Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 238

Chapter 238

Chapter 238

Chapter 239

ARIA

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“How many?” Ivory asked, her eyes tracking the creatures as they circled the island with coordinated precision.

“Six,” I said, counting the distinct forms moving through the water. “Maybe seven. One of them keeps submerging so I’m not certain if it’s one creature or two.”

“Seven thirty-foot aquatic predators between us and our objective,” Ivory summarized. “In their natural environment where they have every advantage and we have none. This should be interesting.”

Her dry tone would have been funny if our situation wasn’t so dire. We were exhausted, injured, facing creatures designed to kill us in an environment where they were strongest and we were weakest. The only advantage we had was that we were both still alive and apparently capable of swimming despite the ordeal we’d just survived.

That’s when I noticed it. My wrist-where there had been nothing before-now bore a marking. Glowing numbers carved into my skin with magic that didn’t hurt but was definitely present. 11:23:47. As I watched, the numbers changed. 11:23:46.

A timer. Counting down. Measuring how much time we had left to complete all five trials before the air supply was sealed and we suffocated in the darkness.

“Ivory,” I said, holding up my wrist so she could see. “Timer. We’ve already used over half an

hour.”

She checked her own wrist and found matching numbers. Her expression tightened. “Then we can’t afford to wait for a perfect opportunity. We need to move now. Figure out how to get past those creatures and retrieve the crystal before we run out of time.”

She was right. But swimming out there, into open water with those serpents, seemed like suicide. They’d see us coming. Would converge on us long before we reached the island. We’d be easy prey in the water, unable to fight effectively, unable to escape their superior swimming speed.

“We need a distraction,” I said, my mind racing through possibilities. “Something to draw their attention away from the island long enough for one of us to swim out and grab the crystal.”

“Such as?” Ivory challenged.

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11:32 Fri, Jan 23 DD.

Chapter 238

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I looked around the beach, searching for anything we could use. Found rocks-plenty of those. Some driftwood that made no sense this far underground but existed anyway. And scattered along the waterline, patches of that same bioluminescent fungi that had lit the earlier tunnels.

An idea formed. Risky. Possibly stupid. But maybe workable if we were fast and lucky.

“The fungi,” I said, pointing to the glowing patches. “It’s bioluminescent because of chemical reactions. If we can gather enough of it, crush it to release those chemicals all at once, throw it into the water far from the island-”

“It might create a bright enough flash to attract the serpents’ attention,” Ivory finished, understanding immediately. “They’d investigate the disturbance, giving us a window to reach the island.”

“It’s not much of a plan,” I admitted.

“It’s better than no plan,” Ivory countered, already moving toward the nearest fungi patch. “Start gathering. We’ll need a lot to create a flash bright enough to work. And we’ll need to time this perfectly—the window will be seconds at most.”

We worked quickly, pulling fungi from rocks, scraping it off the cavern walls, accumulating as much as we could carry. The stuff was slippery and unpleasant to handle, leaving our hands glowing faintly from the residual chemicals. But we gathered enough to hopefully create the distraction we needed.

“I’ll throw it,” Ivory said, positioning herself at the water’s edge with our accumulated fungi. “You swim for the island the moment the serpents move toward the flash. Grab the crystal and get back to shore as fast as possible. Don’t wait for me, don’t try to be heroic. Just retrieve the objective and return.”

“What about you?” I asked, not liking the plan that had her staying exposed on the beach while I went for the crystal.

“I’ll provide cover,” Ivory said. “If any of them come back toward the island while you’re out there, I’ll draw their attention back to shore. Create noise, movement, whatever it takes to keep them focused on me instead of you.”

It was a good plan. Tactically sound. But it required Ivory to deliberately make herself a target, to risk being attacked by creatures that could kill her easily if they caught her in the

water.

“Ready?” Ivory asked, her hands full of gathered ungi, her body coiled to throw.

I positioned myself at the water’s edge, preparing to sprint into the lake the moment the distraction worked. My heart was pounding, my wound throbbing, every instinct screaming that this was dangerous and possibly fatal.

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