“It’s really cold.” Her teeth chattered. She moved both arms toward her chest, trying to hold in her body heat somehow.
The second the shard got close to her amulet, it flew from her numbing fingers before she could stop it. Power cracked in the air, in the water,throughher, and the glowing crystal clicked into the empty space in the center of her medallion with a blinding pulse of magic.
“The shard?” Carver asked urgently from behind her.
“Just completed the amulet!” The bronze disk turned glacially cold, and she gasped, her chest curling inward. Her lungs froze mid-inhalation, then the temperature immediately neutralized. A sharp breath punched out of her. Carver dragged her along while she gripped the amulet, lifting the palm-sized circle to see it better. The metal stayed cool to the touch but not icy. It didn’t hurt her skin with cold the way the naked shard had. She touched the glowing center, testing the feel of it. “The shard itself is still chilly, but not unbearable.”
Carver grunted in response. He seemed to be slowing down. A breeze blew against them as they reached the mouth of the cavern, creating some chop on the water. “It reminds me of Cat’s ice shard necklace. It came from a glacier on Mount Olympus.”
“This is bigger.” She paused, studying it. “And I think a lot more powerful.”
Carver suddenly hissed in air, the sound of his surprise sending a shock of panic through her. They both sped backward through the water for a heart-jolting second, then he abruptly let go of her.
She flipped over and looked frantically around. Terror scalded her veins and tried to paralyze her.
He’d vanished.
Her heart heaved in dread. “Carver?” Her breath coming short, she spun, treading water. “Carver!”
There was no sign of him, and the sea didn’t answer.
Chapter 24
Something big grabbed Carver’s shoulders from behind and pulled. His heart jerked in shock, and alarm streaked through him as he clamped his mouth shut, letting go of Bel just before a punishing grip dragged him forcefully under. The bright light of the surface dimmed. The water pressure intensified. He twisted violently, freeing one arm and kicking out. His foot connected with something scaly and tough that thumped beneath the water.
He wrenched around and got a water-distorted, salt-stung view of his attacker. His burning eyes widened. The huge hippocentaurine creature was man, horse,andfish. He’d never seen this kind of beast before, but there was no mistaking an ichthyocentaur when you came face-to-face with one. They hated sailors, swimmers, anything in their waters.
A male face glowered back at him, a scaly sheen to his skin and a sea-moss beard floating between them. Cruel lips and crueler eyes sneered at him as Carver pulled savagely against the creature. The enormous creature pulled back, webbed hooves and a fishlike tail propelling them away from where he’d left Bel flailing at the surface.
Fear for her spiked inside him. He used the arm the creature still held in a painful grasp for leverage and darted his free hand out to grab its neck. His lungs ached for air as he sank his fingers deep into its gills and ripped. Scales tore free along with a wash of blood. The creature bellowed and seized his wrist, yankingCarver’s hand away from him. The ichthyocentaur suddenly maneuvered him into a punishing hold around his torso and zoomed upward, breaking the surface.
Carver gulped down air and threw back an elbow. A satisfying crack followed, but it wasn’t enough to lessen the creature’s hold. Snarling, it tightened its arms, pressing Carver’s ribs in and squeezing precious air from his lungs. He blinked water from his eyes, desperately searching for Bel. He found her across the waves, and their eyes locked in panic just before the creature dove again. Water sped past him. Up and down lost all meaning. He struggled fiercely, then suddenly they surfaced again.
“You’re shark food, human.” The ichthyocentaur’s powerful fish tail sped them away from the shoreline.
Choking in a breath, Carver fought and looked wildly for Bel again.There.“Watch out!” She disappeared, dragged down by a second ichthyocentaur. Dread engulfed him, but then a bright-white sun flare burst beneath the surface. She popped up again, barely keeping her head above water. The second creature shot past them, and the one clutching him leaped and plunged, dragging him under again as it followed the other.
Carver kept his mouth shut and his eyes open, his frantic heartbeat pounding inside him. They went so deep that darkness closed in and his lungs spasmed. He fought to break free as terror gripped him. He had no weapon, no magic, and no Bel to help him out of this one. They lost sight of the second ichthyocentaur and sloped back up. Just as instinct drove him to breathe no matter what, they finally surfaced.
Carver inhaled loudly. Gasping, gagging, he lost precious seconds before he had the strength and clarity to try to tear himself free again. Throwing his head back, he cracked their skulls together. His head ringing, he gouged deep scrapes down the creature’s arms. The ichthyocentaur growled, its hooveschurning next to him. One clipped his leg, shooting a fierce ache through it. Hissing in pain, he searched for Bel, finally locating her across a huge distance. Fear hollowed him. She couldn’t swim this. She had to get out of the water.
He opened his mouth to shoutGo back!just as the ichthyocentaur hauled him underwater again. They went down, down, angling away from the shore. Away from Bel. Carver’s lungs cried out for air. Eyes open, still trying to break free, he resisted the impulse to breathe. It got darker and darker. Lack of sunlight. Lack of air. He refused to give in, fighting with all his strength until nature finally overpowered him. He inhaled against his will.
Extreme panic hit. His thoughts screamed. His heart howled. And as water filled his chest, his lungs burning, he suddenly realized he didn’t have his obol. His eyes shot wide, and his mind thrashed in dread and grief andfeareven as his movements turned sluggish and labored. They barreled through a forest of kelp just as his strength finally failed him, his vision fading and his future all too clear.I’m damned.
His soulmate—lost. His life, done. His afterlife, stolen from him.
Carver stopped battling as false peace sank through him like oil through water. His mind still railed, but his body didn’t. His limbs started to slumber. He closed his eyes. No…his eyes closed for him. He tried to keep them open.
A watery cry suddenly jolted him back to awareness. Forcing heavy eyes open, he saw a cluster of sea nymphs attack the ichthyocentaur. His barely there pulse accelerated, pounding out slow beats that carried the tiniest bit of hope through him. The Nereids scraped with coral, scratched with shells, and battered with rods covered in sea urchins. They fought to free him as his last, thin, scattered bubbles of air left him. Furious and bleeding, the ichthyocentaurabruptly released him and turned tail, fleeing as two strong Nereids gripped Carver’s arms and swept him toward the surface.
Wavering sunlight beckoning from high above was the last thing he saw before everything went dark and silent.
***
Firm hands thumped his back between his shoulder blades. Others held him on his side. Carver’s lungs convulsed and spewed out water. One long stream of it. Two. Three. More. His lungs spasmed over and over. He gagged, hacking up more liquid. His throat burned. His chest ached. Battered and weak, he wheezed in a breath around the drops of water still choking him. A violent cough erupted in its wake.
“That’s right. Breathe.” The voice wasn’t Bel’s. It was deep and melodious, feminine and powerful.Inhuman.He forced his eyes open as the last few minutes crawled back to him.
