I flailed in the darkness, trying to see, trying to free myself from whatever had struck me.
A strong arm wrapped around my back, pulling me to a man’s chest. Realizing I was tangled with a body, not debris, I grabbed hold of his tunic as he swam, propelling us up.
Seth flipped his wet hair from his face as we surfaced. “And here,” he panted, scarlet eyes nearly glowing in the dark, “I was worried you couldn’t swim.”
I wanted to slap him for joking at a time like this.
But the need to throw my arms around him won. Grasping himtightly, I felt warmth radiate from his body into me, though he too was drenched.
A heavy shadow loomed over us. I shrieked when I saw the pair of dragon heads glaring at us from above.
Seth’s grip on my waist tightened. The blood streaming from my elbow surged toward his fingers and wrapped around us like a protective pair of wings.
One jaw cracked down on the blood wings while the other dug into the rock wall behind us. Stone splintered, raining boulders down on our heads. One struck the dragon as it ripped the wing away from Seth, forcing its massive head below the surface.
Oh, gods. Even with Seth here, I was still going to die.
He chose that moment to forsake me. Driving his hand into my back, he threw me onto the hydra’s lowered head.
My back hit slick, wet scales, and I slid backward when the creature raised its head. Fumbling for a handhold, I grabbed one of its horns. Pain lashed through my elbow where I’d slammed into the cavern wall.
Seth leaped onto the head as it rocketed toward the ceiling. Whirling a bloody blade, he drove it into the creature’s skull.
The dragon’s head snapped back, trying to shake us off. I lost my grip and tumbled down its neck into the crook of its body, landing in a layer of water shallowed in the gaps between its heads. Seth dropped down beside me and summoned a new blade from the cut on his palm.
The dragon’s remaining six heads turned to look down at us.
Something strange nestled in my thoughts. It felt . . . foreign. Like the words flowing through my mind did not belong to me.
Seth had always protected me.Wouldalways protect me. Everything would be okay, as long as I stayed with him.
The words were a promise. From him, to me.
Hope bristled in my heart, that we might make it out of this alive.
“Seth!” I shouted. “Get down!”
“What?” He called back.
Throwing myself again at him, I knocked us both over.
Silence enveloped the cavern. I could no longer feel Seth’s damp clothes, nor the faint body heat beneath them. Hisbreathing silenced, and everything simplystopped.
A blast of air followed the hushed stillness as the Empty’s power erupted from me. A disc of purenothingshot outward in every direction, cleaving through all of the hydra’s heads and pounding into the cavern wall, digging gouges several paces deep.
Blood gushed from the heads where their severed necks had simply disintegrated. Then they fell into the lake with an enormous splash.
The hydra’s body slumped. Water washed over us, throwing us back into the lake. Seth grabbed hold of my arm and pulled me to his chest as we plummeted into the depths. A massive head sank past us into darkness.
Pain rattled through my bones—the same sensation that had overcome me after cleaving a path through the Empty. It felt like my very soul was being siphoned from my body. The world flipped on end, and I dug my fingers into Seth’s tunic, dazed.
I didn’t know how much time passed. Eventually, the pain dissipated, and the blurry world returned to clarity. A familiar voice called to me.
“Lady Aethra!” Eleos shouted.
Twisting my neck, I saw a small boat drifting toward us, bearing a man in a pale blue cloak. Eleos.
Seth had dragged my limp body to the surface. He handed me to Eleos, who gently pulled me aboard.
