The Switch

Chapter Twenty-Two | Caves and Confrontations

My throat closed up, and I barely managed to sit down on a nearby box before my legs gave out. There was a ringing in my ears and I wasn't aware of anyone saying my name until Lydia put her hand on my shoulder.

"Marina? Are you okay?"

I didn't respond, just shook my head. How could it be Rachel? She was my best friend. We were both saved by the ocean around the same time, and had formed an unbreakable bond. We never left each other's sides. I scrunched my eyes closed and put my head in my hands, trying to steady my breathing. This was all my fault. If I hadn't spent as much time with Nick, I would have been paying closer attention to what my best friend was doing.

"It's all my fault," I squeaked out. I could feel tears dripping from my chin onto my knees, and I focused on the rhythm of those droplets.

Lydia rubbed my back comfortingly. "No, it's not, love. To have this much power over Tanya, Rachel must have been a part of the Shell for a very long time."

"Then I should have seen it before!" I shouted suddenly, self-hatred boiling up inside me. "I was supposed to be her best friend, how could she do this to us?"

Lydia shook her head sadly. I could see that she was fighting back tears as well. I had been betrayed by a best friend, but Rachel was like a daughter to Lydia. This must be devastating for her, too. "I don't know," she said softly, "but we can't focus on why she is doing it right now. We have to find her and stop her before she kills someone else."

I nodded and wiped my eyes, getting to my feet. Lydia was right. We only had half a day left until we would undergo the Switch again, and we needed to make sure that Rachel was in our custody by then. If she escaped, I didn't know what would happen, but we would all be in danger.

I fixed my gaze on Tanya again and stalked over to her. I could see a hint of satisfaction pulling her lips upward, although there was still a glimmer of fear in her eyes. I took a deep breath before telling her in a deadly quiet voice, "First, I'm going to ask nicely, and you better give some serious thought before you answer. Because if you lie to me, or you don't tell me, I will have no problem taking a pair of pliers and removing your beautifully painted fingernails one by one until you tell me the truth. And if that isn't enough for you, when we get back in the water, I'll rip the scales right off of that pretty little tail of yours. Got it?"

The smile vanished from Tanya's lips and her eyes widened. She nodded vigorously, fear widening her pupils. "Got it," she gulped.

I smiled grimly. "Good. Where is Rachel?"

"She said to meet her by the cave where we keep our supplies. We were going to lay low and figure out an alibi for after you found the bodies," Tanya replied immediately.

"Bodies? You had more than one target?"

"Yeah, I was supposed to feed on Nadina, and Rachel was going to find another vulnerable mermaid to kill."

"Do you have any idea who she might have been targeting?" I asked, my fingernails digging into my palms as I clenched my fists.

Tanya shook her head. "No, she didn't tell me." Seeing the look on my face, she quickly added, "But Rachel did tell me that the younger the mermaid was, the better her blood would be."

Beside me, Lydia immediately breathed, "Becca. She's going after the youngest girl, the one who just joined our clan." She rushed over to the group of mermaids around Nadina and started asking in hushed tones if anyone knew where Becca was. My heart squeezed painfully. Rachel couldn't be going after Becca. She knew how much the young girl meant to me. Why would she do something like that?