Into the Void (The Godhunter, Book 10) by Amy Sumida Page B

ridge of bone that was wide at the front, with an opening in it, and tapered off to nothing at the neck.
    It looked up at the cameraman and screeched. The cameraman lurched back and as he did, the creature flopped its way back into the water. The camera caught one last glimpse of the tail splashing through the surface before the creature swam away.
    “This can't be real,” I leaned back heavily in my seat.
    “ You're the Goddess of Love, Lions, and the Land,” Trevor lifted a brow at me. “A witch, a lioness, and a dragon. You're a triple trinity being mated to a werewolf and a werelion, the lover of an archangel, and married to a Faerie King.”
    “ Yeah alright,” I rolled my eyes, “but there's a lot of fake footage of paranormal events on the Internet. You can do anything we special effects now. That has got to be special effects.”
    “ Why?” Trevor gave me a confused look. “Because you didn't know about them? Vervain, you hate the ocean, how could you possibly have known about mermaids?”
    “ Are you telling me you knew about them?”
    He looked away.
    “Nyet,” Kirill laughed. “He vas just as surprised as you.”
    “ So again,” I smirked at Trevor. “Are you sure this is real?”
    “ It's real,” Torrent came into the room. “I've analyzed the footage myself. That is not special effects make-up and the footage has not been tampered with. You've just seen your first non-fey mermaid.”
    “ Whoa,” I whispered. “Shit, it was beached with the whales.”
    “ Yes, exactly,” Torrent nodded. “I think it functions the same way whales do. See that ridge crest?” He went back to a frame of the mermaid's face. “I believe this is used to emit sounds for sonar. Military sonar reaches into such a loud range that it's like a rocket blasting off. It physically injures sea life, especially those dependent on sonar. They are more sensitive to sounds and the sonar can cause bleeding in the brain, ears, and other tissues, not to mention large bubbles in their organs. It causes them to panic, flee,  disrupts feeding habits and patterns of behavior but if there are mermaids equally dependent and sensitive to sonar, then the humans are killing them as well.”
    “ Oh fuck,” I breathed. “Dying whales are tragic enough but an unknown underwater race being killed? This is horrifying.”
    “ You think that's bad?” Torrent huffed. “If the sharks die, every human on the planet dies.”
    “ Whatchu talkin' bout, Willis?” I sometimes felt like Torrent was speaking another language.
    “ Sonar hurts not only whales and dolphins,” Torrent explained, sounding a little like my high school science teacher. “It can harm sharks and bony fish as well. As if the shark hunting wasn't bad enough.”
    “ But what do you mean that all the humans will die?” Trevor's brows came together.
    “ Sharks eat fish,” Torrent shrugged.
    “ Yes,” I made a motion for him to continue.
    “ If they're not there to keep the fish population down,” Torrent sighed, like this was basic stuff we should already know. “Then the fish will consume all the algae.”
    “ Uh huh,” I widened my eyes at him. Get to the damn point.
    “ Vervain,” Torr huffed. “Where do you think the oxygen comes from?”
    “ The Rainforest,” I rolled my eyes. “Everyone knows that.”
    “ The Rainforest?” Torrent gaped at me. “Do any of you try to learn about your planet or do you just take whatever's spoon fed to you and accept that as fact?”
    “ I...” I gaped at Trevor and he just shrugged.
    “ The world is seventy-one percent water,” Torrent shook his head. “Just because you don't like the water, doesn't mean it's useless.”
    “ I never said it was useless,” I huffed.
    “ Seventy to eighty percent of the oxygen on planet Earth comes from algae,” Torrent finally dropped the big bomb. “Algae is probably the most important organism on the planet and if the fish eat all of it, humans will have no air to