AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Even the hand buried in my frills had stopped moving. All his attention was on the cecaelia, his eyes searching over it wildly. Had he noticed something strange about the corpse? Kai’s smile dropped slowly, and when he looked up at me, there was a seriousness in him that terrified me.
The next second happened too fast yet so painfully, terribly slow.
Kai’s lips parted, and my name tore from his throat so forcefully I’d never be able to shake it. Movement pooled around us as Kai dived forward, covering my body with his own. All around us, tentacles reared up from dark cracks underneath the fallen cecaelia, and the ocean exploded into black ribbons, jeers, and cruel laughter.
The place I’d thought was nothing more than sand and rocks must have actually been a rift, and bodies poured endlessly from its depths, some of them clothed in ocean silks, others dragging long twists of sharpened metal. Kai’s arms curled around me, but his eyes never left mine. Barren and Leander’s tails rippled with movement, fighting to pull us away, but how could they out-swim the growing shadows? The deadly mash of metal and twisted chaos about to swallow us whole?
Water beat against my face as we retreated, but I looked back, watching in horror as the tiny, insignificant cracks birthed even more dark spawn. How many could there possibly be?
But Barren and Leander did the impossible. Although their numbers were increasing, the cloud of black was getting smaller, and I let myself think for a moment that everything might be okay. They were heading for us, but we… we werefaster.
“We’re losing them,” I called, but it was getting harder to see every moment. I blinked. Why was the purple light dimming? “… Kai?”
His arms were still around me, fixed, his crystal-clear eyes looking into me. Or were they looking through me?
My blood turned to ice.
“Claira,” Kai mouthed, no sound coming out, but a small boyish smile lined his lips.
No.No, no. He couldn’t… They’d gotten us out of there so fast, there was no way…
Leander looked down at us and cursed. “Fuck.”
“Kai?” I whispered back, my lungs nearly too tight to move, but I knew I had to get his name out. To let him hear me say it.
Kai’s lips twitched, trying to hold up his smile.
“You—you’re okay,” I choked out, needing him to believe the words. Needing to believe them myself. I glimpsed the dark streak trailing in the water behind us, and terror gripped me. Even in the fading light of his eyes, I knew its true color.Red. “We’ll… We’ll get out of here together. Get you back to your girl. Back… Back to Laverne—”
“Claira, listen to me.”
It was Leander’s voice, but my head was shaking, my eyes staring at the glint of metal peeking over Kai’s shoulder. The larger fin on his back had caught the nasty tangle of metal, and now the entire fin fell sideways, vibrating with the movement of the water like it might break loose in the current at any moment.
His grip was faltering, his strength leaving as his fingers uncurled. Leander was still talking, but I couldn’t hear anything but the rush of water, feel anything but this excruciatingpain.
Kai,I tried, but my voice was too weak.
“Listen!” Leander jerked my chin toward him, his lips enunciating each word so he was sure I would hear him. “You have to let go of him.”
Let go of him?I needed to bring him back with us, to get him help, to get him to Laverne.
Leander shook me. “Fuck, Claira, trust me! You have to let go, and you have to do it NOW!”
Trust him? How could I trust him? HehatedKai. He—
Leander’s icy eyes stared into me as the last of Kai’s light faded, and the sincerity there, the sadness in them… I knew. I knew I needed to trust him.
“On three,” he said, both his and Barren’s tails coming to a stop. He wrapped one hand around me and the other around the weapon sunk in Kai’s back. “One, two.” He yanked the metal free from Kai’s spine with acrack. “Three!”
Part of my light left along with him as I let Kai go.
Pop.
A delicate betta fish appeared in the water, and my eyes glimpsed royal blue as it emerged from what was left of his shirt before the darkness crept in and my night vision took over.
My heart yearned to reach for him. To cup him in my hands, to keep him safe. But I thought of his mangled back and knew that my touch, the transformation, could bring him nothing but pain.
Barren’s hand caught my wrist, and he opened the pouch, digging a pearl out with a finger.
