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If I died, Zoran died. And if Zoran died, the Mother of All Monsters would break free and take control of the oceans again. All the water fae would be at risk—which I didn’t really mind, since they sucked—but my friends would be at risk too.
Plus, there was so much I hadn’t done. I hadn’t even had sex yet!
So no, I couldn’t die.
Which meant I had to make my plan work.
With no time to waste, I finally moved.
My motions were fast and wobbly as I sliced through the tentacles holding my arms, and then up through the ones around my torso.
I rolled as much as I could while the creature screeched and gripped my ankles, and I sucked in a deep, desperate breath of air.
My chest heaved as more tentacles flew at me in retaliation.
With no other options left, I shoved my knife at the monster’s mouth, urging the stone to find its heart.
The earth saw what I couldn’t see and did what I couldn’t do.
My knife sank into the back of the creature’s throat.
The tentacles yanking at my legs went still.
The monster’s mouth closed.
And slowly, it sank to the ground, many of its tentacles still wrapped around me. Their grip had relaxed, but hadn’t let go altogether.
My heart pounded painfully, blood rushing in my head so loudly that I couldn’t hear a damn thing.
I waited for the creature to come back to life or otherwise attack me again… but it didn’t move.
Tears stung my eyes as shock made my chest tight.
I was okay.
I was alive.
I was okay.
“Holy shit,” I whispered against the tentacle still wrapped around my mouth.
Slowly, I peeled it away, shuddering at the cold roughness of the creature’s skin.
“I’m okay,” I said quietly, more for me than for Zoran even though he was probably scared out of his ever-loving mind too.
My fingers shook and tears dripped down my face, as I carefully detangled myself from the creature’s viney tentacles.
It was dead.
I was okay.
I didn’t feel okay, though.
Letting out a long, shaky breath, I started making my way to the pool I had felt earlier. I was in too much shock to speak again, even for Zoran, but I knew he would feel me if I went to the water.
And when he felt me, he would find me.
What felt like a lifetime later—but was probably only thirty minutes—I finally stumbled up to the edge of the pool.
