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Chapter 18

My dad moves hair from my face. “Stay with us.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” The edges of my vision are still white, but I don’t say anything about that.

“What can we do?” Halen asks.

“Nothing.” My dad frowns. “Only she can stop this.”

I give him a double-take. “What do you mean?”

He turns back to me, a sadness in his eyes. “You’re denying your powers.”

A new round of pain overtakes my stomach. I cry out, unable to stay quiet. The white creeps into more of my vision. I struggle to stay awake.

Bash appears in front of me. “We’re here. None of us is going anywhere.”

I hear a door open and close before seeing my mom. “The doctor is on his way.”

“Good.” Relief floods my dad’s face. “Did he say anything?”

She shakes her head then turns to me. “Are you feeling any better?”

“She was just screaming again,” Bash said. “We can’t let this go on!”

Dad looks me in the eyes. “Are you willing to accept Queen Sirena’s powers?”

I shake my head. “I want a different destiny for myself.”

“You might not have another choice.”

“I do. And I’m not following her path.” Blinding pain overtakes me. I don’t even know if I yell out or not. I’m not even sure if I’m still in the castle. It feels like I’ve left the physical world.

When the pain finally subsides, my parents, best friend, and boyfriend are all staring at me.

“I need some space.”

They all back away, and I gasp for air. The pain hasn’t fully gone away, but it’s manageable. I can live with it. Breathe, see, focus.

Until sharp teeth dig into my flesh, tearing apart my internal organs. Set everything else on fire.

I’m going to die. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but it’s going to kill me. And at this point, death would be preferable. I can’t live like this.

Everything goes black, but it isn’t the end. I can still hear my loved ones, their worried tones. I’m still alive, still conscious. Still in unbelievable agony. Only I can’t cry out or clutch my stomach.

Am I in a coma? If so, it’s true what everyone always says—that the patient can hear everything. My parents are talking. I can hear Halen and Bash too. Some other merwoman. A merman. They all sound so far away.

Something cold and round presses on my chest. Then my stomach. More instruments press against my skin. Hushed voices murmur.

The pain intensifies. I want to scream, to do anything to alleviate it just a little. Any relief would help. Would be better than this.

Something sharp digs into my skin. A relaxing warmth spreads throughout my body. The pain goes away. The voices grow quieter, farther away.

The darkness sucks me away from everything else. Especially what’s left of the agony.

When I wake, the room is silent, other than a dull beeping every so often. I force my eyes open.

I’m in my bed—the one in the castle. I recognize the dollhouse my dad made me when I was young. How did I never put two and two together? He was always more of a dad to me than Drake ever was.