Page 88 of A Reckless Indulgence

Another strand of the rope snaps. Lyx’s body jolts closer to the water.

Cav doesn’t take his eyes off her. “Put out the fire.”

“Tell me!”

“She took them somewhere!” Cav grapples for anything to satisfy him. “An island on the outer reaches, the one with the old slipway. They say they’re taking it for maintenance, but Heathen only takes a skeleton crew. Always the same people. The rest of us don’t see her for days.”

The answer hangs in the air. Tidus gives nothing in response, mulling over the words until Cav wants to scream.

Finally, Tidus moves the candle away from the rope. “See?” he coos. “Was that so hard?”

Cav lets out a shaky breath.

“You could learn a thing or two from him,” Tidus calls to Lyx before he grins at Cav. “See, Lyx almost finished her job for me. She used you to get a spot on the ship. She snuck around behind your back. But she couldn’t wrap things up in a nice little bow.”

It doesn’t matter what Tidus says. What Lyx did. Relief washes over Cav, and he looks at Lyx to reassure her.

Her eyes stay wide with fear.

Tidus curls his hand around the rope and drags the broken shells of his hand against it. “So I will.”

The final strand snaps, and Lyx plunges into the water.

THIRTY-SEVEN

Lyx

Drowning is nothing like Lyx imagined.

Everything is quiet. She can’t hear Tidus’s voice or Cav’s scream, everything drowned out by the flounder of her pulse. The light from the surface grows faint until it’s barely a pinprick overhead. Darkness seeps in. The water grows colder and colder.

Wet fabric clogs her mouth. She tears at it with her teeth, but that wedges it deeper. Netting grips raw lines into her flesh and tangles hopelessly with her tentacles. Her body fights to transform. There’s not enough room. The ropes dig into the bell of her tail.

Something brushes her back. Her body jerks, but her eyes haven’t adjusted yet. She doesn’t know what else is down here with her.

She can’t swim. Can’t move. Can’t breathe. Her thoughts scatter. Her lungs burn.

Above her, something splashes into the water.

Mucky fabric clings to her gills, and bubbles rise up around her as if the ocean itself is in distress.

A shadow passes over her, and two clawed hands find her face. In her panic, she yanks away, but the hands don’t release her. They tug on the rag around her neck, backlit by the glow of the person behind them.

Cav.

He slices through the fabric and tugs it free. Lyx’s gills expand, and Cav grabs onto the net and swims lower. Lyx can hardly make him out any longer, but something pulls taut and begins to vibrate near her feet. Cav’s arm saws back and forth through the rope connecting the bag of rocks. Finally, something snaps, and Cav wraps his arms around her waist and kicks off of the sea floor.

They surface with a gasp, and he kicks toward the stone staircase. “I’ve got you.”

Lyx keeps her head above water, gritting her teeth when the netting twists tighter. Her body is impossibly heavy, weighed down with chaos, but Cav settles her onto the bottom step to keep her lower half submerged.

His hands smooth over her face. “Can you breathe?”

“Where’s Tidus?” she croaks.

Cav sighs his relief before he cuts away at the net with his claws.

“You have to go after him,” Lyx rasps. “He wants the pearls, he —”