It yanked me up, and I splayed my hands, grabbing hold of its pincers.
They were slick against my palms. Smooth like the skin of my arm, yet hard. They tremored angrily in my grasp, snapping erratically again. And again. The noise deafened me each time, a slice into my eardrums. I felt its maw stretch open, hidden beneath the curl of its fangs. Gaping wide, the arms shoved meforward toward its throat. Terror seized me by the neck, roaring through my head and into my bones.
I erupted.
My call to the water heated in the same instant, forcing boiling sea into the ribcage’s mouth. The skin of my own hands singed, stinging hot, and the force of the heat blew me backward like a geyser. The ribcage dropped me, flying out of reach, the hooks in my side yanked free, and I ignored the stinging pain as I flitted away.
It landed on its feet, chasing after me again. Claws bounded off the cavern walls in a lethal pirouette, and I realized that it only moved along the walls.
It couldn’t swim.
Click. Click. Click.
It jumped, intending to land on the other side of the wall. I sent a jet of rock-hard water into its faceless body. Into its center—what might have been an abdomen, had it owned one. Its legs coiled, sent off course and spiraling to the floor, claws askew in the open water of the cavern. Before it could regain its footing, I bolted.
A hiccup lurched in my throat. My air was running out.
There were dangers in rising to the surface too quickly. But those dangers seemed so far away in this place of dark and quiet, where the silence of a hundred screaming voices squeezed around my lungs. An embrace as ephemeral as it was endless, each breath I'd ever taken growing into a more distant memory.
I called on the water and it answered, guiding me through tunnels and chambers as I rushed up, up, and out, leaving the ribcage behind. My throat closed, cinching shut in a way it hadn't since my body was only human. An invisible rope began to wind around my neck, tighter and tighter as my lungs threatened to burst.
Water swirled overhead, a soft current greeting me above. Not the warm one that had lured me in—a bracingly cold one, a vent through the cavern. Light found me next. Beautiful, soft light, caught in the rocky sides of the cave.
Through a crack in the earth, I came soaring, skirting up the underwater cliffs.
My bloodstream bubbled in the ascent, tiny, bursting explosions in my arteries. My chest seized, hungry for air, as if the sight of the surface woke my lungs from a stupor, and I surged faster. Until I broke through the rim of water, my mouth gaping wide as I forced a gasping breath in.
Something between a laugh and cry shot from my throat. My skin throbbed from the creature’s claws, and the cold sank its jaws around me. But the sky was bright. And I was alive. I blinked the idea away, focusing on my surroundings. Unfamiliar. The same barren rock and earth I’d seen for miles, though the formations were new. I hadn’t been here before. Again, I’d landed somewhere south of Kye.
Dusk darkened the sky. Ahead in the distance, twinkling city lights flickered through the mist.
Vranna.
Arms shaking, I pushed back into my legs and climbed to dry land.
The rock raked along my skin. I gave myself a quick glance over. My ears rang. Claw marks etched into my thigh, shoulder, and stomach, though not deep. I thought of the thing grabbing hold of me and shuddered.
I forced myself to walk, but very quickly, I knew something was wrong. My knees shook. My ankles gave out. I stumbled, knees hitting the craggy stone as I folded into myself, then pushed back to my feet to try again.
The bends.
They came slowly. I’d known they'd find me, the way I'd shot to the surface for air, but it overwhelmed me all the same.
Mottled skin bloomed across my chest. Weakness came next, stealing whatever strength I’d regained from fresh oxygen. I staggered over the rocks, feet dragging, until I fell and couldn’t get back up. Inches from my fingers, the sea stretched for me, and I stared blankly into it. I coughed and liquid emerged from my throat, swathed thick with bloody foam.
Breathe, Maren.
Mihaunain the stars, I tried to focus on my breath. To detoxify my body of wicked nitrogen in my blood stream. The bends killed humans—I’d known two Leihaniian islanders to have died from decompression.
I was uncertain if being Naiad would change that fate, and the shock of sudden mortality ripped the remaining balance from my core.
The world spun. Air became tinder in a chimney, each pull inviting smoke into my lungs. I couldn’t lift my head. Blood boiled in my arteries, a slow burn scorching my joints, creeping until my body blazed and fire licked every inch of my flesh. I rotated my cheek over the rocks, wondering if I could reach the icy water to extinguish the flames. But my legs and arms refused to respond.
I clenched my teeth as an inferno slowly devoured my skin—until it built so high I could only open my mouth and roar until my body emptied of air and my voice abandoned me altogether. A wave fell over my calves. Another one came to my thighs. The tide crept for me like death’s fingers on a lyre, every note deeper. Every note more final. I waited for the sea to fully surround me, gaining a little at a time, until I felt the buoyant lift of my head over the rocks. The water whisked away. My toes twitched when I tried to stand, but I couldn’t gather myself enough to rise.
I could only hold my breath against the next churning wave and hope theBrána Do Podsvetiadidn’t swallow me whole.
10
