Elise drifted, the water turning to freezing slush around her. She saw herself mutating into an exact replica of her mother—isolated, ruthless, entombed in an empire of ice. But the memory of Nathan's hand pulling her from the brink flared in her chest, melting the frost. "I am not her. I am myself."
Smithy squeezed his eyes shut. The faces of his wife and children floated in the dark water, turning their backs to him in absolute disgust. "You let us burn." A single tear leaked from the corner of his eye, washing away in the sea. "I know. And I will carry that forever. But I won't let it happen to anyone else."
The psychic assault shattered. The invasive illusions dissolved back into the murky green water. The party formed up tight and pressed on.
And there, suspended at the absolute epicenter of the Leviathan's anatomy, they found the seed.
