The Mythicals.

Saving Her Destiny.

Candice Gilmer.

Sometimes the future comes knocking. Sometimes it knocks you into next week.

The Mythicals, Book 1.

Fairy-In-Distress team member Duncan Molar's mission is as simple as it is desperate. Find his missing best friend, banshee Cara Wallace, before an assassin lights the magical fuse that will unlock her scream, wiping out the last merrow colony on earth.

Since the day he rescued her from a fishing net, the near-victim of her very first scream, they've been joined at the hip, he helping her with her telepathy, she helping him remember the beautiful side of being a fairy.

When he finds her, the crisis isn't over, for the unreleased scream could kill her...unless he gets her to a remote location and figures out a way to release it safely. The solution blows them so far apart, Duncan's back to square one. Doing whatever he has to-including sacrificing his job with the FID-in order to save her.

Because secretly, he's been in love with her for a decade.

Warning: A determined fairy, a banshee-in-distress, and a djinn that will only make matters worse.

Dedication.

For my dad.

Writing wasn't what you meant when you talked about discipline and focus, but the mantra you ground into me and my brother is just as true today as it ever was.

"Be mentally tough."

Thank you, Daddy.

Chapter One.

Thirteen years ago.

Yes! Cara Wallace thought after she'd released her banshee cry.

The lights of the Merrow Kingdom glowed soft blue and green in the inky black underwater. Shockwaves from the cry shot like a sonic ray gun, aimed right toward the royal palace where the mermaids lived. The waves rippled out from where she swam, like little white circles in the deep, murky water. But the scream went right where it was supposed to go.

Fish darted out of the path of the cry, and in the distance, Cara saw merrow caught in the wave, knocked around from their paths. A few scrambled about, and she guessed that word was being sent to the king and queen of the merrow.

The royal palace wasn't damaged-the cry wasn't that strong-though the lights around it flickered for a moment as the wave of the scream pulsed in the water.

She'd released her cry all by herself. It was only her second banshee cry, and she'd come down into the water, found her way into the kingdom, and done it.

Her mother and father would be so proud.

She felt awesome. Well, sort of awesome, anyway.

Awesome to get the cry out of her chest-they hurt badly until they were released-but not so much because of what the cry meant.

A member of the royal family was about to die.

While Cara wasn't sure who resided near death's door, her instincts told her it was the dowager queen. Her husband, the king, had died a few months ago.

That had been Cara's first ever banshee cry.

Quite a huge responsibility to a fifteen-year-old girl, but that was her lot in life-the destiny of the banshee. So far, her cries had been focused on the royal family. That didn't mean she wouldn't have a cry under other circumstances.

She didn't know.

After all, this was just cry number two.

She could be down here every month. Every week. Heck, even every day, depending on what cries built in her. The only rule? They all were for the Merrow Kingdom. That was her area.

Her mom, sister and dad all had their own areas that were off the island. Except for family stuff-banshees could get cries for their own family stuff. When her grandmother died, her sister had screamed for that. It was the first time Cara had ever seen a cry up close and personal.

Especially the power-her sister had blown out the windows in the house because she hadn't gotten outside soon enough.

So while Cara respected the power of the banshee screams, she hated that she was stuck here on Avalon, waiting for her next cry.

Cara twisted in the water, adjusting the special mask on her face to allow her to breathe-all magic and enchanted and stuff-and glanced around. Very little light from above illuminated this deep down. The only light, really, was from the natural animals-algae and certain kinds of bioluminescent fish.

It took a bit of adjustment to see in the dark. Cara, fortunately, adapted well under water to the low light. Her heritage was a little twisted, having a grandmother who was a mermaid-but not just any mermaid, a Merrow princess. But Cara hadn't gotten the full-on fish genes from Granny. Nope, she was banshee, with a little extra adaption for deeper water.

Probably why she was the one who was down here, screaming for the kingdom.

The kingdom, hidden by magic-the only kind of magic the merrow used-remained secret, except to those who had been shown how to enter. There was only one entry point, a deep cave that led to a sealed doorway. Only a few months ago had Cara been shown how to come in.

Even on the merrow side, it was hard to find the rock formations-at least for Cara. Maybe if she came down here more often, she could better identify the path, since the cave's mouth was obscured by large rocky outcroppings.

She twisted in the water.

But wait, am I done?

She wondered if she needed to go down to the castle and speak to the king and queen. Was that protocol? Was it not? She couldn't remember what her mother had told her.

Regardless, the deep cold of the water was starting to chill her. Biology made this decision for her-it was time to get out of here. She might be banshee with bonus merrow genes, but she still wasn't made for long periods of time at this depth. She really needed to look into a wetsuit.

She twisted and turned, kicking her legs to propel her through the water. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure no one was on the way to meet her. Mom had told her sometimes the merrow would come out to talk to the banshees when the scream was released.

So far, no one seemed to be swimming her way. She gritted her teeth around the breather, repressing the urge to let them chatter.

The last time, her cousins, the royal princes, Keefe and Kealan had come out to meet her. Technically, her second cousins, since her grandmother was their grandfather's sister. The two brothers were great-always stopped by when they were on the surface of the island she lived on, just to say hi.

And what girl didn't like older boys hanging around, even if they were related?

So here she was, a banshee, in freezing cold water, trying to find her way back home, but she kept looking behind her, wondering if Keefe and Kealan were going to come out.

Of course, last time she screamed, they'd come so she could get a bit of a tour of the kingdom, help her be familiar.

She shivered. I need to get out of here. She swam a little deeper. I think it's this way... She headed toward the rock walls where the cave's entrance was. A slight glow illuminated the lower sections of the wall of rock, but she had to really focus to see it.

The rocks stuck out like jagged swords, ready to stab her if she twisted the wrong way to get to the nook.

One would think the merrow would mark the exit a bit better.

She slammed her leg into a rock on her left, then the right leg scraped on the other side. For a second, she wished she had a merrow tail. At least she'd be able to move faster in the water. And not bang into stuff.

She twisted around, glancing at her leg.

Lovely. Blood. Great, now I'm an all-you-can-eat shark beacon. Perfect.

She'd better get moving. An eel swam in and out of the rocks and she froze, hoping it wouldn't come her way. Fortunately, it swam off, darting through as quick as a snake.

Her cousins moved like that through the water. It still dumbfounded her that they had such coordination. Granted, they lived here. They learned all their lives how to move through the water like it was nothing.

She, on the other hand, had never been the greatest swimmer, even with that little bit of merrow DNA.

Finally moving on, she stayed close to the wall of rock, and wished she really could move as easily as her half-fish cousins. Especially when she was freezing and ready to get back on dry land.

Even if it was just the island.

But that was a whole other depressing thing...

"Well, look who it is," a voice said.

Cara spun around.

And tried not to grimace. Wasn't I just thinking about eels and depressing things?

Of all the merrow in the water, the last one she wanted to see was her cousin Norton Lynch. With his pointy nose that always seemed a bit turned up, and his slender build, he reminded her of the eel that just swum by. Even the red, seaweed-like cohuleen druith that sprouted from the top of his head looked more like the slithery-fin of an eel.

She pulled away from him, half-expecting him to shock her with electricity.

Norton swam around her, circling as she struggled to keep herself somewhat upright.

"I'd have dressed better if I knew this was a family gathering," Cara said, using her telepathy to communicate. She wasn't very good at it-the only person who would practice with her was her mother.

And who really wanted to practice mind reading with their mother?

The only good thing about training-Mom taught her how to use mental shields. And the last thing she wanted was for her cousin to hear her innermost thoughts.

Nope, Norton didn't need to know what she was thinking, since he tended to annoy her-and on some occasions-give her the willies.

Like now.

Had he gotten more eel-like as he aged?

"Lovely, as always," Norton said, reaching toward her.

Cara twisted away from him. "Did you need something, cousin?" She didn't trust Norton not to fling her into a shark or something, just because he could.

He straightened up, tipping that pointy nose a little higher, and looked way too much like the snotty people at school. "Only to be of assistance. You look lost."

"I'm fine. I was just leaving." She glanced around, expecting him to have henchmen waiting in the wings like the self-important girls at school always did. Those types never traveled alone.

And Norton had always thought he was better than anyone else. Why, she didn't know. He was just another distant relative of the royal family, like her, with no chance of ever ruling the Merrow Kingdom.

Not that Cara ever wanted to be tethered any more than she already was to this place.

"Well, let me show you the way." His answer seemed a bit too smug.

Before Cara could object, Norton grabbed her wrist with a strength she didn't expect, and hauled her toward the rock face much faster than she could swim.

"Norton! Stop it!"

But he didn't heed her words.

He kept pulling, and Cara thought she'd be slammed into the rock wall again. She held out her arm, preparing for impact...

And Norton jerked her out of the way just before she would have hit the wall.

"Norton, you horrible jerk!"

His only response was a laugh that made Cara's skin crawl. "Stupid girl," he muttered. "I wouldn't actually hurt you."

For a second, Cara swore she heard his thoughts, and they sounded like: Not here, anyway.

That made her shiver. He jerked into a crevice, slamming her into another rocky outcropping. She rubbed her forearm, then realized he'd inadvertently-or intentionally, couldn't be sure-shoved her into the entrance tunnel.

The cave, illuminated by greenish light, gave Norton a bizarre white-gray glow. Even his green tail fin looked an odd murky color. Though, when she looked, she realized her own hands had the same bizarre hue.

Wow, she looked like a dead body from TV.

Creepy.

"It is rather sad that you have no tolerance for these depths," Norton said.