escondida

Chapter 60

KAIA'S POV

I open my eyes to the brightness of the afternoon sun shining overhead. I look down at the reflection of a girl in the lake water and sigh.

I look like I just got hit by a truck. I'm still wearing the dress I wore clubbing. My face looks strained, and my eyes aren't as bright as they were yesterday. There's a constant but subtle - for now - pain in my chest that's been there ever since I woke up on the hospital bed at the vampire palace.

The same palace my family is in right now. I look to the palace behind me and sigh. I can barely see it through all the shrubbery surrounding the lake, but I know exactly where it is.

I turn back around and carefully walk over the rocks, looking for the one Oliver would always lift up. It only takes me a few minutes before I lift up the rock hiding his supply of indigo leaves. As soon as I pick a single leaf up, the smell hits me.

Gosh, I did not know these things stink. I read about them, but nowhere did it say that they stink. Maybe they're out of date or something? Well, it doesn't matter to me. I'm using them anyways.

I don't have time to travel and look for more and then work through the whole process of making them magical or something like that.

I pick up a few more leaves and stuff them into the small pouch I quickly made appear. This magic is really growing on me. I'm getting a lot better if I do say so myself.

I stand up and brush myself off before I hear a voice, making me jump.

"What are you doing Mikaia?" A voice says from behind me, more curious and interested than scolding.

I turn around and see the mess of blonde hair belonging to Coralia.

"Ah, nothing." I say as I subtly kick the rock back into place, covering Oliver's stash once again.

She hums as she walks closer to me before sitting down on the grass patch on one edge of the lake.

"Come." She says as she pats the ground beside her.

As much as it surprises me, I do. I shouldn't though. I need to find Archyn. I really shouldn't.

But I still find myself walking and sitting beside her.

"What are you doing?" She asks me again, her head tilting like she's assessing me.

"I need to save Archyn." I tell her and she nods.

"Why do you need those leaves though?" She whispers, uncrossing her legs and dangling her bare feet into the water.

"Because he's being held in an underwater fortress or something and I need to get there. I need to save him." I say urgently and she nods.

"I can see that you do. You look even worse than what you did when you woke up only a few hours ago." Wow, a bit rude, but I suppose it's true. "But I can help you."

My head snaps up in interest at her words, "How?"

"I know that place, Kaia." She sighs before continuing, "I assume you know that it's surrounded by sirens?" She asks and I nod, "Well, in the 'food chain' as some might call it, mermaids are higher than sirens. We're more dangerous to them and they know it. Which is why they work hard to keep the peace with us."

I nod my head in understanding though I don't really understand. I assumed that sirens would be more powerful than mermaids. I mean, they like, eat people and drown them. And mermaids seem, well, harmless.

"The location that the prison is in is a part of mermaid territory. We drew the short straw in the situation. They threatened us all, with very, very bad things Kaia, so we had to let them build there. We had to let them use sirens to guard it. To keep people from breaking out or in." She says these words almost regrettably.