Chapter Sixty-One
ADRIAN
Adrian had never felt pain like this. His neck and cheek were lanced with it, the agony pulsing down his face and body in fiery rivulets.
What an irony, he thought to himself as he tried to scream out in pain, instead letting in a rush of poisonous saltwater—that the ocean he loved so much was what would kill him.
Another wave engulfed him, and he tried to fight, but the poison was swirling in his veins, Scorpius’s charm taking and taking, furious in its power.
The last thing he had heard was Elara screaming his name before he’d blacked out.
He was awake now, though, fully submerged and in agony in the icy Olympian Ocean.
He tried to kick out, one last desperate attempt at living, then realized he couldn’t move, that his limbs were paralysed. He tried to blink through the blackness, to grasp control of the ocean once more. But it was now out of his hands and firmly in Scorpius’s.
He didn’t know what would happen to him. Could titans die?
He finally hit the ocean’s bottom, the poison flooding and pulsing, inside and outside of him.
This was it. He was going to die. He heard a haunting voice singing as he tried to stir.
Was he dead already? Was this the sweet abyss that as a pirate he’d been promised in death?
He tried to kick out but felt arms around him.
He struggled, but the singing continued, an aquamarine glow encircling him.
He felt hands tug at him. A flash of silver swam in front of him before disappearing, though he couldn’t move to see what creature had been able to reach the bottom of the ocean.
The creature tugged again before letting out a muffled sound of frustration. Then there was a blast of power, as clean as fresh water, the aquamarine light so bright he had to shut his eyes, and the poisonous magick around him, keeping him immobile, suddenly lifted.
Hands wrapped under his arms and yanked, pulling him away from the ocean floor. His own arms flailed, now able to move, trying to help the creature drag him up. The form behind him was definitely female. He could feel her curves beneath him, the song she started again so achingly beautiful.
As the singing continued, the pain within him abated, as though her very words were pulling it out of him.
He tried to move again, to turn around, but her grip was a vice as he felt himself continue to be dragged up, up and up. To—
Sunlight.
It broke over him, fresh air wrapping around him like a balm as the woman behind him continued to sing. He wished he could muster the energy to speak, to open his eyes.
He was suddenly aware of the lower part of his body, what the backs of his legs were brushing against. Something cool and smooth.
A…tail?
Holy gods, it was a mermaid.
He found the energy then, kicking out.
‘Stop fighting,’ the voice finally murmured, and he knew the cadence of it instantly.
‘Oceanne?’ he croaked.
‘You’re going to be okay,’ she replied, and her voice seemed to break. Shock and pain rendered him mute. Then the pain was replaced with such intense agony that his eyes rolled back.
He heard Oceanne curse, the speed at which they swam increasing as she pushed off something.
‘Stay with me, Adrian,’ she whispered in that enthralling voice, and his eyesight flickered. He saw a glimpse of silver hair and luminous skin, the edge of her profile flashing.
She was beautiful.
He could barely see her face, but that one glimpse of the pout of her lips and furrowed brow was enough to tell him everything he had already guessed.
‘Oceanne,’ he tried to say as they swam further and further away from his ship, from Scorpius, from Enzo and Elara.
‘Hush,’ she whispered as his eyes fluttered closed again. ‘Rest.’
As though her voice was a command, his body instantly relaxed against her, the pain in his eyes easing as they swam, he prayed, to salvation.