Then the floor began to tilt, a slow, steady shift that turned stone into a moving surface.
Men stumbled. Boots skidded. Someone shouted. Another grabbed at a column but missed.
Water surged from the channels, not flooding the room but cutting across it in fast, precise lines that steered movement the way a handler steers an animal. The streams struck ankles and knees and knocked people off balance. The floor kept tilting.
I grabbed Artemis around the waist and pulled her into me before she could slide.
Her hands pressed against my chest. For one sharp moment, I felt the heat of her through fabric, and the memory of her mouth on mine flashed through me. I tightened my hold and turned my body to shield her.
Hadrian’s men tried to regroup, but the temple didn’t allow it.
Stone panels slid up from the floor in three places at once, rising like walls that had been waiting for the cue. The group was split into sections and had no time to adjust.
A handful of men were forced toward the left side of the chamber, where the floor angled sharper and the water ran faster. They fought to keep their footing. One managed to grab a groove in the stone, and another slammed into him, and both went down.
A narrow seam in the wall opened, positioned exactly where the water was pushing them. They vanished into it, one after another, dragged by momentum they could not correct.
The seam sealed behind them. The floor eased back to level as if nothing had happened. The water returned to its original flow.
A heavy silence descended over us.
Hadrian stood near the center platform with clan members who had managed to stay upright. A few others clung to the perimeter, shaken, breathing too fast, staring at the sealed wall as if they could argue it open.
Artemis’s head was still turned toward the channels. Her gaze tracked the patterns again, only faster now. She had watched the whole thing like she was already writing the rulebook.
I didn’t let go of her.
Hadrian looked around, irritation flashing across his face. “They were careless.”
Artemis made a small sound, sharp with disbelief.
I leaneddown. “Tell me.”
Her reply came both aloud and in my mind, layered, because her concentration made her sloppy in the best way. “It moved them. It didn’t trap them like a pit. It redirected them.”
She swallowed. “These channels aren’t meant to move water away. They’re meant to move it through decisions. The floor responded to weight and placement. The room divided us on purpose.”
My stomach tightened.
I had spent my life in old places—temples, caves, archives, vaults. Traps were crude. This was not crude.
This was a complex system.
Hadrian finally turned his attention to her, expression sharpening with interest and contempt at the same time.
Artemis stiffened.
My hands tightened around her waist before I could stop myself. I shifted my grip so my fingers rested on the edge of her coat, restraint the only thing separating me from losing control.
Hadrian’s gaze dipped to my hands. His smile widened.
I wanted to tear his throat out.
I wanted to take Artemis and leave this place and never let her be looked at like that again.
Instead, I forced myself to breathe steadily and think like an alpha who still had a plan.
We moved forward again, slower now.
