escondida

Chapter 61

KAIA'S POV

I take a deep breath and swim towards the wall. The sirens watch me as I swim past, but none move to stop me. Though I'm still nervous that one of them will try to attack me or something.

I never knew how hard it was to be a mermaid. My tail feels like a bunch of bricks. It's so heavy. I did not expect it to be heavy.

I try to ignore any struggle I'm feeling and keep swimming, tightening my grip on my new sword. I make it to the wall quite quickly, I suppose the dead weight on my legs is good for something.

I grab out a shell and I hold it in my hand, hovering it slightly above the wall.

Three seconds to explode. Swim in. Put clothes on straight away or naked.

I take another deep breath then place the shell on the hard stone wall. I quickly push off of it, ignoring the pain of the rough surface on my palms.

In exactly three seconds, the shell explodes, taking half the wall with it. The sound echoes through the sea, but nothing changes. No sirens come after me. No other guards come racing around.

I don't waste any time as I swim to the wall, an image of clothes fresh in my mind.

I move through where the wall used to be and as soon as I pass that point, the water turns to air and I'm falling face first onto the floor of a cell. My head slams into the hard cobble floor, my vision going black for a few moments.

I push myself up onto my elbows, thanking any Gods that I'm not naked, before standing up. I shake my head, trying to clear my vision and look around.

It's a small cell, tall enough for me to stand, but if I were to spread my arms out wide, both hands would be touching the opposite walls. It's dark, and if it weren't for the light coming in through the gaping whole I'd just created, I'm pretty sure the room would be pitch black.

"Fuck." I curse as I run over to the immobile body in one corner of the small room.

Archyn is lying there, his head hanging forward and his hands chained to the wall above his head. There's a large cut slashed across his stomach, right where the pain I was feeling was coming from.

I lift my sword up, bringing it back down on the chain holding his wrists together. It snaps in half so easily that it makes me wonder that if I had just placed the blade on the chain, would it have just snapped.

I want to know, but now is not the time to experiment.

His hands slump down, lines of blood slowly dripping from the scratched skin around the cuff. I close my eyes, trying to tug onto the bond of light I feel inside of me, the bond that connects me to him. I'm not sure if this will work, but I need to wake him up.

I wait a few moments, but nothing happens, until I hear Archyn gasp in a sharp breath.

He mutters something that I can't fully understand from the way his half unconscious self is talking, but I'm pretty sure he said my name.

I quickly lean down to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders, and pull him up off of the ground.

Gosh, he's so fucking heavy.

He groans as he stands on his feet, but I feel some of the weight come off me. Good. At least he can stand on his own. But can he walk?

I take a small step forward and Archyn tumbles slightly, though thankfully stays on his feet. I can see that he's slowly starting to regain full consciousness as his pretty eyes start to get clearer and he carries more of his own weight instead of using me as a crutch.