Fire (Pirate Cove Academy #3) - Rae Foxx Page 0,38

the form of rust spots, pockmarking it. Must’ve been because it was so close to the ocean. The salt in the winds and in the air that blew from the water had taken its toll on the place. Pearl put her hands over her ears at the creaking of the doors as they opened wide like a whale shark preparing to feed.

“Get them inside,” Raven barked at the Sirens who pulled us harder, faster. The place was freezing inside and I shivered, wrapping my arms around myself to retain at least some of the warmth the outside had afforded me.

“You fucking bitch, what do you think all of this will accomplish? Kidnapping us and bringing us to this place?” Caspian spat at Raven who flicked her hair over her shoulder and kept walking like she owned the place. I supposed she did.

“Oh, you’ll see, Siren. I haven’t decided if I’m going to torture you or your princess worse. I guess I can make you watch while I bring her waves of pain over and over.”

“You’ll pay for this,” He retorted, trying harder than ever to break free.

While they bantered, I took in the place, trying to scan it for anything that might be able to help us get out of here and away from Raven.

“I’ll burn you alive. Just wait,” I screamed at her as we were dragged passed empty rooms down a dark and frigid hall.

“Oh, I’ve been waiting. Yet, I’m still here. Not burning. In fact, not hurting at all. Looks like you’re weak, just like your mother.”

We came upon more rooms as the Siren stopped dragging me and instead picked me up like I was an injured fish and tossed me over his shoulder. I felt his cold, slimy skin against my own and flailed the best I could to get him to let me go, but that only forced two more Sirens to flank him, one holding my tail and the other handcuffing my hands with his.

I gasped as from this new vantage point; I could see into the rooms. There were two or three Mer in each cell-like room. Some were bruised and bleeding. Others looked like they were unconscious, or Poseidon had already come to collect their souls.

“Like what you see, Zaniah? This is what I’m planning on doing to you. Worse than what I’ve done to these Mer. I suppose I could pull scales from your body, but your Siren friend doesn’t have any, and we know Kai has already experienced that pleasure more than once, hasn’t he?”

“Fuck you. You can try, but you won’t do shit to me. I’ll kill you first!” I yelled so loudly that my throat felt like it was on fire.

“Sure. Sure. Because you’ve done so well so far. Oh, that one was fun. It was like watching someone drown. How about a little freshwater for your Mer body? I bet that would teach you a thing or two.”

As she spoke, I looked to my right to see a Mer suspended in a vat of what I assumed was freshwater. She flailed and convulsed in the saltless water, like Raven was slowly drowning her minute by minute. As we passed, the Mer put her hands on the glass of the tank she was in and silently begged me to help her. Fuck, I wanted to but could barely help myself.

“No, on second thought, that’s not slow enough—not enough pain for the amount of trouble you’ve caused me. Hmmm... my personal favorite is snipping off tail fins so that you can’t swim, and even if you tried to walk on land, your feet would be missing. It renders the Mer completely useless, as though you could ever be less useful to this world.”

“What’s the fucking point of this, Raven? You torture me to what end?”

Raven’s laughter echoed around the hollow torture chamber and bounced off every surface, bringing a new chill to the place. “Simply because you are the daughter of the bastard, the one that was my father, unfortunately. I did this because of him. To find ways to ruin his life slowly like he did mine. To make him squirm in fear of the power, the power in me, his daughter. Too bad that the Siren Queen killed him first. He was supposed to be mine for the taking, my right. But that’s okay. I killed her as payback, but I find now that it wasn’t enough. I intend to kill your Siren as well. Just a