"I assumed there was no antidote for me," she confesses, her voice a ragged whisper that barely disturbs the water. "There is no hope for me. But with this... there is hope for an old friend."
I stop swimming, my body going rigid. I look to the strange, sharp human tool in her hands. The purple liquid within glows faintly, a sickly luminescence against the oppressive smog.
"Who?" I ask, my tone dropping low with suspicion. "Or is this a strange way of saying you're planning to poison me again?"
Mira shakes her head, a slow, deliberate movement. The manic light in her eyes softens, replaced by a look of deep, profound empathy that seems ancient and weary.
"No," she says, her voice firm despite its weakness. "I need to help someone else. Someone who has been cursed by my kind to be forgotten."
Chapter 22
The Night the Sea Kept Me
Kael
Thetoxicsmogofthe Silt District clings to my scales like a second skin, oily and suffocating. I drive my tail hard through the water, Mira cradled against my chest. Her frail form weighs almost nothing, like a hollow shell of brittle bone.
She clutches the human syringe tight against her withered breast, the purple liquid inside the glass pulsing with a strange, unnatural light. A giggle escapes her lips, a jagged, fractured sound that rattles in her ruined lungs.
We breach the clearing's edge, where the dead coral casts skeletal shadows across the murky depths. The House of Drift rests in the gloom, Vaelis floating near the rusted porch.
His hands are dark with engine grease that smears across his smooth cheek as he secures lashings on the outer hull with a heavy iron wrench. The kelp coils at his side, fresh and vibrant against the decaying landscape.
He looks like a survivor of the Trench, his crimson fins cutting a sharp, beautiful path through the murky water as he moves. He looks like mine.
Vaelis turns his head, his golden eyes catching our movement through the smog. The kelp drops from his grasp, falling like a wounded sea creature. He swims toward us, his powerful tail propelling him through the filth with determined grace.
He stops a few feet away, his attention darting from my face to the old betta-mer in my arms. I watch as his eyes search her gray skin for any sign of improvement, any flicker of the vibrant hunter she once was. He finds none. She looks exactly the same,perhaps even more unhinged with the wild smile stretching her pale lips.
"Did it work?" Vaelis asks, his voice tight with concern.
I shake my heavy head, the motion sending ripples through the smog.
"The witch is dead," I proclaim, my deep voice vibrating through the water. "She confessed there is no cure for the Abyssal Draught. The rot is permanent."
Vaelis pales, his face losing all color in the green-tinged light. He looks at Mira with pure shock, his fins fluttering with distress.
"Mira took the entire cavern down," I continue, watching Vaelis's expression shift from shock to disbelief. "She combined the volatile potions. She collapsed the foundation. The cave buried Oona alive."
Vaelis stares at her, his jaw dropping open as his mind struggles to comprehend.
Another ragged giggle bubbles from Mira's lips. "I took care of the problem, Vaelis. No pathetic, bottom-feeding trader is a match for Witch Mira. I ended her miserable reign. I am the true alchemist. I am a force to be reckoned with. I am therealWitch of these waters."
I glance at Vaelis, biting the inside of my cheek to suppress the proud smile threatening to break across my face.
Vaelis does not smile. Deep concern lines his forehead as he swims closer, his attention locked on the frantic energy radiating from the dying mer.
"Thank you," Mira whispers, her milky eyes clearing for a fraction of a second as she looks up at me. "Thank you, Kael."
The sound of my true name on her lips stops my breath. She does not say monster. She does not say shark or beast or exile. She speaks the name my mother gave me.
"You helped me fulfill my destiny today," Mira says, her voice a rough scrape of gratitude. The syringe is clutched against her chest, the glass held against her pruned skin. The purple liquid inside pulses with a faint, sickly light. "If I don't have much time, I will do what I can with what I have left. I think... maybe I can still have purpose." Her voice cracks on the last word.
I go completely quiet. A strange, heavy warmth blooms in my chest. The ocean balances the scales in mysterious ways.
Vaelis sighs, reaching out to grab Mira's thin arm. "Mira. What do you have there?" he asks, his eyes dropping to the glowing object clutched against her chest. "What is that?"
"NO!"
