Chapter 6 - The Unraveling Curse
Aiden stared at Pearl. The tiny baby mermaid looked back at him, her angry pout suddenly seeming incredibly heavy, carrying the weight of a dying ocean.
"Is this true, Pearl?" Aiden asked softly, kneeling beside her. "Is that why you're always so angry? Because you feel all of it?"
Pearl looked down at her silver scales, her chest pulsing with a faint, sorrowful red light. She let out a small, miserable sigh, burying her face in her tiny, webbed hands.
"She does not wish to destroy," Neri said softly. "But she cannot control the tide of pain inside her. As she grows, the rage will consume her. And Vanguard Industries... they do not wish to save her. They wish to harvest her. They want the power of the storm."
"Is there no other way?" Aiden asked Neri, his heart aching for the child. "She's just a baby. She didn't ask for this burden."
"There is one way," Neri said, her milky eyes flashing. "The Tear of the Sea Mother. A sacred relic stolen by human explorers centuries ago. It is a stone of pure, concentrated planetary life. If the Tear is returned to her heart, it will wash away the poison of the Grudge, turning her power into one of healing and life. But it is kept in the private collection of the very man hunting you—the CEO of Vanguard Industries, Dr. Vance’s benefactor."
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Aiden looked at Pearl. She crawled over to him, tugging on his wet pants leg. When he looked down, her big blue eyes were filled with tears, her lower lip trembling.
"I won't let them hurt you," Aiden said, his voice hardening with resolve as he lifted her into his arms. "And I won't let you become a monster. We're going to get that stone."
