“She’s got the lingering effects of a Genif in her.” He pointed to the marks on my arm. “Those shouldn’t be black. What’d she do? Tear it out of her?”
Tammer nodded and Kenneth raised an eyebrow. “You are The Link!” He shook my shoulders. “Snap out of it!”
“Kenneth!” Tammer’s warning had no effect on the man.
“Let me deal with this,” his hazel eyes narrowed as he focused on me. “You didn’t remove the Genif properly.”
He covered my wounds with his hands and in a deep voice, a Sanserian chant spilled from him.
“Blenald selitalit Genif irava. Iritook, iritak, iritaa.”
The pain was horrendous, but it was nothing compared to Flynn’s betrayal and losing Thayde. I refused to make a sound. Kenneth easily removed the rest of the Genif and in doing so, the wounds branded over.
Tammer put his hand on my shoulder. “Morgan,” his voice was heavy.
“Don’t touch me!” I shouted, shrugging his hand away. The inflection in his voice and the look on everyone’s faces told me they knew Thayde had been killed.
“He’s not dead!” My voice shook.
“He’s gone.” Tammer bowed his head, reading my mind. “If Flynn has bitten him, he’s dead.”
“Get away from me! All of you!” I screamed at the group hovering around me. I wasn’t going to just give up like them. “
“There’s no way he could have survived,” David added and I stepped backward.
“You stay away from me,” I eyed the small group – my family and friends. Their doubt dragged my soul into the very depths of the earth. “All I do is spend my time worrying about Thayde dying! He can’t die! Flynn knew everything – he couldn’t have betrayed me! He wouldn’t!” I sounded desperate.
“We need to talk,” Kenneth mumbled as he walked past me. When he reached the gate next to my destroyed room, he turned and waited. “Let’s go!” He ordered.
I walked completely numb. He ignored my desperate air as he talked.
“I’m a military man. You’ll have to excuse my bluntness. I’m sure this isn’t the first time you’ve heard this, so I’ll say it straight: I think you’re too young to be The Link. But it wasn’t my choice to make, so I respect the decision.”
The look I gave him made him backtrack.
“I can respect something and not agree with it. You may have all the memories and feelings, the experiences of The Links before you, but you don’t know what to do with all of them. You’ve had teachers help you, but you haven’t had enough life experience as a human being, let alone a mermaid to know which end is up!”
“Can you just get to the point?” I was beginning to wonder if I even liked Kenneth.
“You’ve got a couple hundred merfolk about to descend upon this house for the meeting you’ve called. Are you prepared for it?”
Without Thayde, none of that seemed to matter.
“Is there a reason why you’re here?” I sighed.
A smile broke onto his face.
“I have information from my spies about Herra. She has a legion of followers on their way, as we speak, to capture you.”
I would have laughed if my soul hadn’t felt so empty. Kenneth continued.
“I offer you my army.”
“Your army?” I couldn’t help but sound incredulous. “When you say you are a military man, what military are you talking about? What spies?”
“I was a U.S. Marine for the humans for over two hundred years. Now, I run an independent agency for our kind.”
“Are you a mercenary?”
His lips tightened. “No. Humans have their armies. Didn’t you think merfolk would?”
The thought had never crossed my mind.
“She’s ready to strike. Now.”
A flutter of panic pushed my grief aside momentarily. “I have to stop this,” I thought out loud.
“It’s not going to be easy,” Kenneth rubbed his chin. “She’s more than prepared to take you on. I’d say she’s had a lot of teaching on how to beat The Link. If it were my guess, she’s got her information from someone very old and wise. With this vampire friend of yours betraying you, you’re going to have to abandon your plans and come up with a new strategy.”
My stomach surged, forcing me to double over. I vomited until there was nothing left in me. Shaking, I faced Kenneth. His face was filled with alarm.
“It’s nothing,” I coughed, spitting the taste from my mouth. “I’ve haven’t felt a hundred percent for a few days.”
He nodded. “We’d better get you back so you can prepare for your meeting.”