Skye sobbed with rage, and Thea laughed louder than ever. Then a blur shunted Thea sideways, and Hunter fell from her arms. Jarrod had tackled her, and they spun together in a furious brawl. Skye lunged for Hunter, and holding him close, drew him to the surface.
“Skye,” she heard a shout, and in moments, Ethan and Morgan had pulled Hunter, then her, onto the vessel.
Skye sat in the bottom of the IRB with her arms clasped around Hunter, willing him to live. Ethan already had the first aid kit out and Morgan helped him staunch the wound, her hands shaking, and gently got Skye to lean back so Ethan could wind a bandage around him to hold the dressing on.
Skye couldn’t stop the tears pouring down her cheeks. Her throat ached with them, but no pain was enough to distract her from the pain in her heart and mind. She didn’t register at first that her leg was pressing against her father’s leg. Her friends had propped him as if he was sitting beside her and had closed his eyes. Apart from his dreadful pallor, he could be sleeping. When she saw him, she burst into heaving sobs. Nearby, Morgan sobbed too, and Ethan stifled a choke of grief, even while he tied off Hunter’s bandage.
Then Liam spoke, his voice calm. “This is his fault. That creature there. All of this loss is because of him.”
Skye raised her head and tried to see him through her blurring tears. She realised Liam was talking to her.
“My father is dead,” he said. “Your father is dead. Gina is dead. If he hadn’t come to Bannimor, him and his kind, none of this would have happened.”
Ethan joined Morgan, who had already returned to her seat at the stern of the IRB. Liam moved to sit at the other side of Hunter, staring at him. Dread chilled Skye. “Get away from him.”
“When we helped Thea wipe out her kind, I didn’t realise just how noble a thing we were doing. Ha ha,” he laughed, his voice suddenly high. “Noble!” Then his voice returned to the calm tone he spoke in before. “And my forbear, who cursed them all? Now, that was genius. Wipe them from the face of the earth. Unfortunately, it didn’t take.”
“Liam, get away from him!” Skye ordered thickly, putting her arms around Hunter again and holding him tightly. Ethan and Morgan seemed in shock, looking at Liam as if he was just rambling. Couldn’t they feel this was all wrong?
“When we helped Thea, I learned a few things they might not have intended. I learned Hunter could never control his power. It would come lashing out in moments of pain or anger. I also learned that I have a trick or two of my own. I know about the oaths these sea-spawn made not to commit treason against that lord from way back. Well, killing my father is about as treasonous as it gets. Same blood, right? So, I’m going to call in his marker for him. Let’s release a little power shall we, to amplify the effect?” He punched his fist into the wound in Hunter’s shoulder, working his knuckles into it. Hunter’s eyes flew open, and he screamed in agony.
Skye threw herself at Liam, shoving, punching and scratching at him. But it was as if her blows fell against a force-field. He put his mouth close to Hunter’s ear, but Skye still heard him. “I curse you and all of your kind to be forgotten. My father’s memory will live on with me. I curse you and all of your people to the depths of the ocean forever, just like my dead father. And may you rot there with him.”
Liam exhaled with a wheezy grunt, falling backwards as Ethan rammed his shoulder into him. His apparent invulnerability seemed to have ended with his curse. Then everyone on the vessel went still.
For the space of a heartbeat, there was utter silence, as if the world ceased turning and the sea stopped moving and all things waited. Then a noise like a hundred thousand voices sighing rushed towards them. Wind rolled over them, filled with the sound of whispers, as wide as the ocean, pressing them and the water down as it moved across the surface out across the open sea.
Skye pushed herself back up and stared after it, trembling. The whispering rush had seemed to promise death. She and her companions stared after it until it vanished. Thunder-grey clouds blanketed the horizon, towering up into a haze of rain so high it hadn’t fallen yet. Then, as they looked, a wrinkle creased the horizon in the far-off distance. The wrinkle didn’t seem to move at first. Then she thought perhaps it was a little bigger. Such a small wrinkle, and so far away. But the dread in her heart rose to a clamour. Beside her, Hunter’s weak voice said, “the wave of death.”
“Tsunami,” Skye whispered in horror.
