“There are hotels underwater?” Mari asked, eyes widening as Ambrose forcibly dragged her behind him. She’d begun digging in her fins the second he’d told her to stay quiet and don’t look anyone in the eye.
That was warning enough for her to know that they shouldn’t even be going there.
“We are much like you, if not more advanced,” he said. Ambrose tugged on her arm gently, trying to coax her into moving on her own.
“All the more reason to leave! Don’t make me go in there—things have a tendency to break around me, haven’t you noticed?” Her voice rose to a higher pitch and she couldn’t stop it. She felt the blood drain from her face when a garbled shout came through the rickety door.
“It won’t break, Mari. All of our buildings are reinforced by the sea. Not even an Octopian could bring down this place.”
“Oh, well that’s reassuring,” she muttered, pulling against his hand. The akrina flittered in front of them and she felt the beginning of another hand, a wet one, wrap around her other arm. “Don’t touch me,” she growled.
Ambrose nodded and the sensation left her. “Let’s make a deal,” he said.
“A deal?” She didn’t bother to hide her cynicism. Another shout and then the sound of something thumping was heard and she felt lightheaded. Fights. Bar fights. This was like some underwater version of a rowdy western bar.
The door, from where she was, looked like it would fall apart any second. It was a dark brown, the edges rounded and with moss crawling over every inch. A small bundle was raised near the bottom and the closer she looked, she saw a line of little slug things crawling out of it.
Oh god.
Her diaphragm did a dance and she almost threw up the peach and mango she’d eaten earlier. “I don’t mind sleeping on the floor a couple hundred miles away from this place,” she said, desperation tinging her voice.
Ambrose looked at her with sympathy, shaking his head. “No, we stay here.”
“Those….people. Things. There are things in there that will shred me to bits!”
He frowned at her. “We aren’t dealing with Octopians so your fear is invalid.”
Mari gaped at him. “It doesn’t matter if we are or aren’t! Do you hear the crashing coming from inside there?” Another thump came from inside there, right as the door began to rattle against the moss-covered stone building again.
The place was twice as big as her own house, with two stories and several busted out windows that only had a plank of wood as a sort of guard for privacy. Just like the door, gently flowing moss clung to the side of the building, weird rocky formations also managing to grow and stick to it. Several colonies of fish surrounded the stone building, like an evil sushi fortress barrier.
She swore some of the fish shot her the stink-eye. That only strengthened her resolve to not go into the rough-house place.
Ambrose stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, brows low and face lined with confusion. “I don’t understand why you cannot just do as I say,” he said, contrite.
Mari gaped at him. “I think anyone would have a problem going into a building that houses a constant bar-fight!” Something smashed from the inside and she winced. “You can’t seriously want me to go in there with you.”
“I seriously do,” he said, shaking his head as if clearing any other thought. The confusion drained out of his face, replaced by a disconcerting stern nature that had her backing away from him slowly.
“No,” she said, shaking her head.
“Yes.”
“No, Ambrose.”
He closed in on her, no matter how strong she kept her voice and no matter how far she backed away. “Sit. Stay. Roll-the-hell-over—“
His hand grabbed her arm with a gentle but firm grip. “Mari, it is not so bad. You’ve survived the transformation, you escaped from a psychotic goddess, and you haven’t chopped me into Octopian Bits like I’m sure you’ve wanted to for the past hour.”
Ambrose smiled, making her stomach do weird things. She swallowed nervously. “Each journey starts with the first step...even if it’s in the wrong direction at least your feet are moving and your brain is thinking. So far, you’ve done an amazing job of holding yourself together. I’m more than positive that you can do this small thing.”
Mari stared at him, then after a moment sighed. “Fine… But only because I’m tired. We do get to sleep here, right? Actually—do we even sleep at all?” If she couldn’t sleep anymore, they’d have a problem. A big, grouchy problem named Mari.
“We still sleep. As a newly-turned Atlantean, it’s actually imperative that you rest. I am so sorry that I had to drag you along without a second of recovery time,” he said, his voice lowering with his remorse, managing to wash over with a dark rush.
At just the small thought of being able to lay her head down and let her legs—tail—take a rest, the fight left her and her shoulders dropped. Yeah, there was only thing she wanted right now.
“Just…sleep. I want to sleep.” There. That sounded comprehensible enough.
Mari let Ambrose lead her to the sodden-looking door and made sure not to look at the demon-spawn fish.
“I’m not sure how this is going to go, but I can’t let you out of my sight…if anything happens, I want you to swim as far away from this place as you can,” Ambrose murmured against her temple, before pulling open the door.
They only got an inch in before the door slammed shut behind them and several eyes snapped to look at who had entered.
Instantly, everything stopped.
Every.
Single.
Thing.
Mari backed into Ambrose, barely stilling her gasp. About twenty or so men were standing around a table, playing some sort of game that had a small diamond involved.
It wasn’t the diamond that had her gasping, though.
Each man was a rougher, scarier version of Ambrose. They all had ink up their arms, they all had scars on their faces and bare chests, and they were all staring at them as if a ghost had walked in.
But of course, that changed within a second. Her heart thundered in her chest at the look of pure hate in their eyes...or was that death? It looked like death. Really painful death.
“Ambrose?” she whispered, hiding behind him.
“Don’t say anything.” His voice was barely audible to her.
The water shifted around them and her head snapped behind her. A hulking man with a fin—was that a shark fin?—sticking out of his back was shutting the door completely…blocking them from leaving.
Oh great. Just freaking great.