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Kaga’s eyes widened, but he nodded, his trust in me evident. I’m coming with you.
The waves crashed against the side of the boat as we went to tell the others our plan. Kaga put on the seashell necklace, and together we dove into the dark waves. The mages followed us, each falling into the sea. Deep underwater, Thalos and his crew formed funnels in the water from their mouths to the surface. I nodded once at their ingenuity, then gestured to a glow in the center of the darkness. “I bet my life that’s the moonflower pearl.”
With every stroke, we descended deeper into the water, where the darkness loomed. The water was murky, swirling with the witches’ malevolent magic.
“Be ready for anything,” I said to the others. Even with a warning, nothing could have been prepared us for what waited at the bottom of the ocean.
Chapter 35
Deeper and deeper we swam. I brushed the sea floor with my hands, wondering where the witches could be. Kaga swam closer to me, face confused. The mages each had their own globes of light in their hands, the only way they’d be able to see down here.
I was just about to suggest we split up, when something hard wrapped around my wrist. I glanced down, about to shove it off, then screamed.
Bony fingers were wrapped around me. Kaga swam forward and punched the human skeleton in the face. It reeled backward while Kaga shook out his hand. The skeleton stumbled forward, reaching for the both of us. We swam backward, bumping into a mage.
A quick, frantic glance around showed me that we were surrounded. The witches had raised an army of the dead, sailors and merpeople alike, twisted by dark magic.
As the skeletal warriors marched toward us, their bony feet slamming into the sand floor, the mages took their positions and formed a protective circle. They conjured torrents to shield us from the onslaught, but it only pushed the skeletons away until they came crawling back.
“This isn’t working,” I said. “They’re just going to keep coming back until the magic powering them drains completely.”
“What do you suggest?” Thalos said, sending a mini tornado at an advancing skeletal mermaid.
“We need to find the witches,” I said. “They’re controlling them.”
Thalos nodded, then Kaga put a hand on both our shoulders, pointing in the distance. I squinted, trying to see what he saw. And then I realized it was a glowing orb, not one of ours. “The pearl,” I said.
Determined, I broke out of the circle, using the scepter as a weapon to whip at the heads of the undead army. Kaga swam next to me, using his power to keep our sides protected. The other mages followed us, sending bones crashing to the ground over and over again. But the undead just kept coming.
A skeleton with a disintegrating rope around its waist creeped up on a mage. The young man sent out a torrent toward it, but the skeleton advanced without hesitation.
Lirion! said Kaga.
The mage threw up a watery barrier. The skeleton pounded on it, but made no progress. Another skeleton pulled my hair, and I whipped around, swinging the scepter to smack it on the head.
Kaga dealt with his own skeletons. Out of the corner of my eye, the skeleton attacking Lirion was joined by others. The mage’s barrier fell, and the skeletons descended on him. The creature wrapped his skeletal fingers around Lirion’s neck. Lirion gurgled and thrashed, clawing at his attacker. “Kaga!” I screamed.
Kaga glanced at Lirion, and his eyebrows drew together. He reached his hand out, but a skeleton slashed at him. Unable to help, we watched in horror as the Lirion drew his last breath.
The skeleton moved on, as if it hadn’t just killed someone. Lirion’s lifeless body floated in the sea.
Kaga let out a roar only I heard. Water burst away from him, flinging the surrounding skeletons away. We sped forward, trying to get to the sea witches.
They floated outside a cave, both of them cackling with glee. “Do you like our new friends?” said Cordelia. “It seems as if you’re having fun with them.”
“Call them off, Cordelia,” I said through gritted teeth.
“I don’t think so,” she hissed. She snapped her fingers, and more skeletons rose out of the ground. Even a half-eaten shark carcass.
The mages continued to battle, and I pivoted to face the witches, no idea how I was going to get the pearl from them.
“Give me the pearl,” I said.
Seraphina laughed. “You think we’re just going to hand it to you because you asked?”
Squiggles came out of his hiding spot under my hair and launched himself at Seraphina’s face. She screamed and spun around, trying to get him off.
Kaga reached his hand forward, sucking the water away from Cordelia. She gasped for breath and I swam closer to her, reaching for the pearl. “Give it up, Cordelia. You can’t survive without air.”
