KARMA OF SIREN - EPISODE 1
Chapter 1
Satu Kingdom - distant past
Nepolymbus was politically united, but it wasn’t at peace. Spiritually, its citizens were not at all united. And they would be in the midst of unimaginable chaos if Pearl failed to do what she planned to do here in the witch land.
She dismounted the seahorse. Sam did the same and came to stand by her side. In front of them was the entrance to Black Corals’ territory. Black vines crawled across the ground and wrapped around stone coral, and strange vegetation flourished that wouldn’t grow anywhere else in Nepolymbus. The air in this dome was as thick as the water outside and almost unbreathable. Or maybe it was just her imagination because Sam didn’t seem bothered by it.
“I still think you should stay in the castle, Sam. I can do this myself.”
“We have a plan, Pearl. Let’s stick to it. I promise you I won't say anything unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
“Black Corals is unpredictable and dangerous.”
He chuckled. “Then I won’t do anything to warrant her wrath.”
“But if there’s a fight, promise me you'll stay out of it. You have a very bad habit of getting involved where you’re not needed.”
“Okay,” he said with a grin.
She wasn’t a mind reader. She didn’t know Sam well and didn’t think he could help her much. But the fact that he was here gave her comfort.
She shook her head. Soon she would be queen, and she had a lot of responsibility. She couldn’t have feelings for him. It wasn’t acceptable. But more importantly, no matter what she did, he would never forgive her for turning him into a mer-person against his will. He did, however, have a good mind. When this war was finally over, she’d ask him to be a councillor in her court.
The heavy wooden door slid open as they approached it.
From the outside, the temple looked only slightly larger than a humble witch’s hut. But inside, there was a grand hall, just like the one in her castle. Pearl wasn’t sure whether the inside or the outside was the illusion Black Corals had created.
The witch sat on her throne, beautiful as ever.
After her precious encounters with Black Corals, Pearl knew that behind that beauty was formidable magical talent and a power that she must not underestimate.
“Well, who have we here?” Black Corals smiled. “I didn’t ask for a bonus, Princess Pearl. Honoring our agreement is sufficient.”
Pearl smiled back.
“Oh, perhaps I should say Queen Pearl?”
“It’s too soon for that. Yes, we have united Nepolymbus. But I still need to be blessed by the gods to be queen.”
Black Coral chuckled. “Naturally. But as per our agreement, I should be the one to give you the blessing, shouldn’t I?”
Sam stepped forward despite Pearl glaring at him. “We have a slight issue here, Black Corals. To give you access to the house of gods, Pearl needs to be queen. But to be queen, she needs the blessing of the gods. If I were a god, and I found out about this agreement she has with you, I wouldn’t bless her, because doing so would give your dark magic access to the house of gods.”
Black Corals leaned back in her throne. “Who is this wise person speaking to me?”
“She picked me up from up there.” Sam pointed to the ceiling. “But I have nothing to do with the higher power!”
“This is Sam,” Pearl said.
“Oh, you are the Sam from the surface that she told me about …”
“That depends on exactly what she was saying about me.” Sam chuckled. “Pearl wanted to come here to inform you about the problem. I am here to tell you that your agreement has flaws.”
“Sam!” Pearl scolded.
“Don’t worry, Pearl. Black Corals is the kind of witch who honors her word. She wouldn’t kill to cover up a flawed agreement.”
“What do you do up there on the human land, Sam?”
“I’m a business consultant. I give people advice for a living.” He grinned. “But I call it lip service.”
“What a way to make a living.”
“Only if you’re good at it. And I am.”
“All right. Then give me a solution for your so-called slight issue. And don’t say you need more time, because I’ve waited long enough.”
“But that’s the only thing that would help now,” Pearl said. “We’ve just ended a civil war to unite Nepolymbus. It’s been a long time, and it’s been costly. You will get your power sooner or later, but there’s no point in rushing into things and causing another war.”
The smile vanished from Black Corals’ face. “It’s your war, not mine. I don’t care if Nepolymbus exists under one roof or is torn apart into multiple kingdoms. I’ve invested in your war—and now I want my reward. We have an agreement, and you know the consequences of breaking it—”
“Show me the agreement,” Sam cut in.
Black Corals frowned.
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, Black Corals.” Pearl turned to Sam. “We don’t do business the way humans do.”
“Life is the same, no matter where it happens. An agreement contains mutually agreeable terms and conditions between interested parties. Doesn’t matter whether they’re humans, creatures, or witches. So if you did draw up an agreement, Black Corals, let’s see it.”
“Fine,” she said through clenched teeth and then flicked her fingers. A glowing piece of paper hovered in the air in front of Sam. Ancient text appeared in red ink, stating that Black Corals would supply magical resources to help Pearl in uniting Nepolymbus. In return, Pearl, as queen, would grant Black Corals access to the house of gods.
Sam clapped his hands. “See! You knew it all along. She needs to be queen before she can give you access.”
“You’re trying to trick me.” Black Corals stood up.
Pearl approached Black Corals and looked her in the eye. “No, Black Corals, I didn’t know anything about the blessing process. I can pretend to give you access now without having true authority. But I’m telling you now, so that you understand I’m not trying to trick you, that I need time. The gods won’t see me for another month. You’ve waited for this for a long time. One more month won’t make a difference.”
“How do I know you’ll honor your promise?”
“You don’t. You’ll have to take my word for it. But I do have this for your peace of mind.” Pearl put a crystal bottle filled with a glowing golden liquid on a small table. “You might not know what this is—”
“I know,” Black Corals said as she picked up the bottle. “It’s the golden seal of truth from the house of gods.”
“They gave it to me so I can prepare for my blessing ceremony. You know what it does. People who take the potion die if they aren’t telling the truth.” Pearl held out her hand. “So now that you’ve examined the potion, let me prove I’m telling the truth. I’ll take it to show to you that I have nothing to hide.”
“There is no need. I trust you.”
Pearl nodded. “Thank you. I’ll return as soon as I am blessed by the house of gods.” She walked toward the door with Sam at her side.
Then a terrifying scream came from inside the hall. Black Corals had opened the bottle. The golden seal of truth would give an individual a hundred extra years in their lifetime if the person didn’t lie about anything after taking it. It was one of the most valuable gifts the gods could give someone.
And it was so tempting to Black Corals that she bypassed her usual caution and accepted that the gods might have given Pearl the potion.
But they hadn’t. Not because she didn’t deserve it, but because she hadn’t asked them for it.
She hadn’t told Sam this part of the plan, but he didn’t look surprised.
“Wait, Sam.”
Pearl stopped and turned to look back and watched as the witch fell to the floor. The yellow powder that exploded from the bottle as soon as she opened it covered her face. Black Corals lived a life of deception. It was in her blood, and thus Pearl knew well she wouldn’t drink the potion. But her curiosity would make her open the bottle just to take a look.
Pearl walked back into the hall. The dying witch’s face had started to crack, and blood ran from her eyes, nose, mouth.
“I’m sorry you had to meet your end here, Black Corals. I’d give you anything in my power, but I cannot give you access to the house of gods. The spiritual peace of my citizens is as important to me as their safety and prosperity. And they cannot have it with you in charge of the house of gods.”
“You think you know it all, Pearl!” Black Corals growled with a dying breath. “But you’re mistaken.”
“I don’t know it all, Black Corals. And I don’t necessarily have faith in the house of gods. But I believe in karma. That wasn’t the truth potion from the gods. It was a poison made by the same flower given to my mother, except I increased the dosage.”
“I didn’t kill your mother.”
“You turned a blind eye to the person who did.”
Black Corals’ eyes had glassed over, and her breathing was shallow. She would die soon.
“Is that why you’re killing me?” she asked, her voice weak.
“No, you must die because you want to control the spirits of the people in Nepolymbus.”
A wicked smile spread across the witch’s face. The yellow powder fell from her face, and her melting skin began to return to normal.
Sam pulled Pearl back toward the door.
“It’s too late to run, Sam,” Pearl said.
“It seems that poison of yours is an effective truth potion after all because I now know that you never intended to honor our agreement.” Black Corals stood formidably to her feet. “You want to be the righteous and just queen of Nepolymbus? Well, that will come at a cost. And I’m afraid you can’t afford it.”
Black Corals raised her arms. Pearl knew she was casting black magic. There was no point in running.
She would have to use her last card, the most lethal one and the only weapon she had left against this black magic witch. She stepped back slightly to prepare.
“You should know I am invincible, Pearl.”
“Not against this!” Pearl pulled out a badge, raised her right hand and turned the badge toward Black Corals. As a gift to the queen-to-be of Nepolymbus, the gods had granted her one powerful wish. She didn’t need magic. All she needed now was the power from the gods. But before she could speak her wish, Sam gasped and dropped to the floor without a word.
Black Corals right hand now glowed with a shade of black dust. “I curse the heart of anyone who loves you, Pearl.”
“I took him from the human land on the day of his wedding with his beloved wife, who was killed by one of your pets in Laran. I turned him without his permission. It’s impossible for him to love me. You’re killing the wrong man.”
“You obviously don’t know dark magic well, Pearl. This is a curse. I’m not asking whether he loves you or not. If he didn’t love you wholeheartedly, the essence of his heart wouldn’t be in my hand right now. The heart doesn’t lie.”
“I can’t give you access to the house of gods, but I can give you anything else within my power.”
“I want you to suffer for eternity. You betrayed me, Pearl, and now you’ll lose everything dear to you. Do you think I don’t know what you have in your palm right now? You have the single granted wish from the gods. You have been made queen. Will you use the wish to save him, or to kill me?”
“This is for Nepolymbus.” Pearl turned the badge toward the witch once again—and she wished for Black Corals’ death.
The air around them spun as if they were in the eye of a storm. Everything began to crumble and was sucked into the whirling gale. Pearl dropped to the ground and clutched Sam’s lifeless body in her arms. He had gone cold, but he was still breathing. She could fix him. She would beg the gods to save him.
The wind of the gods’ power struck Black Corals. She screamed, then laughed and raised both of her arms. The wicked smile was still on her face, but it had faded.
“What I don’t have, no one can have, Pearl.” Her voice echoed in the atmosphere as her body disintegrated. “You’re exiled from Nepolymbus. He will float in nothingness, but he won’t die. The moment you set foot in Nepolymbus, however, he will. You will be immortal. You will live forever in the human land, and you will forever be lonely. Anyone who loves you will end up like him. That is my last curse against Princess Pearl…”
And then the fading image of Black Corals exploded into a cloud of tiny black particles. So did the world around Pearl.
Chapter 2
Nepolymbus—present time.
Jo let herself sink for as long as she could, trying to enjoy the feel of the human water. But then she couldn’t bear it anymore. She switched on her supernatural energy—her eudqi—a special kind of energy only silver blood commanders in Eudaiz had.
She smiled to herself.
It was still working.
She was surer than ever that Ciaran was a constant in her life and Tadgh’s. He and Tadgh were brothers and had many things in common, yet they were so different. Tadgh was impulsive and warmhearted, but he had let his emotions rule his actions so many times that she couldn’t trust him to handle the fight against Black Corals’ magic.
Ciaran, on the other hand, could externalize his personal feelings to better handle the matter he was dealing with, even when his brother was involved. He was born to be a king and could handle business and making hard decisions. So, although she had divorced his brother and resigned from her counseling position, he understood her plan without her having to explain it to him.
That was why he had officially documented her resignation and divorce but had left her superpower on so that she could use it.
Jo didn’t know how the curse worked, but she was sure she couldn’t rely on her logical deductive abilities from the days when she did computer programming to help. She had a feeling the curse worked in the dimension of the mind. She didn’t think Black Corals understood how the multiverse worked, but she speculated that the witch had connections there. However, she wasn’t sure. Jo could lie to Black Corals, saying she didn’t love Tadgh. She could try to cheat with words and actions. Tadgh could even say he hated her for being a siren. But Jo had a feeling that the curse would see right through all that.
Am I really a siren? The thought popped into her head, but she shook it away and concentrated on the task at hand.
In the mind dimension, the curse would see the spiritual connection between Tadgh and her. They were more than a married couple—they were soulmates. To cheat the curse, she needed Tadgh to truly believe she didn’t love him. She had to plant resentment in his mind. Even if it lasted only a short time, that false belief on his part would save his life. And for that, she would risk anything.
The rebel dome appeared in the distance. It was where she had heard Shauna’s voice in Nepolymbus. The sister she had thought was long dead was not only alive but was a siren, and their spiritual connection made the gate of Pisces. At least that was the case if all the memories that had recently come back to her were indeed memories and not a mind manipulation of some sort.
If she could find Shauna and get her out of that lab, her sister could help her to destroy whatever contract Black Corals had against them. Shauna had run through that black forest with her, and she had seen the magic. Her little sister had been drugged and dazed back then, but Shauna could speak to her mind now, and she had also controlled Clines to rescue Jo in the lab.
Jo sighed when she thought about Clines, the high-ranking member of the rebel camp who had helped her. He had been manipulated into getting involved in this ordeal. He was missing now, but she had a feeling he was still alive. She would need to find him as well.
She swam toward the dome and entered the air environment inside. There, she had much more control over her movement. Traveling on a back street to avoid attention from other mer-citizens, she headed toward the fenced-off lab.
She didn’t have to sneak through the gate because it appeared that no one was guarding the premises. She pushed through and walked into the sandy front courtyard. Debris was everywhere. It looked like the whole area had just been through an apocalypse. She entered the abandoned building. Everything was still present and intact. She looked at the control panel and the equipment around the room. Someone had shut down the system, but they hadn’t destroyed it.
Jo understood enough about technology to know she should use only the viewing mode and not turn on anything else. She activated the monitors in the control room. They revealed all the rooms, labs, and tunnels in the building. She saw hundreds of rows of tanks, all of them filled with some kind of liquid. Creatures floated inside the tanks, dead. Maybe turning off the system had cut off their nutritional supply.
She held her breath and scanned the tanks. None of the dead creatures was Shauna. She wasn’t here.
Then, in a corner of the room, she saw a shattered tank. There was movement on the wet floor where the liquid had drained out. Jo checked the location of the room on the monitor and ran toward it.
She patted her dagger to make sure it was still at her waist before she entered the room. The lighting in the room was dim, and the floor was soaked. The liquid was thick and slippery. She stepped inside with caution and caught sight of a fish tail wriggling away out of sight.
“Shauna?”
Jo walked around a floor-to-ceiling tank to the other side. It was dark, and she couldn’t see well. Before she could make out what she was looking at, she heard a quack, and a creature flew straight at her.
Chapter 3
Tadgh opened his eyes to see Ciaran, Orla, and Madeline looking down at him.
“There you are! I thought you’d never wake up!” Orla said.
He sat up and found himself on a lab bench. This was a familiar environment he had called home for a while now—Eudaiz. The lab was exclusive, as it should be since it was in Tower Three, the control tower of Eudaiz. It wasn’t exactly a medical facility, but it had all the latest technical equipment that could do anything from medical testing to experimentation.
“Are we back in Eudaiz already?” Tadgh asked to make sure he was really here and not in some wonderland created by his mind.
Madeline smiled. “Yes.”
Ciaran said nothing. He went to the computer in the corner of the room. “How can it take this long for Lorcan to transfer a file?” he muttered.
“How long have I been out?” Tadgh asked.
“Not long.” Madeline patted his shoulder. She was always like that, caring and comforting. Ciaran didn’t know how lucky he was. Tadgh rehashed in his mind the fuzzy memory of Jo lashing out at him with the news that she was a siren and then divorcing him on the spot. It had been a painful experience. But he knew her well enough to see that something didn’t add up.
“You think Jo left me and I passed out like a girl, don’t you?” he asked no one in particular.
Orla chuckled. “Oh no, we know you’re a tough guy. You didn’t cry or anything.”
Ciaran spoke up from the other end of the room. “I’d rather that was the reason you passed out. But to bolster your manliness, I’ll tell you what really happened. I scanned you. You were poisoned by a toxin that caused you to have symptoms similar to a heart attack.”
“It’s out of your system now, Tadgh,” Madeline said. “But what Ciaran’s concerned about is how it got there in the first place. And what I am concerned about is that Jo thought it was the result of a curse. And because—except for Orla—none of us know anything about magic, Jo chose to sort this out herself.”
Tadgh stood up abruptly but could feel that his legs were not quite steady, so he sat down on the bench again and kept his feet on the ground for purchase. “What curse did Jo think I was under? What curse could only be sorted out by her divorcing me and saying what she said and doing what she did?”
Orla sighed. “My understanding is that she signed some sort of agreement with a sea witch when she was a child that said if she ever returns to Nepolymbus, her soulmate will die. She wasn’t sure she believed in the curse, but when you passed out multiple times and acted like something was tearing your heart out of your chest, she must have thought the curse was for real.”
“So how would divorcing me fix it?” Tadgh asked.
“From a magical standpoint, the curse must have been cast on soulmates,” Orla explained. “You know the definition of a soulmate, Tadgh. It’s not something you can cheat, lie, or bluff your way out of. Jo had to make you resent her, and for at least that moment, you stopped loving her for real.”
Tadgh shook his head. “And when I didn’t die, she must have thought her plan worked—that I stopped loving her, and the curse ended.”
Orla nodded. “From her vantage point, yes, that’s likely what she thought.”
Madeline smiled. “But in her mind, she clearly knew that it was only a plan and she’d make it up to you after this.”
“You know, Madeline, you don’t have Ciaran’s poker face. I know you’re making this up to make me feel better.”
Madeline sighed and said nothing else.
Tadgh stood up and found himself steadier. “Thanks, Madeline. What you said does help. I know for a fact that Jo would make the same logical deduction. Until she knew whether the curse existed or not, she wouldn’t take chances. But now that we know that the curse is a bluff, I have to go back to Nepolymbus to let her know.”
Ciaran approached him. “I agree. But we’re not going back there until Lorcan confirms my theory about the poison.”
“What’s your theory?”
Tadgh watched as Ciaran placed a couple of papers filled with scientific gibberish on the table.
“I originally thought the poison came from the stingray. But we can’t find a puncture mark anywhere on you. The test results suggest that the poison is made from a rare plant that doesn’t exist in any of the multiverse environments. This kind grows only in Nepolymbus, and we don’t have much data on it.”
“I didn’t ingest anything.”
“I know. It had to have come from a device so fine you didn’t feel it. And because of your ability to dematerialize, the point of entry might have been covered up somehow. I think we found a trace of that device with the poison, and Lorcan is testing it for me. It’s a delicate test, and I wanted it kept offline.”
“What’s that?” Tadgh asked.
“I think I saw the device that was used to poison you. Lorcan has a machine that can scan memories and lift data from images in the scans. I gave him consent to scan my memories for what happened at that point in time. Once he gets the data, he’ll test it against the substance left from your poison.”
Just then, a robotic voice coming from a speaker announced Lorcan’s arrival at the tower.
“Speaking of my sweet devil,” Orla whispered. As soon as Lorcan entered the room, she rushed over to him and they kissed passionately.
Ciaran cleared his throat. “We have guest rooms you can use at any point after we finish this business that needs urgent attention.”
Lorcan stopped the kiss and grinned. “Hello, everyone. I know you asked for a file transfer, Ciaran. I got the printout, and I thought it was best to deliver the data in person. I deleted all files, analyses, and traces in the system of the Daimon Gate. I know I used my private machine, but I figured it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Lorcan walked to the other side of the room and placed a folder on the table. He turned his wrist unit toward a monitor on the wall and then switched it on. Ciaran placed a small palm-sized device on the table. Lorcan picked it up, swiped it over the folder, and the material appeared on the large screen.
He pointed to the first picture. It looked like a drop of water with worms swimming in it. “The material that made up that device leaked into the poison injected into Tadgh. That was how we found the trace of the device.”
He swiped to the next slide that displayed some chemical formulas. “And this is a surprise.”
Ciaran frowned.
Lorcan looked at Ciaran, waiting for him to explain what he’d just said to the rest of the group in a way they could understand.
Ciaran shoved his hands into his pockets. Tadgh knew that when his brother did that, they were in deep trouble and he didn’t have an immediate solution.
“Was this in the hairpin?” Ciaran asked.
“Yes,” Lorcan said and flicked to the next image of an enlarged golden hairpin.
Ciaran nodded. “That’s Lavinia’s.” He looked at Orla and Madeline. “She’s Tamari’s mother. A complicated political figure in Nepolymbus.” Then he looked at Tadgh. “I saw her wearing this pin. The reason I remember it so well is because when she took this pin out of her hair, I thought she might be drawing a weapon against me, and I was ready to shoot back. Apparently she didn’t get me with it, but she must have used it to shoot you when we were in the vessel together.”
Tadgh nodded. “Yes, she bit me and tasted my blood. She developed a siren crush on me. So I guess she shot me with the poison, hoping I would go back to Nepolymbus for a cure. But we killed her. So what’s the big deal?”
“The big deal is this.” Lorcan flicked to the next picture—a giant picture of Lavinia, totally naked, appeared on the screen.
“Lorcan!” Ciaran scolded. “Is this really necessary?” He turned to Madeline. “When she found out I was king of Eudaiz, she said it was their custom to submit themselves for a benefit she would ask of me. Of course, I didn’t take the offer. There were others in the room too. Lorcan, do you have the next picture?”
“No, I printed only the relevant ones.”
Madeline approached Ciaran and kissed him on the cheek. “I understand, Ciaran. You don’t need to explain.”
“Why is this relevant, Lorcan?” Ciaran asked.
Lorcan chuckled. “I understand it’s hard to see past this picture, but take a look at her earrings.”
Behind the locks of beautiful golden hair that cascaded onto Lavinia’s perfect shoulders, they saw a pair of small stud earrings with black diamonds and golden rims.
Ciaran stepped closer to the picture and then turned to look at the group. “These earrings belong to the same jewelry set as the hairpin. While the chemical formula of the hairpin says only that it’s made in the multiverse, this black diamond can be found only in a small area of the Daimon Gate.”
Ciaran pulled out a golden hairpin from his pocket and put it on the table.
“You took the hairpin from Lavinia?” Madeline asked.
“No, this is on Tamari’s hair. It has never been used as a weapon.”
Lorcan nodded. “Whoever gave this set of jewelry to Lavinia not only lives in the multiverse, but right in our backyard.”
Chapter 4
Jo staggered several steps backward and barely managed to stay in balance after the hard hit of whatever it was that had flown at her. The rough, dry skin of a reptile rubbed against her face, and what felt like small arms were wrapped around her shoulders. While the skin felt reptilian, the flesh was warm. She could pull out her dagger and stab whatever it was. But she got the feeling the creature was more scared than she was and didn’t mean any harm. It clung to her, and she thought she could feel its heart pounding.
“Easy, easy,” she said. “You have to let go of me so I can see. I won’t hurt you.”
She wasn’t sure it understood her, but she felt like she had to try something. It had a strong grip on her, and she had tried to pull it off a couple of times without success. She guessed its tummy must be against her face, and it kept making small whimpering sounds like a baby fussing.
She pulled again and again.
“All right, you’re making me do this. I don’t want to suffocate.” She pulled her dagger out and pricked at what she thought might be its leg.
It quacked and released its grip.
Now able to see again, she looked down. On the floor was a baby dragon, or what looked to her like a dragon. It flapped its little wings and then ran into a dark corner, where Jo saw a dying mermaid lying on the ground. Even if her sister had turned into a mermaid or a siren or whatever, she believed she would still be able to recognize her. This was not her sister.
The baby dragon hugged the dying mermaid, and she stroked its spiky head and said something in a language Jo couldn’t understand.
Jo came closer. The mermaid looked up, and when she saw Jo’s face, she wriggled backward, hissing and baring her fangs. But she didn’t have enough strength to move too far away. The fact that the baby dragon still clung to her didn’t help matters.
“You must think I am my sister. But I’m not. I won’t hurt you.”
The mermaid continued to hiss, but her voice weakened by the second.
Jo crouched down. The mermaid lay still and looked at Jo with desperate eyes. This was not an ordinary mer-citizen. Mer-people in Nepolymbus didn’t have fish tails like this. Mer-citizens swam in the water and walked on land inside the domes. But they didn’t switch between having legs and tails like in the popular fiction Jo had read when she was younger.
This creature must have been created in this lab.
“I’m not a siren. I’m not my sister.” She showed her teeth. “See, I have no fangs.” She wagged her finger. “I’m not a siren. Not a mermaid. I won’t hurt you. Do you understand?”
The dying mermaid gazed at her for a moment, then nodded slowly. Tears escaped from her eyes that were almost completely glassed over. She pushed the little dragon toward Jo.
“Help… baby.”
“You want me to take care of your baby?”
The mermaid shook her head.
“He’s not your baby?”
The mermaid shook her head again. “Help him… he knows…”
“He knows what? He knows where my sister is?” Jo asked. “Whose baby is he? He’s not my sister’s, is he? It’s not possible …”
The mermaid stared at her with dead eyes.
“I’m so sorry.” She closed the creature’s eyelids.
She must have broken out of the tank when the system was turned off. At the far end of the room was a smaller tank, and that was shattered too. Judging by the large amount of blood on the dead mermaid, Jo speculated she had used her body to break the glass of the smaller tank to free the baby dragon.
The baby dragon whimpered.
She gave it a little nod, and it scurried toward her. She wagged her finger. “Don’t hang on me. You’re not exactly light.”
The dragon stopped a few inches away from her.
“So you do understand what I’m saying. You’re a smart cookie. All right, she asked me to take care of you—and I will. But you must listen to me. And you need a name.”
She picked him up, looked him up and down. She wasn’t sure if he was really a dragon. He had a mature dragon face. His skin was reptilian, rough but dry. He had a warm body temperature and obviously a heart that reflected his emotions. In addition to all the other weirdness, he had a tiny stingray tail.
“I’ll call you Elliot.” She pressed her fingertip on his chest. “Elliot. That’s your name. Got that?”
He seemed to agree.
“All right, I need to find my sister, Shauna. I haven’t seen her in a long time. But it seems we might have similar faces. Your mother said you know where to find her. Will you be able to guide me there, Elliot? If yes, jump on my shoulder.”
Elliot quacked and jumped right up on Jo’s shoulder.
“Okay, you’re too heavy. Get down, please.”
The little dragon jumped back down. He turned and walked out of the room on his stubby legs, waving his pointy little tail. Jo followed. From what she could tell from the control panel, everything in the building was turned off. Elliot was heading toward a wing where, if she recalled correctly from the map, there was no facility.
He stopped in front of a gigantic floor-to-ceiling steel door. His tail pointed straight up in the air, then hovered there, gently pointing first to the left and then to the right, as if he was thinking.
Jo knew there was a secret lab behind the door the moment she saw it. She walked up to a control panel that flashed in red, waiting for an access code. She used the tip of her dagger to unscrew the cover of the panel, revealing a keypad and a wire. She connected her wrist unit to the wire and ran a decoding program. In seconds, her unit flashed green. She entered the code.
The door slid open, and icy air floated out from inside.
She walked in with Elliot right beside her. In the middle of the room was a floor-to-ceiling tank. It was still in operation. Inside the tank was her sister, her fish tail moving slightly from side to side to keep her upright. Her long hair floated in the water. She looked magnificent. But there was one thing Jo knew immediately—Shauna was no longer the sister she knew. In front of her was a siren.
Shauna smiled at her and communicated into Jo’s mind. “Hello, sister.”