Of course Araxie should have expected her sisters to ask. So she told them about finding Calista and Jett at the club. Amarine nodded approvingly when Araxie got to the part about breaking Calista’s nose.
“That’s why you went to the reef?” Theia said.
Araxie made a noise of affirmation and took a bite of cake. She knew her sisters had been curious about why she’d gone to the reef. They knew she only visited there when she wanted to cry in peace.
Alea frowned. “I’ll make her cluck like a chicken if I see her.”
Amarine nodded approvingly. “Make Jett walk the plank too.”
Her sisters had spent too much time around humans. Araxie didn't even know what a chicken was but the triplets and Alea laughed. Araxie thought of the time Alea had been young and used her recently discovered powers to make a mean girl at a store strut like a seagull. It had taken quite a while for Alea to figure out how to undo it once she was convinced to.
Theia was setting her cake aside like a lady when she said, “I’ll have Calder reassign both of them.”
“Proteus already promised to,” Araxie said.
“I knew it!” Amarine declared.
“Knew what?” Alea asked.
Amarine paused for effect, “he likes her.”
“Absolutely not,” Araxie protested.
There had been a time when Araxie would have welcomed it. He was handsome, clever, and he’d spoken with her like an equal. Even helped her think of ideas on how to get Theia and Calder together when it was clear they were both pining. Then the day of the Dark Tide rising had happened and she’d gone with Jett to the barracks to get more ink. Jett had boldly asked her for a date and she’d been so shocked that Alea had said yes for her.
The triplets started talking about some of their other adventures, and Araxie didn’t mention the darkness at the reef. Theia promised to have Calder reassign them, but Araxie told her that Proteus was already working on it. That, of course, made Alea and Amarine more convinced that Proteus had feelings for Araxie and that it would be so romantic if they ended up together. Especially since he'd been the one to find her.
Araxie fell asleep to her sisters’ chatter and woke to Aquata shaking her arm. The morning passing quickly as Aquata used her arsenal of beauty products to get all of them ready for the day. Araxie only snapped twice at her sisters for spilling nail polish and dust on her white couches. It reminded her too much of when she'd broken the blue scale dust on the floor.
The graduation ceremony was full of long speeches about facing fears by members of the Academy council. Face the Fear had been the theme for her graduating class and also happened to be one of the first lessons the academy taught her.
Araxie sat in the front row facing the stage with Calder next to her. Above her, King Triton and the rest of her family sat in a restricted area overlooking the graduating recruits and stage. She knew that Jett and Calista were somewhere in the chairs behind her. The thought sent a jolt of anger through her. Instead of hearing the speakers congratulating all of them on the work they'd done and the work they'd yet to do, she focused on fighting the anger burning inside of her. She felt like it was hot enough to melt the gold armor right off her scales.
The applause at the end of the last speech made her smile. She only had to get through the recruits being given their golden helms to complete their armor. The heat was so overwhelming she fidgeted. She couldn't even enjoy the set of custom fit armor because of the heat.
“Is it hot in here?” She whispered to Calder when she rose to receive her helmet from a member of the academy's council.
“No.”
The metal helmet was cold in her hands. She turned to watch the council as they continued bestowing the helms, to try and determine how much longer she needed to be there. Laughter from behind her had her turning to look over her shoulder.
Her eyes met the blue ones she'd become so familiar with. Jett sat several rows behind her. He winked at her then turned to his side and whispered into Calista's ear. Calista's eyes still bore some bruising from the broken nose Araxie had given her. But her lips were covered in that same red lipstick as before. Her former friend laughed then blew Araxie a kiss.
The heat overwhelmed Araxie and the edges of her vision turned dark. She wanted to hurt them, make them pay. She dropped her helmet and rose from her seat. Confusion filled the faces of recruits and council members around her. She was going to rip—
A hand grabbed her forearm.
She turned on reflex and with her perfectly polished black and gold nails she swiped at Calder. He turned his head just as her nails struck the skin beneath his eye. The burning darkness inside her seemed to grow at the drops of blood from the injury she'd given.
“Araxie.” Calder hissed and still holding the golden bracer on her arm.
She moved to strike him again, but more hands were there. Stopping her, wrapping around her. Just like at the reef, she felt them tighten and she thrashed against it. Someone held her head still when she tried to bite. The scrape of an urchin spine on her neck made her still as the magic of a rune flared. Her body stiffened, and she couldn't flick her fin.
Theia looked into her eyes, brushed a hand across her forehead.
“She's burning up.” Theia gave instructions to whoever held Araxie to move her.
Araxie was helpless and stared up into the blue water as they took her out of the ceremony. The heat inside her still raged.
Chapter 5
For hours, the fever put Araxie into a cycle of dreams and wakefulness. She couldn't decide what was worse, being unable to move or hearing her Father argue with Theia about what was happening.
At times Araxie thought she heard others in the room, but the dreams would come and she couldn't be sure. The dreams were full of shadows and that awful burning that made her want to claw off her scales.
She woke to the feel of a cold cloth on her forehead, she pushed it away. Surprised that she could, she opened her eyes.
Theia dabbed a white cloth once at Araxie's temple. “Your fever finally broke. Do you feel like hurting anyone?”
Shame flooded Araxie. “I'm sorry.”
An older merman's face came into view. “Princess, we can’t do a full examination with the armor on.”
Araxie sat up and turned so the others wouldn't be able to see exactly where the release rune had been placed. A knight was never to reveal the release rune because if they were ever captured the armor protected their most vital organs. Quickly lifting a hand to her collarbone, she curled a finger under the top of the chest-plate to press the rune. A series of clicks followed by a slight hiss and the seams in the metal on her sides popped open. Theia grabbed the back-plate before it could fall, while Araxie set her chest-plate to the side of the settee she'd been laid on. She wore a simple black covering over her chest as the armor needed direct access to her skin for the rune to work. Similar to the scale dust, the magic only attached the armor directly to her body.
The old healer let out a gasp and Araxie looked down at her bare skin, dark lines had spread across her stomach in a scale pattern.
“It's the Shadow Sickness,” the old healer said at last, his hands shaking.
She knew the answer, but she asked anyway. “There's something you can do right?”