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My slick fist clasped the dagger, the edge made of sharp jagged obsidian.
Charybdis’s mouth yawned before me, so dark and cavernous it swallowed the light. She had no lips, just rows and rows of sharp triangular teeth that circled her round mouth. If she bit down, she would slide me in half. The water at my feet rushed toward her mouth as she breathed in again, sucking me toward her.
I needed her to swallow me, but I had to get past the teeth first.
It seemed so simple.
Charybdis was swallowing the water. I needed to become the water. If I didn’t have a body, she couldn’t bite me.
The knife.
I cursed. Water couldn’t carry a blade, at least not with any precision. The risk of the blade being swept away was too great, and though my fingernails were sharp, I had no hope of piercing Charybdis’s heart without a knife.
Shay’s blade was as long as my forearm, the hilt decorated with dyed leather. No guard. The weapon was more like a mini spear than a dagger but wouldn’t pierce the creature's thick hide. Past the mouth and her skin, armored with thick turquoise scales, each one larger than my body.
There was nothing for it.
I had to dive inside of her mouth.
I took a deep, fortifying breath, feeling the lake under my feet and the burn in my lungs as I pumped my legs, racing toward her.
Each tooth was bigger than my body, supported by another row of teeth. Serrated triangles, sawing within a circular mouth.
Maybe I’d made a big mistake. Perhaps I should have turned tail and run. Maybe as soon as the monster swallowed me, I’d be dead.
Be brave.
Be brave.
Be brave.
Shay screamed my name from the shore again.
I called the water under my feet, and it reared up, carrying me on a wave.
Directly into the beast’s mouth.
I missed the teeth by a hair, though my trousers weren’t so lucky. I stood up on the beast’s tongue, holding out my arms to balance as the spongy pink floor began to undulate.
Water rushed down the gutters on either side of her tongue, down into the abyss of her throat. Charybdis let out a shriek; the force of the sound pushed my wet hair away from my face and knocked me back. She rolled her tongue, attempting to send me back into her gnashing teeth.
I ran for it, to the end of her tongue and the sheer drop of her throat. Trying not to think too hard, I sunk down onto my ass and pushed myself off the edge. The water carried me, stealing all sound. Darkness swallowed me, and the stink of bile and rot made me gag as I kept falling down down down.
I held the blade away from my body, hoping I didn’t stab myself accidentally as I couldn’t see anything through the gloom.
My breath exploded from my lungs as I landed, bouncing once on something squishy and wet. It was almost worse to land when I hadn’t been expecting it, unable to brace. Winded, I curled over, trying to catch my breath, before I stood.
Over the rush of water, a steady thump beckoned.
Her heart.
I wasn’t a healer. I didn’t know Fae anatomy well, let alone the ins and outs of a behemoth creature meant to be imprisoned below the lake. I knew that hearts made a thumping sound, like a drum, and if I followed it, I might find the beast’s heart. I reached into my pocket, pulling Tor’s firelighter from my hands; the flame pierced the darkness enough to see.
When the chilled fleshy walls pressed in on me, I cut through them, Shay’s blade parting the sinew like butter. Blood, as cold as ice, clung to me. Soon, my hair was slick with it. My face was covered, and my eyes struggled to stay open.
The blood stank of rot. Death.
I cut myself from chamber to chamber of Charybdis’s body until a soft glow seared my eyes, and I held up my arm to block the light. I stumbled through the hole I’d made in her internal walls, tripping over the shredded flesh. My feet sunk into the spongy surface as I approached the crystallized muscle, wrapped in thick veins and tendons stretched like taut ropes suspended in the middle of the room.
