Page 22 of Sworn to Revenge
“Pedro, watch out!” I hear Bay’s voice underwater and freeze in place. I can hear Bay’s voice underwater. She’stalkingunderwater.
“Can I talk underwater?” I ask aloud, my eyes still closed in a strange fear.Fuck, this is crazy!
“How did you think we communicate? Sound waves? Where do you get your information?” Bay teases, emerging from behind me with a laugh. I smile, Ijust love her playful nature.
“Why are your eyes closed?” she asks, and I tense up as memories of the burning sensation in my eyes from opening them in the Dead Sea at agefive flood back.
“I’m afraid of the saltwater burning them,” I whisper honestly, feeling her tail brush against mine now that she’s so close. My scales bristle, excitement surging through my body. Not only are their powers stronger, but their sensations also overwhelm every part of me. I’m so fucked.
Her laughter mixes with the sound of the water as she swims in front of me.
“You almost swam straight into a rock. How do you plan to swim with us to the city without seeing anything?” she taunts with a laugh, placing her hands over my eyes. “It’s okay, you can open them,” she gently strokes my eyelids, and the sensation spreads through my entire body, down to the tip of my tail. If she keeps touching me, I’m going to lose it here.
I let my gills expand, drawing in seawater that immediately steadies my nerves. My heart pounds with excitement as I snap my eyes open, meeting hers—amethyst and glowing brighter than ever. There’s no burning, only a heightened, razor-sharp clarity that reveals everything underwater as if I’m a predator, able to spot prey from miles away. This is fucking incredible!
“Wow,” she exhales as she stares into my eyes. “Your eyes look…” she trails off, biting her lip again.What am I going to do with you, Bay?
My tail, as if it has a mind of its own, brushes against the tip of hers, and I notice the scales on her hands rise slightly. I’m affecting her just like she’s affecting me.
Wait,“what’s wrong with my eyes?” I ask, touching my face, wondering if something strange has appeared on them too. I can feel a few scales on the sides of my head and forehead, but my eyes don’t feel any different.
“They look like a golden gemstone, sparkling. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a merman with that eye color,” she says, moving her face closer to mine, her lips so near as she examines my eyes up close. Fuck. I inch my lips closer to hers, our noses almost touching.
“Oh, come on, we don’t have time for your hormones right now,” Alin interrupts the moment, snapping the tension between us, and I want to curse, but I silently thank her. I almost broke the capo’s order.
I reluctantly pull away from Bay and swim toward Alin, with Bay following behind. We swim under Alin’s lead toward her city. Every coral, strange fish, and plant we pass makes my heart beat with a growing excitement that overrides all the fear I felt before. Is this how they live? Even in my wildest imagination, I never thought I’d be part of this massive beast called the ocean.
“Unforgettable, huh?” Bay now swims beside me, asking as if reading my thoughts. I nod honestly, still mesmerized by her jewel-like eyes that continue to glow as they gaze at me, accompanied by her playful smile. She’s going to drive me crazy if not to my death.
“What’s that? Your body is glowing?” I ask, noticing her green tail casting a glowing green light around us, and then I look at my own body as my eyes catch the blue glow blending with it like a beautiful art work on the ocean floor. “My body’s glowing too!”
She laughs. “Yeah, the deeper we swim, the more our bodies glow. It helps us navigate the dark ocean floor. But it can also be very dangerous if you’re trying to hide. So you have to be careful,” she shares and swims over to Alin.
“I can recognize your mother’s potions anywhere, but I never knew shecould do something like this,” she now talks to Alin as if all the anger she held toward her has vanished, replaced by excitement.
Alin sends her a warm smile, her pastel-colored tail shimmering as she now leisurely swims on her back against the gentle current. “I was surprised too, but she said it’s the first time she’s ever tried this, so she’s excited to meet Pedro like this.”
My gills flare in shock, and my heart races. This was the first time she tried this?
“I was your freaking experiment?!” I shout behind them, and Bay’s eyebrows furrow at Alin again, her anger clearly resurfacing.
She huffs in frustration, rolling over to swim on her stomach again, raising her hands in mock surrender before throwing an apologetic glance back at me.
I sigh and swim over to Bay, placing my hand on the end of her tail, reassuring her that I’m okay.
“Everything turned out exactly as we expected, didn’t it?” Alin asks, letting out a nervous giggle.
“I want to kick you right now, but I’ll wait until I have my legs back,” Bay snaps at Alin, her gills flaring open and closed in a heavy exhale. So that’s what it looks like from the outside…
We keep swimming for a while, and I’m grateful for the training Luca has forced on me every morning since I was four. Otherwise, my abs would’ve been burning long ago. I can already feel them working.
“This is it, ready?” Alin stops suddenly, straightening up as my gazefollows hers.
“What the hell?” I blurt out as my eyes land on the most breathtaking sight I’ve ever seen. A massive, glowing path of gemstones stretches out ahead of us, lighting up the darkness that surrounds us in the ocean’s depths, illuminating the way as if it’s the gateway to heaven, not the hell I thought it was. Schools of small fish swim around the area, coral covering the large rocks that form a magnificent wall leading to two enormous, gleaming pearl-colored clamshells open like a grand entrance in the distance. Guards—mermen clad in golden armor with sharp golden tridents I hope never get close to me—stand at the entrance, checking those who pass through.
Maybe there were just drugs in that vial she gave me—how is this even real? So much gold, so many gemstones, light, and merfolk swimming back and forth in the distance. “Did I find Atlantis?”
Bay and Alin turn to me, their burst of laughter echoing in my ears as I raise an eyebrow in confusion.
