Page 30 of Sworn to Consume
They’re quiet, powerful, and distant in ways that even stories can’t reach. And yet, this is the place they chose. Isolation, cold, andendless night.
I used to wonder why.
My mother told me tales, carefully chosen ones, always filtered through whatever Myko permitted. Apparently, she grew up believing a lie about how the royal bloodlines were formed. A lie most of our world still believes.
I don’t know if I should thank her for bringing a black-blooded child into this mess, someone born outside that madness, or blame her for making me the one who’s meant to carry all of it now that the Coral is me.
“Malec, are you coming?”
Bay’s voice breaks the weight around me. She’s already a few strokes ahead, frowning slightly in that way she does when she’s trying to read my thoughts and getting frustrated by the silence. “What are you staring at for so long? It’s only a city.”
But it’s not. That’s not a normal merfolk city. I can feel that something strong lies in there, and I’m not about to stir anything I’m not personally familiar with yet.
She’s caught in the golden light, and the way it flickers across the green scales on her forehead makes it look like something divine is holding her, brushing its fingers along her skin.
But I know better.
Bay’s soul doesn’t glow gold.
It’s deep purple. Alive. Heavy.
And stained with black holes—dark voids like the rest of us black-blooded.
The colors might shift, like my mother’s, which are turquoise—bright and layered. But the holes? They’re permanent, like our immortal life.
I’m just glad I’ve started to control my powers now, to soften the visions that claw through my senses.
Otherwise, standing this close to the gate—surrounded by shapes and whispers and color that doesn’t belong here—might’ve broken me open completely.
“It’s my first time here, and I’m not sure why, but something feels different.” I glance at Bay and lower my voice. “Let’s be cautious.”
But before she can respond, gentle hands wrap around my arm from behind. A bloodred tail glides into view beside me. Onyx presses her face into my back like I’m some kind of unbreakable shield.
And then it hits me—
She’s scared.
My gills flare open and shut as I steady my breath. “Onyx,” I murmur, “what do you know about this place?”
She’s not from our ocean’s hunters’ pod.
She might know something we don’t—especially if she’s clinging to me like this.
I still don’t know why I agreed to keep her close until we solve her… terrifying problem. But the way my aunt looked at me, like I had to help her, like she needed me to—made it hard to refuse.
Bay knows better than anyone what it feels like to be haunted. She lived through Myko.
She knows that weight.
But even Myko hates this creature so much, it somehow made him feel sorry for her.
Onyx doesn’t answer. She keeps her face against my back, but her fingers dig tighter into my skin.
She belongs to Kolox—the warriors pod. The one marked by the arrow.
So why is she this scared?
I reach down and gently pull her hand away, turning to face her.
