Page 99 of Stolen Magic of the Deep

And I don’t.

All at once, my entire world shifts. The Echo Cavern dissolves around me, the stillness replaced by motion—by voices, by laughter. I’m no longer alone. I’m back in Drekaris, in the training cavern, surrounded by Neravyn finlings. Their forms flicker through the water, circling me like a current I can’t escape.

Defymin floats beside Lord Zevrin, both of them watching. Laughing, though no sound leaves their lips. Silent mockery ripples through the crowd as every face turns toward me.

The wannabe human. Whispers coil around me, slicing through the water.

She is not one of us.

She is just pretending.

She cannot even address the king properly.

I curl into my tail, hiding myself away from those around me. The whole thing feels real—too real. The sound, the movement, the eyes on me . . . It’s all too much.

Their laughter deepens, echoing until it no longer sounds like them at all. The training cavern wavers and stretches, its walls bending like liquid until the stone of Drekaris bleeds into the marble of Virellan’s castle.

Suddenly, I’m no longer surrounded by finlings but floating in the grand hall. Nyxalene and Orion swim toward me through the shimmering current. For a moment, I almost believe it’s real, until their faces distort.

Orion’s gaze hardens. His voice, once steady and warm, cuts through the water, hollow and sharp. I did not bring you here because I trust you. I only want my father’s magic. And I will take it back, one way or another.

Nyxalene’s expression twists, her eyes full of disdain.

You will fail, she says, voice layered and distorted, as though more than one person speaks through her. All land-dwellers do.

I shake my head, but the voices multiply—Orion’s, Nyxalene’s, the finlings’, all merging into a chorus that claws at the edges of my mind.

You’ll never belong.

You’re not one of us.

He only wants you to return what you stole.

The walls pulse with every word. Water presses tighter against my body, constricting me from within. My pulse hammers in my ears, blending with the echoing laughter that now sounds nothing like laughter at all.

I squeeze my eyes shut, folding inward beneath their words, as if I can vanish, and cover my ears.

But the whispers follow.

The voices never left.

They swirl through my mind even now, coalescing with every breath I take. I tell myself they aren’t real, that they’re just phantoms of the cavern, but each time I force them away, new ones arise—darker, more malicious, probing at truths I'm desperate to bury.

I settle onto the cavern’s sandy floor, my tail curling tightly beneath and around me, anchoring me against the subtle pull of the current. Mussels lie half-buried in the sand, and I dig through it with my fingers, shoving grit and shells aside until I uncover a few. My hands tremble as I pry one open, the shell cracking sharply beneath my grip. I don’t question it being raw. I barely taste it before it slides down my throat, the salt and grit coating my tongue, metallic and bitter.

One after another, I devour them—greedy, animalistic, desperate. Each bite dulls the voices for a moment, silences the laughter echoing through my head. For a fleeting heartbeat, the madness quiets, and all that’s left is the rhythm of my chewing and the hollow ache of my stomach.

But the laughter returns, faint and distant, rippling through the water like it’s mocking me for thinking I could drown it out.

Another mussel slides down my throat, and the cavern shifts. The sand and shadow melt away, replaced by the long, interminable dining hall of Drekaris. I find myself perched at one of the stone tables, my tail curled beneath me as though I can anchor myself to reality.

Aniah, Keil, and Defymin glide toward me, their smiles wide and warm—or at least they start that way. But in an instant, the warmth twists into something evil. Their words slice through the water like knives.

Look, she cannot even eat food like one of us, Aniah hisses.

Her mannerisms are feral . . . Disgusting, Keil adds, eyes narrowed.

Defymin laughs, the sound ringing in the hall and inside my skull. She's nothing but human garbage. I don't understand what the king sees in her.