He yanked me off the ledge, my hand still in his, and we both plummeted into the dark water below, my scream echoing through the ancient cavern.
When my legs hit the surface, my body felt as if it had been dipped in ice. It robbed me of breath, and I panicked, kicking out frantically. I had lost Kiyan’s hand, and I couldn’t sense where he was in the water.
It was so dark, coupled with the fact that I wasn’t wearing my spectacles I was disoriented and turned around, unable to see anything.
I wasn’t the strongest swimmer to begin with, but with my lungs bursting I kicked my legs hard, desperate to draw breath and escape the freezing lake. I finally broke through the surface with a heavy gasp, my lungs clamoring for as much air as they could get. My breath came out in shallow bursts, and I tried to calm my consuming panic.
Kiyan popped up behind me, surfacing much more gracefully than I had, with hardly a sound. I looked across the lake at the flickering torch I’d seen earlier and began to swim toward it. At least I had a beacon of light to swim toward, even if I couldn’t see.
I was desperate to escape the icy water, though it had grown more bearable the more I swam.
“It looks like the vault is over there,” I said to Kiyan, my voice coming out like a weak croak. I kicked harder toward the light, but a hand gripped my shoulder, holding me back.
“Kiyan, we need to go before we—” I turned.
Black hair, wet to her skull, sunken eyes illuminated by the torches, a mouth too wide for her face, and tiny white teeth sharpened to razors.
Her hand was on my shoulder, the fingers filed down to stubs, the bones of her knuckles protruding like nails.
My scream tore through me, the sound caught in my throat. I tried to push away from her, but my legs refused to cooperate, terror overriding my body.
A shrill shriek erupted from her mouth and her bone nails dug into the meat of my arms, dragging me back down to the depths of the underground lake.
I kicked against her side but couldn’t gain purchase; instead, her nails scraped down my body, the pain like a trail of fire in the cold water.
She latched onto my ankles, pulling me down farther, and no amount of kicking was going to break the vise she had on me. The scant light above started to dim, and at the same time the edges of my vision grew black.
I was fading, my ability to resist disappearing with every inch I was dragged under.
Until a small spark of relief came in the form of warm, calloused fingers wrapping around my wrist, and tugging me back up.
Kiyan.
I grabbed onto the hand with both of mine, feeling the muscle of his solid forearm under my skin.
A scream wrenched through the water, and I saw flashes of the creature out of the shadows as she tried to yank me back down. The whites of her eyes, little sharp teeth, and snatches of a snarling demonic face chased me as I was pulled toward the surface. My chest felt as if it were about to combust, and I was finding it difficult to focus on anything but the warm hands wrapped around mine.
They were theonlything I could focus on.
I kicked my legs furiously, despite my waning consciousness, and I was rewarded when my heel connected with cold flesh.
The monster released my ankles just for a second. In that moment, I lurched up, breaking the surface, gasping air.
Kiyan was in front of me, breathing heavily, watching me with a grim expression.
“What was that?” I gasped out, but a shriek filled the air before he could answer me.
The creature was back, her awful eyes large and wild.
Kiyan shoved me out of the way with a hard push.
“Was that necessary?” I splashed water at his face. “You could have just said ‘move.’”
“It is when you just sit there gawping at a jaipari about to drown you,” he shot back, diving at the creature.
A flash of steel glinted in the torchlight and he plunged a dagger toward the chest of the monstrous sea woman—the jaipari. She laughed, a shrill sound that took my breath just as fiercely as the cold water. She shoved the dagger away, swimming around us in a swirl of black water.
The jaipari lunged at me again and this time Kiyan grabbed her by the throat and slammed her up against the cavern wall.
