Chapter Ten
Lana’s worst nightmare was coming true.
Her fear of drowning in deep water had never been the kind of thing she could explain away with logic.
Nothing had triggered it. There were no tragic incidents in her past. No near-death experience that had carved the terror into her psyche.
It had simply always been there, keeping her away from the dark depths of the unknown.
But perhaps she had somehow foreshadowed her own end.
Now that it was happening, she realized there was nothing irrational about her fear.
Actually, the reality of it was far more terrifying than she had imagined.
The vast lake was merciless. An endless dark pool filled with ancient magic that swallowed light, sound, and hope with equal indifference.
Every violent surge pulled them farther from safety, dragging them away from the prison and deeper into the cold abyss.
As the pressure increased, Lana wrapped her arms around Mordecai’s neck and clung to him with everything she had. Her lungs burned. Her muscles screamed in protest. Panic clawed at her, wild and vicious, urging her to kick, thrash, do anything to escape the crushing weight closing in around them.
But fighting was futile.
Every desperate movement only leached more strength from her.
She tried using her magic to teleport them out of the lake again.
When that didn’t work, she tried every spell and magical means she could think of to get them the hell out of the water, but nothing worked.
As she continued to grow weaker and her vision blurred around the edges, she still refused to let go.
If the lake wanted her mate, it would have to take her, too.
But she wasn’t fucking ready to die yet.
Not when she had only just found her mate.
Not when she hadn’t cleared his name, restored his honor, or dragged the truth of what had been done to him into the light.
Mordecai had spent centuries trapped in a nightmare that should never have belonged to him.
He couldn’t get his family back, but he deserved justice for what had been done to them.
It took several long, disorienting seconds before Lana realized they weren’t simply being tossed around by the current.
It wasn’t random. They weren’t caught in a whirlpool or being swept along by the lake’s natural flow.
An invisible force seemed to be drawing them deeper into the dark depths with relentless determination, giving them no chance to escape.
The glowing blue water became darker the deeper they sank.
The surface was impossibly far away now, and the pressure around them increased with every passing second.
Black spots danced across her vision as the world drifted farther away.
She’d held her breath for as long as possible, but she had finally reached her breaking point.
The instinct to breathe became impossible to ignore, overpowering every ounce of reason she had left.
Her eyes closed as she started to fade out of consciousness.
Before she could stop herself, she took in a huge gulp of water.
Enough that she should have drowned. However, that didn’t happen.
Confusion replaced some of her terror. There was no burning sensation.
No violent choking. No desperate convulsions.
Instead of drowning, she inhaled again.
Her eyes snapped open. She was breathing in the water as easily as she had in the library only minutes ago.
Every sense of logic told her what was happening was impossible, but her own body was evidence that it wasn’t.
Deep beneath the surface of the lake, she was somehow breathing as though the water itself had become air.
What the holy fuck?
She reached out to Mordecai through their bond. “I can breathe.”
“What?”
“I’m breathing in the water as easily as I breathe in air.”
There was a long pause. “I can, as well. What in hellfire is going on?”
“I have no bloody idea.”
Now that they were no longer in immediate jeopardy of drowning, Lana forced herself to fight the frantic survival instincts screaming through every nerve in her body.
She focused on calming herself down and slowing her breathing.
After realizing she was practically choking her mate, she loosened her death grip from around his neck.
It was almost impossible to convince herself to completely relax, though.
Despite being able to breathe, she still wanted to get the hell out of the water.
Only, it didn’t feel like water anymore.
At some point, the glowing sapphire lake had changed, and the dark, murky depths had transformed into something entirely different. The glowing lake had become a vast sea of shimmering iridescence, the colors constantly shifting around them like liquid starlight.
It was breathtakingly beautiful.
The intense pressure she’d been feeling was gone, and a strange weightless sensation had replaced it.
Wrapped around Mordecai with her arms hooked loosely over his shoulders and her legs tangled with his, she felt like they were a pair of astronauts suspended in the endless silence of deep space, drifting together through a glowing, celestial sea.
When she tried to glance around, Mordecai’s arms tightened around her.
“Don’t let go, princess.”
“I won’t,” she swore.
Focusing on him now, she could see the stark fear on his face.
Not for their strange surroundings, but for her.
She understood that the only thing he feared now was losing her.
Leaning forward, she pressed her lips against his.
No matter where they were or what happened to them, she would always want him, always need him.
She would always love him.
The instant she accepted that truth, the iridescent sea seemed to respond.
Power and warmth rippled through the shimmering liquid in slow, rhythmic pulses, as though it possessed a heartbeat of its own.
Rather than feeling threatening, the ancient energy felt reverent.
As it weaved around them in slow, graceful spirals, she realized it was doing more than welcoming them into its embrace.
It reminded her of curious hands brushing over them, examining not just their bodies, but the very essence of who they were.
It was judging them.
Deciding whether or not they were worthy.
For what, she wasn’t sure. The only thing Lana knew was that the next few seconds would determine their fate and whether they lived or died together.
Several heartbeats passed in complete silence, then the glow surrounding them started to intensify. The luminous liquid slowly turned into a sea of pure, brilliant light. It should have seared her eyes or forced them to close, but it didn’t hurt, nor was there any discomfort.
It was meant to transform.
An invisible force locked her in place as power began pouring into her like a flood.
Not the familiar energy she’d spent her life learning to wield, but something infinitely greater.
Ancient magic surged through every cell within her, filling spaces that she never even realized were empty.
Along with that power came knowledge. Vast, incomprehensible volumes of knowledge that stretched back through countless ages.
The laws that governed life, death, and magic no longer felt mysterious.
They simply existed within her.
There to be used, but not quite yet understood.
The flood of information was overwhelming. Languages she’d never heard suddenly became familiar. Forgotten histories unfolded inside her mind. For one terrifying moment, she thought it would tear her apart. That she wouldn’t be able to contain all that the magical source had to give.
Then, she stopped resisting.
Surrendering completely, she opened herself to the impossible force consuming her. The ancient magic filling her wasn’t just transforming her into something new. It was altering her very existence until the being who had tumbled into the enchanted lake no longer existed.
She was now a goddess.
One of the most powerful beings to walk the six realms.
The realization barely had time to settle in her mind before the brilliance slowly began to recede. The impossible light faded back into the shimmering sea, and the invisible force imprisoning her finally released its hold. Her body drifted weightlessly once more, but she didn’t try to move.
The magical source wasn’t finished with them yet.
Mordecai’s stubborn ass was still in the process of being transformed.
It didn’t surprise her that he had spent more time fighting the change than she had.
That was simply his nature. Reaching out to him through their bond, she tried to coax him into relaxing.
Instinctively, she knew that he was more worried about what was happening to her than what he had been going through.
Once he realized she was okay, he immediately gave up resisting.
As she waited for him to finish, she closed her eyes and breathed slowly as wave after wave of newly awakened magic settled inside her.
Entire lifetimes of divine instincts and knowledge continued unfolding through her mind in endless layers, each revelation larger than the last. It would take years to sort through it all, but there was no rush.
They had eternity to learn together.
When she opened her eyes again, she discovered they were no longer submerged in the shimmering sea of iridescent light.
They were still wrapped around one another, but now stood on the wooden deck of what appeared to be either some sort of vessel or a small island platform floating on the glassy lake.