Kairo's gaze sharpened, his black eyes narrowing on Eli.
'He's lying.'
Eli's face gave him away. Wide eyes, trembling lashes, the faint twitch at the corner of his mouth—none of it matched the words he'd just forced out.
But what unsettled Kairo most wasn't the fear.
It wasn't the exhaustion.
It was the anger.
Not loud or obvious, but simmering.
Flickering through Eli's expression in a way that didn't belong.
'That look…' Kairo thought grimly, jaw tightening. 'Something's off with him.'
He wanted to press the boy right here, force an answer, shake out the truth—but he couldn't. Not now.
Not with the weight of the cavern pressing in and silence gnawing at the edges of his awareness.
There were two problems. Two massive problems.
First: Mio and Zaira.
They weren't anywhere nearby. No voices, no ripples in the water, no telltale flare of aura. He'd called for them, but nothing came back.
Second: the monster.
The octopus was gone.
