The merman didn't let go.
His grip on Roxy's arm was tight, cold, and unyielding. He wasn't dragging her roughly like a prisoner; he was towing her effortlessly, his powerful tail beating a lazy rhythm that propelled them both through the water with terrifying speed.
"You wiggle a lot," the stranger noted, not looking back.
"I am not squirming!" Roxy protested, though she was definitely squirming. She tried to pry his fingers off her bicep.
The merman laughed, a dark, raspy sound that bubbled in the water. "In the Dead Zone? Unless your errand involves being chewed into paste by a Leviathan, you were heading the wrong way."
Roxy watched the jagged landscape blur past. He was banking left, steering them away from the open ocean and back toward the faint, pulsating glow of the city.
"No!" Roxy gasped, digging her heels, well, her tail fins, into the water to create drag. "Not that way! I can't go back!"
The merman stopped.
