Dangerous Depths (The Sea Monster Memoirs) Read Online Free PDF Page B

waiting with clothes for us. I pushed past her.
    “At least put some shorts on,” she yelled, trying to keep up with me. “It’s tourist season!”
    I turned around, snatched a pair of shorts from her, pulled them on, and stormed off. Yara and Treygan followed close behind.
    I stomped up the porch steps of Lloyd’s house and kicked the door open. He was sitting in his recliner with a drink in his hand, like he didn’t have a care in the world.
    “I couldn’t pass through the gate! Do you want to know why?” I leaned down, bracing my arms on either side of his chair. I was so close to his face I could smell the orange juice he was drinking. “Because I’m part human. Because you tainted me with your human blood, and now I can’t save Vienna!”
    Yara and Treygan stayed on the other side of the room.
    “Did you know about this?” I asked through clenched teeth.
    My meddling father said nothing. Just downed his juice and rattled the ice cubes around his empty glass. His silence said it all.
    I grabbed a vase and smashed it on the tile floor. It didn’t put a dent in my anger. I grabbed the side table by Lloyd’s chair.
    “Rownan!” Yara yelled, but I didn’t stop.
    I lifted the table over my head and threw it at the floor-to-ceiling aquarium. The glass cracked, but didn’t break. My chest heaved up and down. My eyes met Treygan’s.
    “Feel better?” he asked.
    I shook my head.
    He bent down, knocked books off the coffee table, and picked it up. He handed me the table, and I hurled it at the aquarium. The glass shattered. Water and fish poured out onto the floor.
    “Rownan, stop!” Yara sprang forward, but Treygan stopped her.
    “Let him be,” Lloyd said. “At least that’s a mess we can clean up.”
    “How could you do this to me?” I yelled at Lloyd. “Why did you allow me to have hope? Haven’t I suffered enough already?”
    Lloyd shifted in his seat, his joints cracking and popping. “I suspected you might not be able to pass through the gate, but I wasn’t certain.”
    “You should have told me!”
    Yara and Treygan were working together to clean up the aquarium mess, but Yara stepped away to shout in my face. “He can’t meddle, Rownan. At all.”
    “He meddles to protect you and Treygan,” I snarled.
    Yara opened her mouth to argue, but my worthless father cut her off.
    “I should have told you,” he said. “I’m very sorry. There are many things I should have done differently.”
    “You’ve got that right.”
    “Ease up,” Yara snapped at me. “He’s in no condition to be yelled at. He feels bad enough as it is, and you’re making things worse.”
    “Worse? How can things be worse? Vienna is trapped in hell, and I can’t even attempt to save her! I’m never going to see her again.”
    Yara’s eyes lowered and she sat on the arm of Lloyd’s chair.
    I glanced at Treygan, but he was busy ushering waves of water and fish into a new stone tank he had just created.
    My knees grew weaker as the truth of my words settled deeper into my soul. I was never going to see Vienna again. She was alone, trapped in the damned realm for eternity.
    I shook my head hard. “No. I refuse to let her be trapped in there.” I started pacing. “I couldn’t pass through the gate because I have human blood, but a pure mer or selkie could get through. I’ll ask the selkies. Someone will do it.” Even as I spoke the words I knew I was lying to myself. I had asked for volunteers when I first found out where Vienna had gone. No one would go with me, not even her own brother. “Or maybe Delmar or Pango. They’re brave and strong.”
    Treygan and Yara shot each other skeptical glances.
    “What should I do?” I asked desperately.
    No one said anything. The room became hotter. I couldn’t stand around doing nothing, losing more hope with every second. “Please, someone come up with an idea to save the day, because I’m going out of my mind!”
    More deafening silence. Treygan leaned against