My hand jerks. I shake so hard that I cannot draw a circle for my life. Justus clasps my wrist to steady my hand. It works, until a chunk of stone detaches itself from the part of the ceiling I draw on, and a hard gush of water rushes into my eyes, stinging them.
And then a fish trundles through the fist-sized gap and plops onto the bed between Justus and me. It wriggles madly, flapping to get back to its element.
I crouch and scoop it up from where it writhes, then toss it inside the rising surf. I feel its tail brush against my ankle as it swims away.
“Really not the time to be rescuing creatures, Fallon,” Justus grumbles as Antoni finally wades toward us.
He’s about to jump onto the mattress when a chunk of obsidian clips him in the head, drawing blood from one of the rare spots on his body that wasn’t previously bleeding. His eyes roll back, and he flops face down into the rushing tide. As his body is swept toward the corridor, I dive off the bed and grab him by the ankle, hauling his big frame back toward us.
I flip him over, then hook his neck and kick my legs to return to the mattress and finish drawing our way out. I manage to hand him to Justus just as something sharp snags my ankle, and I hiss out an unladylike curse.
“We need to go before the tunnels flood and we get swept into them!” Justus grips the ceiling lamp as the water immerses the mattress.
“I know, Nonno! I’m coming.” But as hard as I kick, I cannot break free from whatever my foot has caught on.
I plop my head underwater and search the salty darkness for my restraint, find my foot has somehow managed to wedge itself between the damn wooden bedframe and the sodden mattress.
I plop my head back out and spit out my mouthful of salt water, wincing as the current tugs at my body. I flail to grab ahold of something before the ocean can snap my bones.
Justus mutters something under his breath, then pats down his pant leg until he locates a dagger he must’ve picked up on his way to find Meriam. He holds it out to me.
“It’s my—” A fish drops onto my head, slapping me with its fins. I’m trying to say ankle and not dress when the hole in the ceiling siphons down a huge coral. Right before it can clock me, I duck underwater.
When I peek back out, Justus is waving his dagger wildly at me.
“It’s my ankle!”
He mustn’t hear me because he screeches, “Use the fucking thing!”
“I’m not amputating my foot!” I sputter. I may be immortal, but I’m not Fae. My appendages won’t grow back. And even if they could grow back, I’d rather not be footless for several weeks.
“Not your foot,” he mutters, releasing Antoni. “Grab him.”
I snag the sea captain just as Justus dips beneath the liquid darkness. I feel his hand circle my foot, then feel the wood splintering around my skin.
My foot slips free and I’m suddenly whisked away toward the bedroom door.
Justus breaks the surface. “Grab the doorframe and whatever you do, don’t let go.”
I nod, my heart too large for my ribs.
I hook the doorframe with every last shred of strength I possess and roll my body so that it’s stuck to the chamber wall. Justus bangs into the opposite wall, grabs the door and flings it closed.
It quiets the surge.
“The second you can reach the ceiling, Fallon, you draw the sigil and get out, you hear me?” Justus plucks a long strand of orange hair off his wet face and nods at the matte stone over our heads.
My skin prickles with a million goosebumps. “Weget out.”
Although the world around us is a din of cracking stone and whooshing thuds, I feel as though I’ve just stepped inside a bubble—a quiet, peaceful place I share with Justus Rossi and a comatose Antoni.
I raise my eyes to the deeply-fissured obsidian. Although I’m no stonemason, I estimate we have mere minutes before it caves over us. I try to touch the ceiling but it’s still out of my reach. Why did it have to be built so high here?
“How deep are we?” I yell.
“A dozen or so meters, depending on the tides.”
“Will you need gills?”
