To Kill a God by C.S. Wilde

Chapter 7

“Cookie, you need to wake up.”Ruth’s voice rang everywhere around her, but Mera was surrounded by darkness, and couldn’t tell where her mom might be.

“I don’t want to,” she grumbled.

“Cookie, wake up.” Her tone carried a world of worry. “Now.”

With a gasp, Mera sat up from her bed.

Ruth was sitting on the edge of the mattress, watching her with a certain panic. Her hair was light brown instead of grey, and she was missing a few wrinkles. She used to look like that when Mera was a merling, no older than fifteen.

Next to the window showing the night outside, a warlock in a long, black cloak watched her with his mouth slightly open. Tattoos covered his face and what she could see of his hands.

“Ruth, we should call the council.”

“No,” her mom snapped.

Blue light flashed wildly across the room, coming from somewhere near Mera. She wondered if there might be something off with the electricity. Maybe the warlock was there to fix it, though warlocks didn’t usually fix wiring… did they?

Mera rubbed her eyes, feeling a bit sleepy. “What’s going on?”

Only then did she realize that strange, black tattoos danced atop her arms. Maybe her ears were playing tricks on her, but she could hear the humming of electricity coming from inside of her. As if an electric field buzzed in her core.

Definitely not a problem with wiring, then.

A cold, crippling fear rose inside her. “Ruth?”

The light flickered atop her Ponyland poster on the left wall, and on the volcano she’d built for a school science project, which sat on the right side of her desk. Blue light flashed everywhere, coming from… her.

“It’s okay, cookie. You’re fine.”

“Ashermath nin ha,”Mera’s own voice whispered, and her head snapped left, trying to follow the sound.

“Can you hear that?” Her voice cracked with fear, and soon more whispers joined in, all coming from her, all a part of her, uttering words she couldn’t understand.

“No, cookie. We can’t.” Ruth swallowed dry as the sapphire bolts flashed across her terrified expression. “John, can you block it?”

“I-I can try.”

Lowering his head, the man began murmuring. The tattoos decorating his hands and face glowed red as he chanted.

Slowly, Mera’s crippling fear dimmed. The voices faded away, and so did the blue light that had been flashing around her room. She didn’t feel a thing, and after a while, the warlock’s chant slowed to a halt.

Moonlight peered through the windows, drenching her room in soft silver light.

“It is done,” he confirmed. “She’ll pass under any radar, and tonight’s event will wash away from her memory. But Ruth—”

“Not here.” She cupped Mera’s cheek, then kissed her forehead. “How are you feeling, cookie?”

“Fine.” Mera blinked, trying to center her thoughts. Something had just happened, but she couldn’t remember what. “Did I have a nightmare?”

Her mom smiled sweetly at her. “You did. Remember you’re safe, okay? You’ll always be safe here with me. Now, try to get some sleep.”

A certain relief washed over Mera, and she nodded as she lay back in bed. Ruth tucked her in, kissed her forehead one more time, then left the room. The warlock followed after her, shooting Mera an awkward glance.

‘She’s lying,’ Mera’s own voice whispered in her ears, a new presence formed inside her core.

One voice out of many.

Mera couldn’t tell why she knew that this voice, this siren’s call, was a part of her. She simply did. And so, she wasn’t scared. Not even a little bit.

“I trust Ruth,” she told herself.

Her siren chuckled. ‘That means I do, too.’

With that, they both fell asleep.

* * *

“Cookie, you need to wake up…”

Mera tried, but her eyes were so heavy. Under narrowed lids that closed too quickly, she caught glimpses of bubbles, rushing water, and a deep blue surrounding her. Sounds broke through her slumber, but Mera was still trapped in a blurry haze, with no sense of place or time.

“Bast…” she mumbled.

“She must recover if we’re to use her.” Azinor’s muffled voice felt far, far away.

Mera tilted her chin down to see a strong, gray arm wrapped around her waist, carrying her along.

“Our daughter is a stupid wench,” he growled. “So selfless and virtuous. It’s appalling!”

The dickwart carried her the way one would carry a football. In her haze, Mera couldn’t tell why she found that amusing. A weak chuckle birthed in her chest, yet it died when everything went dark again, and her body fell limp.

She stayed that way, drowned within a void, waiting for Ruth to tell her to wake up again, when a shrill tone awakened her instead.

“They found us!” The queen’s voice carried absolute horror.

Music to Mera’s ears, really.

A droning sound, like millions of engines whirring at the same time came from behind them. A sapphire dot shone against the navy-blue of the ocean, followed by another, and another. Small, neon-blue comets that rushed closer and zinged past them.

“Damned the trenches!” Azinor snarled, making a sharp turn. “I’ve used all my power, and the enhancer’s.”

“You must recharge.”

“Obviously!”

The comets missed them by a few inches, boiling through the water. Someone was shooting at them.

Hissing bullets of light.

“Halt!” a woman’s voice rang from behind, breaking through Mera’s haze.

Water rushed past them as Azinor and his pet turned and twisted, making wayward paths through the sea.

“You’re weak after your little stunt, you shrimp-brained batfish!” The woman shouted. “You won’t escape this time!”

“Watch me, Officer!” he barked, his grip pressing Mera’s waist harder against his left hip.

“It was a trap!” the queen shrieked. “They waited until—”

“Quiet!” he growled.

A trap?

They—Atlanteans, surely—had let Tir Na Nog drown, only to have a chance at capturing Azinor?

Mera’s vision wavered between clarity and a blurred mess, and her mind spun, brain thumping against her skull. She couldn’t move a muscle, even if she tried. She was so weak…

As more blue comets zinged past them, she spotted two muddled figures chasing after the asshole and the queen, but she couldn’t see well.

“You’ll hit Mera!” one of them shouted, a male voice so very familiar…

“I never miss,” the woman grumbled, before shooting again.

They were getting closer. No, Mera was slowing down. Azinor’s grip on her waist loosened.

Her gaze lifted to find a cloud of dark-red puffing above his neck. One green eye floated amidst the cloud, joined by a constellation of fractured pieces of skull and teeth. Bands of torn flesh floated casually as dark blood kept shooting from the open wound.

“No!” Ariella shrieked in horror.

As Mera began falling toward the ocean’s bottom, she spotted one of the figures trapping circles of blue light around the queen’s wrists.

Shackles.

“Ariella Wavestorm, you’re under arrest!” the shadowy form shouted.

“That’s Queen Wavestorm to you!” Mother seemed to thrash against her cuffs, but Mera couldn’t tell for sure. Her form was already so blurred, so far away… Her vision tunneled, and her attention turned to the muscled, headless body falling right next to her.

Was he really dead? Had it been that simple?

As if on cue, the creep’s hand twitched, and his body began moving on its own. To her left, the enhancer fell in spirals, and the headless corpse began reaching out for it. Another hand caught the chain just in time, a thin, long-fingered hand with cobalt skin.

“Not so fast,” the blurred form taunted before shooting at Azinor, piercing a hole in his chest.

A ghostly roar shook the water around them, and in an eye-blink, a violent current took the prick’s body away.

“Don’t let him escape,” Mera mumbled.

She had to wake up, had to gather her bearings and catch the bastard, but she was so tired… Her body continued sinking into the darkness below, until someone grabbed her wrist.

“Caught you, little fry.”

She blinked at a blurry face with glassy pink eyes, a kind smile, and white hair tied in a tight high bun. Then, everything went dark.