Female Fantasy
My eyelids flutter.
I gasp, choking, then throw up mouthful after mouthful of salt water. Finally I am empty and the darkness recedes.
Have I crossed over? Is this the afterlife? The sand feels granular and hard beneath my body. But my limbs are no longer heavy. A weight has been lifted from my shoulders, my waist, my ankles. I feel light, as if I could fly into the heavens or swim beneath the waves.
My eyes snap open, and I take my first real breath in ages.
My air bubble.
Someone has returned my air bubble to me.
I can breathe again. The water filling my lungs is gone. I am no longer drowning.
But how? Who revived me when I had all but embraced death as my eternal companion?
“Little minnow.”
Awareness settles over me. Consciousness floods my mind, and sounds flare in my ears. I turn around and once again have trouble finding my breath.
For there he is.
Prince Ryke of Atlantia has come for me.
And his expression is one of molten fury, enough to bring an army to its knees.
I watch in awe as his thick obsidian tail whips around, a wrecking ball of his own making, parting the ocean and knocking Nix’s goons out cold.
His body emanates raw power—my power. And he channels that life force into raw, unadulterated strength.
Just as he taught me to do when I was just a human willing to put her life on the line for a race of creatures she had only just learned existed.
He fights with purpose, clean lines and intentional blows.
His heightened strength gives him extreme agility.
I stare in awe as he moves through the water faster than even sirens can see.
All five senses flare simultaneously, weapons in their own right.
Ryke can now smell blood in the water. He can hear his opponents’ smallest movements and knows where their blows will land even before they have made up their own minds. His fists deal in injury and death.
And vengeance is a thick serum on his tongue.
I know not how he found me.
Perhaps he followed the final tether I left in this world: my love for him.
Love.
I love this brave, kind, powerful mer. And if he does not feel the same way, it makes no difference. My words were almost stolen from me, but now I will have the opportunity to tell him the truth.
And that is enough for me.
My heart swells. I feel explosive, and warmth settles over me, fills me, moves through me, completes me.
The sensation rushes through my head, making me delirious, dizzy in the most delicious way.
I am faint once more. But this time, no darkness approaches to claim me.
All I see in front of me is light. The light of the love inside my chest. The light that outlines Ryke’s body as he fights for his land, his people.
And for me.
If my deep-seated fear was enough to call upon the power of the trident, this is the opposite. I allow the potency of my love to flow through me. To warm the water and sweeten its texture. My fingers pluck an object from beneath my skirt.
The dorsal fin.
I nearly forgot that I had an object from the trove with me.
I took it because it weighed less than the trident and was less conspicuous than the whip.
As I have not yet unearthed its purpose, thus far the fin has served as little more than a trinket.
A souvenir piece of the trove to remind me of my place. A token and nothing more.
Now confidence washes over me, mixing and mingling with the love that flows through my blood. The love is pure, unadulterated power. It gives me a calm certainty.
The answer before me is clear.
My love for Ryke is more potent than fear.
Tonight, I will fight Nix and the sirens with that love.
I rub my thumb over the strange symbols covering the dorsal fin. Spirals and ripples. Etchings in a language I do not understand. And yet I hear words falling from my lips, foreign but familiar, hearkening back to a time when I was not yet born.
Ryke whips around and inhales sharply. “Merriah.”
“Ryke,” I call out to him, my voice unlike anything of this realm. “I have something to tell you. I—”
Just then, Nix emerges from the mouth of the cavern, both fists clenched. The water around him bubbles with rage.
“Behind you!” I shout.
Ryke turns around and throws a punch into Nix’s pristine face, but Nix wraps a fistful of water around his wrist, forming handcuffs. Ryke struggles against them, unable to move his hands.
Nix laughs, shaking his head. “Good luck getting out of this bind, prince,” he sneers.
A high-pitched cry sounds from outside the cave.
Both Ryke and Nix turn around to face the noise, their faces twin with shock.
Several more sounds follow the first.
Battle cries.
An army coming to the defense of its prince.
But these noises are not mer.
They are not human.
In fact, they sound like—
“Dolphins,” Ryke breathes.
Sure enough, an entire infantry of the mammals storms the cavern, whinnying with defiance.
They bare their teeth with a vengeance, their fins so sharp they slice through flesh and bone.
I always thought of dolphins as adorable creatures of the deep, but these dolphins are anything but.
They are warriors of the highest degree, merciless in their pursuit of blood.
The remaining sirens flee like their lives depend on it.
And they do.
Ryke points directly at me.
My jaw drops. Could I be commanding this army of dolphins with the force of my love?
“How?” Nix demands. “You did not kill the human. A life did not end as one was created. You should not be able to command this kind of power. Unless…”A slow smile creeps over his face. “How long have you known?”
“Stop talking,” Ryke grunts.
“Known what?” I whisper.
Ryke shakes his head. “Please.”
I look at the mer I love.
My prince. My protector.
But Ryke avoids my eyes, refusing to answer.
“Known what?”