Wait. There wouldn’t be cell service out in the middle of nowhere. And this sure as hell wasn’t a satellite phone. Those were chunky with an antenna as thick as a magic marker. Roen had had one when she’d first met him on El Corazón. This was an iPhone.
Meaning, she wasn’t on a secluded island?
She decided to try the Emergency button on the phone. After two rings a woman answered. “911 operator. What is your emergency?”
Liv began to bawl. Shane had slipped up for the second time that day. First, he’d underestimated her, and second, he’d forgotten to disable the emergency feature.
And now I’m saved. As that thought crossed her mind, however, she knew deep down inside that she wasn’t. Because if Roen was really gone, her heart would never recover.
“Hi, my name is Liv Stratton. I need help.”
CHAPTER THREE
“Brother, please drink this.” Sitting on the edge of Roen’s extra-large four-post bed, Lyle shoved a nearly empty glass bottle into his limp hand. “I found this hidden in the back of a cupboard.”
“I don’t want it,” Roen grumbled. The agony of his wound had been so fierce that he’d been drifting in and out of consciousness for the last few hours, but part of him welcomed the pain. It was a distraction from his aching heart.
Liv was gone.
“Don’t be a fool,” Lyle grumbled, flipping on the lamp on the nightstand. “It’s not much, but it will heal you and keep you alive. At least for a little while longer.”
“Turn that off. I like the dark.” Roen squinted at the bright light. “And I don’t want to heal. I want to die. Save the water for yourself or one of the men.” The sacred pools inside the Great Hall had run dry days ago. They hadn’t known they were going to get sick, so what little supplies they’d had, they’d given to some of the maids to restore them back to their human state. Sadly, they’d only had enough water on hand to help sixty or so women out of roughly two thousand. Better than nothing, but not nearly good enough.
“The men? What good would this do them?” Lyle asked. “There are almost two hundred lying in their homes dying, praying that you will save them.”
Roen didn’t care. He’d given everything he had to free his people from the sadistic grip of El Corazón, but in the end, he failed. And he’d lost Liv. “Go, brother. Go enjoy your final days of life.”
“Eh-hem,” said a deep voice from the doorway. Roen looked over, across the large bedroom, to find two familiar faces: Holden and Jason. Holden was the island’s doctor, a Harvard grad, actually. Which was shocking when one looked at his pale green eyes and long, wild, curly red hair—so red, it almost matched the color of the cloth he wore around his waist. He looked like one of those peaceful hippy sorts. Except for the large muscles. And until someone messed with him. The man could fight.
Then there was Jason, a tall blond with a bushy beard, black tribal tattoos over most of his body, and a fierce gaze. He looked like he ate kittens for breakfast but was really a foking goof-off—more than usual lately, because he’d been one of the lucky ones. His mate, Amelia, was the first to be transformed back from a maid. Which was why Jason, who’d once been loyal to Shane, pledged his life to Roen.
A lot of foking good it did him. Roen noticed how both men looked fatigued, their normally tall and sturdy bodies sagging and their skin covered in spots.
“Sir?” said Holden, the redheaded man. “I just came by to see if you need your bandages changed.”
“No. Thank you.” Roen winced from the pain and closed his eyes for a moment. “Bandages won’t save me now. Just go home and rest.”
Holden’s pale green eyes blinked with concern. He didn’t like that idea. “I need to care for the men.”
Roen shook his head. Everyone needed to accept what he had. It was over. They lost. Death would bring the freedom he’d been unable to give them all. “What do you and the other doctors on the island believe is happening to us, Holden?” Roen knew that Holden had already spoken to the two other PhDs they had on the island—both had been working in their science center, studying the mermen and the island.
“We’re growing weak, sir,” Holden replied.
“And we’re dying, aren’t we?” Roen asked.
Holden and Jason exchanged glances.
“Answer him,” Lyle prompted, still sitting on the edge of the bed.
Holden took a deep breath. “That’s my best guess at this point, yes.”
Roen closed his eyes for a moment. “Then I thank you for your service,” he whispered. “Now go enjoy your final hours.”
There was a long moment of silence. “Goodbye, Roen. It’s been an honor.” Holden disappeared, but Jason simply stood there.
“What?” Roen grumbled.
“That’s it? You’re just giving up,” Jason said.
Roen sighed. “No. I’m dying. And so are you. Go be with your mate.” None of the women appeared to be sick, but why would they? They were cured and back to their human form. This illness only affected mermen, obviously.
“There has to be something we can do, Roen. I need more time with Amelia.”
Roen tilted his head toward Jason, who’d stepped inside the room. The light from the lamp illuminated the pain in the man’s eyes.
“I’m sorry, Jason. But unless you’re prepared to ask the island for help—something I’m not so sure would work anyway because apparently she’s dying, too—then we’ve reached the end of this journey. And now it’s time for us to take the next one.”
“I wish we simply had more time,” Jason said.
“So do I, but stop wasting what you’ve got left, sitting here speaking with me. Go be with your mate.”
Did he not understand how lucky he was?
“Yes, sir.” Jason turned to leave and then stopped. “Oh, I almost forgot. We searched every inch of the island. The Elders are nowhere to be found.”
Roen had hoped that one of them might know what was happening, but apparently they were gone. Abandoned ship like a bunch of foking rats. That, or they’re dead. However, at least in Naylor’s case, he had to admit how odd that was. Naylor was the oldest, the most loyal to the island. He once told Roen that the island was his home; he would never leave her. A captain who’d proudly sink with his glorious ship. It was a sentiment held by many men who’d followed the island blindly, like cult members. They never questioned the daily rituals honoring her and giving her thanks for their sacred water. They never doubted the logic or motives of killing fellow mermen simply to please her. They never even saw the wrong in collecting human women and bringing them back to the island to serve their own selfish needs. The island had successfully brainwashed so many of them, using their inherent trait of loyalty against them.
Perhaps that was the one good thing coming out of all this: everyone finally saw the truth. The island was not a god, and in the end, they were only left with each other.
“Thank you, Jason. May you find peace,” Roen mumbled, not knowing what else to say. Getting sentimental was not the way of a merman.
Jason gave a quick nod and disappeared.
Lyle immediately let out a growl, his green eyes tinged with fury. “You fucking bastard. You are not going to sit there feeling sorry for yourself and give up like this.”
What does he want? A ceremony to mark the end? A speech? Because short of those two things, there was nothing left for him to do.
“It’s called defeated, not giving up,” Roen said. “The island is dying, Liv is gone, and I have nothing to offer those men. No food. No water. No hope. And to make matters profusely dire, a bunch of crazy asshole humans are now searching for this place and will probably find us.”
It was a long, complicated story, but somehow Liv’s hometown doctor, a woman named Dr. Fuller, had gotten a hold of their sacred water. She’d sent it to a lab for analysis and discovered some rather “peculiar” healing properties that got leaked to the tabloids. The part Roen couldn’t understand was how anyone had tied it back to a “mysterious island
in the North Pacific.” Hundreds of ships were out looking for this place, so it was only a question of time before they found it. All of them. Not even the island herself could fend off that many humans.
Shaking his head of shaggy long brown hair, Lyle stood and placed his hand on his hip. “Roen, you can’t abandon the men when they need you.”
But he could. And it was exactly what he intended to do. He’d already lost huge amounts of blood and those black spots covered most of his body.
“Let me die in peace, Lyle.”
“For fuck’s sake. Die, then, you fucking asshole.” Lyle turned and hobbled from the room. He too was weakening, his skin covered in spots.
Yet another reason for me to go first. The last thing Roen wanted now was to see his little brother die. How much pain can one man bear?
Roen closed his eyes, feeling the pull of darkness and sweet, sweet unconsciousness. He prayed that this time he wouldn’t come back. The pain in his heart and body was too great.
“Your brother is right, you know,” said a soft female voice.
Roen now stood near a great bonfire in the middle of a forest with soaring pine trees. I am on the island, he realized. Only, it looked so different now. Flowers bloomed on every inch of ground—reds, yellows, blues. And the trees were green again.
He glanced over at the fire, where hundreds of luminescent forms danced. He felt so much peace.
Was he finally dead?
“You cannot give up, Roen,” said that female voice again, this time from behind him. He turned and saw the shape of a woman made of pure light. Who was she?
“I want to be with Liv,” he said. “Where is she?”
“She’s on her way.” The woman raised her arm and pushed Roen’s chest.
He fell back, his body falling endlessly toward the ground that wasn’t there. “Liv!” he yelled, grabbing for thin air. “Liv!”
~~~
Wrangell, Alaska
Wearing a hunting blanket around her shoulders, Liv rushed down the plane’s narrow staircase and across the tarmac of the small private airport, to her parents, who waited just outside the one-room terminal building. It was four in the morning and the sun was just coming up, but she easily made out her father’s drooping thin frame wrapped around her mother.
Liv ran all the way, trying not to trip in the large slip-on tennis shoes she’d been given by the rangers who’d found her first.
She reached her parents and threw her arms around them, squeezing as hard as she could. “Oh my God. I missed you guys so much.” Her father broke down and began to cry. “I’m so sorry about all this,” Liv sniffled.
No, it wasn’t her fault, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t sorry. She could only imagine what they’d been through. A few months ago, Liv had been shipwrecked and presumed dead. After that episode, she’d only been home a few months when she and Dana were kidnapped—yes, by Shane—right from her parents’ fortieth wedding anniversary party. She and her sister were then taken by boat to El Corazón, where Shane had planned to lay a formal claim on Liv and take over the island. Dana had simply been a pawn, meant to provide Shane leverage and make Liv obey him. Obviously, none of that worked out and she ended up with Shane in that beach house. Roen and Lyle had thankfully managed to get Dana on a plane home before things got really ugly.
And by really ugly, you mean Roen dying.
Liv pushed back hard on her negative thoughts. You don’t know that. You just don’t. But every ounce of sanity she had left was hanging on by a very tattered thread.
As her parents held her tight, all three of them sobbing, news cameras appeared from nowhere and surrounded them.
Fucking vultures. These people had relentlessly stalked her for over a month after her first rescue. She could only imagine how long they’d camp out in front of her parents’ house this time.
Too bad for them, I’m not sticking around, she thought quickly. Oh, God. How am I going to explain this to my parents? Her first priority, after spending a little time with her family, was finding a way back to El Corazón. Yes, she was going to return, and this time, she probably wouldn’t come home.
Ever.
That place was beyond dangerous because the fucking island was some mysterious being, psycho and sadistic all the way. Of course, the “people” who lived there believed their home was sacred, but Liv suspected the island was just a parasite that fed off the mermen’s power. Whatever the truth, there would be no peace in Liv’s life until she found out what happened to Roen.
Liv pulled away and looked up at her mother, who had the same long brown hair and wide brown eyes as her and her two sisters. “Where’s Dana?” She would’ve expected to see her here.
Her mother opened her mouth, but nothing came out except a heart-wrenching gasp.
Liv immediately looked at her father, who’d removed his thick glasses to dry his eyes. His curly gray hair was ten times whiter than the last time she’d seen him.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to compose himself. Meanwhile, the reporters kept taking their pictures, throwing questions at them: “Who took you, Liv?” “Did they arrest anyone?” “Where is your sister?”
Oh no. “What aren’t you telling me?” Liv feared the worst.
Doing her best to ignore the flurry around them, her mother took a deep breath. “We were hoping you’d know where to look. Don’t you remember anything, Liv? Anything at all?”
“What?” Liv stepped back, covering her mouth. “What do you mean?”
Roen had definitely put Dana on a plane home right before Shane’s men caught Liv and threw her to the maids for dinner.
So then…where the fuck is Dana? Had she stayed on the island?
“No, no, no. This can’t be happening.” Liv covered her face as the cameras kept shining bright lights and taking dozens of photos. “For fuck’s sake, stop it!” she screamed, pushing one photographer back. “Get the hell away from me and my family or I will fucking kill you.”
“Liv!” her mother gasped, and her father pulled her away from the swarm of intruders. “Let’s get you home.” They dragged her into the small terminal and outside to their old gray Subaru parked in the front, shoving her into the backseat.
The reporters were relentless, screaming at her as the car pulled out of the parking lot.
Driving away wouldn’t do any good. Wrangell was a small island and the town was even smaller. There was absolutely nowhere to hide in this place.
Worried as hell, Liv drew a sobering breath, realizing she needed to stay calm if she wanted to find Dana.
Of course, this meant that going back to that hellhole, El Corazón, needed to happen yesterday. Dana had to still be there. Please let her be alive, too. Please. But first, Liv had to get her story straight. She couldn’t tell her parents any more than she’d told the paramedics and the forest rangers who found her just a few hours south of Anchorage. Yes, Anchorage. Far enough away from civilization for Shane to keep her hidden, but close enough that he’d have access to supplies. The new carpet in the hallway should’ve been a dead giveaway that they weren’t too remote. Not like Carpeteria made house calls by dinghy or Shane would’ve laid the carpet himself.
“Mom? Dad?” she said calmly from the backseat. “I’m so sorry, but I don’t know where Dana is. I don’t remember anything. I just…woke up on the beach outside that cabin.”
“Was it the cabin where you were being held?” her mother asked.
“I don’t know. I can’t remember. But when I looked inside, I spotted blood all over the kitchen. Then I saw a cell phone on the counter, so I grabbed it and ran.” That would not give her parents any peace of mind, but her story would be out in the news by now. And the flight attendant on the plane ride home told her that the police had already found the beach house despite Liv’s attempt to misdirect them. She’d had to explain where she’d gotten the phone, but didn’t want them running off and finding Shane’s place containing a rather deadly and hungry mermaid. Regardl
ess of her efforts, however, there weren’t many homes in that area, so they found the house. Just like she’d said, there was blood in the kitchen. Thankfully, the maid had seen to it that there was no body.
Her father turned left down the street where they lived. The reporters were already behind them. “The police said it was some sort of animal blood. They couldn’t say which kind, though.”
That was because it was merman blood.
“We’ll find her,” Liv said quietly, trying to hide her utter panic. “I turned up. She’ll turn up, too.”
Dear Lord, I hope.
CHAPTER FOUR
After a few hours with her parents, where she was re-interviewed by the state police, who still had a manhunt going for Dana, Liv borrowed her mother’s laptop and went into her room. She tried not to think about how she’d just lied to the world, to the very people who were trying to help, and to her own family. But what other choice was there? Send them all to El Corazón?
Sitting in her room and scrolling through news articles, Liv chewed on her thumbnail. Where was the island? How could she get there? It wasn’t too far from where she’d been rescued the first time by a cargo ship that belonged to Roen. Someone had to know where that spot was, like the captain of that ship.
She would call Roen’s office as soon as they opened in a few hours. No, no one there knew about her relationship with the boss, but they knew who she was. Maybe she’d tell them she was writing a book about being lost at sea.
Fiction, of course. Because her story had tailless mermen in it.
She then did a quick search for any news having to do with Roen, hoping there might be something, anything to indicate he was alive.
Nothing.
He’s not dead, Liv. He’s not dead and neither is Dana.
So how would she be getting back to that island? An island normal people couldn’t see unless one was physically right on top of it because the place was alive and had some sort of ability to camouflage itself. And if she managed to get there, what would she do? She was no match for the men who lived there.