Chapter 19 #3
Odi’s arms clamp around my neck from behind, her nails biting into my skin.
She’s breathing hard, quick and shallow, and the tremor in her hold tells me she’s close to full panic.
We’re both treading water. I could shift to grab my sword, but there’s too many, and she’s too far from safety to make a break for it without losing skin.
“Rune, what are they?” she whispers.
“Hungry, unfortunately.”
Something familiar stirs in my chest. Something I’ve not let surface in quite some time.
I know a way to make them back off. But it means opening a door I’ve kept locked tight, showing Odi a piece of me I’m not sure I want her to see.
A shadow slips too close, teeth snapping in the dim light, and the decision’s made for me.
I draw in a deep breath and let it out as a flat hum—soft at first, then rolling out of my chest, curling through the water like smoke. I keep the brunt of it from Odi as the sound blooms, echoes bouncing off the cave walls until it’s a melody—low, haunting, threaded with something older than I am.
The fish still. Jaws shut. One by one, they melt back into the depths, vanishing as if they’d never been. They know to whom they threaten with their wicked teeth, and they know what will come of them if they take a single bite.
The water’s quiet again. My voice fades with it. And all I’m left with is the pounding of Odi’s heart against my back, and the weight of what I just let her hear.
“What in all eight seas was that?” she breaths. The words are warm on my ear, sending a shiver down my neck.
I turn to glance at her over my shoulder. “You’re welcome.”
We make it to the other side of the pool in one piece. Odi clambers up the bank and onto drier ground as I shift back. When I join her, she’s still looking at me like I’ve grown a third head.
My shoulders lift and fall with ease. “It’s really nothing, shall we keep moving?”
She shakes her head in disbelief, and I can’t stop the smile tugging at my lips as we enter the eerily quiet tunnel. The glow of the pool fades behind us. Odi sticks to my side as I guide us both through the dark.
The tunnel ends abruptly, my boots kicking loose stones across the ground.
“What is it?” Odi hisses, blinking into the dark.
I reach out, running my hands over the surface in front of me. “It’s a doorway, but it's sealed shut.”
“Alright, all of this is getting really old. I just want to get out of here,” she groans, lacing her hands through the knotted mess on her head.
“There’s a lever.”
She folds her arms across her chest, popping her hip. “So pull it.”
“What if it’s a trap?” I say, not entirely mocking her concern from earlier.
Odi searches for me in the dark, her face pale in the absence of light. Fatigue has bruised the skin below her eyes and siphoned the pink of her plush lips. “Can’t be any worse than what we’ve already been through.”
I can feel the fight leaving her as easily I can sense the shifting of the evening tides. She’s coldly logical, always three steps ahead, but the exhaustion is seeping in. I know battle-trained royals that would have let the water take them by now. But we've gone too far for her to give up.
“You’ll have to make the choice, Odi.” I speak softly, letting words settle.
She sighs as she shrugs, exhaustion rippling off her in waves. “Well there’s no going back now. So pull the lever, Rune.”
I grit my teeth and wrap my fingers around the cold metal. “Here we go.”
The lever groans as I force it down, and the door shudders open with a deep, grinding scrape. We step inside—just a few cautious paces—and before I can blink, the slab behind us slams shut with a sound like a coffin lid.
Then I hear it.
A low rush at first, like distant rain. Then faster, louder—the hiss and surge of water forcing its way in. It pours from the seams in the walls, icy and relentless, rising around our boots, our knees—faster than ever before.
“Rune—”
“I know.”
It’s already climbing higher.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. And another for good measure.
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath.
From somewhere the water is pouring in faster and faster, but around my feet I can feel the tug of the current pulling the opposite way. There is a drain open somewhere. I can sense it. I just need to shift, grab Odi, and swim.
The water is to our waists now, salty, cold, and climbing quickly. Beside me, Odi’s breaths come sharp and shallow. “It’s—it’s too fast,” she stammers, voice fracturing as the roaring around us closes in. “We’re not getting out of here, Rune. We’re going to drown. I’m going to drown.”
Her hands slap uselessly at the stone walls, fingernails scraping over the grime like she could claw her way out through solid rock.
I grab her shoulders, but she’s trembling so hard I fear her teeth will rattle right out of her head. “Hey—look at me.”
“I can’t—I can’t do this again. I can’t die like this.” Her voice cracks on the last words and I can feel it. That moment where something inside her folds . . . gives up.
For a split second, I’m shocked. This is not the pirate I’ve come to know. One so fierce and capable that she laughs while covered in monster gore. Wields weapons like she was born in a war. Sometimes I wonder if she was.
Tears stream down her face, too many for me to wipe away. I grab her wrists and tug her towards me, wrapping and arm around her waist. “You listen here, little doe. I told you I would get us out, and that’s exactly what I plan on doing.”
The cold water hits her ribs. Her lips are going blue.
She tries to pull from my embrace, pressing back against the wall like she’s trying to escape into it, eyes wide and glassy, fixed on nothing.
And I know, if I don’t snap her out of this now, she’ll be gone before the water even wins, so I pull her closer.
“Odelia.” I command her attention with my voice, but her gaze can’t meet mine as a sob escapes her lips.
Without thought I shift as the water reaches her chin. I have to convince her to calm down so we can get through this. “There is a current below. I saw a doorway beneath us. We can swim through.”
She shakes her head, small and frantic, the movement brushing her wet hair against my jaw.
I press my forehead to hers, forcing her to feel my steadiness. “It’s the only way.”
Another sob shudders out of her, the sound barely louder than the water lapping at her mouth. Our heads press against the ceiling. “Rune—”
“Do you trust me?”
The pause stretches, heavy as lead in my chest. Her breathing is fast, shallow, gulping at the last pocket of air.
Then, finally, she nods, crumbling. The cry that slips out of her is raw, the kind that rattles bone, and the water catches it, air leaving her in a burst of bubbles as it surges over our heads.
Her fingers clamp around my forearms like a lifeline, nails biting into my scales. Her eyes widen, and for a heartbeat, I don’t see the pirate with a sharp tongue and steel spine. I see a woman trembling against me, every ounce of fight tangled with fear, trusting me with her last breath.
So—fuck it. I do the only thing that makes sense.
I frame her face with both hands, pull her to me, and seal my mouth over hers.