Chapter 5

My eldest brother had no answer.

Father spoke gravely.

"Let her go."

"She isn't made of glass."

Mother whipped around to stare at him.

He hastily added, "I'm going with her."

We dove into the underground pipes.

The laboratory's metal doors were sealed tight.

I pressed a hand to them and sang the original homecoming song.

This time, not a single wrong note.

The sonic patterns on the door went dark, layer by layer.

Inside, the sea creatures fell silent, as if they understood.

Fifty seconds remained.

My second sister swept the explosives away with her tentacles.

My third brother smashed through the isolation chamber.

Father lifted the entire facility, tearing it bodily from the seabed.

But just as the last beluga was rescued, Gu Cheng leaped into a lifeboat.

Gu Xiao and Gu Ye followed close behind.

Gu Mingzhu dragged her broken leg after them.

"Brother! Wait for me!"

Gu Cheng glanced back at her and locked the cabin door.

"You caused this. Deal with it yourself."

She froze.

Of the three older brothers she'd always been so proud of, not one looked back.

The lifeboat sped into the deep sea.

Through its window, Gu Cheng held up a remote.

"I still control the main bomb."

"Tell those monsters to back off."

"Or I'll blow up the coastal power station. We can all die together."

I watched the lifeboat.

It was heading for our sacred grounds.

Gu Cheng wasn't trying to escape at all.

He intended to use the deep-sea wells the Gu family had developed over the years to blast through the seabed.

Father had clearly realized it too.

"Stop him!"

Before the words had faded, an explosion boomed beneath the sea.

A black fissure tore across the seabed.

Molten lava surged out.

【Chapter 8】

The water began to boil.

Fish fled in a frenzy.

Father assumed his true form, using his body to block the erupting lava.

Mother raised a hand and froze the seabed.

Still, the fissure kept widening.

Gu Cheng's voice came from the lifeboat.

"Stop following us."

"One more step, and I'll blow up the second well."

Collapsed on the shore, Gu Mingzhu finally grasped what was happening.

"Brother! I'm not on board yet!"

His cold voice sounded through the radio.

"Mingzhu, aren't you everyone's favorite?"

"Keep them busy for us, then."

Every trace of color drained from her face.

Gu Ye snatched the radio too.

"You're the one who caused all this."

"Mom and Dad always said you'd get the whole family killed one day."

Gu Mingzhu looked as though she'd been slapped.

She smashed the radio, sobbing.

"You're the ones who helped me catch her!"

"Gu Ye, you wanted her tail on your wall!"

"Gu Xiao, you wanted to rip out her vocal cords!"

"Who do you think you're fooling now?"

The argument between them spread across the internet through the livestream.

The last scraps of the Gu family's reputation disintegrated.

I had no time to watch them tear each other apart.

The fissure was spreading toward the city.

If the foundations collapsed, millions of people along the coast would be dragged into the sea.

Mother pressed my shoulder.

"Go ashore."

"This is for the grown sea folk to handle."

Watching the water tremble, I suddenly understood why I was the clan's only mermaid.

My brothers and sisters could raise tsunamis and swallow ships.

But the greater their power, the less they could approach the fragile seabed.

Only my voice could move the currents with the finest precision.

I'd always thought a pretty face and a nice voice were useless.

Apparently, when heaven handed me my meal ticket, it had even put the spoon in my mouth.

"Mother, I can guide the lava back."

"What will it cost?"

"I might lose my voice for a few days."

She stared at me.

Guiltily, I added, "Or a few years."

"No."

"But if I don't sing, the people on shore will die."

Her eyes reddened.

"They hurt you."

"The Gu family hurt me. Not the whole city."

I swam above the fissure and sang the ancient song of the Tides.

The seawater became countless fine threads, slipping between the layers of rock.

Little by little, the fissure closed.

Realizing something was wrong, Gu Cheng pressed the detonator for the second bomb.

Red light suddenly flashed beneath the Gu family's lifeboat.

Gu Xiao screamed in terror.

"Brother! The bomb's right underneath us!"

Gu Cheng froze too.

He'd entered the coordinates backward.

No.

I'd changed the signals beneath the sea with my song.

The bomb they'd meant to use against our sacred grounds was now stuck beneath their own lifeboat.

I stopped singing and looked up at them.

"You enjoy studying my wrong notes so much?"

"Here's one on the house."