Chapter 5

The stranger stared around the chamber, his eyes first probing Zac, then Erik and Cam, and finally Mimmi. He glared at her, then turned back to Zac. He walked with shaky footsteps towards him and towards the panel.

'Erik,' he said hoarsely. 'My boy.'

Zac's eyes were still slightly glazed, but he seemed to be lucid enough to realise he was being addressed.

'My name is Zac,' he said robotically and raised a hand to point in Erik's direction. 'That's Erik. He has no right to be here. This is my place.'

The man (if that is indeed what he was) stared between the two boys. Erik felt a shiver go up his spine. If this really was who he thought it was…

'Adrian?' he asked softly.

That one word seemed to melt the man's harsh demeanour and he grinned broadly at Erik, walking closer towards him and away from Zac.

'You can call me "Father", you know,' he said, the smile never leaving his face as he embraced his son. Erik almost drew back, the unexpected contact was entirely jarring.

Adrian pulled away from him and stared for a long time, holding his shoulders and surveying him top to bottom.

'What happened to you?' he asked anxiously. 'Where have you been all this time?'

The man who was his father pulled away and shook his head. He looked so gaunt to Erik, so hungry.

'I was trapped, Erik,' he answered simply. 'I was trapped where I couldn't be reached. A chamber within this chamber, but accessible only to some. I never dreamed for a minute that she would betray me the way she did.'

'What do you mean?' Erik asked. He was conscious that Cam was slowly moving out of the chamber out of the side of his eye and hoped that Mimmi might follow suit. He didn't like the look that Adrian had given her earlier.

'My… lover, shall we say,' Adrian answered with a scowl twisting his face. 'She was someone I loved deeply and we had a plan to make things right together. Between mermaids and mermen. But she turned on me and…' He huffed and looked at the ground. There was pain and anger and sorrow, all twisted up in his face.

Then, seeming to recover from whatever thought was in his head, he continued, the corners of his mouth slowly lifting, 'I knew I would see you again. I knew you would hear me.'

Finally Erik had to speak.

'I heard you,' Erik agreed. 'But I didn't release you. I didn't unlock this place.'

Adrian shook his head and glanced at Zac, who was still standing by the raised panel looking entirely wooden, as if whatever force had been driving him had simply stopped.

'Him?' he asked, almost nervously. Erik nodded in response.

'It's impossible,' Adrian declared, shaking his head. 'It is truly impossible. Only my son could have accessed this chamber and released me. Only my blood.'

Erik felt as though his heart was going to burst out of his chest. He could feel his breathing become more shallow and the theory that had been swirling, malformed, in his head, suddenly settled on him like a weight.

'Have you ever known a mermaid called Nerissa?' he asked, almost in a whisper. He could see Mimmi out of the corner of his move forward, as if to do something, but stop before she reached the border where the water still flowed around the trident.

There was another strange thing about the chamber. The ceiling was lit up with what looked just like the moon and a starry sky, and the light filled the entire chamber, spilling onto all of them. Erik could feel that sensation of the moon penetrating his body and mind, as it always did. Which didn't make sense at all.

'Nerissa?' Adrian snarled suddenly. 'Don't you dare say that name to me.'

'Zac is Nerissa's son,' Erik replied, the truth slowly settling in. 'He's…'

Adrian's rage was slowly turning into something more sinister. Amusement, thought Erik, feeling that shiver go up his spine again. This was his father, supposedly. He should feel happy to be reunited with him. But instead, all he felt was cold fear. He sorely regretted ever entering the cave.

'So,' Adrian said, sauntering up to Zac, smiling fiercely at him. 'So. My erstwhile lover didn't destroy you after all.'

Erik felt his heart drop at the confirmation of his suspicion. He heard Mimmi make a strangled sound behind him and turned, at the same time as Adrian did.

'Who are you?' he asked, turning his glance to her. 'Mermaids are not welcome here, little one. Don't think I'll spare you because you're young and stupid.'

Briefly distracted from Zac, he walked towards Mimmi, who looked torn between running for the exit and running towards her brother. Adrian stood in front of her and looked down with malice etched in every line of his face. Before he could do anything, Erik rushed to stand between them.

'No,' he told his father. 'I won't let you hurt her. You can't hurt her!' he exclaimed.

'Why would you want a mermaid to live, my son?' Adrian asked, as if it was the most normal question in the world. 'Don't you know that they are the enemy who destroy our kind? I have tried to make peace and I have learned my lesson!'

'She's yours!' Erik exclaimed, pushing his father back towards the gleaming trident in the floor, away from Mimmi. 'She's Zac's twin sister. Understand? And even if she weren't, I wouldn't let you hurt her.'

'Oh, Erik,' Adrian sighed. 'You can't know. How could you, poor innocent boy? I thought I left you in capable hands but I should have been there to bring you up myself. All mermaids are dangerous, and it is our duty to subjugate them. To make them pay for what they've done to us.'

'They haven't done anything to me,' Erik spat back. 'They've been my friends and I won't let you hurt them.'

Adrian raised an eyebrow. 'Them? There are others?'

Erik bit his lip, annoyed at himself for letting this slip. Still, Ondina and Sirena were standing right outside of the cave, there was no chance Adrian wouldn't have spotted them just by walking outside. He'd have found out sooner or later.

Adrian shook his head. 'Then Nerissa let you both live. What is your name, my daughter?' he asked Mimmi, who shrank back, visibly horrified at being addressed this way by the man who was by inches revealing himself to be her worst nightmare - every horrible thing that she had ever heard about mermen embodied.

'Tell me your name,' he commanded and she shook her head, stubborn and frightened.

Adrian just smiled and turned away, walking back to Zac. Erik remained standing in front of Mimmi and hoped that he had made it out and would get Ondina and Sirena away while he could.

As Adrian came up to Zac and, more importantly, the panel, he placed a loving hand on the carved stone and looked over at the boy, who remained standing still looking at nothing, a puppet with his strings cut.

'Tell me your sister's name,' he ordered Zac, who seemed to whir to life instantly.

'Mimmi.'

'Very good,' Adrian purred, patting Zac's hand.

Erik swallowed. He knew what was happening here, had started understanding pretty quickly. The chamber needed moonlight to open, to turn on, but now that it had been fully powered up, it was perpetuating itself somehow and simulating the moonlight from within. Zac was entirely moonstruck, as Erik had feared he would be. And in that state, his father was manipulating him. Not just his father. Their father.

'Now,' Adrian said to Zac, 'Tell me about the others. Tell me everything.'

'No!' Erik exclaimed, rushing over to where the two of them were standing, desperate to put a stop to this. This was worse than anything he could have pictured. Adrian knew this chamber inside and out, knew what it was capable of. And if he found out that there were mermaids who knew about it, too, he'd… Erik didn't really want to imagine what he might do next.

Adrian, annoyed, looked up then at his son.

'You're pathetic, Erik,' he said, letting his irritation show. 'Pitiable. Too weak to stand up for your own kind. For all her faults, Nerissa gave me a true son, a real merman.'

He put a hand on Zac's shoulder and grasped it warmly. Erik felt his heart drop to his feet. He had realised pretty quickly that this wasn't going to be a father-son bonding session, but the speed with which his own father had disowned him in favour of Zac stung, badly.

'He won't do what you're telling him,' Erik maintained. 'Not once the moon spell has passed. He cares about Mimmi, too.'

'I don't intend to give him the option,' Adrian replied, looking behind Erik to where Mimmi still stood on the edge of the chamber, her mind not yet made up on whether to run or stay and try to fight.

'Mimmi, come here,' he ordered, his voice now a loud boom in the echoing chamber.

'Let Zac go!' she replied angrily instead of moving. 'Stop whatever you're doing to him.'

'You are in no position to give orders,' Adrian replied calmly. 'Not that I'd take orders from a mermaid, anyway. Well, if you're going to be uncooperative…'

His fingers hovered over the panel as he lit up one symbol after another. It was all over in a moment. Mimmi had vanished in a flash of light, and the chamber now contained just Erik, Zac and Adrian, who was smiling widely.

'The chamber will fulfil its purpose today,' he said triumphantly.

Erik started to back away. This was not a fight he'd be able to win and he knew that right now his priority was to get Ondina and Sirena away, try to hide them. Maybe even Rita would need to be hidden. Zac was lost to him for the moment, too.

Adrian didn't seem to be paying much attention to him, though. He was concentrated on the panel, on Zac and the chamber. Erik may well have been able to get away if things hadn't gotten much, much worse, just at that moment.

'Zac!'

The female voice rang out loud and clear and Adrian and Erik looked at the chamber entrance where both Evie and Ondina hovered, looking fearfully at Zac, who still had the look of an abandoned marionette, and Adrian, who looked as though his every wish had been fulfilled.

'Wonderful, we have company,' he said to the girls.

'Erik, who is this? What's happening?' Ondina asked before he had a chance to usher her out. 'Where's Mimmi?!'

'All good questions, mermaid,' Adrian answered. 'You'll know soon enough. You can be the first to partake in this experiment.'

At that moment, Erik felt something inside of him burst. This was his father and he had already attacked Mimmi. It was unclear where she was. Ondina was his next target, possibly Evie, too. Ondina was his next target. That played in his head over and over for a few seconds before he launched himself at Adrian.

But the move was anticipated. Adrian's fingers moved deftly over the panel and soon, Erik was also gone in the same flash that had taken Mimmi.

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