DEEP END // Harry Styles

The Great War

Hi guys! Sorry for the long wait! Here's the last chapter :)

Ezili paused just long enough to see Harry swim back to the surface for breath before she rushed forward and Koa's fist collided with her face. The pain hit instantly as if everything was shattering all around her at once. Koa hit her again and grabbed her by the hair. They had fought like this before, but Ezi's human strength wouldn't stand a chance against her sister – a monster, a warrior, and an insatiable killer.

"You gave me an animal's heart, you bitch!" Koa clutched Ezi's throat and squeezed hard. "Mother punished me for it. Now you have to pay."

In her dizziness, Ezi managed to grab Koa's wrist. Harry's face and voice ran on a loop in her mind, and the pain withered when she remembered what she was fighting for. She twisted Koa's arm, and a crack splintered through the water. Koa roared, jaw stretching wide to show every one of her predator teeth. Just as Koa was ready to slam her elbow into Ezi's chest, Ezi twisted out of the way and pounded her body into her sister's as hard as her bones allowed. Ezi shoved her sister from her and started swimming back up.

When she broke the surface, the air was ridiculously warm. Dawson and Harry pulled her up and her legs felt like jelly as she dragged herself away from the water's edge. Koa's head was all she could see from this distance. Her sister grinned at her, tail flipping and splashing. Koa stared for a little while; then she was gone.

Harry gathered Ezi into his arms, his fingers slipping into hers. "It's okay. I'm here. I'm safe," he whispered into her temple, the violent beating of his mortal heart against her own.

"The water's rising," Dawson's voice trembled, and in an instant they could all feel the water begin to churn around them. More waves started coming from the deep end despite there being no wind within the cave. Tall pillars of salt water started splashing at them, and one wave crashed so hard it slammed them into the cave wall. Still clinging to Harry, Ezili felt as if there was a crack in her skull as warm liquid trickled down her face. Harry slipped from her, and she realised the tide was pulling her away from him.

The water vibrated violently as the waves crashed onto the rocks and the walls, causing a deafening rumbling inside Ezi's ears. Her mouth tasted of salt and blood and her sight was blurry yet she could make out Dawson's limp body lying a few feet across. She didn't know if he was still alive, and she wanted to shout at Harry to go check on his cousin, but Harry wouldn't leave her. He was on all four, somehow managed not to be knocked over by the waves coming from the deep end as he crawled toward Ezi, hand reaching out for her to grasp.

It was happening too fast. One second there was a blinding light coming from behind her, and the next she heard a snap as a greasy large black tentacle clasped around her torso and pulled her back into the water. Harry shouted out her name as she was lifted off of the surface into the air, feet dangling helplessly. Her mother had appeared, now ten feet tall, and her fishtail had morphed into thick heavy tentacles. She had taken the form of a giant octopus, at least her lower half was. Koa's head broke the surface once again, and another siren emerged beside her, then another one, and another one, until the entire army of sirens swarmed the water. One thing Ezi knew for a fact was that her mother loved to put on a show, and every show needed spectators.

As her tentacle brought Ezi closer to her, Ezi's mother's long sharp claws reached out and pinched Ezi's jaw, guiding her face up to meet her ink-black eyes.

"Mother, please...Let him go..." Ezi muttered in Séren, but that wasn't her mother anymore. That was the Sea Queen.

Her yellow fangs glinted as she smiled, breath reeking of death. "First, you betrayed me. Now, you come back here asking me to spare its life? Koa, take its heart."