Page 23 of Tempting Triton (Mated Myths #2)

Elena

A freaking ship! I can’t believe my luck that the barrier goes down and my salvation is right there on the other side.

I continue waving my arms in the air and shouting, hoping someone on board will hear me and drop a life raft or come across the loudspeaker, acknowledging that they can see and hear me.

“That ship reeks of death,” Triton growls. His hand, moving quicker than he was able to just moments before, shoots out and grabs my bicep to pull my arm down.

“Triton! Stop it!” My brows furrow, frowning at Triton as I yank my arm out of his grip when I realize it’s not Triton anymore, it’s him. It. Whatever the beast is inside Triton that senses trouble in the water. Literally.

The excitement of a potential rescue fades away as I glance back at my potential rescuers and recognize what type of ship it is.

With its steel arms hanging over the sides, and nets being hauled in.

It’s a fishing boat, but not just any fishing boat.

Whalers. I’m reminded of a documentary I watched on the nature channel about illegal whaling.

What I had mistaken as rust from this distance is actually blood—from the bodies of whales that line the deck—that has run over the sides, coating the paint in a rusty hue. Nausea rolls through me at the sight.

There’s a commotion on deck as the ship continues its steady pace in our direction, and I realize that with the barrier down, not only can we see them, but they can see us, and the island . I can only imagine the captain’s surprise when an island appeared out of nowhere.

“Triton, they’re headed our way.” I clutch at his arm, but he growls and shakes free of me, darting forward with a splash of his lustrous tail, leaving the protection of the barrier to do who knows what.

“Triton!” I call out after him as dread and nausea fill me.

What if the barrier goes back up? What if he gets stuck out there and I get stuck in here?

I wish I could call for Ichó. He would drag him back inside the safety of the wall.

Instead, I am left with the decision of going after him or staying here.

I slap the water in frustration and kick after him as fast as I can.

Without gills, I am nowhere near as quick as Triton, and I realize how accustomed I have become to having them.

I don’t move as smoothly in the water. My strokes break through the water, which gets rougher the closer towards the ship we get.

The wake pushes me back time and time again, and I feel like I make no progress.

“Triton!” I can’t see him anywhere. I tread water, feeling tightness in my chest already from the exertion. The ship continues its course towards Aeolia.

“What are you doing, you stupid, stupid merman?” I don’t even feel joy or relief at being outside of the barrier because all I can think about is Triton. As soon as I get my hands on him, I’m going to throttle him for scaring me like this.

A head of golden hair pops up a few clicks ahead of me.

The ship moves quite quickly for such a hulking mass of metal that the voices of the shipmates can now be heard on the wind.

The figures of men rush about the deck; someone points in our direction and shouts.

They’ve spotted us, so why is my internal warning system going gangbusters instead of feeling the relief of an imminent rescue ?

“Triton!” I want to get us back inside the barrier immediately; the very real threat of it shutting us out presses on me.

Triton glances back at me, and even with the short distance between us, I can see he’s not in control of himself anymore.

He snarls and dives beneath the water, his tail flicking up spray as he goes under.

He’s completely lost to the beast with the perceived threat and the blood staining the water.

I glance at the ship, knowing for sure someone has seen his tail from the excited yelling that carries towards me.

“Shit!” I kick off again, chasing Triton down and getting a lot closer to the ship than I feel comfortable with. My heart hammers in my chest, and I can’t tell the difference between the adrenaline roaring in my ears and the wash of the waves caused by the ship’s wake.

I hear a whump and whistling before I see it.

A harpoon hits the water just north of me.

I scream. I can’t see Triton, but I assume that they can, with the advantage of an almost bird’s eye view of the water.

I tread water breathlessly, waiting for the inky spread of blood to come to the surface.

Instead, Triton’s head pops above the surface a few feet to the left.

“Oh, thank g—” My sigh of relief quickly turns to a shriek as another whump and whistle echoes in the air, and in the blink of an eye, pierces Triton through the flesh of his shoulder.

In slow motion, the force from the impact spins Triton back towards me, his eyes wide as he looks down at the spear protruding from his skin.

Triton jerks. The shooter retracts the harpoon, dragging Triton with it.

Triton roars as the prongs on the tip embed themselves into his skin and allow him to be reeled in like a fish on a hook.

“No! No, no, no—” I don’t think, I just kick.

My mind empties, and I’m taken back to a swim meet with one goal in mind—winning.

Except this time, Triton is the prize, and I must get to him.

I pull my arms over my head, turning to take a breath.

Pull, turn, breathe, pull, turn, breathe, kick.

Kick. On a breath, I can see Triton flailing about on the line, his fingers gripping at the rod sticking out of his shoulder, and with another roar, he snaps it clean in two.

Immediately, the line slackens as it continues reeling its way back up the side of the ship, its prize lost.

With the pointy end still protruding through his shoulder, Triton sinks .

I take in the biggest breath of air I can and hold it, diving beneath the waves, chasing the fading shimmer of Triton’s iridescent tail.

It’s the only way I’m able to pinpoint his location in the murkiness of the salt water.

His curls spread out around his head like a halo of gold as he sinks deeper beneath the sea.

I don’t know what happens to someone if their mate dies. Would I feel his life slip away? Would I die as well, or would I be left to live on as a husk of a person who has felt the tether to the other half of their soul tear, leaving an irreparable hole where he should be?

The salt stings my eyes, and at some point, my ears pop, but I keep chasing that glimmer until my hands hook beneath his armpits, and with more strength than I thought I possessed, I pull Triton back to the surface.

As my head breaks through the water, my throat croaks, taking in deep lungfuls of air.

I hoist Triton higher in my arms for fear of having him slip out of my grip.

We ended up drifting further towards Aeolia in my rescue attempt, the wake of the ship having pushed us back towards the safety of the island.

The barrier is still down, but I feel the frantic energy of racing against a timer to get back inside before it shuts us out for good .

With a grunt, I roll onto my back and kick us away from the ship, hauling Triton along with me by his armpits, careful of the pointy end of the harpoon sticking out of his shoulder.

I don’t think about anything except the distance between us and the ship and making sure we’re getting further away.

I can’t bring myself to check Triton over just yet, not ready for what I might or might not see in his face.

I thought I’d feel something as we passed over the invisible perimeter of the island, but there’s nothing. No tingles, no audible whooshing of a metaphorical door closing. As soon as we’re over the line, the barrier reappears so quickly it’s like it was never faulty in the first place.

In an instant, the ship disappears from view, and I let out a shaky breath.

We’re safe. The harpoon is the only evidence we were ever outside of the barrier.

I risk a peek at Triton’s face and immediately regret it.

His usually golden sun-kissed skin is pallid, and his lips have a bluish tinge.

I can’t check for a pulse while I’m swimming, and his chest doesn’t rise and fall like a human breathing air.

I just have to hope like hell he’s still alive.

I try to reassure myself as I continue the arduous swim back to safety. If he died, I’d surely feel it.