“Was worth a shot, dickless.” The story pertaining to what Jessie did to Tethys’s male member had reached me shortly after my recovery from getting shot in the head. I circled back to shore, not wanting to watch my hometown burn.
Tethys’s smile waned. “That’s more like it,” he said humorlessly, lunging with pure ferocity. He was coming in for the kill. He wanted to send me back to that place where cursed souls go to get tortured between deaths.
I ducked out of his swipe and shifted to my aquatic form, then feinted darting behind him and let him spin in place for me. I clamped my arms around his torso, barely able to grab my own wrists. If I’d been as barrel-chested as him, this maneuver would’ve backfired. He tried to wrench free but I buried my teeth in the meat of his shoulder. He roared and reached for my face. I coiled my tail around his waist and twisted with all my demon might. Flesh ripped and bone snapped. The sensation of severing his spine sent a shiver up my own.
I reformed my legs as he began toppling over. His lower body bounced off mine, then fell over and began gushing blood all over the sand. I chucked his upper body farther down the beach, then grabbed his thighs in each hand and tore them apart like pulling a leg off a cooked chicken. The gore sickened me but I didn’t want to take chances. I blocked out what I just did, then chucked the separate legs onto the beach.
Tethys used his arms to flop his torso onto his back, then lay there with his arms splayed out, chest heaving, and spine and guts hanging out as he stained the shore with a stream of blood. He looked skyward and let out a weak laugh.
“So much for bending me,” I said emotionlessly. I didn’t care that I’d finally beat him. It hadn’t undone the devastation to Newport.
He laughed again, a little louder. “Oh, I have.” He gestured northward. “Just look at what happened to your home while I kept you busy.” His hand flopped back onto the reddening beach as a wave clawed at his pooling blood.
I tensed with rage. The reason I’d come here… I wanted to scream, cry, and have Tethys get up so I could beat him some more. I started towards the destruction, deciding to let the bastard bleed to death while I salvaged what I could.
“I wouldn’t bother. The final blow comes.” He pointed behind me, at the ocean, but like I was going to fall for that.
I stomped over and gripped his thick neck with both hands. He didn’t even try to fight; just smiled as my claws dug into his throat. I avoided making eye contact as I twisted and snapped his neck. His corpse ceased rasping for breath. I flipped him over and pushed him facedown in the sand, then turned around, curious but not quite sure I wanted to know what final blow was.
Far out in the water, barreling towards Newport, was…
Oh, god. A tsunami.
Chapter 32
The Final Blow
Jessie, find the rest of the crew and get everyone to higher ground! There’s a tsunami coming. I ran out into the water up to my waist.
She gasped. How long do we have?
I don’t know. Maybe minutes. Go!
Dyne, we have Mido on a gurney. It’s just him, me, Ed, and Ted. We have no clue where the others went.
Then start shouting for everyone to head to higher ground. I have to try to stop it from making landfall.
You can do that?
I held out my arms like I was bracing to catch the wall of water barreling towards me. I don’t know. I have to try. This is my home. I have to save it. It’s all I have left.
I understand. I don’t want you to experience what I felt when I saw Paphos. But, if you can’t stop it, please come for the others and bring them to safety. There’s so much debris to search.
I will. I promise. Stay alive.
I pulled my mind away from hers, the last thing I felt from her a fearful yearning for everything to turn out okay. The tsunami was barely visible on the horizon but it was moving with purpose. With my powers I felt out the size and shape of the thing. It was wide enough to take out Newport. Just Newport. It was maybe a three-foot swell stretching for miles, but it was steadily growing as the seabed sloped upwards. However, it didn’t need to be a tall wave to cause destruction; just a lot of momentum, which it had. One huge mass of water sent with the sole purpose of wiping my home off the map. I was so furious and desperate that I could barely focus on using my command over water.
I lowered into a fighting stance to better keep my balance, then threw everything I had at the tsunami. If I couldn’t stop it, the wave would collect all the rubble and pull it out to sea, just swallow up all of Newport and leave behind nothing but foundations full of water. My home was probably leveled already. I wanted to at least pick through the pieces for salvageable parts of my past once this was all over.
I threw every last ounce of will at the tsunami. I forced myself to tune out my desperation and instead focus on intent. Desperation made me tense up and want to beg the wave to stop. In a battle of wills, that kind of approach would guarantee my loss. I focused on the task at hand, the size of the wave, its mass, its velocity, and how to neutralize all that. A little voice in my head told me it couldn’t be done, a little voice right from my gut. Only a god could conjure a tsunami at will. Only a god could stop it.
A piece of the argumentative conversation with Amphitrite in the cave popped into my mind, the part where she’d explained that actions weren’t simply undone. There was only forward action, growth from choices made. She’d made the decision to create the tsunami. Now the consequences would be endured. I could try all I wanted to stop the wave, but it would be a vain effort.
I just couldn’t accept that. Not with my home on the line.
Every last ton of water resisted my will, barreling through it like I wasn’t even there. The strain gave me a splitting headache. The water around me began to get sucked out to sea, pulling at my legs. I dug my clawed feet into the sand and it began to pile up behind my ankles. I held my hands over the ocean and leaned back as I pulled like I was playing tug-of-war with two ropes. I pulled at the receding water, hoping to rob the tsunami of more fuel. The line of water before me slowed to a standstill, but the rest of the few miles only slowed, until the strain was too much. One multi-ton water demon versus millions of tons of water didn’t stand a chance. I let go and started gasping for air as the water receded, leaving nothing but sand all around me.
I pulled my feet free, jerking them with a squelch, then reasserted a balanced stance and braced my hands against an invisible wall. It was time to change tactics. I had to find a way to stop the tsunami. It just couldn’t reach Newport. I flung every last ounce of will at it again, urging it to stop barreling to shore. The splitting headache returned but I accepted it and narrowed my eyes. The tsunami showed no signs of slowing, but I couldn’t give up. Just like Jessie had spent months kicking at her cell door on Tethys’s ship, until it finally broke, I would contend with the wave until it finally yielded to my will. It just had to yield if I kept at it long enough.
You are a stubborn one, Dyne Lavere.
Amphitrite’s voice made me do a full-body flinch. I pushed aside my surprise and reasserted my will against the tsunami.
You already know how this will end, yet you try anyway. You’re breaking my heart yet again.
I felt sorrow in her words. She was sincerely heartbroken, watching me fight, but I refused to accept it, couldn’t accept that she felt anything but hate and contempt for me. You don’t have a heart.