Tempest! Help me! Mahina’s terrified scream drew me back to the dilemma at hand. And while part of me wanted to rush to that ship to try and save as many people as I could, the logical part told me I was going to be too late. They were a couple miles away and sinking fast. Better to concentrate on saving the person I knew could be saved.
Having learned from last time, I started blasting away at the chains with electricity, trying to heat them enough to be able to stretch out the links. But these weren’t old iron chains. They were silver and shiny and looked like they could withstand that nuclear blast Mahina had been so interested in a few minutes ago.
Tempest, please!
I’m trying!
She was sinking fast and I was keeping up with her, blasting away at the chains with more and more power. Electricity, energy pulses, even telekinesis. But nothing was working.
Look out! Mahina screamed suddenly, and I whirled around to see two new silver chains circling us. Turisas, the octopus monster, knew I was here and was fishing for me this time, as determined to get me as I was to stay away from him.
But it was hard to concentrate on Mahina while I was trying to stay away from the chains. As I tried, we went deeper and deeper, until the fence around Kona’s territory began coming into view. And terrifying as that was, what was even worse was the fact that we were coming in right inside the fence. Which meant, if this was set up like Coral Straits, we were about to run into an electric net, one that would fry us in only a few seconds.
The thought had barely crossed my mind when the ship lit up like Times Square. Things started exploding off of it, and within a couple minutes I watched as the ship began breaking apart. Cargo containers hit the ocean, then the net. Sizzled. Broke open. Sizzled some more. Dumped their contents.
Within seconds, the ocean floor was littered with everything from cars to bananas.
Mahina looked at me, horrified, and I knew exactly what she was thinking. If the fence could do that to hunks of metal, what exactly could it do to us?
Do something! she screamed.
I stared from the chains to the net. If I couldn’t break the chains, maybe I could rip the net apart. It was certainly under a lot of stress right now, seeing as it was supporting a massive cargo ship and all of its contents.
Focusing on the net, I imagined in my head what it would look like unraveled. Little pieces of the squares slowly unwinding. Splitting down the middle. Making a hole right beneath Mahina and me.
Oh my God! It’s working. Whatever you’re doing, it’s—
I held a hand up to cut her off. I needed to think, to concentrate, and I couldn’t do that with her screaming inside my head. I kept picturing the strings unraveling, creating a bigger and bigger hole. Not cargo ship big, of course, but big enough for Mahina and me to pass through without worrying about our hair being fried.
Only, as we got closer, I realized I had made a huge mistake. As long as the net was closed, the circuit was complete. But now that I had opened it, broken some of the connections, electricity was exploding into the water, sending shocks out that made what I could do look like child’s play. In trying to help, I had doomed us to almost certain death.
I looked around wildly, tried to find something that might work to blunt the impact of the electricity. But we were in the middle of the ocean. There was nothing—nothing except the cargo ship, that is. And its contents.
An idea, just outlandish enough to work, came to me. Without bothering to explain to Mahina, I dove for the ocean floor.
Tempest! she screamed after me, but I didn’t have time to explain. I latched on to one of the SUVs that had busted out of the ship’s container and blasted it hard enough that its tires flew off, which was exactly what I was going for. Then I hit the tires with a strong enough energy pulse to rip them away from the wheel base. They started deflating, but I didn’t care. I just needed the rubber.
I grabbed all four of them, half floating, half carrying them over to Mahina, who was way too close to getting electrocuted for anybody’s peace of mind. Ripping off my backpack, then hers, I let them both sink to the ocean floor. Then I looped two tires over her head and did the same to mine, scrunching inside of them the best I could. I let loose with a huge telekinetic push, one that knocked everything away from us—net, electricity, even the water itself.
We freefell through the net.
The water was back before we hit the ground, but it was still a rough landing. Mahina, still chained, landed on top of me in a tangle of limbs and tires. I scrambled out from beneath her, shedding the tires as I went. Once free, I whirled around, looking for Turisas or the Leviathan or Tiamat herself.
No one was there, which should have reassured me but ended up only freaking me out more. I knew I was being watched and I couldn’t stand feeling like I was a bug in a glass jar. Or worse, one that was about to be smooshed and didn’t even see it coming.
I helped Mahina to her feet, lifted the tires off of her, then squatted to get a better look at the shiny chains around her ankles. I wasn’t sure what that shininess meant. Were we dealing with something completely different than Tarisus here, or had he been forced to upgrade when I ruined his fishing line?
What do we do now? whispered Mahina. I’m trussed up like a swordfish on a big game weekend and even you can’t do this alone.
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. I was too busy looking at the wreckage of a small pleasure cruiser only a few hundred feet away. I couldn’t be sure until I actually saw its name, but it looked an awful lot like the boat Kona and Mark had been on. If it was here and wrecked and they were nowhere around …
My blood froze in my veins, and for long seconds I couldn’t move, couldn’t think. And then I was rushing to it, forgetting Tiamat, forgetting safety, forgetting everything but my terror that they were in there. That they were dead.
I’ll be right back, I told Mahina.
Just find them, Tempest. I could feel her horror, nearly as overwhelming as my own.
I darted inside the wreckage, searching for any sign of Mark or Kona. My heart stopped as I ran across a body, a guy with blond hair dressed in blue board shorts. Omigod, omigod, omigod, omigod. I didn’t want to look. I couldn’t look. I was terrified it was Mark.
It was my turn to scream, a high-pitched, keening sound that probably carried for miles down here, since I couldn’t think well enough to shield it.
I approached the body slowly. I had to know, had to see if it was Mark, but at the same time I was terrified of what I would find. Omigod. Please, please, please. Please.
The body was semifloating, stopped from going higher by the top of the yacht. Though it nearly killed me to do it, I swam under, doing my best to get a look at the face. And that’s when I saw it. A huge, gray tribal tattoo that spanned most of the man’s chest, right above a huge gash that went straight to his heart. Not Mark. One of Kona’s guards instead. Andres, I believed his name was.
Nearly sick with relief, which made me feel like a terrible human being, I started to explore the rest of the wreckage. If there was one body here, it was likely there was more, and I needed to be sure that I hadn’t missed them. That I wasn’t leaving Mark and Kona in a watery grave.
As I swam through the narrow confines of the ship, I found four more bodies. Four more of Kona’s selkies dead at the hands of one of Tiamat’s minions. The place all but vibrated with dark power, the wounds they carried not made by a simple boat crash. There was no trace of him, however, or Mark, and I didn’t know if that should scare me or make me feel better.