Page 134 of The Eye of the Fifth
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Birlissus Ocean, Loros.
Kyra.
A cascade of bubbles escaped Kyra’s mouth as she unleashed a horrified gurgled scream. Kawai’s blood instantly stained the clear water, so much so that she thought she might choke on the metallic taste of it.
Without thinking, Kyra threw herself through the plume of red and plunged her dagger into the mer’s grey, bony back, right between the shoulder blades.
But it was not fatal.
The creature screeched, unlatching her teeth from Kawai as her own black, oily blood spilled from the wound. The mer thrashed, taking Kyra with her as she held onto the dagger, desperate to draw her as far away from Kawai as possible.
Pain seared through her as the mer’s sharpened claws ripped open her shoulder. The mer bucked again and Kyra was thrown off her back, wrenching her dagger out. More blood seeped into the water and the mer writhed, her wound now openly bleeding.
With the mer consumed by her own agony, Kyra swam down toward Kawai.
Unconscious and slumped against the tomb’s doorway, his body swayed above the human bones of those who had suffered the same fate at the hands of another, if not the same, outlawed mer.
Kyra looped an arm through Kawai’s and kicked off the ocean floor, bones crunching beneath her feet. His heavy head lolled onto his chest, trailing thick blood behind them like a smear of paint as Kyra desperately propelled them toward the surface.
Blinding pain seared her leg.
Kyra looked down to see the mer’s face, contorted with frenzied rage. One of her hands was wrapped tight around her ankle, those talon-like claws pierced so deep into her flesh, she was sure they’d scraped bone.
With a great shove, Kyra pushed Kawai into the water above her, then swiped mercilessly at the mer’s face with her dagger.
The tip caught her right eye and she screeched, wrenching her claws from Kyra’s ankle and covering her face with both hands as black blood spurted from beneath her bony fingers.
There was no rhythm to the mer’s attacks. No careful planning, no strategic movements.
She was a wild animal, turned feral by the scent of Kawai’s blood.
And Kyra was going to kill her.
The mer was blinded in one eye now. But still she did not back down. Her face turned uglier, her screeches angrier. And when she beat her tail once more, angling her strong, lithe body to attack, Kyra knew exactly what to do.
The mer darted for her, jaws open and ready to perforate her skin with sharpened, black teeth. Kyra rolled in the water, barrelling herself into the mer’s ribcage. Claws sliced at her back, shredding clothes and skin alike, but Kyra held fast, her body wrapped around the mer’s like a blanket.
Just as she could feel that great powerful tail readying to beat again, she struck her dagger into the mer’s back.
Exactly where she knew her heart to be.
The creature relinquished another shriek as death swiftly came for her.
She slumped, dead, and her heavy body weighed Kyra down all the way to the ocean floor. She kicked and punched the mer’s corpse until she was free, suddenly keenly and painfully aware of the insistent burning in her lungs. She reached for Kawai, who had almost fallen tothe seabed himself, and slung his arm over her shoulders once more, wrapping her own around his waist.
Pain and exhaustion plagued every inch of her body, and she may have been bleeding as much as Kawai was now.
Relentlessly she pushed through the bloody water, legs moving as fast as they could. She tried not to notice that Kawai’s head was lolling on his chest, focusing every morsel of concentration on the water above that was lightening, the moonlit sky that was just a few metres away-
She was going to make it. She had to. For Kawai. She had to make it.
Her lungs burned as though she’d inhaled acid. Three metres now.
Dark shadows swarmed her vision. Her head pounded with each kick of her feet. Two metres.
Her heart was slowing.Shewas slowing.
