20. Bay
Bay
The whirlpools surrounding us in Psycho’s mouth churn with relentless force, and I can barely think through the fear as my nails dig deeper into Pedro’s skin.
I silently thank Alin for sending him with me—he’s not from our world, and can’t do much to help, so why do I feel this overwhelming sense of safety in his arms?
A low curse slips from his lips near my ear, and I force myself to lift my head against the crushing current, straining to see his face.
“My hand feels like it’s on fire,” he shouts without me even asking, yet he doesn’t loosen his grip on me. His eyes are glowing again, and the pressure in my chest tightens. If this keeps up, Jocelyn will notice he’s losing control, and who knows what she’ll do to him?
Without thinking, I reach up, my hands shaking, and grab his face—relying only on the unstable grip he has on my body—and press my lips to his, silencing the curses pouring from his mouth.
His body stiffens, and for a split second, I think he’ll pull away.
But he doesn’t. Instead, the strange light in his eyes flickers and dims, and he finally pulls his lips from mine.
“Are you trying to kill me? I need to keep every bit of focus I have,” he scolds me just as our bodies spin violently with another surge of water, and his grip on me tightens, almost to the point of suffocation.
Suddenly, we’re swept forward by a stronger current, and Pedro shields me with his body as we’re carried uncontrollably toward a massive stone wall. “Son of a—” he mutters as his back slams into the wall.
“Are you okay?” I ask when the water storm around us finally calms and Pedro rubs his shoulder.
“As okay as a human can be after spending time in a monster’s mouth,” he replies, glancing down at his hand. “I have no idea how you did it, but you stopped that awful burning in my hand.”
“I just gave you something else to think about. Looks like it worked,” I grin playfully at him, but then a bright purple light catches our attention.
Cracks in the stone walls around us glow with ultraviolet light, leading deeper into a cave that Psycho must have brought us into. My body tenses as I look at Pedro. “We’ve arrived. This is Jocelyn’s cave.”
His eyes meet mine, filled with fear, but as if reading my thoughts, he takes my hand. “I’m here,” he reminds me, and his touch fills me with a sense of security. I’m not alone.
I glance behind us and sigh. “It looks like we have no choice but to move forward. The entrance is blocked,” I inform Pedro, though he can clearly see what I see, and I swallow hard.
He looks at me, waiting for my signal, and I pull him deeper into the cave. For better or worse.
We follow the glowing cracks deeper into the cave, and I release Pedro’s hand as the narrow stone corridor opens into a wide chamber. Jars, gemstones, bones and strange plants are scattered across black corals that serve as shelves, straight out of my worst nightmares.
My eyes lock onto the side of the room as a throat-clearing sound makes my scales bristle. Jocelyn!
She sits on a throne made entirely of purple gemstones, from which the ultraviolet light spreads across the cave’s stone walls. Her long tentacles extend from it in every direction, each of the eight moving independently. A wave of nausea rises in my throat.
I glance quickly at Pedro, silently warning him to stay quiet. His unfiltered comments could end our lives in less than a second.
My heart pounds in my chest as I remain still, waiting for her to make the first move. Oh no, she swims toward me. I hold my breath as if it’ll make me disappear from here.
“Let’s see what we have here,” she circles around me as she gets close, her grotesque tentacles trailing behind her.
“Oh, oh, oh,” her tone sharpens with excitement, “It’s not every day I get a princess of Mal-El’s lineage…
and what’s this?” She swirls in place, looking thrilled, like she’s just won the Royal Lottery.
“She’s also the Sacred Bride! It must be my lucky day,” she says, a sinister smile spreading across her ugly wrinkled gray face.
I haven’t even spoken yet, and she already knows exactly who I am.
I need to control my thoughts; I can’t let her sense my fear.
“Nooo…” she says again, feigning shock, as if I’ve just told her the juiciest gossip.
“You think you can get away from the Guardian with Morlay’s heart?
” Her face hardens, and my heart pounds wildly in my chest. Is she about to hurt me?
Or Pedro? I glance at him quickly; the fear in his eyes matches my own. What have we done?
“Oh, well. It could work,” she suddenly lightens the heavy mood with an offhand remark, swimming over to one of her black coral shelves and retrieving a large gold seashell box.
“This is it,” she says, swimming back to me, holding the shining gold seashell close. I reach out instinctively, wondering for a moment what Morlay’s heart might look like inside.
“No, no, no. I’m not running a charity cave here, little princess,” she snaps, pulling the box away quickly, and I brace myself for whatever demand she’s about to make.
“I hated Morlay so much that I dreamed of destroying this heart countless times… But if I can profit from it and give it to someone who hates her even more, even better!”
“Name your price,” I finally dare to say, and I swear she can hear my heart pounding as her cunning smile widens.
“Now that’s what I love to hear, princess.” She presses a long, sharp claw against my neck, trailing it slowly as if she’s about to slit my throat at any moment.
I bite down hard on my lip as her claw pricks my skin, and my blood begins to mix with the water around us. Is she going to kill me? Why the slow torture?
“Get your ugly gray hands off her,” Pedro’s threatening voice rings out from behind us, and my eyes widen in panic. No, he can’t interfere—she’ll kill him! I whirl around to face him. “Pedro, for once in your life, please keep your mouth shut!”
“Oh, two love whales… How sweet. And look at this handsome merman, such a snack,” she says with a wicked grin, swimming toward him now.
“No! I’ll give you whatever you want, just come at me,” I beg, but she’s already got him wrapped in her tentacles. No. I can’t breathe. What can I do? Think, think!
“Don’t be so tense, little princess. I wouldn’t dare take such beauty off the market,” she purrs, holding his face in place with her long claws, her gaze fixed on me.
“It’s been over hundred years since I’ve seen a merman with electrical powers, and with a face like that attached to it?
What a gem!” She laughs maniacally, sending shivers down my spine.
“Electrical powers?” he echoes, as if completely unaware of his own survival instincts.
“Oh, and he doesn’t even know how rare he is!” she exclaims with glee, her eyes gleaming as she turns back to him.
“Yes, Prince Charming, you can draw electricity outside of your body, my little lightning bolt,” she says, squeezing his cheeks as she explains, and my thoughts become a blur.
“You can’t have him,” I blurt out, my voice trembling, already knowing what she’s going to demand in exchange for the heart.
“ Him ? He’s not what I’m after,” she replies, her gaze lingering on him. “Unless you’re offering?”
“In your dreams!” he snaps back, struggling to free himself from her grip, thrashing his tail furiously.
“As you wish,” she says with feigned disinterest, releasing him abruptly and sending him hurtling across the room before quickly turning back to me.
“What I want,” she whispers as she closes in, her voice cold and sharp, and my eyes widen as a burning pain suddenly rips through my side.
lood spills into the water around us, and the pain is so intense that I can’t even speak, only choking sounds escape my lips.
“Bayyyy!” Pedro’s roar echoes from the other side, and that familiar golden light surrounds us as bolts of electricity shoot across the cave, shattering everything in their path.
“No, no, no, my little lightning bolt, you won’t come into my cave and make a mess,” she says dismissively, blocking his bolts with a flick of her wrist and sending them back toward him.
“Nooo!” I scream with every ounce of strength I have left, thrusting my hand forward to create a wall of gemstones as a shield in front of him. I sigh with relief as the wall crumbles under the impact, but Pedro remains unharmed.
“There, that’s what I wanted,” she declares, swiftly filling a small vial with my blood.
“Here, your reward for your blood donation,” she sneers, tossing the golden box at me, but I’m too weak to catch it.
“I’m here, Bay,” Pedro’s hands catch me as I start to collapse, and my gaze falls on the source of my pain—a sharp metal spear lodged just above my hip.
“Am I going to die?” I whisper to Pedro as I feel consciousness slipping away.
“I won’t let you die. You’re not going to die, do you hear me?” he says fiercely, holding me close with one arm while securing the box with the other.
A deafening familiar roar suddenly shakes the cave, causing stones to fall from the ceiling. Am I imagining?
“Get out of my cave, now!” Jocelyn demands. “And take your guardian dragon with you,” she adds, waving her hand dismissively before disappearing into the depths of her lair.
My guardian dragon? I knew that roar was familiar… I bet he can’t stand anyone else torturing me but him. I chuckle to myself as my vision blurs. I think I hear Pedro shouting my name just before everything goes black.