We reached the mouth of the cavern, and I tugged him inside. They followed, trailing us into the passage until the water's surface met the top ofmy head, cool air across my scalp. I transitioned and climbed out, grabbing Pheolix’s elbow and forcing him to follow me. Cebrinne and Aegir waited for us inside, fully clothed and leaning against the walls, but they both jumped to their feet at my expression.
“What is it?” Cebrinne demanded, taking Pheolix’s bloodied arm. He hadn’t transitioned into his legs, and his tail dragged uselessly as we pulled him out. Aegir tugged off his silk shirt, fitting it over my head. Then stood over the three of us, facing the water with dregs of moisture ready between his fingertips as he stared into the black.
“Naiads,” I panted. Water trickled to my fingertips, condensation waiting for my call, and I flicked it away, reaching to hold both sides of Pheolix’s head for a proper look at him. His eyes hung half-open, his mouth slightly parted, but he lazily met my gaze.
Alarmed, Cebrinne helped me lean him against the wall. “What happened to him?”
Before I could answer, they began to rise from the water.
They were already wearing white silk, the delicate fabric clinging to their skin as they emerged, shining against our bioluminescent jars. Cebrinne shot to her feet, palms up as she stood at Aegir’s side, brows pulled low and fierce. The female Naiad in front ignored them, tilting her head to view Pheolix. “The screaming bloodworm has venomous spines and teeth,” she said, an apathetic hand resting on the small knife clipped to her belt. “It kills fast if its venom meets a main artery. He needs an antitoxin, unless you’d rather him die.”
I glanced down at Pheolix. His skin had already closed where the creature’s teeth and tail had sliced through. But deep, black webbing bloomed under each puncture mark, long lines below his flesh where venom intercepted blood vessels. It had begun to swell, the tight edges of Pheolix’s shoulder and bicep losing their sculpted curves and giving way to a shape unnaturally bloated.
The Naiad moved in, ignoring the threatening stance Aegir and Cebrinne held in front of us. She stopped at Pheolix’s feet. Pale, flaxen hair streamed from her head, as straight as summer hay, though her eyes were dark and shrewd. A hard-set jaw and high cheeks, distrust circling behind her gaze as she watched. “Can you raise your arm?”
His eyes lifted to hers, though they remained unfocused, as if he couldn’t quite see her. His arm didn’t move.
She studied the closed wounds around his shoulder. “It hit an artery. He’s gone.”
“No—wait!” I blurted, jumping to my feet.
She’d already turned back to the water. “The antitoxin takes ten minutes. He’ll be dead within two. We’d be fighting organ failure, and I’m not skilled enough to restart a heart. Only an ancient bloodline—” She paused, taking in Aegir for the first time. Then Cebrinne. Then me. The prickle ofspiculaefrom her gaze shot down my spine, stronger than most Naiads.
Her mouth opened and closed.
“Please,” I said. Pheolix’s snarky remarks might have made me want to impale his mouth with the longest knife I could find, but I didn’t want him todie. Certainly not from an injury he’d received while protecting me. “Please don’t leave him.”
“Sicia,” the Naiad called, still gazing at the four of us.
One of the waiting sirens turned, diving back into the dark water.
“You’reallheirs?” the female asked.
The burn of panic and impatience lit like fire in my muscles, sending my hands shaking. What did it matter if we were?
Aegir nodded, laying a calm hand on my shoulder and indicating the three of us with his chin. “We are. I’m aVidere.”
“Of where?”
“Venusia.”
A thousand questions lit behind her clever dark eyes, but she stole a glance back at Pheolix. “Have you fought a dying heart?” she asked. “Lung hemorrhage? Kidney failure? Necrosis?”
“I’ve stopped a heart before,” I said hopefully. “Twice.”
“This is different. Stopping a healthy heart is easy. Starting one that doesn’t want to start…” She clicked her tongue, glancing back to Aegir. “Can you produce electricity?”
He lifted a finger, a tiny zap of light snapping the air from the end of it.
She exhaled. “It’s not about power. You’re not commanding the skies. It’s about finesse.”
“Just tell me what to do,” Aegir said.
She tilted her head back, closing her eyes. “Probably a waste of supplies,” she muttered, then hurried to bend at Pheolix’s side. His breathing had grown in volume and labor, rattling on each inhale. “I’m Xiane. I’ll cover tissue damage. You’re on circulation.” She pointed at me, then Cebrinne. “Lungs.” Her finger landed on Aegir. “You’ll take his heart.”
I glanced back at the black under his skin, the long lines now tracking the length of his arm and stretching from his shoulder toward his chest. “What do we do?”
Kneeling at his side, Xiane pulled Pheolix’s arm into her lap, dark eyes piercing mine.
