“We will make sure you are plenty warm on the island, Reagan,” Iqbal said, before dipping beneath the surface and shooting forward.
Eldar cursed and followed, driven by his competitive nature, even against his own partner.
Reagan glanced back.
Jane shivered violently, arms wrapped around her torso, eyes scanning the dark water swirling around her waist. The tight dress revealed far too much, the fabric outlining even the faint peaks of her nipples.
For once, he was grateful for the cold water.
Finn tugged her by the elbow and guided her between them. Their lips had already begun to turn blue.
“If I haven’t said it yet, let me say it now,” Reagan muttered. “I hate your family.”
They both laughed under their breaths despite the shivering.
“I might second that,” Jane managed, her teeth clicking.
Reagan rubbed warmth into her arm, channelling heat into her chilled skin. She exhaled in relief.
“If you are waiting for me to defend them, we’ll stay here all night,” Finn said.
“Ready?” Maith called, standing far from them, closer to Arun. Anife had already vanished ahead.
“We’ll give you a head start,” Reagan said.
“Good luck,” she purred, her gaze sliding briefly to Finnegan. “Try not to let the sirens catch you.”
As she and the other began cutting through the waves, Jane leaned closer and whispered, “How do I not fall into a siren’s thrall?”
“If you hear a sound like it is coming from beneath the water, do not look for it,” Reagan said. “If anything enters your vision, close your eyes immediately. Whatever you do, do not meet their gaze. And swim as fast as you can.”
She nodded with earnest focus. “And sea spiders?”
Finn answered first, bouncing in place to stave off the cold. “Don’t worry about sea spiders. We should go, or we will never hear the end of it.”
They pushed past Reagan and began cutting through the shallows, both flinching as the cold seized their limbs. He followed, pushing into the open stretch of water. The daylight still held, warm but thinning, enough to grant visibility into the deep. He guessed the seabed lay thirty metres below far ahead, a dark blur but not impenetrable.
For a few heartbeats, there was only the rhythm of their strokes and the harsh, steady pull of their breathing.
“At least this is better than climbing that bloody hillside with the smooth rock,” Finn said from Jane’s other side, reminding him of their last time there.
Jane swam with tension on her arms, breathing harder than them, but the strokes were efficient. She didn’t leverage her legsenough, yet she kept a steady pace. Reagan watched her more than he watched the water.
“Just as much fun,” he replied in a deadened tone that earned him a short huff from Finn.
Reagan kept pace with them until a disturbance to the east caught his attention.
Something moved beneath the surface. Something large.
A surge of pale limbs knifed upward and headed toward Eldar far ahead. The spiders should have been no more than a nuisance for the elves. Their bodies were little more than membranous heads attached to bristling maws and a sprawling mass of limbs, each no larger than a man’s forearm. Slow compared to worse things with that much hunger and teeth.
But what he saw ahead made Reagan halt, a hard stillness settling through him as a second wave appeared, then a third, each moving with a single mind. Just before reaching the elves, they veered. The swarm scattered, curling wide to circle all the elvenborn in the water before heading straight for the three of them.
“Well, fuck,” Finn muttered, stopping mid-stroke.
“What is it?” Jane spluttered, her arms flailing to keep her balance on the water.
“Sea spiders,” Reagan said. “A lot of them.”
