Eyes of the Sea

Chapter 19

The air was knocked out of Coral as she hit the ground hard. Heather had a sharp gleam to her eye and to be honest, it scared me seeing her like that.

My skin was raw and sore from the boiling water, but I got up, determined to end this once and for all. Walking to Coral, I noticed that Heather had some plans of her own. She was straddling Coral, tears streaming down her face.

"I trusted you!" She yelled furiously. "How could you betray us? You pretended to be our friend, pretended to help us, when all you wanted was for us to come here where you can, what, kill us?"

Coral could've easily flung her away, but she actually seemed to genuinely care about Heather. I thought the same thing about me, and look how that turned out. I huffed, annoyed that Coral was getting to her. She meant nothing to me now.

Coral was just a lying manipulator, and me - I was just a fool.

"If you don't give me reason to, why would I kill you? It's Hazel I want, not you. So get out of my way, Heather. I mean it." Coral pushed Heather off of her, and sat up. She caught her breath for a second, before standing up to meet my furious stare.

Looking away from Coral, I glanced at Will to see how he was fairing. He still held the sword and most of the men were down on the ground, injured.

My eyes widened, impressed. Will's got some moves, I thought before returning my attention to Coral. It made me wonder if Will was really just a human, but I couldn't think about that now.

"Wait," I said, straightening up. "Why do you want to kill me? Why do you want to kill my mother? What did we ever do to you?"

With a flick of the wrist, Coral called off the men. Most of them were injured anyways, and the ones still standing didn't seem to eager to fight us anymore. They walked out of the room, towards somewhere in the building.

This was good, only Coral was left. Three against one.

"Oh Hazel," Coral drawled, "You foolish little girl."

I bristled, but she continued. "Don't you see? Daughters of the sea are a threat. The power of water is very dangerous, and they can only be in the right hands. And that's me. I have to be the most powerful daughter of the sea. But your mother stands in the way of that, and so do you."

So Coral was just a power hungry freak. Figures.

"But why does my mother need to kill me?" I asked cautiously. "Why couldn't you just do it when you first met me?"

I caught Will's gaze from behind Coral, warning me not to push it. I nodded ever so slightly, making sure Coral wouldn't get suspicious of us. Both Heather and Will were across the room, and I knew they had my back if it came down to fighting our way out of here, again.

Now that it was just Coral, we finally stood a chance in surviving.

"Your mother has to kill you so your powers won't be transferred to someone else. If you kill the person who gave you your power, it's gone forever. Whereas if I were to kill you, you might pass it on to your sister, and then I'd have to kill her too."

I tensed, fists clenching when she mentioned my sister. I didn't know how to get out of this situation. I would have to convince Coral that all of our lives were useful to her alive. She had to see the benefits of letting us go. But first, I needed my mother.

"So what are you going to do now? My mother obviously isn't here." I paused and tilted my head. "Or is she?"

Coral didn't respond but I heard movement coming from somewhere behind me. My mother walked out with the henchmen on either side of her. I looked her up and down and saw that though she looked tired and battered, she wasn't chained or handcuffed in any way.

We made eye contact for the first time in more than a year, and emotions overwhelmed me. It isn't every day you get to see your supposedly dead mother again. I looked into her eyes and tried to communicate my plan, but my mother is an intelligent woman; she already knew what we had to do.

"Ahh, yes, perfect!" Coral gleamed. "A mother daughter reunion. How sweet. Too bad you have to kill each other now."

The henchmen lined my mother up around ten feet away from me, and Coral stood in between us. The henchmen left once again, and I couldn't help but notice it was now four against one.

Will and Heather stood together, holding each other in fear of what's coming next. But I wasn't scared, not even a little bit.

Coral took a step back, giving my mother a clear shot of me. "Now, what you are going to do is at the same time send a burst of power at each other, and poof! This is so exciting, now isn't it?"

I looked at my mother one last time, and she gave me a slight nod. We knew what we had to do.

In sync, we started to create a huge ball of water. This was the first time my mother had seen me use my powers, and I wanted to make her proud. Though my mother had given me most of her powers, she still had a little left, and being in the sea beside me helped strengthen her.

Slowly, gradually, our balls of water started to become bigger and bigger. Mine was larger than my mother's, but that was okay if the plan were to work out perfectly.

"Alright, alright. That's big enough. Gosh, I don't have all day, guys," Coral complained.

I smiled slightly. Okay Coral, we'll hurry up.

I nodded once more at my mother, and at the same time, we both aimed our balls of water to Coral and blasted it with all our might. I thought of Will, Heather, my mother, and my father. I thought of what would happen to all of them if this didn't work. I took all of my frustration and exasperation of not knowing what was going on and used that as fuel to power my blast. I knew my mother was doing the same thing.

Together, our balls hit Coral with a huge explosion, and we were knocked back. Bubbles filled the water so much that I couldn't see what was happening. In the confusion, I ran over and grabbed my mother by the hand, leading her towards the exit.

"Will!" I screamed, and I heard a distant reply over the noise, and knew he was leading Heather to the exit too. I don't know what happened to Coral, but I knew she wasn't there once the bubbles faded.

We met at the exit and ran to where we first entered the sea. We were all exhausted, but we couldn't stop now. We had to make it to the exit.

As we ran, I stayed holding my mother's hand. It had been so long since I had touched her that it didn't feel real. I was still shocked and I didn't know how to react. But all that mattered was that she was with me now, and we were all safe.

We reached the spot where we entered the sea, and we looked up. We could see the faint reflection of Miracle Stream. It was so close, but we didn't know how to get back up there.

"What now?" Heather asked, panting. She couldn't stop staring at my mother and a smile was creeping on her face. "Mom? Is it really you?"

My mother smiled and nodded. "It is, sweetie. Come here." Heather ran into her arms and they hugged each other tightly.

I walked over to Will who was standing awkwardly off to the side. "I knew something was off with Coral," he said, his eyes dark.

I put my hand on his shoulder reassuringly. "You could've never guessed that Coral was the one we were fighting all along. And besides, you kicked some butt back there. I didn't know you could fight so well."

Will chuckled. "I didn't know either. You know what they say, people do crazy things when they're fighting for someone they...love."

We both paused and he looked down in embarrassment. "I-I didn't mean to say tha-"

I leaned in and pressed my lips against his, cutting him off mid-sentence.   

Ahh, this chapter though! As usual, if you liked this chapter, please let me know by voting and commenting below. :) One more chapter to go!!