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“Maybe it’ll just be roots,” I said. “Roots aren’t so bad.” One hum and click from me and they’d be off us even if they’d been told to strangle us or something.

The words had barely left my lips when a long tendril of something smooth brushed against my ankles beneath the water.

Quinn spun, water splashing. “Did you feel that?”

“Yeah, I—”

“Are you the beast that kidnapped and trapped us here?”

The voice came from beneath the water, but in such a peculiar way that I couldn’t understand how my Wild Whispering magic was deciphering and translating it for me. Rather than actual sounds, tiny shocks around my ankles bloomed into words that slithered past and around and around.

“Eels!” Quinn cried when several long, smooth bodies snaked above the surface for a moment before dipping back down. She stumbled toward the cave walls, sloshing wildly. Raised her hands. “I can try to drain the water—”

“No.” I shook my head. “Give us more water. Fill it up to our necks.”

Quinn goggled at me. “Are you fucking crazy? I’m not going to fill this tunnel with water up to our necks while we’re surrounded by electric eels.”

Before I could respond or explain, more snake-like words came to me from the electrical pulses around my ankles.

“Speak now, beast, or we shall find out for ourselves.”

“No, we didn’t kidnap you or trap you here,” I answered, then flung my gaze back to Quinn. “Give us more water right now, or they’ll see us as threats.”

Not only that, any eel shocks would be evenly dispersed underwater. If one of them were to jump out and sting us above the water, however, or if Quinn drained the conductor keeping us from jerking and writhing on the ground…

For the second time in less than an hour, Quinn surprised me by listening.

With a jerk of her hand, more water came flooding in through the tunnel walls, rising to our thighs, our stomachs, our chests, our necks.

Now I could feel the eels sliding past my torso, rubbing slippery bodies against my arms. Their voices came to me louder than before.

“Who are you, then, if not the beast we must kill?”

Shocks sparked against me, but faint enough to feel less like lightning and more like static. My heart thudded back into a calmer pace. “We’re like you,” I answered, then jerked my head at Quinn to indicate that she should slowly start to wade forward with me. “Kidnapped and trapped here by a beast.”

“And do you know where this beast is?”

Maybe it would be best to lie, but I couldn’t—not to these poor creatures, who had been tossed in here just to test our capabilities when they should be slithering freely through the river basins right now.

“Yes, I do. And I promise you, if we can just make it through these tunnels, I’ll make sure he pays for what he’s done to you.”

Quinn threw me a sidelong glance that I ignored. We continued sweeping ever so slowly through the water, the surface rippling in our wake. The eels never stung with purpose, only continued to ask me questions.

“What will you do with him when you catch him?”

Images flashed through my mind. Not of me doing anything to Mr. Gleekle, but of Coen’s face right after this last secret Branding, when he’d wanted to murder the man. The thing about Coen was that everyone he wanted dead ended up dead eventually, no matter how long he practiced his restraint for.

“It’s not about what I’ll do,” I told the eels honestly. “But about what my mate will do.” As soon as the word slipped out, my cheeks felt like they’d absorbed Quinn’s fire. She raised her eyebrows at me, and I forced a shrug, hoping she’d think I was just spouting out random nonsense to appease the eels.

Coen was not my mate. Not my vigate. If he was, he’d be here right now.

We were nearing the end of the waterline, the tunnel rising in a series of stone steps. As soon as my foot hit the bottom one, the eels hissed out one last word.

“Good.”

Quinn and I clambered out. Once we were back on solid ground, she blasted us both with warm air until I felt just as dry as before the fire rain. I turned to wave goodbye to the eels, whose flattened heads poked out of the water to watch us go, their eyes pin-pricking the near darkness with electric-blue.

“You Wild Whisperers are insane,” Quinn muttered.