Princess Araxa's Arc

Chapter 7 of 14

The shark is faster than anything Araxa has ever seen. It turns in the water like thought itself, no wasted movement, all muscle and hunger. She pumps her tail hard, the bone blade still gripped in her hand, leading the creature away from the cave. She darts through a field of broken coral, the pieces spinning in her wake. The shark smashes through behind her, scattering dark sand and tiny glowing creatures into spirals of indigo light. Araxa's lungs burn. She pushes harder, pulling away just enough to breathe. Then her wrist catches on a sharp edge of stone. The pain is instant and bright. She jerks her hand back and sees blood welling up from a thin cut across her wrist, right over the old scar. The silver cuff she always wears has torn away, spinning down into the dark. Without it, the scar is visible. Four parallel lines where Kael's claws dug in during their last argument. She had covered it for so long she'd almost forgotten it was there. The shark is still coming but Araxa stops swimming. She floats in the water, staring at her wrist. Past the swirling sand and blood, she can see a stone figure rising from the seafloor. A mermaid carved from indigo rock, one arm pointing toward open water. It marks the far edge of the boundary, the last place her father's territory reaches. She is already beyond it. And she realizes now, looking at the scar Kael left on her skin, that she cannot go back. Not to him. Not to that. The shark wheels toward her again but Araxa turns away from the statue and swims into the unmarked deep, Tide flashing beside her. Home is behind her now. She does not look back.