“I’m going to let go of your hand.” I couldn’t hear him directly, but his voice resonated in my bubble shield like a magic version of speakerphone.
“I must not have heard you correctly, because it sounded like you said you were going to let go!?” I shouted back, panicking.
“I have to test the shield without touching you…trust, Pickles,” he replied urgently, emphasizing the word.
I didn’t want to, but what choice did I have? If we didn’t figure out the shield in the water, then how could we ever figure it out inlava? He asked me to trust him, and although his antics were reckless, he had kept me safe thus far.
“Kick your fin and keep up.” Follow me. We are almost there!” he commanded.
I immediately started flipping my fin as hard as I could, and then he let go.
The shield flickered slightly but stayed intact. Instant relief filled my chest as I tried to keep up with the racing speed of the current.
“Is it working?” he asked. There was a hint of strain in his voice— so unlike him. All I’d ever known Titus to be was incredibly, effortlessly powerful.
“Seems to be!” I confirmed.
He merged right again to another exit and we changed direction.
He cut right into another exit tunnel. The current snapped us sideways. The shield flickered twice—then I felt itgive. The integrity cracked. A small vertical fracture split above my head, and water started to spew in at an alarming rate.
I panicked and shrieked, “Titus!!! The shield is cracking; my bubble is filling up with water!!!”
He flinched and turned his head to observe, pausing his swimming for only a moment. He took my hand, but the shield didn’t repair. Water pooled just below my shoulders.
“Fuck!” I heard his panic in my orb. “We are almost there.
Hold on!” he yelled.
“Fix it, Titus!! I’m going to drown!” I screamed, and tears of pure panic gushed from my eyes.
Then a second fracture—horizontal—split across the first. It was even bigger, and water flooded in, filling my bubble to my chin almost instantly.
I looked up, thinking maybe I could fight the current and swim to the surface, but my face paled in horror.
We were underground.
“The next exit point is just ahead—hold on, Pickles. Hold your breath!” he shouted, and the strain in his voice was alarmingly amplified.
“Help me, Danny, please!!! Please fix it!!!” I sobbed. “You can do this!!” he shouted back.
I tilted my head back, knowing I was going to have to take my last breath soon. I had about twenty seconds.
Titus increased his speed to an unnatural rate, even by Water Fae standards.
“I can see the exit point, just hold on!!!” he called out.
With the water covering all of my face except my lips, I took my last breath, praying I would breathe again soon.
Water swallowed the last pocket of air—then the orb shattered, the magic breaking apart into glittering shards that got lost in the current.
I could feel the full force of the current pulverizing past my face. I couldn’t see. I could only feel his hand holding mine, squeezing tighter for comfort. My lungs began to burn. My body shook, begging me to open my airway, and then I felt my body go limp as a haze took hold.
Just then I felt my body thrust into the air. Strong arms hooked under my ribs and hauled me up, and I landed back on solid ground.
I coughed up water—so much water—then sweet air filled my lungs and my vision came back. It was blurry at first, then sharpened on mermaid Titus’s turquoise eyes staring at me intensely.
I was so out of it I didn’t recognize the pure panic in his gaze at first. Then the ringing in my ears faded and Titus’s frantic voice registered.
