“Sorry if I overstepped,” I added quickly, my face warming.
“The Niveus and Neptunus families are different from the Thálassians. They are the largest, have the most dangerous powers, and control the majority of military might, which makes them more... conservative,” Glacies explained.
Finn snorted from the darkness behind us. “Conservative is an understatement.”
“What about your family, the Okeanós?” I stared at Aarna, deep in thought.
“They would like nothing more than to see me happy with the woman I love,” she said stiffly.
I turned to Glacies, whose jaw was tight in the dim light. “Can’t you just defy your family?”
“It’s not that simple,” the warrior mermaid hissed. Her eyes gleamed beneath the shadows, and jagged teeth flashed in the lamplight.
“If not for humans and the Drowned, perhaps we wouldn’t be fighting the Shadow—and the strongest of our houses wouldn’t be forced to marry,” Finn ground out from behind us.
“Could you refrain from slandering the Drowned for a few hours? I dare say I ought to have traveled with the Thálassians,” Edward snapped.
A harsh laugh escaped Pisceon. “Bit difficult when we just put four of our own to rest... Oh wait—and then more Drowned tried to kill us.”
“Let’s just get through this tunnel without killingeach other.” Glacies rubbed an exasperated hand down her face.
Something soft brushed against my ankle, and I squealed in fright. Aarna guided her light to the floor, picking up a purple flag emblazoned with a snail shell. “The symbol of Thálassa,” she breathed.
“They must have passed through here.” Glacies reached for the dagger at her back again.
Did the torn flag mean Alexandros, Porphura, and the other Thálassianshad made it through the tunnel? I didn’t even want to consider the alternative. Unease twisted deep within me, and I stumbled into the damp wall. As my skin made contact, a ripple of sighs wound through the corridor—soft at first, then sharper, like pleas, as if the stones themselves remembered too much.
“Do you hear that?” Aarna whispered.
Glacies’s eyes darted around. “It’s not coming from ahead.”
“No,” Aarna said, her voice tight. “It’s coming frominside.”
My blood chilled as a hiss echoed through the tunnel, and the dim wall lamps blinked out one by one. Another rush, like wind slicing through water, and Aarna’s light flickered out, leaving only darkness.
“That can’t be good,” came Pisceon’s voice from somewhere behind us.
Aarna’s pearly orb flickered back into being, but the shadows seemed thicker now. They danced across the walls and crawled along the tunnel floor. I turned on the spot, scanning the space, and a chill crept into my marrow when my eyes landed on a painting. It was worn by salt and time, but I could still make out the image chiseled into the rock and colored with pigments of yellow, inky blue, and red: a serpent of cosmic scale, its body looping through the heavens and underworld.
Another hiss echoed through the place, and Aarna’s light extinguished once more. “Shit,” she cursed, spluttering it back into being.
“It’s Apep,” Edward whispered as he moved to my side to survey the painted serpent. A single red jewel, or perhaps paint too rich to fade, formed its eye. It seemed to be... gleaming. “The great chaos bringer. The enemy of Ra, the sun god.”
“Verrrrrry goooood, Drowned boy.” The hiss echoed through the chamber. And then, the red eye blinked.
“And here I thought we were going to have a nice stroll through an ancient tunnel,” Pisceon joked, steel ringing as he unsheathed his blade.
The painting shivered, and dust trickled from the ceiling as the serpent uncoiled. Its head emerged from the wall. No longer bound by limestone, it cocked to survey us.
“Don’t look into its eyes!” Glacies shouted, shielding her face as the snake’s gaze sought hers.
“Whhhhy not, princess? Are you scared of a bit of chaos, a little darkness?” Apep’s voice was like the sweetest poison, a seductive vortex tugging at the edges of my mind inviting madness.
Pháos shot forward, hitting the serpent with its snout. Apep hissed, recoiling as dark smoke poured like ink from its mouth.
The tunnel dimmed, and all heat drained from the water. Stone cracked, and Aarna’s light sputtered out again. We could no longer see the ancient snake, but I could feel it slithering between our ankles in the dark.
“Form a defensive ring,” Pisceon barked.
