The prince smirked and withdrew his divine sword. White flames unfurled along the blade. “I’m not concerned about overgrown eels.”
Cassiel glanced at Dyna. His mouth parted to say something, but he turned away and soared into the sky.
“May I borrow your knife?” Lucenna asked Dyna.
Dyna carefully handed it over. The sorceress ran it across her palm, wincing, and held her hand over the bank’s edge. The scent of her blood tickled Zev’s nose as red droplets plinked into the water, drawing his wolf’s attention.
“There, that will draw them out,” Lucenna said and nodded to Zev. “Go.”
Ignoring his sudden bout of nerves, Zev gave Dyna an encouraging smile. Now that he was about to leave her side, tension gripped him. The danger would come in her direction instead of his. He wrapped her in a hug. “Be safe.”
But she saw right through him. “Don’t worry. I’ll bring you out if anything happens.”
“Even if you don’t, I’ll forgive you.” His answer came out less playful than he intended, and her smile faded. “Everything will be fine,” he assured her. “I believe in you.”
Zev gave her a wink and lifted the boat, easily carrying it above his head. He walked away as Dyna took Lucenna’s injured hand in her green palms.
He hiked over the uneven shore, careful where he stepped. After a good trek, he made it to the east end of the shore, far enough that the girls standing within the trees were visible. Rawn crouched on a low ledge overlookingthe fjord, and Cassiel circled overhead. Carefully setting the boat onto the water, Zev leaped in and used the oar to push away from the bank’s slope.
He rowed, his movements slow and careful not to disturb the water beyond what was necessary. Everyone kept still and quiet as they watched his progress. But as he crossed the fjord, nothing else moved or appeared. Each of them was watchful, but there was no movement. The surface was as still as a darkened mirror. A breeze rustled through the pine trees, softly rippling the water. Maybe they were on the wrong side of the fjord. Either the nest was further west, or the rumors were wrong. Maybe there were no grindylows here at all.
Zev sighed. He needed to get those scales. Dyna needed them, and if he was being honest, so did he. Ever since Lucenna mentioned the Druid, he’d tried to suppress any thoughts of what he could find out from it. But if he could ask the Druid only one question, he would ask—
A flash of movement in the water snapped his drifting thoughts back to attention. He had reached the midway point at the deep end. A current of adrenaline ran down Zev’s spine, and his muscles tensed in response to the threat. His vision sharpened with the change of his wolf eyes as he searched for the cause of his alarm. Nothing stirred.
Cautiously, Zev peered over the lip of the boat. The dark waters were bottomless, another world on the edge of their own.
Cassiel whistled and motioned at the water. Zev tensed, his claws growing at his fingertips. On the ledge, Rawn aimed his bow at the fjord. Lucenna invoked two spheres of electricity, and Dyna formed a small ball of green fire between her hands. They held unmoving, each studying their quiet surroundings.
Zev’s heart lurched in his chest when he met a creature peeking at him over the edge of the boat’s frame with bulbous eyes, slick and black as oil. Its face was narrow and flat without a nose or lips. It rose further, revealing its pale gray-blue skin stretched across a gaunt frame. Twitching fins attached to the side of its head extended out as if to catch the merest whisper of sound.
Zev’s nose curled at the potent stench of spoiled fish.
Cocking its head, the grindylow studied Zev in return. Webbed hands curled over the frame’s ledge and its long black talons tapped against the wood in a contemplative rhythm. The gills on its neck constricted with a breath and the creature smiled, revealing rows of sharp teeth. It let out an ear-piercing screech that rang in the fjord. The baser side of Zev’s instincts recognized the meaning in that sound.
It was announcing a hunt, and he was the prey.
The grindylow lunged. Zev dodged the rake of its talons and slashed with his own. It dove back into the water with an angry shriek. He searched where it went, only for the creature to spring out from behind him. Zev threw himself back as it arced above him. An arrow pierced the creature’s skull, and blood sprayed over him. The grindylow hit the water with a wet flop and floated motionless on the surface. From its back jutted a rigid dorsal fin ending in a thick eel-like tail. A pattern of vivid blue scales coursed down its body.
Zev exhaled a breath. Well, that went a lot easier than he thought. He reached for the scales, but clawed hands snatched the dead creature and dragged it into the deep. Blood clouded the surface like spilled paint.
Gods. They were cannibalistic.
The water writhed and burbled all across the fjord as a mass of grindylows rose above the surface. They released a howling shriek and swam for Dyna and Lucenna in a swarm of slithering bodies. Lucenna’s electricity crackled over the fjord in blinding flashes. Streaks of lightning hit the creatures. Their screams pierced Zev’s ears, and the stink of their flesh overwhelmed his nose. The scorched bodies were thrown back, the scales rendered useless. But the creatures kept coming. Rawn’s arrows rained as he and Cassiel strafed the fjord.
“There are more of them than we thought!” Cassiel yelled at Zev as he raced through the sky for the girls. “Get to land!”
“No, get the scales!” Lucenna called to him.
He hesitated when his first instinct was to protect them. But Dyna stood sure as she threw green blast after blast, taking down grindylows one by one.
“Zev, hurry!” she said.
Now wasn’t the time to watch proudly. Zev grabbed the oars and rowed quickly for the nest. Grindylows came for him and were quickly killed by swift arrows.
Cassiel reached the shore and drew out his flaming sword. He decapitated one after another with a torrent of swift flames. A grindylow sprung out of the lake and whacked him with its large tail, nearly knocking him out of the air. More leaped out of the water and grabbed onto his legs. They clung to him with their teeth and claws, dragging him down.
Rawn aimed at Cassiel. “Be still!”
