Beneath the Waves (Ocean Song Book 1)

Chapter 40: Tidings from Vilmaris

A pure black flood of magic particles erupts from the tiny pearl, and wraps around Delmara with a vicious hold. She screeches and screams as she tries to break free of the magic's hold, but it's useless.

"What did you do to me?" She yells as she tries to reach for Serena through the barrier.

"You shall have to ask Calder. He knows more of that magic than I," Serena says with a little smile. The pearl begins to reel the magic back in, and takes Delmara along with it. Calder comes down and catches it once it has finally settled. Serena's feeling quite proud of herself for having actually succeeded in her task.

Though it's brief. Hands wrap themselves around her throat from behind, and her hands immediately fly to the offending appendages trying to rip them off. A series of shouts echo out coming from different directions. Prince Oceanus stands before her with an intense look on his face as he stares down the person choking her.

"You little wretch!" Lord Hallmar snarls angrily. "You have ruined everything!"

But Serena chuckles. "I...ruined everything?" She asks in amusement as she struggles to maintain some kind of air in her lungs. "Was it not you...who had Queen...Aegaea...killed?"

Gasps ring through the air as Prince Oceanus's eyes widen.

"What do you mean?" He whispers, struggling not to swim forward and free her. If he were to do so, then she would die if Lord Hallmar saw fit to dig his elongated nails into her neck.

"Shut up! You know nothing!" Lord Hallmar hisses, but, again, Serena chuckles.

"I found Aegaea's memoirs. She knew...what you and your family...were up to. So you had her...killed."

Lord Hallmar's grip tightens as he quickly loses his composure. "I warned her to keep quiet! But that woman was as stubborn as her foolish children!" Horrified gasps filter through the room as the true fate of Aquaria's beloved queen comes to light.

King Neptune rose from his seat then, a rage-filled expression on his face. "Hallmar..." The tone of his voice promised a storm of wrath that would rain down upon Lord Hallmar for centuries to come.

A hopeless smile settles over Lord Hallmar's face right then. He looks out over the sea of angry or shocked faces as he releases a sigh.

"I suppose that is it then," he mutters before turning back to the royal family with a wicked smile on his face. "If that is to be the case, then I shall drag her down with me!" Serena violently begins to break free of his grasp as panic sets in when his nails puncture her neck. Magic buzzes through her blood as she barely takes note of Lord Hallmar's quiet song of darkness. A cold feeling slips into her bloodstream, and her body freezes as she looses all feeling. Lord Hallmar drags his nails across her throat, forming shallow cuts as a series of enraged shouts sound out from around her, but she can barely hear them. She feels Hallmar's grip disappear from her body, and for a moment she's slowly falling.

But a pair of warm arms hold her up, shaking her in an effort to get her to awaken. Yet her eyes have already slid shut, and right before she surrenders to the darkness coming to claim her, she hears her name on someone lips.

-

Hallmar has been safely locked away, and Delmara's little prison has been left in Calder's care. Yet victories aren't without sacrifice.

Serena has been moved to her bed chambers, but shows no signs of awakening. Her wounds have been treated and wrapped, but her eyes stay closed and her breathing steady.

When it was discovered that she wasn't going to awaken, Rodion had went off the rails and had spent a good thirty minutes blaming Calder and shouting at him. Princess Arcelia did the best she could to calm him, and thought it best to take him elsewhere to calm down.