Page 109 of Season Warriors & Wolves

Mal faked a snore and Kilian shot him a dark look.

The younger brother chuckled. “My explanation was intended to be much shorter. Demon King had no prayer. Demon king fell. The end. But his will do it.”

“Never mind him,” I murmured to my husband. “I love it when you speak history to me. Even more so divine history.”

“I saw you doze off a little.”

Only because he had told me about this last night in bed. I would have never missed listening to his stories for nothing. “Just resting my eyelids, darling.”

Mal suddenly rushed to the quarter deck, narrowing his eyes on the black waters that were so heavy and thick in density it almost resembled tar. “Bother,” he warned, and Kilian’s darkness dripped around us, clouds of black formed skeletal shapes with glowing eyes, hissing at the very air around us.

The ship swayed and Kilian wrapped an arm around my waist to steady me.

Everyone went quiet.

There was not a sound of nature around us.

The sea was silent. And so was the air. So silent that I could hear all five of our heartbeats. And then…another much louder sixth one ticking like a clock. Growing closer and closer.

I spun round before the massive serpent like eudaemon broke the water and shrilled in the air, raising chills on my skin.

Its body froze at my command and then the sharp brush of cutting wind blew the body to small pieces.

Cai stood behind me. “What were you waiting for?” he sneered. “A bloody invitation?”

“Wanted to see if it could really hypnotise me.”

Ignoring me, he turned round to survey the murky waters that had begun gurgling beneath us with more movement.

“Uhm,” my sister said, pointing below us. “Why is it spinning?”

We all leaned over deck to watch as the water around our ships began spinning into a vortex and lowering us inside it—slowly engulfing the whole ship.

“Air pocket!” Cai shouted, and both he and Thora formed a barrier of wind around us when the water rose almost to the deck.

“He is inviting us in,” Kil said too calmly while his shapes of night doubled and then tripled around us.

It was too dark to see anything, but when the ship shook, I knew we had touched the bottom of the sea.

Dozens, hundred, thousands and ten thousands of heartbeats circled us, growing more and more somewhere between the layer of water that was being held away by wind.

“What do you see?” I asked Kilian when his hand tightened around my wrist.

I felt his body slide before mine as if to shield me. “Nothing I want you to see.”

“Mal?” I called.

“I’ve got them,” he echoed.

Electricity lit my fingertips, bringing light all around us.

My eyes doubled at what stood not even a couple of feet before us. “Hells.” All sorts of creatures floated in the dark waters we were submerged under. Horns, talons and teeth, pimpled flesh and veiny skins, mangled bodies with either too many limbs or barely any. Eyes too dark and some too pale were focused on us—on me—unmoving behind the shield of air, though I was sure it would be no struggle for them to break through it. Yet they weren’t. The creatures finally moved, parting in the middle to make space for something else swimming in our direction. The body looked human from afar, up until it got close enough for me to see its features—or the lack of them. No eyes, mouth or nose. Wrinkled skin covered its face and the rest of its body. It got close to the shield of air and rested a three fingered hand on it before pointing one at me.

The water around us suddenly dispelled, creating a vortex that revealed the sandy floor of the sea and a massive rocky city standing right before us, surrounded by mile tall walls of black water. At its centre stood a giant fortress the size of a mountain, metallic gates bound the entrance of it shut.

“Hellas,” Mal said, eyes wide ahead. “Thought this one was a bloody legend. There really is a city down here.”

The thing pointed its finger to me again and backed away, bowing its head.