Chapter 56 Malec
Malec
“She’s close,” Onyx says.
No. Morvakar. It hasn’t been Onyx for the last forty minutes—just that ancient beast wearing her face, barking strange directions and lashing out like a wild animal.
I exhale in relief when he finally says those words.
Myko’s clearly not happy with any of this, Bay keeps fighting him while driving, and I’m stuck trying to decode Morvakar’s cryptic orders while keeping us from crashing into a tree or road sign.
“Where now? It’s either right or left,” I glance back at the hellish red eyes in the rear seat.
“There.” Onyx’s hand points right, and Bay follows before I can say a word.
“I don’t care about this useless human’s life, but if you do—we’d better stop for a moment,” Morvakar growls. And I hate how natural his voice sounds now. Like it belongs.
“We can’t stop. You said she’s close,” I snap.
I’m bringing her home. Now.
“I think you’re not listening,” he huffs. “I’m tracking her with a fire rune. Every time I activate it, it burns her. She feels it.”
“What?” I spin around, heart hammering, glaring at Onyx’s borrowed body. “You didn’t tell me that.”
It’s been forty minutes of hell for her.
“You’re saying she’s been burning this whole time? That she might be—dead?”
My chest caves in like I’ve been punched. The air won’t come.
He nods. I don’t know which question he’s answering—and I’m too scared to ask.
“She’s not dead,” he finally adds, maybe seeing the color drain from my face.
I release the breath I didn’t realize I was holding. The pressure lifts off my chest. Barely.
Bay’s fingers ease on the wheel. She was just as tense, maybe more. At least she still feels for Roran’s pain, and not going home. Once I get her back, I need to learn everything I can about runes. And Morvakar.
The Guardian was always the scariest beast in merfolk history—according to my family, anyway.
But this thing? This new beast, Onyx, brought out?
It could tear apart both ocean and land.
Especially with her as the anchor. No, I don't have time to dwell on this now.
First Roran. Then we deal with the other issue.
“What now, Malec?” Bay asks, pulling onto a street Morvakar guided us to earlier.
I’ve never been in this part of the city.
Just like the Russians’ turf, it had nothing to do with me before.
It’s the kind of place no one wants—too poor for the Russians, too filthy for the French, and even the Chinese think it’s beneath them.
Around here, even milk’s a luxury. No one can afford drugs, not even the cheap shit.
Which, somehow, makes it the perfect place to hide her. No one owns this turf. No eyes. No questions. No power plays. Just silence. Just shadows.
I don’t even need to open the window to know the air stinks—rotting trash, cigarettes, dried piss. Dog shit on the sidewalks. Even bird corpses aren’t getting cleaned up.
I grimace just thinking about stopping here longer than we should.
“How do you know she’s not dead?” I ask Morvakar before I answer Bay.
“I’m using only a fraction of the rune’s power,” he explains. “It still burns, but her body fights back. She’s alive. But she’s weakening. If we don’t stop soon, it’ll kill her.”
I suck in a sharp breath. “How close is she?”
“Very. She’s somewhere around here.”
I clench my fists. If her father lays a hand on her before I get there...
Hold on, Roran. Just a little longer.
“Keep going,” I say. “Just a bit more. But if you feel her getting weaker—stop the rune immediately.”
Bay nods in understanding, ready, her foot hovering over the gas pedal.
“There,” Morvakar says, pointing left.
Bay shifts into gear and starts moving, scanning for a way to cross. The alley is too narrow for her SUV.
I feel like I’m sitting on sea urchins. Any second could be the last.
I’m coming.
“Here!” Morvakar shouts.
Bay slams the brakes, and I jolt forward in my seat. I didn’t expect that close. She doesn’t even bother parking. Just drives up onto the sidewalk and cuts the engine.
“Let’s go.” She throws off her seatbelt, already halfway out the door.
I follow, slamming mine shut and rushing around the front to meet her. Onyx moves easily, her new legs more steady now—and suddenly I realize it was Morvakar this whole time balancing her.
“Can he take full control of her body whenever he wants?” I ask Myko, not taking my eyes off Onyx’s body, trying to make sense of this still unfamiliar creature.
“Seems like it,” Myko mutters, clearly still not in the mood.
“Merfolk,” Morvakar growls, slicing through the silence. I follow Onyx’s eyes to an old building—the only one still standing on the street. The rest are crumbling ruins.
Reconstruction? Maybe. But not this place, this building. This one’s rusty, but untouched. Abandoned.
“Merfolk?” I repeat.
“Onyx’s brother’s here. Others, too,” he says calmly, like he already knew.
I spin toward him, brows furrowing. “And you’re telling me now?”
He shrugs. “I can only sense them when they’re near. The rune is what brought us here.”
I roll my eyes, holding in my outburst. But then his words sink.
“The Red Dock,” Bay and I say at the same time.
My stomach drops.
“Call my father. Now.”
Bay’s already dialing.
We found it.
“They’re coming,” she confirms. I can see the wheels turning behind her eyes.
“We don’t know how many they’ve got inside. Tell Pedro we need a van. Maybe two.”
Bay nods and starts texting fast.
“You two wait here. I’m going in.” I take a step forward, but Bay’s voice cuts through like ice.
“No.”
I don’t even turn to face her. My eyes stay locked on that damn entrance door. We fucking found it.
“She’s inside,” I grit out.
“You’re not going alone.”
I keep moving, ignoring her. She can argue with me later, Roran doesn’t have that kind of time.
Of course, Myko roars in my head, never late, always loud and pissed when I defy her.
“You better not try to stop me,” I warn.
“You better not forget who you are,” he snaps back. “You’ve never walked into enemy territory without a plan. Don’t start now. You’re losing it over a damn human.”
I grit my teeth, not stopping.
“You don’t even know what’s waiting. Bombs? Army of armed men? What if she’s already dead?”
“She’s not,” I bark, reaching the entrance door—which, weirdly, doesn’t have a single guard in sight.
“Five.”
“Myko,” I hiss.
“Five armed men behind that door. And you were just going to open it like they’re offering royal liqueur and caviar?”
My fingers twitch around the rusty doorknob as I push it down, tapping into my mom’s powers. Before it’s even fully open, I hear weapons drawing—not guns. Rifles.
I grin as I kick the door open and five rifles snap up, aimed straight at my head. Not one of them wears body armor. Fedor doesn’t even bother keeping them alive.
No one will miss them anyway.
I raise my hand, fingers curling tight. One by one, their bodies drop, gasping for air. Weapons clatter to the floor around them.
They claw at their throats as I squeeze harder—until the last one goes limp and unconscious.
“You see?” I mutter. “That’s why we work. You warn—I kill. Now, are you going to keep pestering me the whole way in?”
I smirk, stepping through.
But despite what Myko thinks, I don’t let my guard down.
No more guards come rushing.
That means one of two things: either they’re terrible at protecting their darkest secret... or they knew I was coming.
And they’re waiting.
Either way?
I’m ready to play.