Chapter 6
The memory came back in pieces.
Rain hammered the windows.
I was nine years old, hiding halfway down the stairs.
Evelyn stood near the front door with a kitchen knife in her hand.
Vale faced her.
He looked younger, but his smile was the same.
“Tell me where the child is,” he had said.
“She is my daughter.”
“She belongs to the sea.”
“She belongs to herself.”
Then Thomas attacked him from behind.
Two men dragged my father outside.
Evelyn saw me on the stairs.
“Run, Claire!”
Vale turned toward me.
Evelyn threw herself at him.
There was a flash.
She fell.
The memory broke apart.
I returned to the aquarium with a scream in my throat.
Vale still held the remote.
Maris writhed in the shallow water.
“Turn it off!” I shouted.
“Give me the infant.”
Mira’s tiny body trembled against mine.
Thomas struggled with a guard near the broken tank.
Natalie shielded Sophie behind the wheelchair.
Vale pressed the remote again.
Maris screamed.
This time, I felt her pain inside my own body.
It burned around my throat, down my spine, and through every nerve.
I dropped to one knee.
Vale stared at me.
“Interesting.”
He pressed it a third time.
The pain doubled.
Mira cried out.
Sophie began convulsing in her chair.
Natalie screamed.
“Stop! You’re hurting my daughter!”
Vale looked at Sophie with cold fascination.
“The contact transferred more than regenerative cells.”
“You promised to save her!”
“I promised to try.”
Natalie stared at him as if she were finally seeing the man behind the polite voice.
“You used us.”
“I gave you hope. Do not confuse your desperation with my dishonesty.”
Natalie stood slowly.
Then she slapped him.
Vale’s head turned.
The remote fell from his hand.
I lunged for it.
A guard caught me by the hair and pulled me backward.
Mira slipped from my arms.
Natalie dove forward and caught her before she hit the floor.
The baby screamed.
Water surged through the room.
Maris rose behind Vale.
Without the remote controlling her, she looked terrifying.
Her silver tail stretched across the flooded floor. Dark ridges rose along her arms. Her eyes fixed on the man who had imprisoned her.
Vale backed away.
“Maris, listen to me.”
She struck him with the flat side of her tail.
He flew into an empty display stand and fell hard.
Thomas tore the weapon from the guard beside him.
“Everyone down!”
A second group of guards entered from the east hallway.
Thomas fired tranquilizer darts into the ceiling pipes.
Steam burst across the corridor, blinding them.
Ruth’s voice came through my transmitter.
“Claire, the building is flooding. You have four minutes.”
I grabbed the remote.
It had only two buttons.
One red.
One blue.
Thomas looked at it.
“Blue disables the collar.”
“You’re sure?”
“No.”
Maris turned toward us.
Natalie held Mira.
The collar flashed red.
Maris’s face twisted.
She lunged at Natalie.
I pressed the blue button.
The collar sparked.
Maris crashed into a column inches from my sister.
The metal band broke open and fell into the water.
For several seconds, no one moved.
Then Maris reached toward Mira.
Natalie held the baby tighter.
“You’re her mother?”
Maris touched the blue blanket.
“Sister.”
Natalie looked at me.
“She means you.”
“I know.”
“No,” Maris said.
She pointed at Sophie.
“Sister.”
Silence fell over the room.
Natalie’s face went white.
“What did she say?”
Maris touched Sophie’s hand.
The girl’s breathing steadied again.
Vale laughed from the floor.
It was a weak, bitter sound.
“You still don’t understand.”
Thomas aimed the tranquilizer weapon at him.
“Explain.”
Vale pushed himself against the broken display.
“Sophie’s illness is not an illness.”
Natalie moved between him and her daughter.
“What are you talking about?”
“Her body is changing.”
“No.”
“You knew she was different. She could hold her breath underwater before she could walk. She heard sounds no one else heard. She drew places beneath the ocean she had never seen.”
Natalie stared at Sophie.
My niece looked frightened.
“I dreamed them.”
Vale smiled.
“You remembered them.”
Natalie shook her head.
“That’s impossible.”
Vale looked at me.
“Claire is not the only child Maris brought into your family.”
Thomas lowered his weapon.
“What did you do?”
“I studied Claire’s blood for years. I learned enough to create an embryo that could carry the same traits.”
Natalie covered her mouth.
Sophie had been conceived through fertility treatment after Natalie and her husband failed to have a child.
Vale Marine Research had secretly funded the clinic.
“You put her inside me?” Natalie whispered.
“Your daughter is the first successful bridge between species.”
Sophie started crying.
“I’m not a species.”
Natalie dropped beside her.
“You’re my baby. That is all you are.”
Maris touched Sophie’s cheek.
Sophie’s silver veins brightened.
The color returned to her face.
Vale watched hungrily.
“This is what I needed. The infant can stabilize her.”
I stepped in front of him.
“You will never touch either of them again.”
Sirens sounded outside.
For one hopeful second, I thought the police had arrived.
Vale smiled.
“My security team.”
Thomas looked toward the main doors.
“We have to move.”
Maris pointed at a staircase descending beneath the broken tank.
“Sea.”
Ruth’s voice returned through the transmitter.
“That tunnel opens beyond the reef, but most of it is underwater.”
Natalie looked at Sophie.
“She can’t swim that far.”
Maris held out her arms.
Natalie recoiled.
“No.”
“She can carry Sophie,” I said.
“She is a stranger.”
“She saved her.”
“She’s also the reason this is happening!”
Maris flinched as if she understood.
Natalie immediately looked ashamed, but she did not take back the words.
The main doors shook under a heavy impact.
Vale’s guards were breaking through.
Water had reached my knees.
Mira’s human legs shimmered and joined into a silver tail again.
Sophie looked down.
Thin scales appeared along her ankles.
She screamed.
Natalie wrapped both arms around her.
I took my sister’s face in my hands.
“You trusted the wrong man because you wanted to save your daughter.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I almost handed him a baby.”
“You can make it right now.”
“How?”
“Trust me.”
The doors burst open.
Maris grabbed Sophie.
Natalie grabbed Mira.
Thomas pushed us toward the underwater passage.
We descended as armed men flooded the hall behind us.
At the bottom, the tunnel disappeared into black water.
Maris entered first with Sophie in her arms.
Thomas looked at me.
“Once we go under, do not let go of her.”
“Of who?”
May you like
He looked toward Maris.
“Your mother.”
