Page 104

I fought the pull, my arms sweeping through the heavy brine, but as my eyes adjusted to the salt-crusted dark, the violent churning of the surf suddenly dissolved.

An eerie, unnatural quiet dropped over the deep water.

The crashing sound of the waves above vanished, replaced by a low, rhythmic hum that vibrated straight through my sternum. The dark water around me cleared, illuminated by a faint, ghostly luminescence radiating from the petrified Sitka roots anchored deep within the ocean floor.

There, swimming directly before me in the freezing grey deep, was the sea-nymph.

She was breathtakingly beautiful and utterly terrifying all at once. Her long, flowing hair moved through the current like tendrils of pale green kelp, swirling around a face cut from translucent, iridescent scales that shimmered with a sickly, ethereal light. Fine, elegant fins grew from the sides of her jaw, framing wide, featureless eyes of solid black glass that held no human warmth, no mortal mercy.

When she spoke, her mouth didn’t move.

Her voice slithered directly into my mind—a hypnotic, melodic siren’s call that sounded like grinding pebbles beneath a heavy tide, vibrating in direct, violent harmony with the newly forged Remnikai markings pulsing across my chest.

“The half-breed princess comes to claim her bone,” her voice echoed through my skull, cool, fluid, and ancient. “I know why you are here, daughter of Fjörn. I know what you seek in the drowned dark. You seek the leviathan’s tooth to lock your executioner.”

My vision was beginning to blur at the edges, dark spots dancing across my eyes as the lack of air began to starve my brain. I kicked my legs, forcing my mind to focus, driving my thoughts outward in a sharp, desperate command.

Where is the spear?! I demanded in my head, my mental voice echoing through the water. Where is Vaelthrys?!

The sea-nymph cackled—a bubbling, melodic sound that rippled through the murky deep, sending tiny shockwaves through the water. She swam closer, floating weightlessly in the current, her translucent, webbed fingers trailing mere centimeters above my bare, shivering shoulder, testing the golden lines of my Fae markings and the silver glow of the Nyxalith brand.

“The ocean no longer carries its call,” she hissed softly, her black-glass eyes narrowing with an ancient, knowing malice. “The faults of this mortal earth have shifted across the centuries. The tides have buried the First Vault, and the weapon has been taken inland by those who fear its hunger.”

My heart dropped into a cold, desperate abyss. Taken inland? By whom?!

“If you wish to claim your doom, half-breed, you must leave the sand,” the nymph whispered, her translucent face hovering inches from mine, her voice echoing like a dying bell. “Go find the Nauti Mermaid on the land. There... inside the den of smoke and numbers... you will find what you seek.”

Before I could process the cryptic clue, the sea-nymph’s expression turned vicious.

With a sudden, violent flick of her powerful tail, she slammed her flat, webbed palm directly into the center of my chest.

A shockwave of magic detonated against my sternum, propelling my body upward through the freezing dark at blinding speed. The murky water rushed past my face, the light returning in a blinding white blur, and a second later, I broke the surface of the Pacific.

“HAH—!”

I sputtered violently, coughing out a mouthful of bitter salt brine as my lungs opened, pulling in a desperate gasp of the cold coastal air. My vision swam wildly, the grey sky and the petrified spruce stumps spinning in dizzying circles.

Before the ocean current could drag me back under, two massive, furnace-hot arms wrapped violently around my bare waist.

“I’ve got you! I’ve got you, Trouble!”

Caspian’s gravelly voice roared in my ear, raw with an unhinged panic I had never heard from him before. He had plunged straight into the freezing surf fully clothed in his dark denim and leather jacket, his broad chest radiating a staggering heat that instantly cut through the hypothermic shock wracking my body.

He hauled my bare, shivering frame tight against his chest, his powerful legs kicking through the heavy undertow as he dragged us both backward toward the shallow shore.

“Tauriel!” Dax’s voice echoed over the sand as our feet hit the shallow water.

Caspian didn’t slow down. He marched out of the breaking waves, carrying me entirely in his arms as if I weighed nothing at all. The moment his boots hit the dry sand, he collapsed onto his knees, pulling my shivering body into his lap, his large, calloused hands frantically wiping the wet hair and sea salt from my face.

His eyes were bloodshot and burning with a possessive fury that made the dark ink of his tattoos bleed thread-like shadows across his skin.

“What were you thinking?!” Caspian roared, his voice cracking with emotion as he held my pale face in his hands, his thumbs caressing my cheekbones. “You stepped into a rip-current! You nearly let the deep take you!”

“I... I saw the nymph,” I gasped out, my teeth chattering so hard my jaw throbbed, my pale skin covered in goosebumps as the freezing wind hit my wet undergarments.

Mal rushed up to us, throwing my t-shirt and leather jacket onto the sand beside Caspian. His eyes were dark, glinting with a sharp, dangerous intensity, his hands clenched into fists as he looked down at Caspian holding me.

“Did you find the vault?” Mal demanded, his voice sharp.