This was a bad idea. I should turn back.
More lights flickered; they were beside me on the rock face. Eyes, bulbous and silver.
I careened to the opposite side. The shadows stirred, and more glowing lights appeared. Eyes peering out at me from the crevices—so many eyes. They swarmed across the canyon walls looming on either side of me, creeping onto the path ahead and behind, cutting off any escape.
My breath grew short and I raised my bow, fingers trembling. The pale-eyed creatures crept from the shadows, encircling me.
I spun, heart hammering. They looked distinctly human, yet their skin was stretched thin over gaunt faces, their bodies hunched, hair mostly gone, and their eyes... their eyes were like silver globes. Remembering my webs, I kicked upward, but they were all over the canyon, scuttling up the rock face on all fours, leering like starved hyenas at the first sight of prey.
My fingers trembled as I loaded the weapon, firing into the swarm below me, striking one, then another. I swung my seaweed net, which twisted around the rock and tangled.
Please! I yanked at it, and it ripped.
There were too many of them, and they were closing in on the sand below me and leaning off the rock face to stop me from swimming upward. I twirled on the spot, kicking hard with my webs, my breath coming in sharp inhales.
These must be Drowned, but they weren’t like the ones we had fought at the tunnel of Heracleion. They were something else—something worse.
And they kept coming, slipping out of hollows in the rocks.
Panic consumed me as I flew back, my grip faltering on my crossbow.
Magic—I needed to summon my magic. I reached inward for the spark of power, willing my breath to steady, but fear clawed at my chest, and it flickered just beyond my grasp.
Terror consumed me as cold, bony fingers closed around my ankles, and my magic extinguished. I screamed as more slimy hands seized me, rising from below, from the cliff face, dragging me down. Clawlike nails raked across my scales, yanking me toward the ocean floor. The stench was rancid, a sickening blend of rot and salt, as they kicked and shoved each other in a frenzy to reach me. I couldn’t get out. There were too many of them.
This was it—I was going to die.
I closed my eyes and surrendered to the putrid Drowned. They tore at my cloak, sniffing greedily at my hair and neck, their breath sour against my skin.
A blindingly beautiful radiance filled the canyon shaft, and the Drowned squealed and squawked under its brilliance. A growl rumbled through the space, and the last few creatures scuttled from me. I looked up, holding a hand over my eyes to shield them from the glow. I caught a familiar scent—heather, wood, and honey—just before Aranare yanked me against him, drawing us into a deep crevice in the side of the canyon. His magic stirred around us, willing the space to become a shelter.
“You’re here.” I breathed in his scent like the sweetest poison.
“We have to fly out,” he hissed, his chest rising and falling as it pressed against mine. “They are all over, and they’ll jump for us.”
“What are those things?” I glanced up at the jagged rock above, where silver eyes gleamed in the shadows, rotten teeth snapping and snarling.
“Drowned who have used Mer blood for too long. They’ve become rabid and starved, and that makes them lethal.”
My bottom lip quivered. “Can’t you just use that light again?”
“That was only a light, and I had the element of surprise.”
“I can’t use my wings.” I lied, shaking my head. “I-I haven’t been able to since I killed Parker.”
“We fly out or we die.” Aranare’s whisper was an urgent command. His chest rose and fell in quick succession.
An icy grip tightened around my heart, and I trembled against him. “I-I can’t...” Tears streamed down my face as I thought of those awful webbed and feathered things.
“It’s okay, I will carry you.” Aranare wiped a tear from my lashes, lifting my chin until my eyes met his. “A long time ago, I lost someone close to me. I was there. I saw it happen. I won’t go through it again.”
A clawed hand reached into thecrevice, only to recoil with a shriek as Aranare’s magic seared the creature’s flesh. Beyond our hiding place, the rock face teemed with them—hundreds of Drowned clinging to the stone, snarling and waiting.
“On the count of three.” Aranare wove his fingers with mine, and I nodded.
We stepped into the canyon, and the waters oscillated as the rabid monsters swarmed toward us, scuttling across the seabed on all fours, reaching from the shadows with snapping teeth.
Aranare’s wings flared like obsidian drapes, and his growl sent tremors through the canyon. The Drowned, clinging to the rocks on either side of us, faltered. I blinked through the brightness as he unleashed his power, momentarily scattering the creatures. He hovered above me on his midnight tail, eyes burning topaz, wings unfurled. Still holding my hand, he started to move upward, wings an inky shadow as they beat against the dark waters.
