Chapter 14 Malec
Malec
The darkness of the depths surrounds us. If not for the glow of our tails, my body marks, and Myko’s violet aura from my aunt’s chest, I wouldn’t be able to see a thing down here.
This is where the original Coral of Life used to be.
Myko and my aunt always talked about how enchanting this place once was—if not for all the death it brings. The death that I bring today.
My gills open and close slowly with the current, helping me keep my hunger in control. The hunt has started, and Myko already informed the hunters’ pods that we’re here.
The ocean floor beneath us is littered with skeletons. Some still have bits of flesh clinging to exposed bones from last month’s hunt. Usually, some of the very hungry huntresses eat every bit of it.
I was born to be nothing but a menace—a killer. A leader cold enough to keep our family on top.
But this sight still makes me uneasy.
Most of these people weren’t even involved in our world. Innocents. Chosen by the huntresses to die, just to preserve their sad, pathetic lives with ours.
And I hate how I feel sorry for them when I feed on their souls. I’ve seen so many hardworking men on fishing boats—out for weeks at sea, breaking their backs to feed their families.
My mom used to talk about them.
She made me question why I’m the one cursed.
Why I’m the one who has to bear the fate of all the pods—the balance of the oceans.
And why I’m expected to follow in my father’s footsteps, too.
“What are you thinking about?” Bay’s voice pulls me back. I turn to look at her.
“Nothing,” I lie with a shrug. “Just hungry.”
“We’re all hungry. But that’s not your hungry face. What’s wrong?” She swims closer, scanning my face—her gaze locks on the crescent moon mark glowing on my forehead.
For a second, I swear the purple gem light in her eyes dims—but it flares back just as quickly.
“Just some thoughts. Nothing important.” I brush it off. I can’t let her see the cracks. Not now.
We need to feed and go to Sur-El city.
“I don’t know how I fed on two souls in one night and still wasn’t even a bit satisfied.” I steer the conversation back to the hunger, back to the two human filths I consumed.
She narrows her eyes but finally replies.
“Fine. Have it your way. It makes sense—if merfolk are disappearing, dying... we need to stop it.”
I nod. Her chest glows brighter now, and I instinctively swim a few paces back as Myko begins to emerge from her.
And when his enormous, coiling form unfurls, swirling through the water like a living storm cloud, I raise my head and smirk.
“And to what do we owe this honor?” My voice drips sarcasm as his massive body stretches and circles above us.
“You made me question my preferred meal for today,” he rots through my mind, his voice venomous. Bay bites her lower lip, holding back a laugh—making it very clear she heard it too.
I raise a challenging brow at his massive eye as it narrows on me with pure annoyance.
“I would be scared…” I taunt. “But you serve me. And even if you didn’t, my aunt loves me far too much to let you snack on her Black-Blooded nephew.”
I flutter my lashes the same way Bay does when she’s trying to get something out of Uncle Pedro—I know Myko hates it as much as I love mocking it.
His growl vibrates through my skull, but it only makes me chuckle. Before I can jab again, Bay’s tail snaps against my ribs—sending me whirling straight into the tip of Myko’s tail.
“Hey! What was that for?” I bark, but I can’t hide the smirk that keeps stretching across my face.
“Your silver merass needed some discipline,” she says, crossing her arms smugly.
Myko doesn’t move his tail—he’s careful not to hurt me, which only proves my point.
So I sit on it like it’s a throne, gesturing to the space beside me like some smug bastard of the deep.
“Funny—” Bay starts, but before she can finish, Myko’s head whips behind me.
His snarl sends a wave of hot bubbles shooting through the water, tangling my hair.
I turn to him and swirl my finger lazily—calling a tiny whirlpool to spin right in front of his snout, using my mom’s power.
His head jerks to the side with a huff.
“You’re a piece of work,” both of them snap—in perfect harmony.
My laughter erupts right on cue.
Then Myko cuts it short. “They’re here.”
All of us turn. Hundreds of huntresses emerge from the depths, their colorful tails glowing together in the dark—each one gripping her prey, waiting for our call.
“Finally,” I mutter and swim forward.
The huntresses—already familiar with their new Coral of Life—move closer, each one presenting their marked prey.
They hold the bodies out in front of them, waiting for me to claim their soul.
My marks pulse with blue light, stronger now, and I let them take over as I close my eyes and sense every soul around me. I shut off their cries. Their whispers. Their warmth.
None of it’s mine to bear anymore.
It’s just power now—the power that keeps our balance intact.
My gills flare as the burn in my chest spreads through every cell. I feel it glowing, bright and strong, wrapping me in a shield of light—a glowing bubble pulsing with soft hums that ripple the water.
It summons the soul orbs out of their bodies—dozens of them—pulling them straight into my body.
Consuming them all at once.
The hunger fades.
My strength returns.
My exhaustion melts away, replaced by something fresh and bright and alive, like someone swapped out my blood for new energy. I feel so light I could almost breathe air underwater.
It’s... addictive.
When I open my eyes again, the huntresses are already gone—swimming far from the one thing that could kill them with a single touch. Smart of them.
I feel Myko’s breath in my mind—light, pleased. He feels the power too, the energy. The restoration. But then I catch something.
Movement. At the edge of the dark, behind a jagged rock.
Eyes.
“Who’s there?” I demand, voice sharp. Bay and Myko are already moving. Her body shifts into a protective stance, and Myko’s tail curls around me like a barrier. Always overprotective, like I’m still some clueless merling that needs shielding.
“I—I’m sorry…” a small voice stammers from behind the stone. A young mermaid—no, a huntress—drifts into view. The red glow from her tail cuts through the darkness, lighting her pale skin and long pitch-black hair.
Her onyx gem-eyes blink wide and cautious, like a curious little merling, but she looks like she’s already of age.
“What do you need?” I cut to the chase.
She lowers her gaze to the ocean floor, her tail swaying awkwardly. “I know I’m not supposed to speak to you, b-but—” she swallows hard. “I need your help.”
I tilt my neck from side to side, cracking it with a snap of impatience.
“My name is Nyx,” she says, voice low. “I was banished from Kolox City to the Hunters’ pod a few lunar cycles ago.”
I sigh through flaring gills. Only someone from Kolox would still use terms like lunar cycles instead of days or months. They cling to old terms as if they were scripture. My mom used to make jokes about it.
“And what do you nee—”
“Wait a second!” Bay cuts me off, swimming straight toward her. Myko growls beside me, low and threatening, a warning just in case Nyx tries something stupid.
“You’re Nyx? The daughter of King Volar of Kolox—Princess Onyx?” she gasps. “What in all the oceans are you doing here? Your six overprotective brothers let you rot here?” She points at her like she’s seeing a ghost.
I frown, glancing between the two of them.
She’s that princess?
The spoiled jewel of Kolox? How the hell does my aunt even recognize her?
Kolox is on the far side of our ocean.
Royals don’t travel that far.
Well... most don’t. My mom and Bay loved nothing more than making the entire ocean worry about them, so that probably explains things. I guess this is where Kayla gets it from.
“So, you’re the princess of Kolox?” I swim forward, stopping next to Bay. Myko follows, which makes Onyx flinch and drift back a little—eyes wide—but she nods quickly.
“I was banished because I made a mistake and woke up—” her voice dips. Her gills flare. “The beast.”
Myko’s roar tears through the water. His violet light flashes in a sudden blast of fury, and it rips across my skin like heat lightning.
What the hell is the beast?
Onyx goes rigid, then shoots behind Bay, hiding from Myko’s rage.
“Myko!” Bay scolds, spinning to block him.
He doesn’t move.
But I can feel it. Not just anger—pure, ancient rage boiling under his white scales.
Not annoyance.
Not overreaction.
Hatred.
“I didn’t know!” Onyx cries. “I didn’t even know he really existed before that happened!”
“Who’s the beast?” I demand, but Myko’s so consumed by fury I can barely reach his mind—like shouting into a hurricane.
“Who is the beast?” I repeat, this time aloud.
Only then do Bay’s stunned eyes shift toward me.
“The Beast of the Depth,” Onyx answers quietly. “Kolox City was chosen to detain his dormant remains. Our bloodline bears the mark of the warriors who helped the Guardian lock him away. His name is whispered in ancient battles and old wars.”
She grips Bay’s arm like she’s the only solid thing left in the world. “I found the chamber by accident. I touched it, and the entire thing began to collapse. The stones started glowing. And then... I saw it. Him… A massive red eye—blinking at me through the cracks…”
Her voice fades, trembling at the edges, like she’s reliving a nightmare she never fully woke from.
I blink. No one in our family got any report of this.
“We never heard a word about Kolox falling into chaos,” I say, narrowing my eyes.
Bay shrugs and looks back at her too, waiting for more.
“The chamber’s power is still holding him in somehow, but because I woke him, they saw it as treason, so they exiled me here.”
My sight blurs.
Myko.
His fury is rising again. I can’t focus.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I snap. “Control yourself. You’re affecting me!”
“I was the one who locked him away!” His growl is a mental earthquake. Bay clutches her head, too. She hears it and feels it—just as violently.
“He was hatched with me. But he was unstable. Too powerful, with no anchor to ground him or a source of power to rely on. He killed more than ten ancient royal bloodlines before we were even fully grown. He tried to destroy my Coral.”
Another blast of sound rips through me. I'm trying to process it all—
“Another Black-Blooded? Woken up?”
But Myko’s already turning to Bay—blocking me out. Whatever he’s telling her makes her eyes go wide with horror.
He’s not just dangerous.
He might be the cause of the chaos.
I quickly turn back to Onyx. “So, what is it you need from me?”
Now I’m really listening.
“He’s haunting me,” she whispers. “I can’t get him out of my head. He’s inside me.
It hurts. It’s unbearable. You’re the only force I know in the oceans strong enough to kill him.”
She says it like she’s asking for a glass of water.
Like, it’s not the most insane thing anyone’s ever said to me.
Even Bay and Myko freeze.
Seriously?
Kill a beast that was born with Myko?
Untamed?
A force of mass destruction that wiped out royal bloodlines without blinking?
Who the hell does she think I am?