Mira looks at me, her eyes steady and unflinching. "I know you were going to the boundary wall, Vaelis."
My heart stops beating. The water feels heavy, harder to breathe.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," I say, forcing the lie through my tight throat.
"Don't lie to me," she says, her tone dropping to a whisper that feels more menacing than a shout. "I followed you last week. I tracked you swimming into the maintenance tunnels. I know you were waiting at the Anvil for something you are forbidden to touch the way you did."
She reaches out and touches my bare arm. Her hand is warm, but it doesn't ground me the way Kael's touch did. Her touch is suffocating.
"He's not coming back, Vaelis," she says, her voice soft but firm, like she's stating an undeniable truth.
I flinch away from her, my body recoiling. "You don't know that."
"Idoknow that," she insists, swimming closer to maintain the proximity. "Shark-mers are nomadic creatures. They move withthe food supply. They follow the shifting currents. He probably found a new hunting ground. Or he found a new diversion to play with."
"He's not like that," I snap. Anger pierces through my fog of grief.
"How do you know?" Mira asks, her voice rising with defensive heat. "Do you know his heart because he listened to you complain about the Elders? Because he let you braid his hair like a pet? He's an apex predator, Vaelis. They're wired to mimic safety. They adapt to their prey. He played the part you wanted him to play, and when he got bored of the game, he left you there."
"Stop it," I warn her, my hands curling into tight fists.
"I'm only trying to help you survive this!" she cries, her own eyes shining with frantic tears. "I'm trying to force you to accept the ugly truth. You've become obsessed with a romantic reflection in the dark. You projected your own deep loneliness onto a mindless beast, and now you are letting its absence destroy your life."
"He isnota mindless beast," I hiss.
"Then where is he?"
The brutal question is a jagged knife twisting directly into my ribs.
"Where is he, Vaelis?" she presses, her voice breaking. "If he cared about you. If he was real. Where is he right now?"
I have no answer for her.
I stare at the stone floor of the armory, the hot tears spilling over my eyelashes and mixing with the cold seawater.
"He's gone," Mira says, her voice softening into a soothing coo. She moves in close, wrapping her arms around my rigid shoulders. "He's gone, and he is not worth this pain. You are a Red Prince of the Reef. You are Vaelis. You are worth more than a trench shark's leftover attention."
I let her hold me. I'm too weak and broken to fight her logic.
"He's gone," I repeat, the bitter words tasting like poison on my tongue.
"Yes," she sobs into my shoulder, holding me tighter. "He's gone. But I'm here. I'm still here to protect you."
She holds me so tightly my ribs ache.
For a fleeting, confusing moment, her tears make no sense. I'm the one whose world has been hollowed out. Why is her grief so heavy, so full of guilt?
I pull back enough to see her face. As I shift, my nose brushes against the kelp weave of her patrol sash.
The scent hits me.
It's faint, almost washed away, but the porous fibers still hold the ghost of it. A sharp, sour tang of rot. Not the familiar stench of the Silt District, not the coppery smell of old blood. This is something specific. Something toxic.
"Mira," I say, my voice hollow even to my own ears. "What's that smell on your uniform?"
She stiffens. Her arms fall from my shoulders as if burned by my skin. "It's nothing. Just runoff from the lower perimeter check."
She turns away too quickly, snatching her clipboard from the rack.
