Chapter 17 The Deep
The Deep
The moon hovers above the rippling water, casting silver light that dances across the waves. Beautiful, in a way. For one breathless moment, I float, weightless, suspended between sky and shadow.
Then something coils around my ankle.
I scream, but water rushes in, stealing the sound from my throat. I kick hard, twisting, but the grip tightens. Another tendril snakes around my waist. Then a third—cold, slick, unyielding.
I thrash, panic clawing up my spine as I fight to free one arm. My fingers scrape skin, fabric, and finally, leather. I wrench one of my daggers free and stab blindly downward.
Steel meets flesh, and the water blooms red.
A shriek ripples through the lake—not sound, but pressure—and the tendrils loosen. I kick free and surge upward, lungs burning, vision blurring as moonlight explodes above me.
I break the surface with a ragged gasp.
Air. Sweet, aching air.
I suck it in and swim, furious and desperate, my arms slicing through the water as I aim for the distant shore. My muscles scream. My legs feel like stone, but I don’t stop.
I can see it now. I can make it—
I’m yanked down again, barely managing one last breath before the lake swallows me whole.
The monster drags me under, harder and faster this time, the light vanishing in an instant. Darkness rushes in, thick and absolute. The water presses in from all sides, crushing, relentless.
A massive shape glides through the depths—pale as bone, scaled and ancient. Golden eyes ignite in the dark, slitted and hungry. A beak-like mouth snaps.
The creature’s tendrils wrap tighter, dragging me toward its gaping maw. My limbs burn. My chest convulses. My thoughts scatter.
So this is how I die.
Kat… Mother… I’m sorry.
Darkness closes in.
I must be dead—
And then the light returns.
A thunderous crack rips through the surface above me. With a ferocious roar, a claw punches through the water like a falling star. Razor-sharp talons slice downward, severing the creature’s tentacles in a single, precise strike.
I’m ripped free—tumbling, kicking, lungs screaming.
Finally, I break the surface with a gasp. I cough violently, choking on air like I’ve forgotten how to breathe.
Then another roar shatters the night.
I turn—and see my rescuer.
A shadow with wings.
Scales like obsidian.
Golden eyes burning through the dark.
The dragon.
It dives, plummeting toward the deeper side of the lake with a vengeance. Its massive, winged body slams into the kraken, unleashing a torrent of flames so hot that the water begins to boil.
The dragon bellows, wings thrashing and claws tearing, ripping through a mass of tentacles. Blood still dripping from its claws, it whips around and soars toward me, its scales glistening in the moonlight like freshly smelted armor, every movement graceful and terrible.
I turn and try to swim away, not yet ready to trade one monster for another, but the dragon snatches me from the water and surges into the sky. The water churns below, and my stomach follows its lead.
Tentacles whip out toward us. One coils around the dragon’s barbed tail; another lashes around its hind leg.
The dragon bellows in defiance, wings straining against the monster’s strength.
Then it opens its massive black maw, and fire erupts out, spilling across the lake like the light of dawn. The water hisses, steam exploding in all directions. The kraken recoils with a deafening shriek.
The dragon lifts me higher. My body dangles from his claw, trembling, bleeding, soaked.
But a sudden strike from below sends the dragon reeling midair. One wing folds, sending us into a spiral. I slip from the dragon’s grasp and plummet toward the lake. I tuck my arms across my chest and straighten my body.
The lake slams into me like stone. The world spins. My vision blurs. I can’t breathe, can’t see. Darkness closes in.
Just when I think I’m about to succumb, I’m surrounded by heat and a familiar hum, something ancient and alive.
Enormous claws wrap gently around me, lifting me from the water and closing around me. I fear being crushed, but I blink through the haze, and the creature’s molten gaze finds mine as it tucks me to its chest, cradling me like something precious.
Moments later, I feel sand beneath me as it lowers me gently to the ground. I blink up to meet its fiery gaze, and for a heartbeat, I swear he sees me, sees into my very soul.
Then, with one powerful sweep of his wings, he’s gone.
The sky ignites in fire and fury as the two monsters clash once again—ancient power warring with ancient hunger.
I watch, dazed, as the dragon coils midair, baiting the kraken higher.
The monster lashes out with thorny limbs, but the dragon spins and weaves, drawing it into a fatal dance.
Tentacles snare the dragon’s legs, and his body shudders.
His wings beat once, twice, and on the third beat, he hoists the kraken up.
The water bulges, then splits apart as the monster surfaces.
Limbs unfurl—long, barbed, slick with black water—each one as thick as a tree trunk and lined with thorned suckers that writhe and grasp.
The creature rises higher and higher, its bulk impossible, obscene.
A crown of pale flesh and jagged ridges breaks the surface, followed by a cavernous maw ringed with hooked barbs, its body coiling beneath it like a living abyss.
Not a beast.
A horror.
It hangs suspended above the lake, a writhing mass of pale flesh and shadow, its limbs thrashing, its body slick and vast, water cascading from it like rain. The dragon arches midair, muscles burning, wings screaming against the strain.
Then he strikes.
With an earthshattering roar, his jaws clamp down on what appears to be the creature’s throat. The sound reverberates across the mountains as the lake below turns red.
They plunge together.
Dragon and monster vanish beneath the surface in a violent explosion of water and blood.
The lake seals over them.
Stillness. Silence.
The world seems to hold its breath. Seconds stretch, then longer. My heart hammers as I stare at the empty water, waiting—dreading—to see what rises.
Did they kill each other?
The surface stirs. A ripple. Then another.
Onyx scales break through the water, gleaming in the moonlight.
I collapse, my face pressed to the stony shore. My body convulses, muscles trembling. My clothes cling to me, soaked in blood, water, and ash. I curl into myself.
And then I feel it. A thrum deep in my bones, a warmth blooming around me like firelight in the dark.
Crimson and obsidian, like glass forged in flame. The beast’s wings beat again, scattering sparks into the sky.
The ground falls away, and I’m flying again, nestled in its massive palm, surrounded by a cage of black, curved claws. This flight feels different from the first time it carried me. Not ruthless. Not desperate. Almost…tender?
The dragon flies as though the slightest jostle might break me, making every wingbeat a careful lull. I don’t feel like I’m being held captive; I feel like I’m floating. Weightless, like a leaf caught in a pool of starlight.
The wind rushes past, cool and sharp, but his warmth shields me from its icy tendrils. His scales shimmer beneath the moon, slick and burnished, like garnets dipped in silver. I can’t look away.
Above us, the stars stretch as far as the eye can see, a thousand miniature suns stitched into velvet night. The moon crowns the sky, bathing everything in silver. And in its glow, he shines, fearsome and magnificent.
He tilts his great head. Once again, golden eyes find mine, and my breath catches, but not because I’m afraid—I’ve faced death already too many times tonight. Hell, in the past week.
His gaze holds the fire of a thousand suns, but there’s no cruelty in it, only knowing. Depth. As if he’s peering into my soul and seeing everything I am. Everything I hide.
The steady, low rumble in his chest hums through me, a sound more felt than heard. It resonates in my ribs like a lullaby sung in a forgotten tongue.
I should be terrified, but I’m not. I feel…
safe. Safer than I’ve felt in days. A sharp, impossible contrast to our first flight, when his wings cut the sky like knives and I clung to life by sheer force of will.
Now, I surrender to it. To the quiet awe of the stars as we glide effortlessly beneath their gaze.
To him. At least, I think it’s a him. Do dragons even have a gender? Mother used to say all creatures, magical or mortal, were made male or female in Rexen’s likeness—but no one’s seen a dragon in over six centuries. What would I know?
I risk a glance down the wide expanse of his form and find the answer immediately.
Yep. Definitely a him.
The wind sings, and the lake vanishes behind us. All that remains is the open skies, starlight, and the steady beat of colossal wings. The sound is surprisingly quiet, like an owl taking flight.
He carries me higher, then dips and spirals downward as if showing off. His wings fold slightly as we descend toward the keep in a final arc, a whisper of motion.
Then he lands, his talons kissing stone, and gently lowers me to the balcony. He spreads his wings again but pauses, taking one last look.
Gold meets blue.
Without a word, he’s gone again, vanishing into mist like a dream half-remembered.
“Oh, stars!” Mae bursts in, robes aflutter, eyes wide with something akin to wonder. She wraps me in a thick wool cloak, and it’s only then that I realize my clothes are still soaked through. My skin is numb from the cold, my limbs quivering. My body feels like stone, but I’m alive.
“You came back,” she breathes. “From the depths.”
I nod. “Are the others… Did they make it?”
My throat is raw, and her hands are shaking. No—mine are. She’s trying to hold the cloak in place, but I’m shivering too hard.
“Yes.”
With that one word, relief floods me. I take a deep breath for the first time in what feels like forever. They made it. Though if they followed me through the darkness, I have no idea why they didn’t emerge in the lake with me. But I’m too exhausted to ask any more questions.
Mae helps me to my feet, but the moment I put weight on my right ankle, pain explodes up my leg like lightning. I cry out and collapse in a breathless heap.
The door creaks open, and I brace for another silent servant or a cloaked physician.
Instead, a flurry of rose petals and tiny indignation heralds Marb—my impossible, iridescent fairy guide—who zips into the room like a thundercloud in miniature.
“Oh, stars preserve us,” she gasps, hands on her hips. “What have they done to you now, Fireling?” She flits straight to my ankle and inspects the swollen, purpling mess with sharp eyes and an even sharper tongue. “Look at this!” she mutters, aghast.
“I think it happened when I hit the lake,” I rasp.
Marb makes a sound like a dying teapot, then sprinkles powdered gold over the injury. The dust glows briefly, fizzing into the skin with a warm pulse. The pain doesn’t vanish, but it dulls just enough for the breath to return to my lungs.
“And that’s to say nothing of the bruises on your ribs,” she huffs, glaring at the crescent-shaped wounds peeking through my torn dress as if they personally offend her.
Between Mae and Marb, I’m gently guided—well, half-carried—off the balcony where they found me and back into my room, where a steaming bath awaits me.
I’m in too much pain to care about modesty; they strip away the soaked remnants of my clothes and lower me in.
I hiss as the heat hits raw skin, stinging with magic.
Mae uncorks a slender vial and pours a soft pink liquid into the bath. The scent reaches me first—roses and sugar, as bright and sharp as a cold spring rain. The potion shimmers as it touches the water, sending starbursts shooting across the surface.
I watch, mesmerized, as the elixir spirals down, weaving golden ribbons through the heat, wrapping around my cuts and bruises like threads of starlight.
The moment it touches my skin, warmth unfurls through me, steadily melting away my pain.
I sink deeper with a sigh, letting the potion do its magic.
My aches dissolve, and my muscles release.
Somewhere in the magic, I feel like myself again.
I lean back against the marble rim and close my eyes. What is it now? Five near-death experiences in less than a week? Six? I’ve lost count. But I’m still here.
The water ripples, and for the briefest moment, I see fire again.
Wings.
Eyes.
Him.