CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX #2
“I know. Mother told me you would save us all.” His conviction felt like the truth, and I hoped it would be.
I hesitated. So many questions, but no time to ask them.
I was so close to the guards who held the key rings to set free the child, but I knew we couldn’t deter finding the trident piece and escaping the prison alive any longer.
I also couldn’t bear scarring the kid further by freeing him to witness the possibly gruesome nature of the locked-up beast…
or risk his life at what I needed to release.
My eyes stayed on the boy as my thoughts turned sharp and merciless—free him now and everything falls apart, or proceed, unleash the beast, take the trident fragment, and hope I could still reach him before the prison swallowed him for good.
“Go before they wake,” he assured gently through the cloth.
Mind made up. I took off toward the back wall, my hands skimming the stone frantically.
“More to the left!” the boy yelled down the corridor, and I followed his direction.
Cold metal kissed my palm. The handle shifted under my grip. No resistance.
The door was unlocked.
A resonant hum flitted through the empty darkness. Soft streaks of light glowed dimly from a corner, revealing the silhouette of a being drawing near.
I shook ferociously. Gods, stop it, Caelyn.
“Do not approach,” I cast out, feigning confidence, but the words still wavered.
“Mmmm….” a deep, venomous voice pierced my ears. It shifted a meter closer, the room not bright enough for me to make out its appearance.
“I have a bargain for you,” I blurted in hopes it would stop approaching.
It laughed, a melodic chuckle.
“Why haven’t you told him that you love him yet, Lady of the Blood?”
The light in the farthest corner flickered, then flashed forward to reveal who stood before me.
I couldn't breathe… couldn’t move… couldn’t think.
Evelyn. My sister.
The night of Myrrwood Forest flashed in my memories—the creature that wore Noctis’s face. This one was different, though. It stole my sister’s face, her features… but not her voice. It held itself with the poise of royalty draped in thin, ripped tunic and corset.
“You are not her,” I declared, masking the tremor in my voice.
“That is true. I appear as what you most desire.”
“Give me the trident piece, so we can save her then. So, we can save everyone.”
The creature wearing my sister’s skin rubbed its fingers along its chin in thought.
It looked so much like Evelyn—the sharp high cheekbones, her curls drifting softly through the water, and that purple-hued tail that let her hover just above the ocean floor, as if she belonged there more than anywhere else.
“Family affairs are not really my forte,” the creature responded, the gravelly texture of its tone coming from deep within its rattling chest.
“Not your forte? Even as you wear the face of my sister?”
“Again, I appear as your greatest desire,” It drawled slowly, propelling feet forward. “I will not interfere with you, Lady of the Blood, nor with your aunt.”
“I have no aunt,” I said with conviction, surging through my mind for any recollection of family beyond my parents and sister.
“She storms the shores now,” the creature cheerily replied.
“That’s not true,” I breathed. The Ocean Mother was not my aunt. It would mean my mother— “Why?” The words barely made their way from my mouth. No wonder the beast kept calling me Lady of the Blood.
Evelyn’s face stretched into a wicked grin.
“You didn’t know.”
I swallowed, the information tearing at my stomach.
The phantom morphed, features dripping like melting candle wax against flame.
Mother.
The creature went on. “The Ocean Mother is scared of you.” My mother paced the outskirts of the dark chamber with legs I had only ever seen on her during the Aetherkin Bound trials. “So, she numbed them so deeply they forgot who you were, hoping one day she would use you as her own weapon.”
My parents.
“Take off my mother’s face,” I seethed.
My mother looked at me, a smirk gracefully covering her lips. Then, it morphed into my father, and I trembled more.
“You know… sometimes I enjoy thinking about how I would feel if I were still human. And right now, I think I’d pity you.”
The shifter stopped pacing and faced me.
“A mer, once the sacrifice. Now the reckoning. I’ve seen it myself.
But I’ve also seen your downfall. The realms’ downfall.
” Its speech rippled the water around it in vibrations that could convince the Terraguard Bound of earthquakes.
“Prove to me you deserve this piece and the latter is your fate.”
“How?”
It came forward until we were face to face. Our noses nearly touched. I struggled to meet my father’s gaze. I trembled but forced my body to tense, hoping it would put up a front under the piercing stare of the creature.
“Best me in a duel, and I’ll tell you my rate.” A sly grin stretched ear to ear on my father’s face.
I hesitated, long enough for the creature to attack. It whipped its daggered tail out, catching me at the abdomen. The slice drew blood, spurting and spreading through the water. I didn’t have time before the creature lunged again for my throat.
Using the stony ground for momentum, I shot through the water, barely missing the claws growing from its hands.
“I must admit,” the creature in my father’s body drawled. “Being caged for so long, I have grown accustomed to only viciously devouring my weak prey. You seem stronger than the tortured prisoners here. Fun.”
We circled each other, arms raised and waiting for the next pounce. I initiated. We didn’t have time to waste. My forearm rammed into the creature’s face, enough to grab its arm and twist it behind its back. I shoved upwards, hearing a slight crack in the beast's shoulder.
It roared, so I shoved harder. If the beast wanted to wear my father’s face, I’d show it exactly what I should have done to my sire a long time ago.
The creature flipped forward, throwing me over its back, and I crashed into the wall. A blade slashed in front of my face, nearly slicing through my nose.
Shit. This thing is persistent.
But I was too quick. My own hidden dagger held behind my back rested just below the collarbone of my imposter father, placed exactly where its wicked heartbeat within its chest.
“I am freeing you. No one will hunt you unless needed. Free,” I breathed heavily. “As your bargain.” I was sure it would be enough to trade for the trident piece since the beast had been imprisoned most of its life, but the creature only chuckled.
“I’ve traveled beyond the worlds, Lady of the Blood.
And there are beasts much scarier than I beyond the stars.
Ones that haunt even me in dreams.” It reached up and touched my cheek.
Its fingers ripped the heat from my body, sending icy shivers down my spine.
“No one messes with the Ocean Mother, which is why I willingly hide here. But if your aunt wages war and wins, she will open new doors that I cannot face, and I’ll be back on the run.
I want to bargain and see her organs cooked to stew before she does something irreversible. ”
“And the price?”
A brittle grin stretched wide across my father’s face.
“Each of your fingernails. A chop of your hair.”