I catch it head on, razor sharp talons digging into the glossy black ridges of its jaw before teeth like shards of shattered glass find my throat. I yank its mouth wide, as it thrashes, spinning its body to coil its scaled tail around mine.
It tries to drag me down into the depths, but I dig my talons deeper, ripping at its flesh like tiny daggers. “No you fucking don’t.”
My chest burns, rage pounding louder than the groan of the ancient creature. I refuse to let this ruin be the end of me . . . or Odi. Her brown eyes flash across my mind. Dark hair tangled in the sheets with me. The way her body feels like silk under my finger tips. I have to get to her.
I snarl, twisting, teeth clenching until I manage to get an arm around the creature's neck. It snaps its maw, cold and malicious, trying to reach for me. We tussle, bubbles shrouding us as we crash through the water. I manage to wrap my other arm around its neck, every muscle straining until I hear bones crunching beneath my grip.
The beast spasms once, twice, then goes limp in my hands.
I shove its carcass aside, chest heaving, salt burning the back of my throat. My hands ache, knuckles raw, but I keep moving. No time to linger. Not with Odi somewhere in this gods-cursed place.
She stands no chance against a creature like that, even with a weapon and a sea stone.
The thought of her facing a haggard beast alone, does something to me. My heart beats so hard it feels as if my ribs might crack. Tremors skim across my scales, seeping into myfins, and I swear I’m going to bounce right out of my skin. Heat flushes through me, followed by an icy aftershock.
What if shes’s—
No. I can’t think like that. She’s a good fighter, better than most, some would argue she’s better than Tavi and her twin blades. Odi is brave. She is strong. She’s a fighter.
But she can’t see in the dark.
“FUCK!” I scream into the dark abyss.
The moment we’re out of here, she’s learning to control her shift. I don’t care if she wants to. I need her to. So the image of her wide eyes in the dark will stop taunting me.
The illusion of her is in the water, hands clamped around her throat like she’s drowning, the billowing fabric of Soraya’s blouse dragging with every movement she makes. It’s not real. Odelia wore her own clothes here, the ones I’d gifted her.
I swim past the dying vision. I hate what this woman is doing to me. I can’t trust her. She’s Nisse Ivor. The ghost.
She’s proven that she can’t be trusted right? So why do I have this overwhelming desire to protect her even though I know exactly who she is?
Perhaps I should be more concerned about protecting myselffromher.
With a growl on my lips, I dart towards the next tunnel, leaving the image and the dead creature behind me. I swim like my life depends on it, because it does. The riddle will not lay claim to a life. Not mine, not Odi’s.
I burst into another chamber, but this one is different. It’s a dead end.
No. It can’t be. Smooth stone walls surround me on all sides. No doors, no archways, no platforms, no stairs. Just a trap dressed up like a room.
I drag my hands along the stone, searching for seams, cracks—anything. My fingers trace the siren runes chiselled into the walls. The shapes are twisted, older than anything I was ever taught. An ancient dialect, unreadable. Mocking me.
My pulse hammers as I force water through my nose, filtering out the oxygen through the vents behind my ears. If I don’t breathe, I’m going to be useless to Odi—if I’m not already too late.
The dizziness stays, but I sweep the walls again, scanning the chamber for anything I can use to dig myself out of this shit hole I’m in, but there’s nowhere to go.
Grief. Anger. Pain. They slam into me like a tidal wave, driving me down until I hit the chamber floor. My tail strikes stone, kicking up clouds of sand that curl around me like smoke.
Did we fail? Is this my punishment—for chasing my mother’s phantom, for dragging my crew into the deep and watching them die one by one? What if it’s all for nothing? If the treasure isn’t real, or there, or worth having after all is said and done? What if I never get my revenge on Ivor? What if I do? There will always be more pirates to hunt. Always. Where do I draw the line in the sand, saying enough is enough? It won’t bring her back.
It won’t bring her back.
My mind is too loud. Too many thoughts screaming. I let my head fall back against the wall, eyes closing as the weight of everything I stand to lose presses in from all sides.
The treasure has to be real. Odi wouldn’t chase it with me if she didn’t believe it was out there . . . would she? Too many of my crew have gone to the grave for this. If I stop now—if I let it slip through my fingers—what in the deepest parts of the Adamaris Sea did they die for?
No. I can’t do it. Otto, Elio, Tavi and Soraya are waiting for me. I have to claw my way out of this mess. This mess that started the moment I hauled Odelia Nisse Ivor onto my ship.
The vicious, violent, unpredictable, daring, brave, breathtaking, maddening, stunning, infuriating, perfect woman who I can’t stay mad at for one second longer, because the honest truth of it all is, I’ve never been more in love with someone than I am with her.
