The engine roars to life, a sound that travels through the water as a violent vibration.
The House of Drift doesn't turn carefully around. It spins aggressively, grinding against the canyon walls, throwing up clouds of silt. Then it launches itself forward with a force that throws me against the opening.
We don't drift anymore.
We charge.
I hold myself firmly in the main opening of the shell, the red vest tied tightly around my scarred arm. The wind of our passage rushes past me, pulling at my fins and hair.
I can't speak. I can't roar his name to the empty water.
But I'm coming.
And I'm bringing a terrifying storm with me.
Chapter 11
A Comforting Silence
Vaelis
"Kael!"
The name tears from my throat, a desperate sound lost in the rushing current. The water devours my voice, leaving only the frantic hammering of my own heart against my ribs.
He doesn't look. His focus is fixed on the charging swarm, his heavy arms spread wide, his broad body locked into a rigid line of defiance. He tries to create a barrier of flesh and bone, to stop hundreds of apex predators with nothing but his own imposing presence.
The Great White now continues its acceleration.
It ignores Kael, charging past him.
Why would a starving monster stop for a gray, silent shadow when a bright, crimson distress flare drops directly from the sky?
The shark commits to the kill. His black eyes roll backward, protecting the vulnerable tissue for the strike. The gills on his neck and ribs flare wide. His tail snaps with a terrifying force, sending a physical shockwave rippling through the freezing water.
He's coming directly for me.
I try to twist my body in the water, to use the downward momentum of my dive to spin away from the open jaws. I try to flank him, as the rigid military training manuals instructed the Vanguard to do.
Use your natural agility, the scarred Sergeant barked at us in the armory. Your bones are lighter. You are faster.
I am lighter. I am not faster.
The collision hits me like a falling mountain.
I don't feel the razor-sharp teeth at first. I only register the devastating impact. The sheer, crushing weight of the shark-mer slamming into my fine body knocks the precious water from my burning lungs. It snaps my ribs. He spins me around in the water so hard the entire world becomes a nauseating blur of gray shadows and white foam.
Then, the agonizing pain arrives.
It's cold. It's razor-sharp.
The teeth tear through my left shoulder. They shred the useless mesh vest. They slice through my skin, deep into the muscle underneath, grating agonizingly against my collarbone.
I scream.
The sound is wet and garbled. A frantic burst of silver bubbles, dark blood.
The shark-mer thrashes, its head jerking from side to side. The rough, abrasive skin scrapes against my bare side like coarse sandpaper, grating against my ribs. He has me in his jaws. He's tasted the red.
