Water frothing around the trident's tines, superheated bubbles hissing as they raced for the surface, Nyxarion restrained himself. Dumped his rage into the white-knuckled grip wrapped around the ancient weapon's shaft, and looked instead to his precious bride.
Kore.
The only thing stopping him from launching the Trident straight through Thalos' smug face.
And when he spoke, Nyxarion's voice had dropped to a subsonic rumble. Scales lifting, the water between them shimmered with heat. With pure, lethal promise. "Nerissa," he snapped, summoning the Tide Mother from the shadows. "Take her. Into the Deep."
The Tide Mother slid between warring males with a graceful flick of her tail. Fins and flukes, she swept Kore into her arms. Cradling the little dazed female to her chest. Cooing against her temple, ancient features growing tight when she touched Kore's gills. Assessing. Searching for damage.
Brow wrinkling, Nerissa made a sound. Musical. Disgusted.
And then she flicked her ethereal fluke, twisted, and descended without a word.
Ghostly white scales and fluttering, silken fins vanished into the black waters. The pulse of Kore's biolume lingered long after they'd been swallowed up by the abyss.
For a long moment, Nyxarion watched the last place he'd seen her pretty colors. Obsessively watching the abyss swallow his precious living flame.
And then he turned.
A slow revolution.
Tracking the Shallow King.
"The Crucible," Nyxarion said, slow and measured, "begins with the next tide. And I'm going to take my time, Asterion." Drifting closer, he let the Trident hiss and spit. "I'm going to enjoy it."
Teeth gleaming, silver scales pulsing with a hint of Asterion chromatophores, Thalos grinned. "Looking forward to it."
Before he could change his mind about slaughtering the Shallow King, Nyxarion twisted. Shifting his enormous bulk, he snaked through the dark.
Following the distant beacon of a sunset glowing at the bottom of the sea…
CHAPTER 19
When she woke, it wasn't with a cry. Not a gasp of anguish or a howl of violated grief.
It was agony.
Her veins were lit with the burn of frost.
Belly swollen, she cradled her girth. Where she was heavy and distended. Shivering against the venom crawling through her blood, fighting the crystals forming in her veins.
Thalos' venom.
She could feel it reworking something… fundamental. Something deep.
And then she felt the glide of hands moving on her skin. Petting. Touching. Fingers tipped in claws, warm skin. It was an anchor in the Deep. A summons to wake.
Kore turned toward it.
"Hush, child," the Tide Mother crooned, the melody of her ancient tones a beautiful sermon. Haunting. "Breathe. Just… just breathe."
A tiny, fragile smile touched the edge of Kore's lips, then. Something delicate. Brittle.
And then she saw beyond Nerissa's timeless eyes.
To the wreckage.
Nerissa’s fins were tattered. The edges no longer the breathtaking flutter of pristine silk, they were frayed and torn. Scales that had once held an ethereal pearlescent shimmer had been dulled to a milky grey. Fine, hairline splits spidered out from the edges.
