My jaw hardens as I gaze out at the impossible. The tidal wave must have unearthed the trench, exposed what had long since remained buried. The seafloor has cleared, settled, and the ship, thecastle—the waters have swept us so far away they appear as silhouettes in the distance. And now—there is a city.
Domed ruins of shimmering white granite and turquoise glass rise in a maelstrom spiral in the middle of the trench. Tendrils of seaweed twine around lengthy, ribbed columns, the plants ancient but emerald.Alive.Seafloor pathways carve between buildings, lined on either side by reflective geodes and pastel-pink lilies, while the roads run cobbled and deep through the center.
Everything is pristine.
Everything is perfect.
And I know, as certain as I know my own name, what city this is. I’ve spent long enough researching it. We’ve spent long enough searching for it. It should have been impossible, but it wasn’t. It’s not.
Abysses.
“We found it,” Zephyra whispers. “I can’t believe we found it.”
She moves up the steps, into the cylindrical building above us. Amaya turns to her remaining soldiers and commands them to spread out, to search as many buildings for treasure as possible.“No.” Zephyra shakes her head swiftly, pausing a few steps from the top, and turns back. “There’s no time. The sorcerer won’t be far behind us—the guards already alerted him. He knows we’re here. We can’t risk splitting up again—not when we might need to flee at a moment’s notice.”
Amaya tilts her head in that feline way of hers, blinking slowly. “We make time.” A pause. “I am not afraid of your sorcerer.”
Zephyra frowns. “That,” she says, “is really fucking stupid. His castle already claimed some of your crew. Do you want him to claim the rest?”
Amaya’s eyes flash with lightning, and she speaks with unsettling confidence. “He won’t.” Without another word, she jerks her chin to her soldiers, who scatter and duck into the buildings nearest us. Zephyra frowns after them before rolling her eyes and continuing up the stairs.
“Shit.” Ignoring the others, Gavriall stares wide-eyed at the horizon. “Holy fuckingshit.”
Together, we gaze up at the building before us, the city around us, until my eyes burn from not blinking. No matter how long I look, it isn’t long enough. Abysses. An ancient utopia never before discovered. We discovered it. Zephyra and I—we did it.
“You really ought to see this, warlock,” Zephyra calls down, unable to help herself. The irritation in her voice has faded, replaced by complete awe. Just for the moment. One single, blissful moment. Because we did it—we found fucking Abysses.
We must be close to Mortem’s heart.
I jog up the crystal staircase until I meet her on the landing. My wings fit easily through a widened doorway, undoubtedly thanks to the statue on the far right of what appears to be an old temple of worship. Mortem himself rises from a chiseled column, his winged form so large that great feathered shadows loom over seven tables for offerings. Bronze coins scatter the surface. Incense sticks curl stale smoke into the air. A skull stares out at us, this one—thankfully—completely silent.
“It’s like it was frozen in time,” I say.
“Yes,” Zephyra agrees, tears in her gaze and a smile wide on herbeautiful face. She points to a large mosaic mural on the wall. “Look.Abysses wasn’t just a utopia for mermaids. I knew it. He knew it.” Her voice breaks on a happy cry, and I follow her gaze to the intricately chiseled tiles of the mural. Shattered glass merrow swim alongside gemstone humans. They walk through a pastel-painted city hand in hand. A mermaid kisses a human woman in front of a large colosseum, and a merman entangles his tail with a small human child. They appear gleeful, every single person in the mural. The city itself sparkles with immeasurable life.
“Zephyra,” Vesper says.“Vila.”
The silver siren stands in front of an ivory statue of a mermaid in a coral crown swimming through stone waves. Interestingly enough, she too has seven tables arranged in a circle around her, but her offerings are different. A handful of black pearls fill a silver jar, a timepiece ticking away beside it, while pure white roses bloom from a pink vase.
“It’s the goddess,” Zephyra tells me with sparkling turquoise eyes. She grabs my hand and forces me forward to examine the statue. “Arion, I toldyoushe was real. We have proof now.”
I can’t argue with that. I don’twantto argue with her. Zephyra has become childlike in this place, twirling around on her heels and yanking me into every corner of what must be Abysses’s central temple. Her face radiates hope—so sharp and clear it almost hurts to look at her—but I can’t bring myself to tear my gaze away. Not now. Not with so little time left to us. And I—I think I feel it too. Hope. It’s a jolt in my stomach, a tingling in my limbs. A sense of surrealism almost like floating. Because we’re here. Together. A warlock and a mermaid, our hands entwined just like those in the murals, hidden away at the bottom of the sea. They lived together too, and if Zephyra and I make it out of here alive—hope swells high, bright; so close, I can almost seize it—all those hypothetical futures could be ours.
That hope punctures slightly, however, as I stare up at Vila’s statue.
“If Mortem’s statue is beside Vila’s,” Vesper says, echoing my thoughts, “then man and merrow must have coexisted.” She glances at Gavriall in question. “Right?”
He straightens his shoulders at that, glancing back at her insurprise. “I would assume so, siren. With proof of Mortem next to—Vila, did you call her?—it’s irrefutable evidence.”
Vila.
Vesper rolls her eyes, but for once, the gesture is entirely without malice. Even Amaya is smiling now. Though she doesn’t speak, her eyes flick over each inch of the room as if to memorize it. She snaps open a burlap sack in the next second, stalking toward Vila’s feet. With practiced, efficient movements, she sweeps the coins into her bag before plucking up the pearls too.
Vesper grimaces at the princess’s back. “The city is one thing, but now you’re ransacking atemple?”
“Do you think I am here to observe?” Amaya laughs, swiping the coins from Mortem’s table next. “I am here for treasure. Right now, I see loads of it just waiting to be claimed. It’s not as if anyone is going to miss it.”
I glance at Zephyra, expecting her to snap at Amaya, but she doesn’t seem to have heard her. Instead, she stares up at the mural behind Vila intently. Her eyes narrowed. “What is it?” I murmur at her ear. “What’s wrong?”
