52
Savannah
My pulse pounded in my temples, fogging my mind. A sea monster was headed our way. What had attracted it? Our sound? Our lights?
My lips were dry, and I tried to think. “Okay, nobody talk. I’m going to make a dome of darkness around us, and maybe it won’t be able to see us.”
Praying that the creature used vision and not scent or sound, I called my magic and shaped the midnight blue shadows around us. My muscles strained as I pushed the darkness outward. Instead of just creating a cloud, I created a dome—hollow like a bowl, so our headlamps would still work within.
Devi gave a start as the sunlight overhead faded, leaving us in blackness except for the anemic beams of our lights.
Everyone looked around frantically, but only I could see beyond the veil of darkness. And what I could see was beyond my imagination.
At first, a massive shadow formed in the deep blue-green of the water. Then it resolved into the long, sinuous form of an eel winding its way toward us. My heart clenched while my muscles ached from the strain of keeping the shadows around us. Its body was silver-blue and at least three feet in diameter. Two twisted horns sprouted from its head, and strange peaked plates ran along its back.
Most significantly, its jaws were open wide enough to swallow a person whole.
I stood frozen, concealed in the magical darkness. Please don’t notice us.
The serpent came within twenty feet, but it looked past us with its pale eyes and just kept swimming.
I pulled Jaxson close, trying to calm my beating heart. If only he could see it. Then I wouldn’t be the only one who had to stare death in the face.
Every part of me wanted to scream, but I stifled the sound as the enormous creature slowed and cautiously skirted the dome of darkness I’d created.
Waves of pressure pushed against us as its undulating body churned the water. Momentarily knocked over, Ethan looked up and uselessly scanned the darkness. I gestured frantically at the door with both hands, willing him to get it open now, damn it!
At last, the thing’s impossibly long tail passed us as it swam to inspect the remains of the wreck.
“Jaxson. I need a hand,” Ethan whispered over the coms.
Kicking powerfully, Jaxson jetted toward the hatch. He grabbed hold of the wheel, and together, they heaved against it. I could hear them straining over the coms.
Then there was a heart-stopping squeal of metal grinding as the wheel began to turn.
My blood turned to ice water, and I glanced toward the shipwreck. The creature was gone.
The crack of a breaking seal reverberated across the rocks, and the hatch groaned as Jaxson slowly forced it open.
A shadow appeared in the distance, and then the monster surged into view—no longer lazily winding its way through the water but barreling directly toward the source of the sound. Us.
“Everyone in now! Sea serpent coming right at us!” I yelled over the coms. In my panic, I inadvertently released my magic and the shadows around us dropped. “Go, go, go!”
In a frantic cluster, we swam to the hatch and slipped though one by one as the thing hurtled for us with jaws opened wide. Jaxson grabbed me roughly and shoved me through headfirst, then slipped in behind.
Our headlamps flashed around the chamber. Six swimmers. With all of us in, Jaxson and Ethan pulled the hatch shut. For one second, as it closed, I saw a brief flash of silver-blue scales pass through in the light of Jaxson’s headlamp. Then he and Ethan began to spin the wheel to seal the door.
Suddenly, the whole chamber shook as something huge slammed against the hatch from outside, buckling the metal.
Ethan and Jaxson strained to turn the wheel, but it barely budged. Ethan shook his head. “Okay, the door just became a problem for later. Let’s go.”
I grabbed his arm. “We need to get out of here fast. That hatch is almost the exact diameter of that thing’s body.”
He nodded and pushed between us in the crowded tunnel. “Point taken. Follow me.”
In single file, we swam down the tunnel. Every so often, Ethan stopped to do something, tracing runes along the side of the walls, and every so often, a dull shudder reverberated from behind us.
The corridor branched several times, and I was certain that I didn’t want to know what devious traps lay down the wrong passages.
At last, we reached a silo-like chamber that ascended into the gloom above. Ethan waved us forward, and we spiraled up as a group.
Finally, after what must have been a hundred feet, I broke the surface, Jaxson at my side. Our headlamps traced the walls with beams of light as we looked around. It was a small, rectangular concrete chamber.
Jaxson heaved himself out of the water onto the crumbling platform. Smiling through his foggy mask, he reached out his hand. “Well, we lived.”
I clasped his hand, and he hauled me out of the water. I stood, yanked off my mask, and pulled my hair into a dripping ponytail behind me. “Great. We’ll defeat Dragan, but we’ll die of hypothermia.”
Ethan was the last out of the water. He took off his mask, and then, using it as a flashlight, followed a pair of conduits to a metal box. He popped it open and flicked a breaker. “Welcome to Bentham Prison.”
Light illuminated the room.