The kind of quiet that gives you pause in the dead of night. The kind that hovers around you, itching over your skin, making you want to turn around and ensure nothing’s watching you. The water was thick with cold. Deathly still, yet something about it pulsed softly. Vibrations from the seabed below. Rhythmic and delayed, like the beat of a heart long since entombed.
Clutching my jar of light, I pushed into the black dark. Sea creatures skittered as I came close, fleeing back into the darkness before I could make out anything but their shadow. No long trails of seaweed to swim through, no coral or anemones or grass. The void was open, and I was merely passing through it, a tiny grain of sand in an endless vault. Unable to see Aegir or Cebrinne, or anything else, so I pushed to top speed, leaving Pheolix behind.
I wondered where he might have found the entrance. Even with my water call, nothing seemed to stand out to me, the black water as endless as—
A jagged rock wall appeared.
It came from nowhere, blurry for only an instant before the sharp edges came into view.
Directly in front of me.
There wasn’t even time for a burst of shock. I braced to collide, and an arm wrapped around me. Followed by a warm chest against mine.
A tight squeeze.
A roll.
Then we hit.
Impact jarred my neck and back. Hair flew over my eyes in delayed ripples. A forehead tucked over my cheek, the force of a strike shattering through it—the whiplash of rock hitting the back of his skull. Glass shattered. A blue fog erupted around us, illuminating the silhouette of Pheolix’s chin next to mine.
We rolled once more, razored stone clawing at my arms and side, then began to fall into the depths. His limbs loosened before I even opened my eyes. Panic raided my tight lungs, blaring as he tilted away toward the sea floor. I dropped my broken jar and reached for his intact one, slowly descending out of his hand, holding it up to find his eyes open.
Relief flooded.
He wasn’t moving.
Relief evaporated.
His eyes stared vacantly ahead, frozen and unfocused. A small, dark cloud slowly burst from the back of his head. I grabbed Pheolix’s shoulder and shook, but all it did was send smooth waves through his hair.
We were alone, far from the surface. So far, I couldn’t even see it. And I didn’t know where the entrance to Paria lay hidden. Pheolix had shown Aegir before we’d left for Calder. But not me.
It had to be close.
I looped my arms under Pheolix’s, and, possibly against better judgment, swam down.
With every stroke of my tail, the soft edges of his flukes brushed against mine. His head rocked against me, and I wrapped my hand around it, holding it in place against my collarbone. Even underwater, he was heavy. His chest and stomach flattened against mine like a solid slab of wood, hindering my every move, leaving my strokes clumsy and erratic.
Overhangs and underhangs in the rock came just as spontaneously as the entire wall had, forcing me to slow and avoid colliding again. I searched for a hole. It couldn’t be far.
The water stirred underneath me.
I stopped, hand cradled against Pheolix’s head. The jar sat in my opposite hand, and I held it below us, but I couldn’t see anything beyond the span of our faces.
He lifted his chin. His arms twitched, and he brought them down, feeling his way in the dark through my hair and the nape of my neck to my shoulders. We were suspended upside-down, and he began to pull away, his body seeking to right itself.
I yanked him closer, a mental command to hold still in every stitch of muscle.
Pheolix studied me for only a moment before tilting his head to look up. Or more accurately, down.
Together we stared into the deep.
Tiny things drifted through the blue light. Like motes of dust or ashes lifting from a fire.
Silence.
I glanced back at Pheolix, gauging for signs of injury. His attention remained below, but his fingers curled into the small of my back. Embers sparked beneath his fingertips, warmth flickering to life as I became aware how firmly our bare bodies pressed together. Blue lit all the hard lines and edges of him, the hollow under his jaw, the curve of his throat, the shadow of his upper lip.
