Abraham paced outside his cabin as he watched the pumpkin-orange sky slip into twilight. It wasn’t unusual for Kai to disappear during the day, but by now she would be back home. He hadn’t seen a trace of her all day, not since she’d woken up with her nightmare the night before.
Not to mention he had the uncanny sensation of cool water caressing his skin. He shivered for most of the day in the Minnesota heat and humidity. It was bad enough for him to skip his training. This was not the time for him to come down with something. He had a big fight coming up with the Loch Ness Monster no less.
He looked up to see Josiah striding across the camp toward him. He rolled his eyes. He wasn’t in the mood for his brother’s shit.
“What do you want, Joe?” Abraham demanded.
Josiah stopped and shrugged. “You look bothered. I came to see if something was wrong,”
“I’m great.”
“Really?”
Abraham looked away in silence. Josiah continued. “Look, I hear you. I’ve been too much of a hardass on you and I’m sorry. I’ve been so afraid of you growing up I missed when you did. You got stuck with the most difficult mate of them all and you are handling it all so well.”
Abraham let a weak laugh escape his throat. “I’m not so sure about that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Kai should be back by now. She’s not.”
“Do you want me to go help you look for her?”
Before Abraham could answer, they heard a high-pitched scream come from Momma’s cabin. They glanced at each other before they sprinted across the camp. Neither stopped until they were standing in her living room. Before long the other four filed in behind them along with a couple of the mates.
She stood in the doorway of her bedroom with her jewelry box in her hands. “It’s gone.”
“What’s gone, Momma?” Josiah questioned.
“The amulet. I wanted to look at it. It might not be real but it looks exactly the same. It’s not here.” She held the box out to him.
“Shit,” Josiah muttered under his breath. “The vamps got to us. And none of us knew it.”
“How?” Micah countered. “It’s been daylight. As far as I know, they can’t get here. Did you look at it before you went to bed, Momma?”
“Yes,” she answered.
“Then the floodlights didn’t work,” Josiah remarked with a growl.
“They work, Joe,” Micah confirmed. “I tripped the motherfuckers on accident last night. Sorry for the language, Momma. And they would have killed us.”
Abraham stared at the box in Momma’s hand as he thought. His heart plummeted into his gut. Kai was gone and hadn’t come home yet. The imitation amulet, the one he busted her trying to steal, was gone too. Maybe it was the weird cool wave constantly washing over him but it didn’t seem like a coincidence.
“Check the bag,” he murmured.
“Check what, dumbass?” Caleb demanded.
Abraham glared at Caleb as he blinked back sudden tears. “Check the bag in the gym. We need to make sure we still have the real one.”
“Why wouldn’t we, Abraham?” Josiah asked.
Abraham sighed. He could hear Ezekiel behind him mutter, “Dude.”
Abraham sucked in a hard breath and confessed. “I caught Kai in here yesterday trying to steal the fake. Like the stupid ass I am I showed her where the real one is. I thought I could trust her. She said she loved me. Fuck, I am such an idiot.”
Josiah’s gaze never left him as he spoke. “Mike.”
Micah nodded. “I’m on it. Josh, Cay, come with me. I’ll need your help to get it down.”
The room was silent when the men left and it seemed to take an eternity for them to get back. Josiah’s countenance darkened as he glared at Abraham. For the first time Josiah had admitted that he was being too overbearing. Abraham thought he might be able to finally have a friendship with his oldest brother instead of Josiah riding his ass every moment. After this, he’d be lucky if he ever made it out of his cabin before he died. He couldn’t stop a tear or two from slipping down his cheeks, but he wasn’t about to wipe them away. For some reason to him it showed weakness and he was sick of being thought of as weak.
Micah stepped into the dim room with Joshua and Caleb on his heels. He glanced at Abraham and Josiah. He held up his fist and opened his palm. Inside his hand was nestled the amulet.
“Is it the real one?” Josiah queried.
“Oh, yeah. The little fucker is humming up a storm. I don’t think it likes the punching bag much.”
“It’s because we hit the punching bag every day,” Ezekiel replied with a snort of a laugh.
“Okay, we’ll put that back.” Josiah nodded toward the necklace in Micah’s hand. Then he looked back at Abraham. His face softened. “All we know is someone stole the fake. We don’t know who.”
“I know who,” Abraham retorted. He gave up and swiped his damp cheeks with the back of his hand.
“Eternal bond, Abe,” Micah reminded. “She’ll be back. She has no choice.”
Abraham turned and growled at him. “Did you miss what I said? She said she loved me. I believed her but she lied. She only said it to get me to drop my guard so she could take off with the amulet.”
He felt a pudgy hand rub his arm tenderly. His mother’s soft voice didn’t comfort him. “Oh, sweetheart.”
“The fake, Abe. You said you showed her where the real one is. She left it. I can’t tell you why she did what she did but I can tell you this. If she really wanted to betray you, she would have taken the real one instead,” Caleb told him. “Believe me, I know what it feels like to think the woman you love betrayed you. I know what it’s like to hate the curse because you think it failed you. Give it and Kai the benefit of the doubt. You have to.”
Abraham shrugged. “I just need to get out of here. I need to go back to my cabin, crawl under the covers, and just die there.”
Micah closed the amulet in his hand again and crossed his arms over his broad chest. “Or you train.”
Abraham felt his temper rise. “Excuse me?”
Micah cocked his head. “Hate to break the bad news, little bro. You have a fight and it’s a big one. It’ll be here before you know it. And trust me.” He unwound his arms and pointed to the others in the room. “Everyone in this room but Zeke and Josh have been in your shoes. And we dragged ourselves to the gym instead of hiding from the world in our bed. And it made us feel better. Get your anger out. We’re there for you, Abraham.”
“No amount of training will bring Kai back.” The realization of the words struck Abraham as he said them. She’d left him. She had to have. He tried to swallow back a sob but it didn’t work. Before he could take a step in retreat from his brothers, he felt a strong pair of arms grab him and pull him close. His face struck a solid chest. He didn’t have to look up to see who held him. He knew the shirt and jeans. It was the only Hallow who typically didn’t dress as a fighter because he was their coach. And it was the first time since Papa’s death that Josiah hugged him like that.
He let go and cried into Josiah’s chest as other hands reached out to pat his head, back, and shoulders. The only words out of all of them were whispered into his ear by his oldest brother. “Have faith in her. You’ll see.”
»»•««
It took several days but the crystal glimmer of the palace finally came into view. Kai was relieved to see the towers in the distance. She didn’t rest much on the journey and her body ached in a way she had never felt before. It was as if the farther away she swam from Abraham, the more it hurt. It wasn’t her heartbreak, even though she had to admit being away from him was hell.
The sooner this was over, the better.
Courtiers scurried ahead of her when she crossed the threshold of the door. They never took off to announce her arrival like this before. This whole mission must have been a big deal to Neptune.
She just hoped she kept the deception up long enough to free her family and get the hell out of there.
The throne room was overflowing into the corridor when she reached it. The merfolk parted to give her a clear path to Neptune. She scanned the crowd for her parents and siblings.
“Kai, you’ve returned,” Neptune announced from his throne.
Kai stopped short and scowled at him. For all the time he had been monarch of the creatures that called the ocean home, he was larger than life to her. But now he was just a petulant child with an over-inflated ego and human envy. “Where is my family?”
“Where is my amulet?” he countered.
“I asked first, Neptune.”
He cocked his head at her but didn’t look amused. “Neptune? You’ve adopted Josiah Hallow’s name for me. The beasts have rubbed off on you. No matter. You are home now.” He motioned to the guards. “Fetch her family. Now.”
Kai tried not to fidget as the entire palace waited in silence. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Azul, Bligh, and Gannet flank her on either side. She sighed. Shit. The three of them were devoted to Neptune. They’d never let her escape.
The entire chamber gasped as the guards returned with Kai’s family bound between them. Some of Neptune’s messages had been true. The evidence of his abuse was clear all over their scales.
“They are here,” he announced. “Bring me the amulet.”
“Release them,” Kai told him. She had no idea where her courage had come to face him like this, but at the moment, she wasn’t questioning it. “Set them free.”
“You will obey me now, Kai,” Neptune commanded, his scaly face tinging red in rage.
“I have the amulet, Neptune. If you want it, free them.”
She could hear him huff from all the way across the cavernous throne room. With a flick of his wrist, he ordered her family set free. They left a wake as they swam to her.
“Kai, you never should have returned,” her father muttered.
She looked him in the eyes, locking her gaze with his. “Run. Don’t look back and don’t wait for me. Run until you are far, far away from these waters. Find sanctuary. Go. I’ll be fine.”
She waited for them to disappear from the room before she resumed her path to the throne. She opened her fist and dropped the counterfeit amulet onto Neptune’s hand.
He lifted it to examine it with a smile. “Very good, Kai. Now, return to your chambers. You will find me a way to conquer the land without the magician, including overthrowing that dolt Loch. I don’t care what arrangement I made with him. You are mine. I will even take you tainted by that werewolf.”
Kai had spent her entire journey back rehearsing her escape. She had it down to the letter. She would return to her room and run when the guards changed at the end of the day.
But her lips opened and words that were not her own came from her mouth. A force possessed her fins and swam slowly away from him.
“No can do,” she announced. “My mate is waiting for me and I don’t want to be away from him any longer. Oh, could you be a doll and let Loch know that Abe will meet at him at the veterans hall in two weeks? And he should be prepared to have his ass kicked.”
The collective gasp from those in the throne room could have sucked the oxygen out of the water. Neptune rose up and roared. “The Hallows are alive?”
Kai smiled at him. “You didn’t see my reality. You saw my vision. Yes, the Hallows are very much alive and they’re waiting for me.”
“You would choose that mongrel over me?”
The words came forth, even though Kai tried to stop them. It wasn’t as if they were a lie. She meant every one. But Neptune was cruel and vindictive. This wouldn’t end well for her. “Yes. Do you want to know why? With him I’m free. I’m not his subject to do his bidding. I’m his lover to stand beside him. Now, if you’ll excuse me, my family needs me.”
Neptune brandished the trident in his hand. “If you’re so fascinated with the Hallows, maybe you should be just like them.”
She saw the lightning shard leave the forks of his weapon just before it hit her. Her scales tumbled to the ground like broken glass. The water burned her throat and lungs. It was frigid on her skin as it caressed her. She clasped her throat as she struggled to breathe. Below her hands she caught a glimpse of toes instead of fins.
Kai could hear Neptune’s laughter through muffled ears. Then there was no noise. A force on either side of her ripped her backward as it sped her out of the throne room, through the palace and outside the courtyard. Flashes of light streaked past her from the ornate building.
She stared into Gannet’s eyes moments before one struck him dead. His lifeless body floated away as they raced through the water. The current bruised her skin. Her vision grew dark. She couldn’t suck in a breath.
Then everything went black.
»»•««
Abraham ducked beneath a low-lying branch as he huffed a breath. He didn’t want to go on a jog. He didn’t want to do anything but curl up under the covers and die. His brothers never gave him a minute alone to do that, though. They forced him to train. They forced him to cook. They forced him to do mundane things like fish or talk. The only moments he had to himself were during his shift in the office and he couldn’t block out the world and sulk if he wanted to get paid.
He wasn’t even allowed to jog alone as he scowled at the low-level buzz in his ear. It wasn’t an annoying bug but instead Caleb driving Abraham’s motorbike to keep him on pace. And by the hooting and hollering going on behind Abraham, he’d be lucky if he still had a motorbike when they were done.
He breathed a sigh of relief when the camp appeared through the trees. He picked up his pace for the last ascent up the hard dirt path. A few more feet and he could take a shower and take a few minutes to wallow in his misery.
It had been nine days since Kai had disappeared. He missed her so much it physically hurt. He went on these runs to search the forest for her. He was terrified she might be hurt, or worse, dead. But he couldn’t deny his brothers’ logic. The mermaid possessed magic. If the wild creatures of the forest hadn’t been able to harm her to this point, they never would.
That only meant one thing. She left him high and dry with a broken heart and a fight against her betrothed in a few weeks. Even if he was able to beat the shit out of Loch, it wouldn’t change anything. Kai had made her feelings for him clear. She didn’t want to be with him.
Not to mention the strange cool sensation on his skin that appeared shortly after she’d left was about to drive him batshit crazy. It was high time the world just left him alone.
Abraham slowed his steps as he reached the middle of the camp. He bent at the waist and panted as he shot a backward glance through his sweat-soaked legs. Caleb managed to chew up a fair about of ground before he parked the bike and shut it off. Asshole.
He slowly straightened as he heard footsteps approach. Josiah strode toward him with Micah on his heels. “How was the run?” he asked.
“Tiring,” Abraham answered and swallowed hard. “When I catch my breath, I’m going to take a shower.”
“Seems pointless,” Josiah commented. “You’re just going to get sweaty sparring with Zeke.”
“Look, Joe. I appreciate what you guys are doing. Really I do. But I just need some time. She ripped my fucking heart out of…”
His words were cut off by the sensation of this throat burning. It felt as if his lungs were full of something, but he had no idea what. He coughed violently. Nothing inside loosened.
He struggled to suck in a breath but nothing happened. He wrapped his long fingers around his throat as he sunk to his knees. Everything dimmed as he tried to breathe.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and heard Josiah’s voice. “Abe, what’s going on?”
Abraham shook his head as he coughed again. His head swam as he focused his concentration on his lungs. In. Out. In. Out. But they weren’t cooperating with his commands.
“Fuck, get a car ready. We got to get him to the hospital,” Micah demanded.
“He can’t breathe. He won’t make it,” Josiah answered. “Lay back, Abe. Stay with me, kid.”
Abraham did as he was told but lying back only made the pressure building inside him worse. He rolled to his belly and gagged into the grass. Through the fog he could hear his mother wail.
Everything around him grew darker as he struggled to stay awake. The whole scene before him went black and lightened a bit. His body felt weightless. He could hear the sobs around him, some light and some deep. There he was dying in the grass and his family was forced to watch without being able to stop it.
His lungs opened up wide with a rush of air. Abraham inhaled sharply and as deep as he could. The scent of grass hit him like a brick. It brought on a coughing fit but it didn’t matter. Whatever it was that tried to smother him was gone.
He braced his hands beneath him but was too weak to push himself off the ground. Hands gripped his arms and lifted him. Seconds later, he was being suffocated again. By the frumpy curves of what he was propped up against he could tell that this time it was by his mother.
“Momma, we need to get him to Noah,” Josiah consoled.
Abraham could hear her voice catch. “I know how to take care of my baby.”
“He needs medical equipment if this happens again. You can ride with him.”
“Joe, I’m fine,” Abraham protested. He could hardly make out his own voice.
“Bullshit you are. You were blue, Abe,” Josiah answered. “You scared us all shitless. We’re not ready to lose you.”
“We’ll take him and Momma in Meg’s sedan,” Caleb added.
“Give me the keys,” Josiah replied. “You drive like a bat out of hell.”
“I’m an asshole but I’m not that much an asshole. I just watched him almost die. I won’t let that happen again.”
Abraham’s vision cleared a little more as he was tugged from his mother’s grasp and lifted to his feet. He made out Micah on one side of him and Joshua on the other. They hurried across the camp to Meg’s car. Once he and Momma were settled in the back seat, the door was slammed shut. His stomach lurched as someone floored it and plunged into the forest.
His senses became clearer the farther they sped down the road. Momma cuddled him close in her pudgy arms and sang him the lullabies she’d performed when he was a baby. Her voice soothed the terror in his heart. Nothing like this had ever happened to him. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d gotten a sniffle.
If there was any silver lining in this, it was he no longer felt that cold rush over his skin anymore. The attack he’d gone through must have scared it out of his system.
The hospital was just a little distorted when Caleb screeched to a halt in front of it. Moments later, he threw open the back door and reached in for Abraham. Abraham tried to shake him off as he stumbled to his feet. He had some of his strength back. He could walk himself in.
The strong arms that wrapped around him like a vise told him different. He relented and let them carry his weight into the building.
Noah, Littlefoot’s nephew and the Hallows’ doctor, met them inside the door and led them to a far corner of the hospital. Abraham could hear his voice but barely made out his face. “Mike called and explained. We’ll get you settled in, Abe. I want you here for the night. We’ll run tests and try to figure out what happened.”
“Fantastic,” Abraham grumbled.
Noah held the room door open to let them inside. His brothers set Abraham on the bed and backed away. Meg stepped up to him and nudged his legs onto the thin mattress. She tucked the blankets around him.
“Did you eat anything before this happened?” Noah questioned. “Did you do anything out of the ordinary?”
“Nothing,” Abraham answered.
“What happened when you couldn’t breathe?”
“Nothing. It suddenly felt like my lungs were full. I didn’t eat anything. I didn’t drink anything. I just finished running. That was it.”
Noah rubbed his chin. “Huh. I’m going to put you on oxygen, run a blood panel, and look for toxins. And I’m going to run an allergy test. In the meantime, I’m going to get fluids into you. It’s not the normal symptoms of dehydration but I want to eliminate any possible causes. I’ll send one of my sisters in to set up the IV and draw the blood. Then you need to get some sleep.”
Abraham’s thoughts fled to Kai. Maybe Josiah was right. While Abraham was training, he wasn’t thinking of her. Now that he was stuck in bed she was all he could think about.
“Doubt sleep is going to happen,” he grumbled as he dug himself deeper into his pillows.