“HOSTAGE?” CETO TAPPED HER FINGERNAILS AGAINST HER
lip, her tails now alternating between red and orange.
Well, at least Angel had brought the threat level down. A red tail wasn’t much of an improvement, but it beat black. A black sea-monster tail was never good.
“You know, that could work.” Ceto started circling her. “Although I did try that with your brother, but he and his Human managed to get away.”
Angel had heard the story enough times that she knew it by heart. She also knew she was signing her own death warrant by saying what she was about to, but she had to do this to save the men she loved.
“You put Erica in a regular room, Ceto, not a cell.
She was able to get out and free Reel.”
“Yeah, who knew a Human had that many smarts?” Ceto’s tails flared, then went back to being black. “I’ll never make that mistake again. I had a new bedchamber specially made when The Council and I hammered out the deal about Joey. He hasn’t gone anywhere.”
According to Erica, Joey’s ex-girlfriend and Reel’s wife, it wasn’t a surprise that Joey hadn’t, nor, frankly, anything to be upset about.
“So, you’re suggesting I hold you for ransom until The Council permits me to procreate again?” A sooth-ing aquamarine color panned across Ceto’s tails, and her
curls relaxed to soft ringlets around her shoulders. The sea monster almost looked pretty.
Then she turned sharply and the curls sprang back into tight coils, the tails went dark purple, and her eyes narrowed. “How long do you think that’s going to take? Rod is one stubborn Son-of-a-Mer and I’m not exactly a fan of having another female around.”
“I’m sure Rod will want to meet with you as soon as he learns what’s happened, Ceto. But you have to let Logan and Michael go. What’s one child in the face of being allowed to have as many as you want again?”
This time, when everything softened on the sea mon-ster, she did look pretty. “Oh, to hold one again, to feel its soft, cuddly body against me.” She smiled, and for the first time since Angel had known her, it reached her eyes. “There’s nothing like it. Nothing at all. Their un-conditional love…”
She sighed, and her tails turned the palest shades of pink and blue. “Children are one of the things the gods have managed to do right. They don’t judge you or care what you look like or what other people think. Everything is new through their eyes, everything such a wonder and so exciting. Anything is possible. They bring such hope. Hope for a better world. Hope that you can do some good yourself, you know? That you can love them and guide them, then set them forth in the world to carry a part of you with them, biologically or otherwise. They have the possibility to do and become so much. To touch others.” She leaned back against the stage, her flukes fluttering. “There’s nothing like having a child, Angel. Nothing at all.”
Ceto closed her eyes, and her arms cradled an
imaginary infant, and for a moment, Angel felt sorry for her.
“But those bastards took that away from me.” There went that moment.
Ceto’s eyes flew open as her tail turned as black as the deepest part of the deepest ocean, her eyes as hard as cooled magma, and her hair as twisted as any whirlpool she’d ever spun in her Bermuda-Triangle mood.
“Yes, I do think your ransom idea has merit, Angel.” “So you’ll let them go?”
“Let them go? Come on, Angel, I may be a softie when it comes to children, but I’m not stupid. The only way to ensure your compliance is to keep them locked away. Once I get what I want, you can have what you want. If I don’t get it, well then sorry, you don’t either.”
“You old bitch—” Angel lunged toward Ceto, but at that moment a tiger shark zipped into the room.
“My Goddess! It’s Brutus. He’s been knifed!” The shark was practically in a frenzy.
“Knifed?” Ceto growled.
Knifed? Angel felt a glimmer of hope. That’s what Logan had grabbed from his tackle box.
“Yes. In the corridor. And the prisoner has escaped with your child.”
Escaped! They were free! Angel wanted to twirl, she was so giddy.
And then suddenly, she was twirling. Only this time, it wasn’t because she was giddy.
No, this time, it was all Ceto’s doing.
Q
Logan heard Michael’s squeals of laughter as the dol-phins carried him toward land. Thank God his son didn’t have a clue about what he’d just gone through. He should come out of this unscathed.
Provided his father could bring Angel—and himself—back.
He was halfway to Ceto’s palace when the first rumble shook the sea.
Two more kicks, and the dolphins who’d gone ahead of him reappeared. “Human, we have to evacuate!”
“Evacuate? Are you crazy? She’s still there!” “There’s nothing you can do. You have to come with us!
That was Ceto and you have no idea what she’s capable of!” The captain motioned toward the surface. “Come on!”
“But Angel—”
“The princess is fully aware of what’s happening down there. There’s nothing more you can do for her.” Another rumble sounded, and the water began churning. “Human, you don’t have much time. You’ve heard the stories about the Triangle?” Logan nodded. “Well, now you’re seeing it in action. We need to go now if we hope to outswim it. Hold onto my dorsal and I’ll get you
out of here.”
Logan stared at the palace, then at the dolphin. The calm captain had a wild look in her eye… and Michael was still in the water.
He had no other choice.
He reached out for the captain’s fin. “Let’s go.”
The dolphin kicked them toward the surface, angling back toward the coast as another rumble sped through the sea, this time bringing the water with it and circling around on itself.
The beginnings of a giant whirlpool.
They cleared the surface then, and another dolphin swam up next to the captain. “Hang on to me, too!” he called and they took off with Logan between them.
Logan couldn’t look back. He’d failed her. She’d given up so much for him and Michael and he hadn’t been able to save her.
What was he going to tell Michael? How would his son deal with this? How would he?