Page 26 of Coral Prince Conundrum (Runaway Prince Hotel #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Seero

It is not easy moving stone with blasts of water.

I may be well-versed in the art of water-bending, but collapsing caves are not exactly malleable.

Additionally, I need to look after Daryl.

He may have Jojo over his head, giving him oxygen and regulating the pressure in his lungs, but he’s still injured.

He cannot swim. As I whip away the tumbling boulders with water pressure, I occasionally glance back at the love of my life.

Even in the dark, I can see Daryl, sitting on the floor of the cave, giving me a thumbs-up and a smile.

We’ve tied his shirt around his ankle to slow the bleeding and splint the wound.

He seems so optimistic despite the bloody gash in his leg and nearly drowning.

When I find my sister again, none of the gods can stop me from hurting her.

So, I focus on pushing as much rock away as I can.

The collapsed entrance is impossible to budge.

I refuse to give up, though. Not for me, but for Drakey, Pelly, Jojo, and of course, my soulmate.

If there was ever a time to prove that I’m the Coral Prince, it is now.

I close my eyes and meditate. I feel the thrum of the tides and tune into the natural currents of the ocean.

I commune with the seas to give me strength. Guide me, waters of the ocean…

I sense a tenuous current pulling me deeper into the cavern. Success! I float down and tell Daryl, “I am going to need you to hold on to me as best as you can.”

He nods and reaches for me. I raise my hands as he clings to me. I wish I could hold him under different circumstances, but now is not the time for distractions. I nearly lost him once, I will not let him drown here.

With all my might, I spread my hands, and the water current deep down widens into a trench. I thrust myself forward, cutting through the dark water, as Daryl clings to my shoulders, precious cargo if there ever was one. And down we go, deeper and deeper into the underwater tunnels.

But this is my kingdom, my land, and I know the geography of the cliffs off of Port City. I focus with all my might, pushing rocks away as we propel forward. I need to get to the castle. Injustice will not win this day.

Several minutes later, I’m heaving from both the kilometers of swimming and the mixture of rage and panic in my chest. Getting out of the caves was a slight relief, with a literal light at the end of a tunnel leading to our underwater urban pathways.

Daryl keeps giving me a smiling thumbs-up, and I return his gestures by clutching him closer.

We’re kilometers underwater and, without stopping, I barge into the palace. The guards try to greet me, but I interrupt them by pushing each door open. “Father! Mother!” I shout in every corridor. Still, if my brother did what I asked, there’s only one place they can be.

I don’t slow down until we finally arrive at the main palace throne room. I catch my breath, letting the water go through my gills, and gently place Daryl down. I point to a guard and bark, “Get him medical attention, now!”

The guards nod and disappear, and my parents and brother approach me.

“My son, what has gotten into you?” Mother says in a reprimanding tone.

“Your brother called this emergency meeting to find your soulmate, but he’s right there,” Father adds.

Before I can reply, my sister calmly appears behind my parents. It was less than an hour ago that she tried to kill me and my soulmate. Suddenly, all I see is red. I grit my teeth. “You…” I growl.

I lunge at her, but before my hands can grab her, Father holds me back.

“Woah!” Father says, and Mother startles.

“You…you did this!” I lean back, pulling myself out of Father’s hold, and look at my parents. “She betrayed us!”

I turn back to Daryl, who’s holding his phone. When I turn around, my brother and parents seem dumbstruck. My sister has a neutral expression, and I want to take an oyster shell and alter her face by hand.

“What are you talking about?” Mother asks.

“How dare you move in such an unbecoming way, to your sister no less,” Father adds.

“How could you stand here and defend her? She tried to MURDER both of us!” I point at her, and I’m nearly shaking with rage. Two guards step closer, but otherwise, the throne room has no other bystanders.

“What?” Oroy yelps.

“What is the meaning of this, my son?” Mother asks.

“She…she…” I run my hands through my hair. “I thought you were my sister, my family, but you made a cave collapse in order to kill us both.”

They turn to Priya, and she still does not emote.

“This is… a serious accusation,” Mother says.

“Is this true?” Father asks.

“I’m afraid you’re hallucinating, brother,” she says calmly. “I went with you to search for him, then you told me to return. In fact, I rode the sea dragon back into town, so everyone saw me.”

“What…how…how could you lie?” I shout. I turn to my brother to see him playing with his phone. Then, I look back at my parents. “You have to believe me.”

They hesitate, and panic rises in my throat. “We cannot take this on accusation alone,” Father says.

“Maybe you hit your head looking for Daryl,” Priya says with that infuriatingly calm tone. “And now you’re hallucinating. I am happy you found him.”

I turn back to Daryl, who’s gazing at us expectantly. He’s probably confused since we’re speaking a combination of Corali and English. Hopefully, the blood loss has abated.

“Perhaps we should all have a meal together and calm ourselves,” Father says. He tries to touch me, but I shrug off his hold.

“No!” I bark again. “I’m not going anywhere until you lock her up. She tried to kill us!”

Mother and Father once again share a look. “We have no cause to lock up a member of the royal family,” Mother says calmly.

“This is all make-believe, brother,” Priya says.

“But…but…” I sputter. Hopelessness threatens to drown me. If my sister isn’t detained, I don’t know what I’ll do. “You have to believe me.”

“I believe you, brother. Take a look,” Oroy says. He swiftly swims to the corner of the room and pushes his giant screen toward us. Next, he turns it on and clicks on his phone.

In the next second, we’re watching a blurry video of…me. I’m in the cave, and the camera pans to my sister. It’s obviously her, and her voice is as clear as the water in the tidal pool.

And she’s confessing to all her crimes. She’s trying to kill me, a harrowing event that I’m shocked to witness all over again. Hope beams in my chest, and I turn back to Daryl. He grins and waves his phone. He seems to have sent the video to Oroy, and I’ll never regret him befriending my brother.

With the video over, the room falls silent. The guards don’t know what to do, so we all defer to Father. He takes a long moment, pondering what just occurred, until he looks up.

He points to the guards, then to my sister. “Seize her,” he says, quietly, but firmly. I smile, and the guards move forward.

“NO!” she shrieks. She swims upward, and in a blur, she waves her hands, sending a miniature whirlpool forward. Before anyone can react, the spinning blade of water hits Daryl.

No . I dash forward, but it’s too late; Jojo has been pulled off of Daryl. In an instant, he’s drowning. Shouting and screaming occur around me, but I block them out.

Everything fades away when I see Daryl’s limp body as he’s immediately choked by kilometers of underwater pressure. Time slows down—I’m going to witness Daryl Tishman, the love of my life, die.

“No!” I bellow. With every fiber of my being, I spread my arms and pull the water apart.

It’s unthinkable what I’m doing, but I need to create an oxygen bubble.

I can hardly combat the deep undersea pressure, but I conjure a small pocket of air around my love.

It might be too late. Daryl lies limp, water and blood oozing from his mouth, and all seems lost. I continue to pry the water away from him.

I will move the ocean for you, Daryl, I must.

Then it gets easier. To my right, Oroy has his hands outstretched. Next, Mother and Father join him. Together, the four of us make a larger oxygen bubble, and I pray we did so in time. Behind me, I spot the guards restraining my sister. So, I climb into the bubble and take hold of the man I love.

Finally, with Daryl’s limp body in my arms, I rise upward, allowing my family to bend the water and gradually take me to the surface.

The moment the doctor walks out of the operating room, I briskly approach her.

“How is he?” I put my hands on the doctor, the most advanced Corali practitioner, and she looks between me and my brother.

Father and Mother decided it was best to stay back and ensure the incarceration of my sister.

I don’t care, as long as she stays away from us, forever.

“I…don’t know how to tell you this, Your Highness,” the doctor says.

I gasp and exchange a sorrowful look with my brother. Then, I turn to the operating room window to see several tubes snaking in and out of Daryl. I can hardly see his face beneath the medical devices. “What…happened?” Oroy whispers.

“He’s alive.” Her words make my chest sag with relief. “But barely,” the doctor continues.

My mouth goes dry. This building is supposed to be the number one above-ground hospital in the kingdom. However, to be fair, most of our resources have gone to underwater medical facilities. It’s nearly unheard of for a Corali to not have gills.

I brought Daryl into this world, my world. And now he’s on life support.

“We don’t specialize in treatments outside of Corali anatomy. He needs a pulmonologist,” the doctor says. “He has lost so much blood that his internal pressures are barely holding on. That’s not to mention the broken ribs and punctured lung. We need constant, vigilant updates, that?—”

“Whatever it takes,” I say in a hushed, urgent tone. “Money is no object.”

“Unfortunately, money can’t buy certain resources, like the pressure catheters, central lines, and magnetic imaging machines that only the surface world has,” the doctor says, wiping her hands on her lab coat.

“Even if we accelerate the process of importing enough medical tools and ignore any embargos, what you’re asking from us… ”

Her voice trails off, and I fear the worst. “You need manpower. Experts from America or some other country,” my brother says.

The doctor dolefully nods. “We can keep him on life support for a limited time, but this is not the country for him to get better.”

My soul crumbles, and I cling to my brother’s shoulder for support. Daryl is going to die.

“What if…what if we get him back to his home? In Oregon?” Oroy asks.

She nods in response. “I don’t want to overstep any political bounds, Your Highnesses, but…” She turns back to the operating room window, and we gaze at Daryl. He looks so fragile that it makes me nauseous. “He will not get better in the Coral Kingdom, he just won’t.”

Her words are the truth I’ve been trying to avoid. I thank her for her time and walk with my brother back to the waiting room. We share a bench, and I’m thankful the guards have once again granted us our privacy.

All of the wealth of an entire country, and I can’t help the man I love.

“I feel so powerless,” I whisper.

“Hey,” Oroy says, rubbing my back. “He’s alive. You saved him.”

I shake my head. “No, you did.” I turn to my brother, my eyes blurry with moisture. “Without your video phone screens, our parents would not have believed me.”

He shrugs. “He texted me the video. Really, Daryl saved himself.” Oroy frowns and looks down. “I should have seen the signs. Priya kept going on and on about how you were making a mistake. About how we needed to rule the oceans with an iron fist.”

I tap my brother’s arm. “She betrayed all of us.”

He hums in agreement, and we sit there in silence for another minute. “I think…you know what you have to do,” Oroy says.

“What?”

He looks back at the operating room, then at me. “Time is of the essence. You need to get him back to his home.”

“But…but how?”

“America has these things called medical helicopters. They’re like machines with little surface world hospitals and personnel on them.”

“And that can save him?”

“It can get him back to a place where he has the best opportunity to live, his home.” He points to his phone, and I nod.

I stand up, my legs feeling like they’re being weighed down by barnacles. Then, I pull out my phone and click one of the only contacts I have.

A quick moment later, I hear a familiar voice that warms my soul. “Renversé Hotel, this is Layla, how can I help you?”