Chapter 8
The spear stopped an inch from my chest.
The black-tailed male stared at me.
His name entered my mind.
Kael.
He had been Maris’s brother once, before Vale captured their people and turned fear into hatred.
Give me one reason not to surrender you, he said.
I looked at the red lights glowing beneath the skin of his people.
“Because Vale will never stop after taking us.”
He already has what he wants.
“No. If he did, he wouldn’t still be hunting.”
Kael glanced at the submarine.
Mechanical nets unfolded from its sides.
Vale’s voice echoed again.
“Thirty seconds.”
I pointed toward the cavern.
“He kept your people in cages. He killed Evelyn after she freed Maris. He experimented on my father. He created Sophie without Natalie’s knowledge. Do you believe a man like that will honor a promise?”
Kael’s grip tightened on the spear.
Thomas moved beside me.
“Vale’s vessel draws power through two external turbines. Damage both, and the collar signal will fail.”
“How?” Natalie asked.
Thomas pointed toward the sharks circling below.
“We give them something large to hit.”
Kael finally lowered his weapon.
His eyes fixed on me.
If you betray us, I will end you myself.
“Get in line.”
For the first time, something almost like respect crossed his face.
Vale began counting.
“Ten.”
Kael sent a pulse through the water.
The merpeople divided into two groups.
Maris took Mira from him and placed the baby in my arms.
Protect your sister.
I held Mira close.
“You’re coming back.”
Maris touched my cheek.
A lifetime passed through that touch.
Her capture.
My birth.
Evelyn carrying me through a flooded corridor.
Maris fighting the chains while her newborn disappeared.
Years inside tanks.
Years escaping, searching the coastline, and watching me from beyond the waves.
She had seen my first day of school from beneath a pier.
She had watched Evelyn’s funeral from the harbor.
She had found me after my divorce, crying alone on the same beach, but had been too afraid to approach.
The memories broke my heart.
“You were there.”
Always.
Vale reached one.
The nets fired.
Kael and Maris separated.
Their groups raced toward opposite sides of the submarine.
The mechanical arms swung after them.
Thomas directed Natalie, Sophie, Mira, and me toward a rocky trench.
“Stay below the sensors.”
A net dropped across our path.
Sophie raised both hands.
The water vibrated.
The net curled backward and wrapped around the submarine’s own arm.
Thomas stared at her.
“She can control pressure.”
Sophie looked at Natalie.
“Am I hurting them?”
“You’re protecting us,” Natalie said. “But you stay beside me.”
We reached the trench.
Above us, Kael’s fighters drove their spears into the first turbine. The blades shattered against the metal.
Maris circled the second turbine with three sharks.
The submarine released an electric pulse.
Bodies went limp in the water.
Red collars flashed.
Maris sank.
“Mom!” I screamed.
The word left me before I could stop it.
Maris opened her eyes.
She had heard me.
The silver mark over my heart burned.
Mira touched it.
Power surged through my body.
I pushed away from the trench and swam toward the submarine.
Thomas tried to catch me.
I was already moving too fast.
My legs fused beneath me.
There was pain, then strength.
A silver-blue tail formed where my legs had been.
For the first time in my life, I understood what it meant to move without weight.
I reached Maris and lifted her.
Her collar scar glowed red even though the metal band was gone. Vale had placed something beneath her skin.
I pressed my hand against it.
The device burned my palm.
Mira cried from the trench.
The light in my chest traveled down my arm.
Maris’s implant shattered.
She opened her eyes.
Daughter.
“Let’s finish this.”
We swam toward the turbine.
Kael’s group had cracked the opposite housing, but the blades still turned.
Thomas pointed toward a narrow gap behind the propeller.
“Emergency release!”
A lever rested inside.
No human could reach it without being cut apart.
Maris looked at me.
Together.
We approached from opposite sides.
Sophie sent another pressure wave into the turbine. The blades slowed for two seconds.
Maris thrust her arm through the gap and pulled the lever.
The turbine stopped.
Kael destroyed the other one.
The submarine went dark.
The collar signals died.
The marked merpeople rose together.
For the first time, Vale had no control over them.
They attacked the vessel.
Bone spears struck its viewing ports.
Sharks rammed the hull.
The submarine began sinking toward the trench.
Thomas pointed at an emergency hatch.
“Vale will try to escape.”
A small pod launched from the rear.
It raced toward the surface.
I followed.
Maris and Kael came behind me.
The pod broke through the waves near the abandoned aquarium.
Vale climbed out and dragged himself onto the flooded building’s roof.
We surfaced around him.
He pulled a pistol from his coat.
“Stay back!”
Kael raised his spear.
Vale aimed at Mira.
I moved between them.
The shot fired.
Maris struck the water with her tail.
The bullet changed direction and hit the metal sign behind us.
Vale fired again.
Nothing happened.
His weapon was empty.
Police boats approached from the north.
Ruth stood in the first one beside two Coast Guard officers.
She had transmitted Thomas’s recordings, Vale’s laboratory files, and live video of the attack to every federal agency she could reach.
Vale looked toward the officers.
Then at the ocean.
He chose the ocean.
He jumped.
Kael caught him before he could swim away.
Vale thrashed in his grip.
“You need me!” he shouted. “Without my work, the girl will die!”
Natalie surfaced beside Sophie.
“My daughter is not your experiment.”
“She is unstable. Her body will destroy itself.”
Sophie’s scales were fading.
Her breathing had become shallow again.
Natalie saw it.
Fear returned to her face.
Vale smiled.
“You can arrest me or save her. You cannot do both.”
Maris touched Sophie.
Nothing happened.
Mira reached for her.
The silver light appeared, then vanished.
Vale laughed.
“The infant is too weak.”
Natalie looked at me.
There was a terrible question in her eyes.
If Vale was right, Sophie might have only hours.
Kael tightened his grip around Vale’s throat.
I stopped him.
“Wait.”
Vale smiled at me.
“You finally understand.”
“No,” I said. “But Evelyn did.”
I remembered her journal.
The name Mira.
The drawing beside it.
And one sentence written beneath the silver-tailed child.
When three daughters meet beneath the rising moon, what was divided will become whole.
I looked toward the sky.
May you like
The moon would rise that evening.
If Sophie survived until then.
