“Brilliant idea, regina!”I say, fist pumping the air.
Lyle’s torch beam finds Aurelia’s dorsal fin when it appears above the water, and I feel her gentle magic surrounding me like a doona of love. The air around me changes as the bubble closes over my head, and Xander and Lyle go quiet as they feel it too. Henry lands on my shoulder for comfort.
“Ready!” I say, bending my knees into a squat and bracing myself. Lyle lowers the three of us into the water, and I grin from cheek to cheek as we sink into the new darkness, and my regina’s pretty shark face snaps her sharp teeth at us. Her tail is so cute as she and Scythe swim down past where Lyle’s torch light can see.
He makes sure we chase them at speed, like three Christmas baubles through the sea. We travel for a few seconds before the hairs on my arms stand up, and I rub at it unconsciously. Henry makes a low sound of worry and huddles close to my skin.
“Are you alright, Sav?”Lyle asks from his bubble on my left.
“Yeah…”I rub the back of my neck and look behind me. But there’s nothing there. I look to my right. There’s nothing there either, but it’s so bloody dark I can’t see a thing anyway.“I don’t think I like this place. It feels like something is watching me.”Something brushes against my mind.“I want to leave! Everyone, go faster!”
“What, why?”Xander asks. Suddenly, from the complete darkness on my right, two orbs of light turn my way, and I shake my head at them. He’s so creepy sometimes. Lyle starts shining his torch around. The golden beam shows things like dust moties and bubbles but nothing else. Just ahead, Scythe and Aurelia go slower. Lyle shines his torch left, and a gigantic black eye blinks back at us. Henry screams.
“What the fuck! What the fuck!” I shout, grabbing Henry in my hand.
A giant, fleshy body followed by long tentacles streaks past us, straight for the two sharks. Lyle follows it with the torch. “Regina!” We all shout.
Xander screams at the top of his lungs, and Henry and I join in. Scythe turns around just as the giant squidthingreaches them. Some of his power hits it like an ocean current, sending it tumbling backwards, its dinner plate eyes rolling back in its head.
“I want to touch it,”Aurelia says into the chat.
“No!”we all shout.
We speed downwards with all our might, my face plastered against Lia’s bubble as I keep my eyes fixed on my regina’s pale tail. Henry’s heart flutters under my fingers. A green glow twinkles beneath us, shifting with the ripples of the water. Lia and Scythe swim right through it and disappear completely.
I shout in excitement as Lyle shoots us through the green twinklies and suddenly we’re not in water at all but plain air with a green glow all around us. Two sharks hang in mid-air beneathus as we peer in surprise at the big black cavern that feels like the rectum of Animus Academy.
Lia shifts into human form and lowers herself and Scythe slowly to the ground. It’s lucky she caught them both, otherwise she and Scythe would have been fishcakes. Lyle lowers us to the ground as well, and as soon as we touch the black dirt floor, everyone starts talking at once.
“Did you see that?” I exclaim, letting a squashed Henry fly free. He starts complaining too.
“I don’t like any of this,” Xander says like a spoilsport.
“I want to go back and see it!” Aurelia says, her face and body shining with droplets of water that make me want to lick her all over.
Lyle hands Lia and Scythe their clothes, and they quickly get dressed. “How has it survived this long?” asks Scythe. “What has it been eating to get to that size?”
“I think we just found out where the food scraps chute leads,” Lyle says. “I’ve always wondered, and Celeste could never tell me.”
“It wanted Aurelia,” I say, shaking my fist at the water rippling on the ceiling where we came out. “I think we should go back and kill it.”
“No!” Aurelia and Scythe shout at the same time, before smiling at each other. Well, fine. I turn around and survey this new place and the thing that sits at the middle of it like a queen.
“Whoa!” I breathe. It’s an archway of black stone smack bang in the middle of a raised platform of something shiny like crushed crystals. Inside the archway is a shiny, twinkly magic that glows like moving, liquid opals.
“I’ve never seen magic like this,” Xander says in a strange voice. “I can’t believe this was sitting here under the school the entire time.”
Aurelia wipes at her cheek. “It’s the heart of the academy, I think.” Her voice is all caught in her throat. “I want to go in.” Henry sits on her shoulder to comfort her.
“Me too,” Xander says, walking forward strangely, like he can’t help it.
I bound forward, not wanting to be left behind. “What do you think happens if we walk through it?”
“Only one way to find out,” Scythe says quietly.
Aurelia glances back at us. “I’m gonna go in first; someone hold my hand.” Unfortunately, Xander is closest to her right hand, so he gets to her first. I quickly take Xander’s hand and reach out for Lyle, whodoestake my hand this time. Scythe takes his and I wait, holding my breath as Lia stares at the magic archway, blinking fast.
Xander leans down and whispers in her ear.“We are with you, regina.”
