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She didn’t take it well. “When this is over, I’m seeking compensation for the quite frankly excessive doorway opening.”

“Will it be food or coin related?” I asked, feeling guilty over relying on her power too much.

“A bit of everything, sugar.”

With that, she asked me to call her once we were done, and left me in the seaside town to find a safe place for everyone else.

Selene bless her. Always.

My phone would not withstand the pressures of the deep, so I left it in the moored boat belonging to an old friend of Declan’s, who only used the vessel in the summer months. He didn’t have the keys, so I broke in, using it as my hiding place before setting off into the water.

Cradling Paris, I watched the mortals meandering around on the wooden jetties connected to a busy oceanfront. Buildings with pointed roofs painted in pastel colors made a terraced rainbow facing the ocean, glittering in the blazing sunlight.

Although beautiful, I didn’t like the sun. Too bright, too hot, too scary.

Give me the moon any time of day.

I once read it rained here three times a year, the water was mostly calm, the cost of staying in a hotel far too much, but the place was resolutely popular. The orcas sold it, the pods living off the coast were huge tourist attractions who played up to the people and ate a lot of seals. Sometimes, the touristy fun ended in a bloody display.

Despite the horrors of the world, these holidaymakers went about their lives undeterred, as if they hadn’t been privy to the declaration of war.

I didn’t trust it.

I glanced out the window facing the water and saw a few boats sailing past. To the west of the harbor was the main beach and more pastel buildings, seagulls cawing overhead.

“I’m almost ready,” I told Paris, gazing down at his sleeping face within the bubble-mask of the suit.

Black with white patches, similar to an orca’s skin, the garment clung to his body, fitting snugly across the planes of his slender magnificence. The bubble covering his face allowed him to breathe underwater, a blinking blue bracelet on both his wrists regulating his pressure control and oxygen supply. The torch strapped to his head would aid his visibility once he woke up.

He had seven hours before the suit failed. Plenty of time to get this done.

I held his hand, the suit skin wrapped around his fingers allowing for flexibility.

“I wish we could talk,” I whispered. “I want to hear you tell me you love me again.” I stroked his knuckles, his fingers tapered candles.

I checked outside again. It was now or never, as the mortals were wont to say.

“Let’s set you free,” I told him, carrying him to the small front deck.

Making sure no one saw us, I clicked on the GPS device Medusa had given me, and dove into the water.

Holding Paris tight to my body, and being mindful of him waking up to slip the dagger into my chest, I swam out to the precise location, guided by the GPS. The orca swam by a few times, as fearsome and as beautiful as I’d heard, but they didn’t bother us.

Checking my beautiful spark of an elf over, I began the decent.

The brightness of the surface began to relent as we went down, the darkness of the deep waiting to consume us. I swam through schools of fish, avoiding the sharks hunting them, and passed by the final coral cities and the marine life around them until the temperature dropped and the darkness swallowed the light. My eyes adjusted, searching the gloom, more marine creatures swimming past.

Paris’s headtorch switched on automatically, as part of the conditions of the suit. The beam cut through the dark, plankton swimming through it.

My nerves prickled, concerned for Paris. But he was fine. Still sleeping, oblivious to his surroundings. My slumbering wonder, here in my arms.

Soon, we’ll be free, my spark.

The GPS malfunctioned, as expected, the immense pressure finally taking its toll. The screen cracked, everything shutting down. No matter. If I kept heading in this direction, I should see the forge soon.

After a few minutes, Paris’s headtorch beam caught the top of a structure. A jagged gray stone point covered in barnacles, wisps of some sort of seaweed clinging to it, swaying in the current.

A pyramid?