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It’s Kroaicho who interrupts her this time. “No, no, no. No more humans.”

“Oh!” Eli says, raising her small fists in the air. “It’s you! You are a terrible person keeping Liv here without—”

“It’s alright, Eli,” I say to stop her breathless tirade. She has gills, it seems, which means she can speak forever without taking a pause.

“Just let us go,” Rin hisses at Kroaicho.

I open my mouth to tell her it’s no use, but Kroaicho responds before I can. “Alright.”

What? I whip my head over to him, mouth dropping open.

“I will find one of your others. I will need their help carrying,” he says.

“We can walk… Hey, wait!” Eli says, but Kroaicho isn’t listening.

He’s doing his six-limb gallop, the passage lit up pink from the glow of his skin as he runs away from us.

My chest hurts and I don’t know why. This is what I’ve wanted the whole time, but I somehow thought he would keep resisting.

And what does the pink color mean?

23

Olivia

Ikeptexpectinghimto want something from me. Kept waiting for that shoe to drop and for him to reveal his angle. Instead, he’s giving me what I want. It’s almost like… he sees me as valuable without considering what I can give or what he can take?

The thought stabs through me, a thrill rising, then quickly transitioning to pain.

Why do I feel like I’m going to cry? I rub at my aching eyes, but instead of making them feel better, it just gets worse. And worse. Soon after I’m hissing, then moaning out in pain.

Someone grabs on to my hands. “Stop, Olivia. They are changing. You’re just going to hurt yourself.”

My heart starts pounding. “I hate change,” I mutter.

“I don’t blame you,” Eli says in a soothing voice. “Just breathe through it, though.”

When I feel a wet pressure, then an odd suction and realize it’s probably a tentacle, the anger starts to build higher, but the pain overtakes it instead.

Long minutes later and multiple sharp intakes of breath and it's over. I blink once—then twice—and then not at all, as my brain expects the usual bleariness to set in, the normal sensation of sluggish eyes adjusting to a dim cave. Except… I can see everything. Clear as day.

What the hell?

It's disorienting, like waking up and realizing you've grown an extra limb overnight. I blink again, hard this time, but nothing changes. I can see the shapes of stalagmites, the blue glow of mushrooms faintly pulsing in the shadows, and even the tiny glimmer of water droplets hanging from the ceiling. All of it is sharp and vibrant.

Eli’s muted coloring is suddenly a canary yellow and the green of Rin’s markings are beautifully vibrant. So vibrant it's on the edge of pain.

What… is going on?

My heartbeat picks up, and I start to push myself up, but there's something warm and firm holding me down. I look down, realizing there is a tentacle wrapped around me. Supporting me.

The anger is mixed in with fear and panic.

"Okay, Olivia," I mutter under my breath. "No need to panic. You've survived worse."

Gingerly, I try to wiggle out of Eli’s grip and look around the cave, which is lit mostly by those damn, bright bioluminescent mushrooms. They glow a deep, serene blue, but as I move toward them, I wince, eyes stinging from the glare.

What the…? I raise a hand to shield my face, surprised by how harsh the light feels now. It's like I'm staring into the sun, except I know these mushrooms weren't this bright before.