Free Tempest Unleashed by Tracy Deebs Page B

need anyone to take care of me.
    No offense, darling, but you don’t know what you need. You may have power, you may be as special as everyone says you are, you may even be the one who will kill Tiamat as the prophecy states, but you are nothing if you don’t understand how to manipulate that power. Sabyn can show you much more than Jared ever could.
    I eyed her suspiciously. I had trouble accepting that she would do anything to help me. What happens when I’m stronger than you?
    As if I would ever let that happen. She got up from her jeweled throne, swam slowly toward me. You’re a weapon, Tempest , she told me on our private line of communication. A top-of-the-line, first-class weapon. If you aren’t careful, if you don’t do exactly what I say, that’s all you’ll ever be. One I wield and then discard once it’s finished being useful.
    I will never let you break me .
    She held up one elegant, beringed hand and slowly began to make a fist, her fingers closing one after the other. Inside me, my heart stuttered as a crushing weight pressed in on it from every side. Tighter and tighter until the pain was so excruciating I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. I tried not to react, tried to ignore what she was doing. But my heart was stuttering, skipping beats, and I knew, absolutely, that if she didn’t stop soon, I would be dead.
    Please. It was all I said, all I could get out, but it was enough. She opened her fist and the pressure and pain dissipated. Immediately, I tightened every inch of my tail to rigidity—it was the only way I could have stayed upright in the aftermath of her attack.
    My whole body burned with mortification and hatred as I looked at her, this woman my mother had blindly served. I wanted to walk away, wanted to tell her to go to hell. The only thing that kept me standing there was the knowledge that I had a long way to go before I could take her down.
    I glanced at Sabyn, saw him leaning against the back wall, a look of amusement on his face as he watched my humiliation. The bastard.
    I turned back to Hailana. When do you want me to start?



The Split
     
    “For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),
It’s always ourselves we find in the sea.”
    —e.e. cummings
     

Chapter 8
     
    So, how are you really feeling?
    I stiffened at Sabyn’s question as we floated into the elite training circles Hailana had set up for me months ago. Located behind the palace grounds, they were three interlocking circles that were meant to be private. Even so, it was not unusual to find a small group of mer watching as we practiced, trying to get a glimpse of me. I’m fine, why?
    Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you went a few rounds with Tiamat’s goons yesterday? There was laughter in his voice, and the same condescending smirk on his face that he’d been wearing earlier.
    I’m fine , I told him again, which was almost true, as my tail no longer hurt. That didn’t mean my chest wasn’t throbbing from my encounter with Hailana or that my brain wasn’t focused on finding a way to get as far from her as possible instead of on this sparring match. Which, considering the number of tattoos Sabyn had, was a truly stupid move on my part. Nothing like getting her ass handed to her twice in twenty-four hours to really make a girl feel good.
    Glad to hear it. He turned, winked. And then shot a blast of energy at me so fast I barely had time to leap out of the way.
    What the hell was that? I demanded when I could breathe again.
    He didn’t answer, just shot another energy blast—and another and another—straight at me. Soon, it was an unending stream that I was afraid would fry me at the first opportunity.
    So much for training. This felt more like an assassination attempt.
    At first I dodged, but then his careless disregard for my life started to tick me off—imagine that—and I fired back, using my own energy to block his. The first time our energy forces actually met, a shock wave blasted out from the