The cool air invaded my lungs as soon as I stepped outside of the castle doors. The smell of wet leaves and misty air wafted around in light of yesterday's rain. Rays of golden light beamed down, their fading warmth kissing my skin as I crossed the grounds.
I wrung my hands out nervously, each footstep weighing me down. The grass crunched and slipped below me, my feet subconsciously carrying me to the Great Lake.
Theo's body came into view as I made my way down a small hill. I could see that he was sitting by the water's edge, a textbook in his lap and a highlighter in his hand. He was biting the inside of his cheek, his brows furrowed deep in concentration. I smiled briefly to myself, knowing his expression was one that mine often matched.
"Hey," I sighed, taking a seat on the damp grass in front of him.
He looked up, his ocean blue eyes divulging his relief at my choice to join him after all.
"Hey, he replied coolly.
"So, what's up with the voices?" He smiled a little.
"I've been reading this book," he lifted it off his lap to show me the cover, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, "It says that merpeople, including cross breeds, can hear the sound of their colony calling to them. If they've betrayed the community, the voices can be pretty nasty, but if not they can hold conversations with loved ones or other members of the colony."
I nodded, thinking back to all of the times the breathy voices had called me disgusting, telling me to 'face my fate' in the water. But there was always one that was kinder, sweeter.
"What about the woman?" I asked, knowing Theo also recognized her voice.
"I think that was Mom," he said with a frown.
My heart clamped up in my chest, I felt as though the tightness would shatter it to pieces.
"When I moved in with her and Dad," Theo continued. "Her voice, it matched it perfectly."
My breathing was incredibly shaky, as were my hands. I cleared my throat.
"That's why it was so loving," I worked through. Theo nodded.
"I never asked, I didn't really say much to her while I was there," he said, adding a quiet "Maybe I should've," to the end.
"But what does me not feeling any pain have to do with her?"
"One thing we did talk about was the transformations," Theo began again, shaking off the sadness from his previous sentence. "She had asked me if I had symptoms, then she asked about you."
I tried my best to swallow the lump that had formed in my throat. I was still having a hard time grasping the idea that my mom had been alive all these years.
"I told her about the scales and gills," he continued. "But when I mentioned the pain she got sort of weird."
"Weird how?"
"Like guilty," he stated. "I called her out on it and she admitted that she had cast a spell on us both when we were younger to prevent us from changing," he explained.
I considered this idea. Based on her journal, Mom was terrified that Theo and I would end up like her, with the merperson genes. It would make sense that she would do everything in her power to stop it, and causing pain from touching water has kept me out of it thus far.
"So, since the pain is gone..." I said slowly.
"She can't hold the spell if she's dead," Theo rationalized quietly.
We were quiet for a moment. Theo uncapped and recapped his highlighter subconsciously as he let me sit with the heavy information. I took a deep breath in.
"How do we find out?"
His light blue eyes met mine briefly. He bit the inside of his lower lip and swallowed before answering.
"Remember the community thing I said before? About how you and I hear the voices from the merpeople we would have grown up with?" I nodded.
"They live in the lake," he said slowly, his gaze turning out to the dark blue water. The small waves toppled over each other, cold and deep and inviting.
"You want me to go in there," I pieced together. He looked to his hands but nodded.
"It's the only way to know for sure," he said.
I weighed my options. I had only fully transformed once before, and that was in an enclosed pool. I also had no idea what was waiting for me in the lake, and based on the death threats in my head, this "colony" wasn't all too friendly. But if Theo was telling the truth, my mom may have been alive for the 13 years I spent without her. She may be down there, hurt. I may find the answers I came looking for.
"Okay," I answered. He sat up a little straighter, eyes slightly wide.
"Really?" I nodded, unlacing my converse and slipping them off along with my socks. I knew I had to just go, that I would talk myself down if I waited any longer.
I pulled Remus's sweatshirt over my head and folded it neatly, placing it on the grass with my shoes and socks on top. I inhaled shakily, eyeing the water. The cool air attacked my skin, making the hair along my arms stand up, but the nervous adrenaline warmed me back up.
"Syd, your arms," Theo said softly, his words full of second hand pain. I looked down at the familiar deep red scars that ran across my body, now visible with my sweatshirt off.
"You miss a lot when you move across the country," I stated coldly, taking my first steps into the lake.
The water was piercingly frigid. With each step the lapping waves washed further up my legs until I was waist deep. I slipped off my leggings under the water and tossed them to Theo on the shore before turning out to eye the surface.
My hand glided over the top of the water as I waited for my legs to web together, not sure how long the process would take. The pause gave time for my nerves to magnify, as I feared the unknowns waiting for me in the depths of the lake. I wanted nothing more than to go back to last night, when my only thoughts were on Remus and how his lips felt against mine.
I turned and took one last look at my brother, who was waving nervously from the grass. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes to try and settle myself down, before breathing out sharply and diving headfirst into the lake.
The cold enveloped my entire body, tightening my chest and sending shivers down my spine. I ignored it, though, forcing myself deeper and deeper into the lake. The semicircular scales pushed their way through my skin painlessly. I knew the transformation was nearly complete, but I ignored that too, keeping an image of my mom in the front of my brain for motivation.
As I sank from the surface, the water grew foggier, transitioning from a murky sort of green to a dark and empty blue. Long strips of seaweed waved from the bottom, inviting me further down. Small fish cluttered the space before me, flittering out of my way as I passed by.
I glided through the lake, the water brushing my face and sliding through my hair. I hadn't truly been swimming in years. It felt so freeing. I released all of the pent up stress and fear as I floated on. My hands waving through the water, my mind almost clear.
Almost.
The field of seaweed that I had been following ended abruptly, dropping off to a bottomless depth. Almost instantly, an ear splitting wave of callings overwhelmed me.
"It's a witch!"
"Where are you, mixed breed?"
"Don't let it near our colony!"
"We don't want your kind around!
"What could you possibly want?"
The voices overlapped each other, increasing in volume with each syllable until they were simply a cloud of unrecognizable noise. I slammed my hands over my ears and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to dampen the yelling, but it was no use.
"I'm by the drop off," I yelled back mentally. "I just want to know about my mother, Marina Carter, I just want to know what happened to her."
The commotion ceased at once. I dropped my hands down, spinning in the water, searching for the source of the voices.
"Don't move," a single, raspy voice seethed. I did as told, the fear crawling up my bones.
Within a minute, a terrifyingly long merperson shot up from below the edge. I jumped back, but it floated closer. It had long, stringy hair, flowing outward wildly in all directions. It's gummy, greyish-green tail took up 80% of its body and was lined down the center with bulging muscle. It had two large fins sticking out from its arms, its left webbed fingers gripping a large trident. Its slitted yellow eyes stared deeply into my soul.
"Ronan has sent you," it grinned, revealing its sharp rows of broken teeth. I nodded.
"He said my mother has been alive all this time," I mustered.
"Well of course she has," the being laughed coldly. "She returned to us years ago, having properly sacrificed that wizard man of hers to earn her spot."
My heart cracked open.
"But then she betrayed us again, forever severing her ties with the colony."
"The voices," I said. "You wanted Theo- I mean Ronan and I for revenge."
"Clever one, you are."
"So you've killed her then," I breathed. "The voices have stopped because you don't need us anymore."
"Very good."
We floated in a standoff for a moment, my chest openly leaking tragedy and sorrow, the image of my mother forever tarnished in my mind.
"I suppose that's all I'll be needing then," I said finally. "I'm sorry to have disturbed you."
"Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves, Adella," the being uttered creepily, its grip on the trident shifting. "We may not need the reprisal for your mother's actions now, but Ronan has made a little deal with us," it inched closer, I backed away.
"What deal?" My breathing echoed in my head, the teeth returned.
"A life for a life," it said. "You see, in exchange for his spot in the community, he has sacrificed you."
It was a set up.
"But, Ronan can't even transform," I pointed out, searching for an escape route.
"Indeed, but he has proved a most useful land ambassador. First delivering us your mother, and now delivering us you," the trident angle lowered, its spikes aiming slowly towards me.
"He hates merpeople!" I cried. "He only cares about himself!"
I spun to find six more merpeople towering over me. They swam up, blocking all of my exits.
"Please! I haven't done anything!" Desperate tears streamed down my face.
"Look at you," the first merperson's voice boomed. "Half a tail and you call yourself a mermaid. Half a body and you call yourself a witch. You're a disgrace!"
"Filthy little half-breed," one voice spat.
"Filthy little quarter-breed," another corrected, gaining a mass of chilling laughter in response.
"Filthy little quarter-breed," they chorused evilly, closing their circle.
"Please," I tried once more.
"Filthy little quarter-breed."
One trident slashed down my arm, leaving a gaping wound with blood seeping out to the water.
"Red blood!" They cheered, each taking their own swings.
It was no use to try to swim away, there were hundreds of them surrounding me. They looped down from above, ripped at my legs from below, swiped my face, arms, torso and tail from all angles. Red blood spilled everywhere as they tore me apart.
"She bleeds like her mother," I heard a voice echo.
Then it all went black.
_______
A/N
okay this chapter has been done for like 2 days and i love how it turned out so i can't wait any more 😫
double post vibes😤😤
also i have another tournament but i think the next chapters will be done before i leave so it should be fine (???) but maybe not lol