“I can’t do it myself,” Kingston growled in exasperation. “I’ve only been a god for like five minutes. I wouldn’t even know where to begin fixing this fucking place. I need to go get help. Has the Queen of the Fairies and her consort been informed?”
Lana shook her head. “We’ve been in here, trying to stay away from everyone.”
“That’s smart,” Kingston praised. “I’m going to go grab my mate, Braxton, Devon, and…hellfire, everyone that is available. Stay here. I’ll come back to get you.”
Kingston disappeared, once again leaving Mordecai and Lana alone. He smiled when she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her cheek against his chest.
“Well, we did our part. Now, the gods can fix the rest of it,” Lana said.
He pressed a kiss on her forehead. “Let’s just hope nothing else goes wrong.”
She let out a loud groan. “Now, you just jinxed us. You shouldn’t have said that. In the movies, saying that always triggers something else to happen.”
“I think you watch too many of these movies.”
She rolled her eyes. “Just you wait and see. Sometimes you can learn things from movies like—”
A loud explosion blasted one of the walls of the library into pieces. Mordecai tried to throw up a magical shield to protect them from the blast, but it failed. Thankfully, Lana did the same thing, only hers worked. It saved them from being hit by a barrage of rocks and other debris, but the force of the blast was still strong enough to knock them off their feet and send them flying back several feet.
“We have to get out of here,” Mordecai growled as several inmates poured into the room, fighting and flinging magic at each other.
“I still can’t teleport,” Lana admitted.
He grabbed her hand and hauled her to her feet. “Then, we’ll barricade ourselves in the back of the library where we can defend ourselves better.”
But it was already too late.
Before they could move, a deafening screech ripped through the library. The massive wall of windows shuddered violentlyas jagged cracks exploded across the glass, branching out in every direction like white lightning. The fractures spread with terrifying speed, splintering into intricate spiderwebs that stretched from floor to ceiling.
For one impossible heartbeat, the glass held, and everything seemed to stop as the world balanced on the edge of disaster.
No one moved.
No one even breathed.
Then, the glass shattered, and a monstrous wave surged into the library with unstoppable force, instantly flooding the room.
“Mordecai!”
Wrapping both arms around her, he pulled Lana against his chest and tried to shield her with his body as the wall of water slammed into them. The impact drove the air from his lungs. It felt like being hit by a meteor. They were helpless as the raging flood sent them tumbling end over end amid shattered glass and broken rocks.
Mordecai fought to keep Lana in his grasp, locking his arms around her tight, using every ounce of strength he had within him as the current swept them out of the library, dragging them out into the open water. Instinct screamed at him to fight, but he couldn’t even tell which way was up or down. His lungs burned from lack of air, and his muscles strained, but he refused to let go of his mate.
If this was really the end, then he would gladly spend his final moments holding the female he loved.
Chapter Ten
Lana’s worst nightmarewas coming true.
Her fear of drowning in deep water had never been the kind of thing she could explain away with logic. Nothing had triggered it. There were no tragic incidents in her past. No near-death experience that had carved the terror into her psyche. It had simply always been there, keeping her away from the dark depths of the unknown.
But perhaps she had somehow foreshadowed her own end.
Now that it was happening, she realized there was nothing irrational about her fear. Actually, the reality of it was far more terrifying than she had imagined. The vast lake was merciless. An endless dark pool filled with ancient magic that swallowed light, sound, and hope with equal indifference. Every violent surge pulled them farther from safety, dragging them away from the prison and deeper into the cold abyss.
As the pressure increased, Lana wrapped her arms around Mordecai’s neck and clung to him with everything she had. Her lungs burned. Her muscles screamed in protest. Panic clawed at her, wild and vicious, urging her to kick, thrash, do anything to escape the crushing weight closing in around them.
But fighting was futile.
