The Tail of Delphine Snicket (An Asoue Mermaid AU)

Chapter Twenty Seven

Once we were sure that Queen Esme had left the dungeon, Veronica let out a small sob but quickly covered it with her hand. Without warning, she swam towards Delphine's cell and pulled on some of the bars. "Delphine, can you hear me?" Veronica tearfully asked. I heard faint groaning noises, and I knew that Delphine could hear us, but she was in a lot of pain.

She was lying down next to the cell door, with more bruises and cuts on her face. One of the scratches was close to her left eye. If it was one inch closer, she would've gone blind. She slowly flipped onto her back at stared at the rock ceiling, and then she looked over at me and the others. "Arthuas, you have to go," she slowly breathed. "No, no! I'm not going to leave you here! You have to come back with us to Atlantis," I shook my head, trying to stop tears from falling down my face.

"Arthuas, don't worry about me. I'm going to try to escape. I managed to find this," Delphine said as she reached over to the small makeshift bed in the cell and a small blade came into view. "Is that a knife?" Quigley asked. "Yes, but it's also big enough to pick the lock. I'll try to escape, and I'll meet you guys at the border," I reached through the bars and took her hand. "Are you sure?" I asked. She nodded her head slightly and leaned in towards me. "I'll wait for you," I promised. "I know you will," she whispered before planting a soft but quick kiss on my lips.

The bars of the cell were on either side of us, making it a little uncomfortable than the kiss at the dance club. "Arthuas, we have to go," Veronica said, gently squeezing my shoulder. My gaze shifted towards Veronica, and reluctantly, I pulled away from Delphine and mouthed the words, "See you soon," We carefully snuck out of the dungeon and met up with the others where the stairwells met once again. "Did you find Delphine?" Klaus asked as he tightly embraced Veronica in his arms.

"We did find her. Queen Esme and her daughters tortured her trying to get the location of the trident," I explained, looking back at the stairwell that led to the dungeon. Violet pulled out the trident, revealing that they still had it. "You left her down there?" Duncan asked. "She said that she was going to escape on her own and that she would meet us at the border," Veronica answered. The others seemed hesitant about Delphine's decision, but eventually, they all realized that this is what Delphine wanted to do, and we had to respect that decision.

"And there's something else. One of Queen Esme's daughters is my stepsister," Veronica admitted to the others. They let out small, inaudible gasps, and I watched as Klaus held Veronica tighter. "How's that even possible? The Queen's a siren, and your stepfather is a human!" Klaus whispered. "It's not impossible. A siren can go onto the land and mate with humans, but they have to go back into the water a few months after they, you know. Then, they go back onto the mainland and have their baby there," I explained, cringing as I gave them the facts.

"Ugh, this is just like health class all over again," Isadora sighed. "Can mermaids do the same?" Violet asked. "Yes, but no mermaid had gone onto land to mate for hundreds of years," Then, I felt small ripples run threw the water, and I knew that someone was coming. "Hide!" I whispered. We quickly hid behind a few pillars that were big enough to conceal us. I poked my head out and saw three guards were swimming towards the dungeon.

I hope they didn't hear us talking about Delphine's plan to escape. I looked over at the others, and they had the same amount of fear in their eyes. And we had no idea what we were going to do.