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“If those ways include kidnapping, torture, abuse in every type of way possible, and starvation, then yes, he has his ways.”
“Kragen believes you are dead,” Thorne interrupts my tirade.
She turns her attention back to my lover. “Because that’s what I wanted him to believe. There was simply no other way.”
“That’s the reason he took me,” I interrupt again. “The reason he turned me into this…this monster.”
“I’m sorry about that,” Eudora answers. Her voice is void of emotion. “It was necessary.”
I stand, moving closer to the sea witch. “Howwas it necessary?”
“Elsbeth,” Thorne’s calm voice warns. He’s right. This woman could kill me in the blink of an eye.
Eudora smiles at the captain. “It’s quite alright. The poor dear is frustrated.”
“Kragen needed to believe my mother was dead in order to save me,” Marnie interrupts my pity party.
Eudora stands, moving toward her daughter. “I’m sorry for what he did to you.” She turns back toward me. “I truly am.” She crosses her arms across her chest. Her body language says something different than her words. “Marnie is correct. Kragen thinking I was dead was the only way.”
“I apologize if this sounds rude, but why is your life more important than mine?” I turn my attention back to Marnie.
Her energy shifts. “Because there is no one else like me in the world.”
“Half sea witch and half vampire?”
Eudora laughs. “Dear, child, you truly don’t know, do you?”
“Please, enlighten me.”
The sea witch moves to the center of the room, holding her hands to her side and whispering words in a language that feels older than time. Her skin transforms, becoming translucent and revealing movementthat resembles water. Beautiful blonde hair turns dark green and becomes malleable as it floats around her head in a sea of movement.
“No, my child. I am not a sea witch. I am much more than that.” A wicked smile covers her face. “I am where the sun meets the sea. I am the land and sea conjoined. I am the power behind the winds. I am Eudora, the Goddess of the Sea.”
“Well, shit.” Everyone in the room turns toward me with my words.
As quickly as Eudora transformed, she returns to the beautiful woman who greeted us at the gate. “Any questions,” she asks, looking around the room like she’s just taught a lesson on long division.
I raise my hand, like the asshole that Kragen turned me into. “I have one.” She raises her eyebrows in question. “If you’re the ‘Goddess of the Sea,’” I use air quotes with her title. “Why didn’t you just snap your fingers and tear Kragen’s head from his body centuries ago?”
The energy flowing from the men in the room reeks of anxiety as they shift nervously in their seats.“Elsie,”Thorne warns through my mind. A talent he hasn’t used often.
“That’s a fair question,” Eudora answers. She turns toward her daughter. “Would you like to clarify that, my child?”
“If she kills Kragen, I die, too,” she answers simply.
I look between the two of them. “How exactly does that work?”
“You’re quitespirited, aren’t you?” Eudora asks. “I think it wise you remember who you are speaking with.”
“She’s right,”Thorne says through my mind again.“Let’s leave the attitude out for a minute.”
I sigh deeply. “I apologize for my tone.” It takes everything in me to get the words out.
“Apology accepted,” the goddess answers.
“If my mother kills Kragen, I will die, too,” Marnie repeats her words from earlier. “Because I carry his blood, if he dies at the hands of my mother or myself or through a direct result of my mother, my life will end with his.”
“I could see how that could put a damper on things.” And…the attitude is back.
