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Screw it Annoyed withelse in th I had left behindof the cave and straight into thelike what I was expecting The last cave had been black, empty--filled with sharp rocks and barren rooh it was dark, my natural phosphorescence partially lit up the world around me with a purple haze Plus, there was an entire school of fish in this rooht, I could see clusters ofthe floor, as well as gorgeous stalactites dripping down fro, sharp, rainbow-colored spears arranged with no rhyet to the back of this first cavity

As I swam, the fish darted up to me Some whirled back and forth in front of me, while others circled hing, and tried to send them a sense of my amusement If I’d had Kona’s talent, we actually would have been able to talk to each other, but since I didn’t, I settled for reaching out to pet them

Most of the fish zipped away the second my hand came anywhere near them, but a few curious ones stuck around and let h, scaly, but kind of silky too I liked it

Two huge stalactites loo between theot under theainst a fire coral

Crap It wasn’t the first ti--whilehurting more than a lot of the other kinds

I swished my tail back and forth in an effort to shake off the last of the stinging cells, as Kona had taught me The burn lessened a little, and I realized it was already healing Huh I’d been stung a lot in human form and it had never healed this quickly Always nice to discover so better already, I finished the obstacle course of the front roo feeling better by the ure out what it was about this place that called to le at the back of

In fact, I felt ht in this place than I had in a while I certainly felt healthier and better than I had since getting attacked yesterday It was like being here, in this cave, was feeding y, my power

It sounds crazy, I know, but with every rooer

Which was prettyto stop until I’d explored the whole cave--or as h a rooeway, I found another, narrower route I followed the path--I couldn’t help it--and about halfway down found a hole in the floor that was barely big enough forseconds, I conteo down there when I had no idea where it led and, unlike the rest of the cave, there seemed to be no other life forms in it

And yet, soo Sick and tired of theat me hat I wanted most was to be normal--a normal human or a normal mermaid, at this point I didn’t care--all of a sudden I wanted nothing more than to turn around and leave No matter how beautiful the cave was, I didn’t want to communicate with forces I didn’t understand Any more than I wanted to be the subject of that stupid prophecy that had everyone treating me like I was different Special

Better to just do it, I told myself Get down there, see what it is you’re supposed to see, and then get back to the city Mahina was probably looking for me, and God only knehat Hailana would say about this latest disappearance of ht down into the small hole in the cavern floor My ar me swim, and the second they came into contact with the hole, an electric current jolted through ether in the closest thing to a seizure I had ever experienced

I tried to pull back, but I couldn’tme deeper and deeper into the hole without any effort on my part

There was a whole section ofto die down here But at the sae pull the current had onzapped by a bunch of shocks at exactly the same time, another part of o with it, the pain would soon be over Whatever oceanic force had grabbed on to ht o

I floated down into the hole, through a passageway so narrow that I felt the rocks scrape at my shoulder blades and hips, then somehow moved into an even narrower tunnel At one point, I had to hold ills was toointo a cavern so large that I couldn’t see the top or bottom of it

The second I slid into the room, the electric force released h water so icy I knew it had never seen sunlight, before realizingmy descent with a flick of my tail and a few strokes of my limp arms, I took a second to assess my physical condition I eak, tired, my skin a million ti was harsh,water in like they were afraid it was about to run out And my head--it hurt almost as much as it had yesterday, after I’d lost all that blood I couldn’t help wondering how many brain cells I’d killed in the last twenty-four hours, between the blood loss, Sabyn’s attack, and now this With e This whole underwater thing orking out soto getaround in the dark Though I was still glowing, it was nowhere near enough to actually help e that I didn’t illuI had enough power left to do what I needed to

My palled, and I wondered if there was a way to use what Sabyn unwittingly taughtcircles, I’d used ht to create a spear Down here I only wanted soether as I focused, I pulled thein the center oftheht into a ball Then I used ht out in front of low on the wall in front of it

I grinned, startled but also pretty i, I did the saht doenty feet or so, until it hovered a few inches above the rocky bottom of the cave