Swim Away (Mermaid)

Chapter Forty-Five

"Lara." Someone shook my shoulder. "Hey, Lara."

I opened my eyes and felt the cold floor pressing against my side. I was facing a row of flowers. I brought my hand out and touched a small blue tulip. The pedal felt soft and smooth as I ran my finger over. Without even tugging at the pedal, it fell off and landed in the water.

"I didn't make it."

I thought I regained enough power to at least send myself out of their world. Then I would swim my way back to shore. But that didn't seem to be the case, and now I was lying still.

Maybe it was shock or loss of energy that I didn't want to move or try anymore.

"Are you okay?" My mother asked, sitting next to me. She didn't want to show that she was worried about me, but her eyes were closed and her arms were folded. She wasn't doing a very good job. 

It was obvious that she wanted to look at me, but was holding back. Must be a leader thing.

"This is nothing compared to what I've been through." I sighed. "I'm not okay."

She didn't move and neither did I.

"Why didn't it work?" I looked at my mom.

"You're too weak to suppress the magic that surrounds this place. Chants are weak. We have gathered the strongest mermaids to hold our place together."

"Ugh. Magic is annoying," I muttered. "So what did you want to talk about?"

I played with the flower pedals again.

"I wanted to see you."

"Then why didn't you come to land? Maybe things would've been different." I plucked the pedal off the flower.

"I couldn't, Lara." She unfolded her arms and stared at the ground. "I had things to do here and they wouldn't let me leave."

"Like prep for my death." I blurted out. "You couldn't even come to land to capture me."

She froze, not expecting to hear those words coming out of my mouth. "Mira is the one that handles the mermaids on land."

I couldn't look at her. I didn't want to know what her face would show me. My heart felt like it was being crushed. 

"Do you want me to die?" I found the strength to look at her blue eyes, searching for an answer. My heart was picking up its pace as I waited. 

"Of course not! I've tried everything to convince them to keep you alive!"

"But it didn't work. I'm going to die." I turned around, turning my back to my mom. I didn't want her to see me cry. I was tired of crying. 

My death would end the pain that has been inflicted on me. But I didn't want to die here.

"Yes," she whispered. "I'm not going to hold any information from you. They have come to the conclusion that you're a threat. Since the Guardians couldn't kill you, the mermaid leaders had to get themselves involved." She paused. "You have a massive amount of dark magic. The fact that you were able to release any more magic to escape shows that. Who knows how much your magic might grow? It can consume you. I'm sorry this happened. I hoped that one day you would join me here."

"You know, everyone told me that I'd be fine. That it would be easy to dispose of my dark side. But the opposite happened." I wiped away a tear. "As far as dark magic goes, I've been fine. I've been in control, thanks to Asher."