Free Tempest Unleashed by Tracy Deebs

honestly, I wasn’t so sure. My mother had abandoned her husband and three children without a backward glance. A woman who could do that, who years later could still plot to use her only daughter for her own means, was pretty much capable of anything.
    Shoving the disquieting thoughts out of my head, I concentrated on clearing my mind. Doing some deep-water breathing. I needed to be as close to Zen as I could get when I went in to see Hailana, or she would dig until she found my weakness and exploited it.
    Not this time , I assured myself as I stopped in front of her chambers. Today I was not going to let her rattle me. At all. As for the electric thing? I’d play it by ear, see how it went. If it was beneficial to me, and not just to her, maybe I would ask for help in understanding my new power. And if not, then there were other ways to get the information I needed.
    After knocking on the door, I waited patiently to be admitted by one of her servants. But when it finally swung open, the merman standing there was definitely not like any servant I had ever seen.
    Dark and gorgeous and full of life, with piercing blue eyes that looked right through me, he exuded power from every pore. He was as tall as Kona—which meant he was huge, as my boyfriend was close to six and a half feet tall in his human form—and heavily muscled. Even more disarming than that, though, was the series of dark blue tattoos covering nearly every inch of skin between his neck and his waist. They weren’t the kind you got in a tattoo parlor.
    No , I thought as I tried to press forward into the room. These tattoos, with their slight phosphorescent glow, were like mine. Like Kona’s. Like Hailana’s and my mother’s. They were gifts from the sea, markings of true oceanic power.
    I couldn’t help staring in astonishment. Not because he was the first merman I’d ever seen with such marks—he wasn’t, of course. But never before had I seen so many on one person. Not even my mother or Hailana, or even Kona’s incredibly powerful father, had close to this number.
    Who is he? I wondered as I shifted uncomfortably under his scrutiny. And why was he looking at me like I was a present he couldn’t wait to open?

Chapter 7
     
    Come in, Tempest , Hailana called from within the chamber. Tearing my eyes from her mystery guest was more difficult than it should have been, but I managed as I stepped into the large, opulent room that served as Hailana’s meeting place while she was below the surface.
    I expected the merman to move aside as I entered, but he didn’t. Instead, he stood right in the middle of the doorway so that I was forced to brush against him as I passed. Jolts of electricity shot through me, sizzled along my nerve endings, and if we hadn’t been underwater I would have sworn that I’d been burned. A quick, startled look at him confirmed he had experienced the same thing. Only he didn’t look at all surprised.
    Who is he ? I wondered again. He didn’t look much older than I was, but I’d learned that, down here, looks could be deceiving. After all, Kona—despite just having reached the end of selkies’ teenage years—was actually over two hundred years old.
    Even more important than who the guy was, however, was the question of how Hailana was planning to use him against me. Kona would think it was crazy of me to be so suspicious, but I’d been around the merQueen long enough now to know that she never did anything without a purpose. And that purpose was always self-serving.
    Come over here , Hailana told me impatiently. I don’t have all day, especially considering I’ve wasted most of the morning waiting around for you to wake up.
    I’m sorry. My experiences yesterday left me quite … drained .
    She studied me through narrowed eyes, this frail, old mermaid who looked like she might shatter at any moment. But eight months of exposure to her had taught me that the frailty was only on the outside. Inside she was as tough, as