Page 52 of A Dawn Of Blood

“It’s alright,” Alaric tells them, “we’ll go see what’s happening.”

The leader turns to him. “Just the four of you, without alerting the General?” he demands with a frown.

Damn it.

But Alaric doesn’t let this throw him off. “What, you want to go tell him we couldn’t deal with this on our own?”

The leader blanches, then barks out, “We’ll all go.”

“Sure,” Alaric drawls, “be late with the supplies, I’m positive he won’t mind.”

The leader grits his teeth. There’s a moment of silence before he spits out, “Fine, but be quick about it.”

Alaric nods. The four of us separate from the group and start marching towards the lake. I throw a look over my shoulder to see the others really have continued walking in the direction of Graf Hill.

I breathe a sigh of relief.

But once we get to the lake and hop onto the plateau, another wave of anxiousness takes over. In silence, I let Dryden work his magic, enveloping me in an air bubble that will allow me to breathe under water.

“Be as quick as possible,” he urges when he steps away.

I give a nod, exchange a hopeful look with all three of them and dive in.

Once I’m under water, I take the compass out again only to see it’s towards the very center of the lake that it’s leading me.

Great.

Taking a deep breath, I start swimming, squinting to make out the path. It’s not just that it’s dark and that the water is distorting my vision. I also have to keep avoiding rock formations, sunken logs and algae offshoots.

But none of that prepares me for what happens next, when I spot the shadows in the water, growing in number and fast approaching.

Before I know it, the bubble is gone and I’m using whatever magic I can to defend myself against a swarm of angry mermaids.

Within a matter of minutes, they have me surrounded, and even if they don’t do anything to kill me, I’ll die of drowning.

My mind running in circles, I open my mouth and yell out, “Aurora,” not hearing any sound, but hoping against all hope, “does the name Aurora mean anything to you?”

To my surprise, this makes the head mermaid stop the attack, observe me for a moment and then use magic to allow me to breathe.

All my muscles relax.

“Of course,” I hear the head mermaid tell me, and her voice is distorted, but I can hear it as if I weren’t underwater. “Aurora,” she repeats. “It means she who abandoned us to suffer at the hands of Scion sailors, take on this cursed form and spend our lives watching the world pass us by.”

Fuck.

“Why?” she asks. “You think the fact that you’ve returned gives you leverage?”

And she knows it’s me.

For a moment, I just look at her. “No,” I decide to say, “it givesyouleverage. You were here first, weren’t you? Before thisplace became a refuge for lost Originals, before they turned it into an academy, before it got occupied by Baldur… All the while, you weren’t exactly treated with the kind of respect you deserve, were you?”

The mermaid remains motionless for a moment, then shakes her head. “We haven’t.”

I take a deep breath. “I don’t have much time,” I urge her. “But, right now, if you only let me keep searching for the Aesir iron, I’ll defeat Baldur once and for all, and once I’m done with that, I’ll rebuild the Academy with your actual best interests in mind.”

She lifts an eyebrow. “Is that a promise, Aurora?”

“It is.”

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