THE LUNA CHOOSING GAME - Season 6 Episode 76

At the last moment, I reached out and grabbed her wrist with my hand. She hadn’t been expecting it, so she was unprepared for the sudden weight. Holding tightly, I pulled her as I fell, so that we both toppled over the side of the boat and into the water.

The ocean water was deep and cold. I hadn’t been expecting the fall so I had not properly inhaled. I was quickly running out of air as I thrashed and kicked, searching near-endlessly for the surface.

Occasionally my thrashing hand or elbow or knee knocked into Bridget. She was struggling too.

Then, finally, blessedly, I breached the surface and sucked in a large, deep breath. Looking around, I saw the boat still pushing forward. Beside me, Bridget’s head rose above the water. I had to do a double take, to make sure it was her.

Her hair was soaked, streaking down over her face. But through those blonde messy streaks was a face blotched with reds and tans and running mascara streaking down her face. She always made it seem so natural, I had no idea she had so much makeup on.

What was most surprising however, was the look of absolute murder on Bridget’s face. She glared at me, rage burning in her eyeliner crusted eyes.

“Look at what you did to me!” she shouted so loudly her voice broke. “Look at my fucking face!”

With the harsh waves, it was difficult to keep above water. I kept bobbing up and down. I dipped below a few times but forced myself back up. Each time I resurfaced, Bridget’s fury met me, both in her glare and in her voice. Content belong to NôvelDráma. Org.

“How could you do this to me?!*

Enough was enough. This woman was seemingly forgetting that she had pushed me first. I’d had well enough of her bullshit, even with the terror gripping through me. We were adrift, with the endless blue beneath us and our ship driving away. But somehow I was the focal point of Bridget’s attention.

“You. Pushed. Me!” I shouted back. “You tried to kill me!”

“What?” Bridget yelled. She dipped underwater. I did too. When we both resurfaced again, I screamed, “You were going to kill me!”

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“You’re delusional!” Bridget shouted.

“You pushed me!”

“You slipped! Then you tried to drag me!”

“Because you pushed me!”

We submerged again. I kept my eyes open this time. With the waves crashing this way and that, it was difficult to keep track of which way meant safety and which way was death. Only with my eyes open could I see the light of the sun breaking through the surface of the water.

Following the light, I found my salvation.

Yet, this time, I saw movement flickering through the light beams illuminated in the water. I recognized a distinctive fish tail.

My heart stopped dead. Then, all at once, it took off running as if in a marathon. My adrenaline surged, forcing me to kick to push, to reach the surface again and scream at the top of my lungs.

I would fight him. To the death, most likely. But I would also do my best to save my life. And to save my life, I needed help.

I needed Nicholas.

Elva was back on the island waiting for me. I wouldn’t abandon her like her biological mother did. I would fight for my life to get back to her.

I kicked. I breached the water. And I screamed.

“Nicholas!!”

Bridget continued to glare at me. “Who do you think you are? If he should rescue anyone, it’s me!”

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I couldn’t argue back. A merfolk head was starting to appear at the water’s surface, and panic and fear clawed so tightly at my throat that I couldn’t breathe anymore.

I didn’t care what happened to Bridget. I knew she wasn’t going to help me. That was reason enough for me not to even think of her.

I could focus on nothing but my survival now.

If Ronan surfaced, I could try to punch him in the throat. That might give me some advantage. If he pulled me under the water, I would never come up again. I would be lost.

The merefolk surfaced. I readied my punch.

I did not throw it.

This merfolk was not Ronan. Instead, it was one of the Ambassador’s soldiers who had been brought to protect us and our island.

He wasn’t an enemy. He was a friend.

I still couldn’t speak, but I lowered my arm back into the water.

“Stay calm,” the merfolk said. His voice sounded straight above the water, as if it was raw from disuse. “You will not drown.”

I listened closely to his words. I tried to take them to heart, but my heart was too busy beating out of control. “May I touch you?” the merfolk solider asked. “I can lead you back to the ship.”

I swallowed hard, trying to find my own voice. A wave crashed over me, pushing me underwater. I reached out to the merfolk who took that as the consent it was and lifted me up above the surface once more.

The merfolk was only touching my arm, but the strength of him and his massive fish tail made certain that I never dipped below the waves again. I was eternally grateful.

“We’ve alerted your ship that you have fallen overboard,” the merfolk said. “They are stopping. I will take you there now.”

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I looked where he directed. Yes, it did seem as if the ship had stopped. Nearby, I noticed that a second merfolk had stopped to help Bridget as well. Back on the yacht, I watched as someone jumped over the rail and into the water.

Hadn’t Nicholas been wearing that outfit?

That person began to swim towards us at a full clip.

“Your eldest prince,” the merfolk said. The merfolk hesitated then, though he seemed like he wanted to say more.

I waited and was rewarded. “He cares deeply for you.”

I swallowed again. Some salt water had gotten into my mouth and burned the whole way down. Yet for this comment, I still found my voice, “I know.”

The merfolk kicked his massive tail and we began to move at a steady pace near the boat. His grip on me ever assured I was safely lifted above the waves.

Bridget and the merfolk helping her were ahead of me.

When the swimmer who had abandoned the boat reached them, he passed them by without slowing.

“Nicholas?” Bridget called, but the swimmer did not stop.

Only when he came to be near me did he slow. As he did, I realized it was in fact Nicholas. When he reached me, he did not hesitate, but pushed forward and kissed me.

It was a brief kiss, a mere press of lips to lips made slightly awkward by our close-by merfolk audience. He politely turned our head at our reunion.

“Piper,” Nicholas said. He bobbed up and down. I gripped onto his shirt with both hands, holding him above the water. “Are you okay?”

I shook my head because I wasn’t really. Not at all.

“What happened?” he asked.

I didn’t know how to tell him. I was struggling to comprehend it all.

Yet I knew one thing for certain. No matter how much she had screamed at me, denying it.

“Bridget pushed me,” I said.

A moment passed and then, suddenly, Nicholas’s eyes went red.