The plunge ended in impact.
Water slammed into Rhea like a wall of ice, stealing the breath from her lungs before she could even scream. Her body spun through the dark, buffeted by unseen currents, until the weight of the abyss seemed to crush in from all sides.
Her eyes flew open, stinging against the freezing burn. No torchlight. No surface shimmer. Only a dim, otherworldly glow pulsing from the stone walls far below—like veins carrying molten light through the bones of the earth.
Kael's arm was still locked tight around her waist, his grip iron and desperate. But his gaze wasn't on her,it was below.
The darkness shifted.
Something vast rose from the depths.
At first, it seemed like the water itself was curving upward, a spiral of shadow turning in slow, inevitable hunger. Then came the teeth—not in a jaw, but in a perfect circle, curving inward into a black throat that seemed to have no end. Dozens of rows. Hundreds. Each tooth hooked and serrated, glistening with the shimmer of the bioluminescent glow.
The water vibrated with a low, rumbling pull like the tide was being sucked toward it.
Kael shoved her upward with sudden force, his voice lost in the muffled void. But before she could kick for the surface, something cold and slick wrapped around her ankle.
The pull was instant and brutal. Her body jerked downward so hard her spine ached. She twisted, clawing at the water, but her calf exploded with pain as the teeth grazed her flesh,not a full bite, but a taste.
It wanted her alive.
The scent of her own blood tore through her senses even beneath the water, and her wolf snapped awake. Power ripped through her veins like fire in oil, her muscles burning with sudden, feral strength. Her vision sharpened, the currents slowing to a crawl as her instincts took over.
She twisted. Claws slid free from her fingers, sharper than steel, and she drove them deep into the thing's slick, ridged flesh. It was like tearing into wet leather, resistant but yielding with a sickening rip. Black ichor gushed out in a cloud, burning cold against her skin.
The coil loosened.
Rhea tore free, her lungs screaming, and kicked upward. Kael was there instantly, one hand under her arm, the other slicing the water with sure, brutal strokes. Together they broke the surface, exploding into the cavern's air in a spray of foam and gasps.
But relief didn't come.
The cavern moved.
Stalactites split open like wet jaws, strands of fleshy sinew hanging between them, twitching as if tasting the air. The walls shuddered and bulged, revealing dozens of smaller maws hidden in the stone. Their teeth clicked in erratic hunger, the sound echoing like bone on bone.
"This isn't a cave," Kael snarled, hauling her toward a narrow ledge where the rock jutted up from the water. His eyes burned gold in the strange light. "It's a throat."
The water behind them churned violently. The massive spiral-mouth surged upward, its roar a vibration that rattled their bones and made the walls quiver. Spray drenched them as its teeth snapped just short of the ledge.
Rhea's wolf was already pacing inside her, hackles raised. The scent of the thing's breath—rot and iron,clung to her skin.
If they didn't move now, the Devil's Maw would swallow them whole.