Chapter 13 #3
My hand finds the emergency release lever for the canopy, and I yank the heavy iron bar with all my strength.
Explosive bolts fire with a deafening roar, and the iron-glass canopy rips away into the dark current.
The abyssal ocean hits me, a wall of freezing pressure that would crush any normal mer, but I am no longer normal.
I am a weapon forged in darkness, and I will complete my mission.
The impact hits like the crushing weight of a collapsed reef. The abyssal pressure slams into my body, compressing the vital water in my lungs until it feels like a dense stone. The freezing dark tries to stop my altered heart, to silence the heavy thud that keeps me alive.
But the dark draught holds my body together.
My skin fully hardens into an impenetrable shell. The blood in my veins turns to black sludge, refusing to freeze in the cold, refusing to yield to the pressure.
But now I cannot move a single muscle.
The sheer shock of the exposure paralyzes my nervous system. I am a rigid statue floating in the dark water, a prisoner in my own enhanced body.
The broken skiff implodes below my tail. It crumples like a fragile piece of paper, the metal screaming as the ocean crushes it into a tight ball of jagged debris. The wreckage sinks into the bottomless abyss, a final testament to my stolen vessel.
I am left falling in the open water.
And I am alone.
The silence of the deep is a deafening roar, the overwhelming sound of millions of tons of water pressing down from above. The ocean demands obedience from intruders, and I am an unwelcome guest.
I try to kick my powerful tail.
Nothing happens. My muscles remain locked in place.
I'm sinking.
The descent is slow and inevitable, a surrender to the crushing dark.
I drift down toward the smoking black vents. I drift down toward the Shell.
The main opening approaches. The erratic blue light spills out onto the white sand below, a beacon in the suffocating dark.
And then, movement.
Two distinct figures emerge from the glowing shell.
One figure is larger, though not by much, and heavily scarred. It is not the Great White. It is the familiar monster of the trench.
The other figure is lean. He possesses hair resembling spilled ink in the dark water. He wears a shredded mesh vest catching the blue vent-light.
Vaelis.
He is alive.
He swims beside the shark, his lean body moving with an ease that defies the crushing pressure of the abyss.
The deep water should have pulverized his delicate bones, but he is unharmed.
No dark poison courses through his veins, yet the ocean's weight ignores him completely.
He wears no chains, shows no signs of a struggle, no fear of the beast at his side.
He holds the monster's hand.
My altered heart stutters in my chest.
No. The denial remains trapped in my frozen throat. He's fully charmed you. The beast broke your mind.
The two figures stop swimming. They look up into the dark water.
My descending body catches their attention.
I must look like a terrible nightmare to them. I am a betta-mer floating rigid as a corpse in the deep. My dark eyes are wide and black. My hardened skin shines a bruised, unnatural violet hue from the toxic draught.
Vaelis recoils in horror. He darts behind the shark.
He seeks protection from me. He uses the monster as a shield.
The shark swims forward. He puts his body between Vaelis and my descending form. He looks up at my paralyzed face.
The monster does not look angry. He does not look triumphant or feral.
He looks sad.
He turns his head. He says something silent to Vaelis. He uses his scarred hands. He makes strange, sharp gestures in the water.
Vaelis shakes his head in refusal. He points an accusing finger at my rigid body. He looks furious.
Leave her to sink, he is saying to the beast. The betrayal burns in his golden eyes.
I want to scream my defense. I did this for you! I drank poison to save your life!
But the abyss has stolen my voice. I am nothing but heavy debris in the cold current, a betrayal frozen in my limbs.
The shark shakes his head, a slow motion that sends dark tendrils of hair floating around his face. He refuses the prince's silent command and pushes off the white sand. He swims up toward my sinking body.
The monster approaches.
He is terrifying up close, a solid wall of dense muscle and jagged scars that catch the blue light of the vents. I know he could snap my paralyzed spine with one hand.
He reaches out for me.
I expect brutal violence. I brace my frozen mind for the fatal strike, the satisfying crack of bones that will end this miserable failure.
The strike never comes.
His rough hand wraps around the leather strap of my harness. His grip is firm, but it lacks all cruelty.
He pulls my heavy body downward.
He tows me through the freezing water. We swim past Vaelis. The striking prince watches my capture with eyes full of hatred and betrayal, his beautiful face a mask of cold fury. The accusation in his face is a physical blow, more painful than the crushing pressure of the abyss.
The shark tows me toward the open mouth of the glowing Shell, the sickly blue light spilling out to paint my useless body.
He's not killing me in the dark.
He's keeping me alive.
The crushing realization is far worse than a quick death. I am a helpless prisoner in the monster's lair. I have failed my mission. I have failed my prince. The poison in my veins feels like a mocking laugh.
Kael drags my rigid body through the torn kelp curtain. The sudden warmth of the shell hits my skin, a shocking contrast to the freezing abyss. The heat fails to thaw the magical ice in my sluggish veins.
He lays me down on the soft sand. He positions me near a large pile of scrap metal. He leans his body over my face. He places two rough fingers against my neck. He checks my slow, thudding pulse, the contact a violation.
He rises to face Vaelis. The angry prince followed us inside the shell, his crimson hair a dark banner of defiance.
Vaelis glares at the shark.
"Why did you save her?" Vaelis demands, his sweet voice cracking with raw emotion. "She tried to hunt us in the dark, Kael. She poisoned you in the trench. She left me to die on the Ridge."
Kael looks down at my paralyzed form. He looks back at the furious prince.
The monster raises his scarred hands in the space between them.
He makes a tight fist over his own heart. Then he opens the fist, turning his palm up in a gesture of surrender.
Mercy, he mouths.
Vaelis stares at the silent shark. The prince turns to look down at my broken body.
The bright anger slowly drains out of his fine face. A terrible, pitying exhaustion replaces the fury. He looks at me exactly like a stranger.
"Fine," Vaelis whispers, leaning his head against the shark's broad chest. "But if she ever tries to hurt you again, I'll throw her out the airlock myself."
Kael nods in silent agreement. He wraps a protective arm around the prince.
The monster turns away from me to tend to the humming engine.
I lie in the white sand.
I'm paralyzed. I'm trapped in a nightmare, yet I'm alive.
The prince and the monster move together as one in the warm light.
For the first time in my rigid military career, I lack a tactical plan. I lack a weapon to strike my enemies.
I am nothing but a silent watcher on the floor.
The agonizing silence inside the shell is deafening.