Princess Araxa's Arc

Chapter 14 of 14

Seris swims close beside her now, his shoulder almost touching hers as they move deeper into the reef. The gold coral towers thin out, and the water grows quieter. He glances at her, then forward again, like he's gathering courage. Araxa watches him from the corner of her eye. Tide drifts ahead, his glow steady and bright. The deep feels different now that she has chosen it. It feels like a held breath waiting to be let go. "I was looking for you," Seris says. He stops swimming and turns to face her. Above them, a huge dark ray glides past, its long whip-tail trailing purple and gold light through the water. Araxa stares up at it. Seris follows her eyes. "That one passed through here a moon ago. When it did, it showed me something. A future. You and me, together in these waters." He swallows. "That's why I knew your blade. That's why I came looking when the shells started spreading your face." Araxa feels her chest tighten. She could be angry. She could feel tricked. But she looks at him and sees only a merman who waited for someone he had only seen in a flash of light. He took a risk too. She reaches out and touches the medallion at his throat. "Show me where you live," she says. Seris leads her around a curve of blue coral, and there it stands — a carved stone entrance set into the rock, crystals glowing yellow and purple along its arch. Beside it rise two tall crystal pillars, twisted around each other, white and lavender light pulsing between them. Araxa knows without asking that this is the shape of what he saw. She swims to the pillars and rests her hand against the cool stone. Tide circles them once, his silver glow merging with theirs. Araxa thinks of her mother's hands, of her sister's face in the locket, of the boundary she crossed. She lets the grief settle in her chest like a stone she will carry always. Then she turns to Seris and takes his hand. The deep had a future waiting for her, and she has stepped into it. She is home.