Someone kept hitting me in the face. First on the right cheek, then the left. Each slap sent a new wave of pain through my head and neck. When I finally opened my eyes, the darkness of the evening blinded me to my surroundings. I smelled a dense forest interspersed with a slight scent of wet animal. Something moved beside me, but when I tried to turn my head in that direction, I got another slap in the face.
“Enough! I’m awake,” I yelled.
“It’s about time,” grumbled a deep voice that I think belonged to the selkie leader from the bridge. A second later, I was yanked to my feet, the back of my head screaming at me in pain. The force of the hit that knocked me out must have cracked my skull because I felt nauseous and weak. A large pair of arms wrapped around me before I fell back to the ground.
“Move!” he commanded.
I stumbled along a dirt path, tripping over rocks and slipping in the mud. The air was cool but humid, making me believe we were somewhere near water. As if on cue, the distant sound of a rushing waterfall encompassed the evening silence. I popped my head up and toward my left to see if I could find the source, but I saw something much more disturbing instead.
“Daniel?”
Sitting against a tree just a few feet in front of me was my friend. His hands were tied around his back and his head hung at an awkward angle. When I yelled for him again, he stirred, moaning as though he couldn’t speak. I tried to run to him, but the selkie still holding on to me jerked my arms back so quickly the searing pain in my shoulders brought tears to my eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Daniel croaked.
I leaned my head back to try and face my prison guard. “What did you do to him? Where is Brendan?”
If they had Daniel, then they knew where Brendan was. I hoped he was in this forest with us because the alternative was not something that I could even begin to fathom. The man behind me wouldn’t answer and instead continued to push me toward the bank along the river below us.
As I walked past Daniel, the female selkie appeared and I heard her slapping and pushing my friend around. I wanted to do something, but the pain in my skull forced me to focus my efforts on simply not passing out. When we reached the edge of the forest, I saw the waterfall reflecting in the moonlight, and scattered around the large pool were several bodies.
“Ah, she wakes,” someone cooed from the water’s edge.
My captor pushed me toward the embankment causing me to lose my footing and roll down the rough terrain. Thankfully, my hands weren’t bound and I was able to save my head from incurring further damage. Lying in a crumpled mess, I decided not to move until they forced me to. The scenery spun and a headache pulsed behind my eyes. I thought my vision blurred until my brain realized what I was looking at.
“Brendan? No!”
A large seal sprawled out over the rocky beach of the pool, but he didn’t seem to be capable of moving much. One of his large brown eyes rolled up to look at me. The pain in it was evident but what really took my breath away was the look of disappointment.
“How did you…?”
“Find him? Change him?” The man standing on the river’s edge moved closer to Brendan. He was tall but svelte, with dark hair that hung past his shoulders. His bare chest glistened in the moonlight and his jeans hung loosely on his body.
The selkie knelt down and rubbed his hand slowly over my boyfriend’s back. “Your hotel key was in the car.” He looked up at me and shook his head. “Not too difficult to figure out.” Returning his attention back to Brendan he spoke directly to him. “You almost died and I saved you. Now you just need to do one more thing.”
Another body rolled down the bank and slammed into me before I could ask any questions. I recognized his familiar groan, and I struggled to turn and comfort him too. Kain’s face was still battered and bruised and his hands had been tied behind his back like Daniel’s. A piece of cloth shoved in his mouth acted as a makeshift gag. We looked into each other’s eyes for what seemed to be several minutes, hundreds of silent messages passing between us. My heart was breaking into a million pieces. Every single person in my life right now was in danger, and there was no one to blame except for me.
“Do you see that?” The man continued speaking to Brendan. “She will never be yours completely. Our kinds are not meant to mix.”
“Who are you?” I snapped, not thinking he’d give me the courtesy of an answer.
“My name is Julian.”
He stepped over Brendan and walked closer to me. Bending down, he reached out his hand. I hesitantly grabbed it as he assisted me up off the ground. Being this close to Brendan sent shivers through my spine. He was here physically, but mentally I knew he was damaged. It would have taken a lot of energy to transition, especially if he was barely conscious. Something remarkable must have occurred between Brendan and Julian.
“Your selkie will be fine,” he commented upon seeing me look down at my boyfriend.
“How did he change?”
Julian chuckled. “I made him.”
“I…I don’t understand.”
“And you don’t need to,” he chastised me. “He is no longer yours to worry about.” His arm slipped around my shoulder and I did the best I could to dodge his physical contact. Stumbling a few steps away, I turned to face him.
“What do you mean? I love him! He’s with me and I’m going to worry about him until the day I die!”
Julian dismissed me with a wave of his hand. “Yes, well, we’ll just have to see about that.” He walked over to Kain and forcefully pulled him up into a sitting position. “If you want to worry about someone, you should worry about your own kind.”
“Leave him alone!” I yelled.
“Oh, don’t upset yourself, Eviana. My job is to bring him in alive.” Julian stood and looked around the water’s edge. “All of you.”
Confused, I followed his lead and saw Carissa lying several feet away and the female selkie pushing Daniel down the embankment. All of them. All of my friends had been captured.
“What do you want?”
“My master would like to speak with the lot of you. Apparently you have some very important decisions to make.”
I had no idea what he was talking about. The selkies obviously worked for a clan or clan leader, but what I didn’t understand was why a bunch of teenage syrenkas were so important. Wishing I could talk to Kain and find out more about what was really going on, I found myself walking toward him. He sat on his own now, staring up at Julian with a rage I’d never seen from him before. But the gag in his mouth stopped him from saying whatever it was that ran through his mind.
They moved Daniel to the water’s edge next to Carissa. She’d just started to wake up, rubbing the back of her head and wincing with each movement. The two selkies standing guard began to strip out of their clothes, apparently not too concerned with my friends.
“We all need to change,” Julian said.
I just glared at him.
“Come on,” he demanded while pulling Kain to his feet. “We don’t have much time.”
Our remaining captors started poking at each of us. Julian stripped out of his jeans and picked up a seal skin lying on the far side of the water’s edge. I tried to figure out what was going on. Carissa let out a shrill scream and I watched one of the naked selkies try to pull off her blouse.
“Stop! What are you doing to her?” I shrieked.
The selkie attacking her stopped and stared at me with that same dumbfounded look I saw under the bridge. Julian’s head snapped back and forth between the two of us. He arched his eyebrow and the corner of his mouth turned up in a smirk.
“Sebastian, let her change on her own.” Julian spoke to the other selkie, but his gaze never left me. I watched as Sebastian walked toward a large boulder to retrieve his skin, shift into a seal, and dive into the water. He looked at us once, and then swam below the churning surface and disappeared.
“Where did he go?” I asked.
Julian focused his attention back on B
rendan but he still continued to sneak glances my way. “Under the waterfall. It’s where we’re all going.”
With a grunt, he pushed Brendan around so that his head faced the water. Brendan didn’t make any noise, but he also didn’t try to move by himself. I started to walk toward them, but Julian held up his hand to stop me.
“He’s coming with us,” he said as though that would be satisfying. Julian leaned in close to Brendan and whispered something to him for a long time. I was just about to protest, when Brendan grunted and pulled himself into the water. Julian noticed me staring at the empty rocks where Brendan had just been and he snapped his fingers at me. “Let’s go. All of you.”
Julian tossed his skin over his shoulder and began picking up pieces of clothing. Shirts, pants, and shoes were strewn all over the rocky beach like a storm had just washed them ashore. Kain pushed up to his feet but stumbled as though it made him dizzy. Daniel did the same and I immediately went over to help untie my friends. I pulled the gag out of Kain’s mouth first and watched him cough and sputter until his jaw moved normally again.
When Julian noticed what I was doing, I said, “They can’t change like this.” He nodded and continued picking up the clothing of his underlings.
“Do you know what’s happening?” I whispered to Kain while untying his hands.
A small shake of his head was all the answer I got. While I helped Daniel, Kain made his way to Carissa and helped her undress. It was such an intimate moment between the two of them that I had to turn my head so I didn’t react. I knew I’d ruined any chance of Kain and me remaining friends, but I guess there was a part of my heart that ached for him to hold some semblance of a torch for me still. Impossible, I know. But I always wanted to be important to him.
Daniel and I struggled to walk into the water. Julian collected all of our clothes and put them into a waterproof bag. One of the selkie minions allowed him to strap the bag to his back before diving head first into the dark waters. My change was forced and painful, but I tried not to show any outward signs of discomfort. I had to remain strong for my friends.
Carissa and Kain made their way toward the waterfall, followed by Daniel and me. The four remaining selkies, including Julian, pulled on their skins and joined us in the water. One by one they disappeared underneath the surface. The cold water sent shivers through my body, but the fear of what we were going to encounter next chilled me to the bone.
Julian snorted and nodded his head at the falls. I looked up at the sky and the partial moon and wondered if this was going to be the last time I’d see it. The rushing water sprayed us with a mist and that made me think of Abhainn. Not only were we in trouble, but I didn’t know what had happened to him. There was a good chance that after he’d finally found his freedom he’d been captured again, or even worse, killed.
A sharp slap on the surface forced me to turn around. I saw the final glimpse of a mermaid tail retreating into the water and then it was just Julian and me. I wanted to fight him. I wanted to hurt him for what he was doing. But something was telling me to save my strength because we hadn’t even seen the worst of it yet. I got another snort accompanied by a flash of sharp canines as the final warning.
Taking my time, I grabbed a long breath and plunged into the unknowing depths below.