C’ael didn’t see it. He had his back to it. “C’ael!”
My voice hammered against the pocket of air and passed through. Nothing but a soft echo when it hit the water but enough to cause a ripple. Enough to make the huge eel turn its head my way.
Its white eyes fixed on me, pupilless so they seemed sightless, but there was no doubt in my mind that she was looking right at me. She didn’t move. Didn’t come any closer, remaining between me and escape. Between me and C’ael.
He would have seen her now. The fact that he hadn’t fallen back to me meant he was still working on activating the ring.
I needed to buy him time.
Could I make it chase me?
Slits opened on the eel’s face, and the water vibrated, a soft sonic wave rippling toward us and hitting my air pocket.
The vibration translated to sound. Into a voice speaking alien, incomprehensive, words. They came again, this time burrowing into my mind, and something clicked.
Come to take my pretty thing. My shiny thing.
Fuck, it was speaking to me. Okay, this was good. I could reason with it. Hopefully.
I focused on the words. On the signature that had bloomed in my mind and spoke back.I’m not a thief. That shiny thing is a doorway. I need to use it to go…to go home.
Home…A film snapped over its white eyes.I had a home…This is my home. I must stay. I must guard the pretty.
Must? Fuck. She’d definitely been stationed here by the Asura.
The air felt thinner all of a sudden. I glanced at Cyleena. She looked paler, her face drawn. It was obvious there was a limit to her ability, and we were skating close to it. I had to work fast.
Time to beg with everything I had.
Please, Ilyapani, I don’t want to take anything from you. I just want to pass. Will you please let me pass so I can go home?
Something sparked in her dead eyes. Like recognition. Like memory.This takes you home…You are one of them. The ones who made thismyhome.Blue energy crackled over her body, sparking in the water to light it up in fingers of lightning.
Electricity…she was anelectriceel. Shit.
You are one of them.Her voice shook with anger.My jailors. My captors. You will pay for what you have done to me.
Her body lit up as more lightning covered it in a pretty net of blue, and a golden band appeared around her neck. My heart sank. I’d seen such bands before. Invisible to most, they lived on a drohi’s wrist. Shackles placed there by the Authority.
By Asura.
Ilyapani was a prisoner.
A servant against her will.
I’m not one of them. I want to stop them, I?—
I do not get to go home, and neither will you.Her body glowed brighter, the blue fingers of electricity moving faster around her.You will all die here. Now!
A blast of electricity lanced through the water. Aimed right at me.
C’ael materialized in front of me, and a sonic boom shook the waters, hitting the electric wave and dispersing it outward and around us.
Ilyapani screamed in my head, her wrath a palpable force, and a net of electricity hurtled toward us, several prongs hammering at the shield C’ael had erected. His body jerked slowly in the water.
Cyleena pulled me back, taking me away from him and up toward the surface.
“No!” I pushed downward, slamming at the air pocket that was no longer sanctuary but a prison. “Let me out! C’ael, no!”
