His body convulses like he’s been shocked by a bolt of lightning. Choking and spluttering as water surges up from his lungs, Soren snaps back into consciousness as though he’s only been lightly dozing on the sofa in his library, not slipping into the afterlife.
His eyes flicker open, their sapphire depths swirling with incomprehension as he takes in the sight of me looming over him—soaking wet and sobbing, shaking with pain and relief and exhaustion. His chest rattles as he takes his first true breath.
He is breathing.
His shocked gaze shifts around the air pocket I’ve created, struggling to comprehend the dark sea that surrounds us on all sides.
Grief flows from my eyes in a torrent. I wipe it away and see it is not tears, but blood. With an exhausted whimper, my head drops down to rest in the crook of his shoulder. I weep from sheer relief.
A shaky hand reaches up to thread into the damp hair at my nape.
“Rhya?” His voice breaks on my name.
I suck in a breath, trying to slow my tears. “You’re alive?”
“Signs point to yes, if the searing pain in my head and at my ribs is any indication.” He pauses, voice lightening. “I also thought I was meant to be greeted in the aether by the angels, but there’s only you here, so…”
My battered body tenses. “So help me gods, if you even think about making a joke out of this situation—”
“Skylark, look at me.”
I pull back enough to comply. My face is a mess of blood, my eyes are stung red, my hair a snarl of salt and seaweed…but he is looking at me like he doesn’t notice any of that. He is looking at me with such a heartrending flood of emotion, I know whatever he is about to say will make the tears that have only just subsided rush out again.
“Rhya, I—”
Two colossal orange tentacles wrap around the air pocket without warning. They’re so large, they block out the dark ocean. All I can see are suction cups, pulsing periodically as they slide against my solidified bubble, searching for weak spots.
“Fuck!” Soren curses, sitting up. His hand presses to his side, where his ribs are shattered. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
“Really? I thought we’d stay awhile, maybe have a chat with the octopaeron before it eats us alive.”
“Now who’s making jokes?” His eyes are deadly serious as they scan up and down my face, no doubt reading the exhaustion etched into my features. Before I can blink, he is flooding me with his maegic, his reserves shoring up my flagging ones.
“Soren, you’re still weak.”
“I’m fine,” he grits. “You’re about to pass out.”
“That’s—”
My words turn to a gasp as the tentacles suddenly tighten, the pressure of it nearly doubling. I refortify my air pocket, the effort of it setting off sparks in my peripherals. Four orange arms now engulf us. And where they converge…
I shudder, seeing the mouth of the gigantic beast. A circular opening fettered with ring after ring of razor-sharp teeth. It, like the suction cups, pulses periodically as it attempts to swallow us whole.
“If you can just hold your air shields, I’ll do my best topropel us to the surface.” Soren grabs my hand, twining our sandy fingers tight. “Together.”
I shake my head, rapidly rejecting that haphazard plan. “No. Absolutely not.”
“Why?”
“Have you forgotten you wereactively dyingabout three seconds ago? You’re not about to expend any more of your maegic. I can feel how weak you are through the bond. We aren’t taking any chances.”
“Do you have any better ideas?”
I look around, contemplating our bleak circumstances for a few wasted seconds.Could I use my whip? Strike it with lightning?Not without frying Soren, too.Drive it off with my paltry dagger?Not bloody likely.
My maegic will simply have to be strong enough for the both of us. I will hold out until we are at the surface. There is no other choice.
I look straight into his eyes as I move closer. “Don’t let go.”