MERCILESS (The Mermen Trilogy #3) by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff Read Free Book Online Page B

stone floor. The throne where the leader usually sat was empty, as were a few wooden tables. Blood stained the floor in small pools.
    Liv shivered.
    The last time she’d been in here, there were men going mad, clawing out their eyes from pain as the island punished their disobediences. They’d finally risen up against her and she hadn’t liked it one little bit.
    Liv walked over to one of the gray stone walls and ran her hands along the surface. Bone dry.
    “Come. On!” The clock was ticking on Roen’s life. Think. Think. Think . Where else had she seen water?
    Liv rubbed her eyes with one hand. That doctor, a redheaded man named Holden, had a supply, but she wasn’t sure where his home was.
    Okay. All of the men probably keep a stash . She’d have to follow the trail down the mountain and search whatever homes she found.
    Liv suddenly felt a cold breath on the back of her neck. “Crap!” She swiveled on her heel, shining the flashlight around the room, but it was empty. “I know you’re there, Crazy Dirt! I know you’re watching me! And you’re not going to win. I won’t fucking let you kill Roen.”
    Liv waited for a response, but there was nothing except the eerie silence.
    “I hope that means you’re too weak to talk and dying a horrible death.” But as Liv said those words, she realized that maybe the island’s condition had something to do with Roen being sick.
    Oh God. I hope this doesn’t mean I have to save the island. The thought of lifting a finger for her made Liv violently ill.
    Don’t start making up more problems. Go find water.
     
    ~~~
     
    Liv had been prepared to see dead, dying, or more sick men. She’d been prepared to see hungry maids (and run from them). She’d been prepared to go through every dwelling she could find, searching for water, and go all night if she had to. But she had not been prepared to see this.
    The first cabin she’d found, not more than five minutes from the Great Hall, had a small light glowing through the front window. When she knocked, no one answered, so she burst through the front door and went straight for the kitchen. She began rummaging through the cupboards, finding them empty.
    “Who the hell are you?” said a strange female voice.
    “Oh shit.” Liv yelped and jumped. A woman, blonde with a petite frame and a round face, stood in the doorway. She wore a white cotton dress and a giant machete as her accessory.
    Oh no. There must’ve been another Collection. That was when the men who lived here went to the mainland and brought back women for the world’s most awesome date night, merman style, complete with deadly hand-to-hand combat to compete for the different women.
    “Who are you?” the woman asked again, her gray eyes twitching with aggression.
    Liv raised her palms to highlight she was unarmed. “My name is Liv. I was a prisoner on this island once just like you. I can get you out of here, but I need to find something first. The men here use this special water. It—”
    “I am not a prisoner,” the woman said. “And I’m well aware what their water does. It’s how they cured me.”
    “Cured you? Of what?” Had this woman caught the same illness as Roen?
    “Of being a maid.”
    Liv stared, wondering if she was joking. It didn’t look like it. “You’re serious?”
    “Yes. And the man dying in the bedroom is my mate.”
    “I’m s-s-sorry,” Liv stuttered. “Can you just…say all that over again? You were a mermaid, and—” Liv blew out a breath. “How’d they change you again?”
    “They gave us the last of the sacred water, and now there isn’t any left.”
    The utter amazement of that information was trumped by the other part of the sentence. “What do you mean ‘there isn’t any left’?” Liv didn’t want to believe it.
    The woman shook her head. “None. We’ve been through every inch of the island. Can you believe these idiots used it all up just to save a few of us? Why would they do that? Now, after