The merriment on the beach helped to lighten Kaelin's mood. Dancing around the huge fire with Liam, Gretchen, and the others left her feeling carefree. It was nice to get out of her own head, if only for a few minutes. She whipped her long platinum hair around, finding the rhythm of the music. Everyone seemed to be into it. Even Liam, who claimed he hated to dance, grabbed her hand and twirled her around, her feet kicking up the sand around them.
Kaelin pulled Liam away from the group, to the water's edge, stripping off her shirt and shorts along the way to reveal her blue bikini. Liam also removed his shirt and tossed it onto the sand, picking her up to carry her into the waves.
She could still hear the music from their spot, so she started to dance around him, waving her hands around, which created small bursts of waves that crashed into their legs, sending up a fine spray that soaked their hair and skin.
"Somebody's having fun." Liam said, smiling at her.
Kaelin threw her arms around his neck and stretched up to kiss him. The intense beating of the bass in the music seemed to sync with the pounding of her pulse behind her ears. Or maybe it was the other way around. The rhythm of the waves definitely had changed, to match pace with her heartbeat. It wasn't intentional, sometimes water just became an extension of a mermaid, like an extra limb that subconsciously adhered to her mind.
She was so caught up in the moment, and the music, that she didn't notice when the wind shifted. It took a moment to realize that the waves had grown intense enough to push them back a step toward the shore.
"Are you doing this?" Liam looked around at the waves, growing stronger still.
If she were doing it, it was entirely unintentional.
Liam took her hand and led her back to the shore where the tide had gotten higher, nearly far enough to wash away their clothes, which had been perfectly safe when they discarded them.
Just as the music reached a crescendo there was a sudden clap of thunder, booming in the distance. Kaelin's head snapped to the side to look out over the ocean. Lightning flashed from enormous clouds that had appeared out of nowhere to blot out the stars, growing larger by the second.
"Oh, no," Kaelin mumbled, spotting something much worse.
Beneath the clouds, a giant swell rose up miles out in the distance; if it continued to grow at that rate, it would be a tsunami before it made landfall. She knew that a wave of that size could wipe out the entire island.
But she also knew something else. This was no ordinary occurrence. The wave, the storm, all of it was magic. This was how the Southern Clan rode into battle.
They were coming for her.
Kaelin's heart sank in her chest, her stomach doing backflips, giving her a nauseous ache. She looked over at all of the humans on the beach. They would probably be slaughtered, if they didn't drown first.
She looked at Liam again, tears of anguish welling in her eyes. "I'm so sorry." She did this to him. To his people.
Liam stepped closer and rested his hands on her shoulders. "What's going on?"
"I've killed you all."
YOU ARE READING
What the Tide Brings
Fantasy[COMPLETED] She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. She was ethereal and mystical and utterly impossible. Her mere existence challenged everything that he knew about the world. His mind screamed that she couldn't be real, yet here she...
