Sirens at Midnight: Meara's Tale (ON HOLD)

5

I wailed inside, fear and anger swirling inside my heart. If they had hurt my older sister in any way, I would make them pay.

Merfolk had no idea how much wrath I could have inside of me. How deadly I could be, when provoked beyond reason.

Taking my sister was pushing me beyond reason.

As much as the turmoil inside me raged, my tail immediately started to calm, knowing that it would need to save energy for the trip ahead. "Where did they take her?"

Hades looked at me, the steady gaze almost hiding his uncertainty. While he would just kill them, I'm certain my feelings showed through my eyes like the sand through the glass on the seafloor.

He stayed quiet, waffling between disclosing the information and staying silent.

I shrugged. "Fine. I will track them. And anyone that gets in my way will suffer the consequences." I meant merfolk, because the animals knew to either move out of my way or assist.

I turned as if to leave. He would give in. They all gave in. "Wait, Mear."

He laid his hand on my shoulder and, even before the flinch, I felt the electric sparks between us. Probably just static electricity. Or the combination of water and heat. Steam, likely.

I plucked it off and spun around to face him.

After a half second, in which I could tell he was berating himself for telling me, he sighed, "In the Cove of Merfolk. You know that silly notion they have about hearts giving power over a species?"

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Hades wouldn't let me go alone. He insisted on traveling with me. When I protested, he put a bubble of fire around me, at least a few inches thick.

"You will take me with you." The way he quietly commanded it, the power that surged through his voice as he said it, made me shiver, even as it was burning me.

I was going to die by fire. Wonderful.

"No." I burrowed like an oyster. There was no way he would last ten minutes underwater.

"You forget the fact that we gods don't need to breathe. We just do out of habit." Of course, you know, my mind immediately jumped to Twilight (a book that had fallen to the sea floor) as he said that. Apparently, Edward (who should die) and the other vampires (who, except for Alice, should also die) didn't need to breathe. The first and only time I would thank mermaids for leaving the sunken ships alone.

I could not believe that Hades was going to make me let him go with. I tentatively stuck a finger out at the fire. It hissed as my finger hit it, and I immediately shrunk into a ball. Hades, to his credit, dimmed down the brightness and heat. I quit huddling around my finger to shoot a glare at him. Of course, this was just a distraction. In the mean time, I was using my power to create a hole in the bottom of his firey circle; curling into a ball helped me focus my power. As soon as it was big enough, I grinned at him, then sank down and out of the cage. I heard his howl of rage, but I didn't look back. The pain my tail was feeling from the singing was proof enough that I could have burned to death.

And Hades wanted me to believe that Persephone was free of his power? Free of him?

I had no clue where I was going. The Cove was halfway across the world. There was no way I could beat them to the Cove. So I was going to have to do something I never thought I would lower myself to. For the gods' sake, only humans did them when they needed something.

I was going to have to do quests. Three of them, to be exact, and complete them within two days.

Isn't that just peachy.