Page 209 of The Spider Queen
Only his eyes were the same. Blue, open, guileless.
But he looked like he’d lived a lifetime since we’d been separated, when he was taken as payment for a mess I had caused.
Hunter was now betrothed to a merrow princess.
Thane said Hunter’s memories had been stripped from him, and he didn’t remember me.
But when his hand touched mine, I knew it for the lie it was.
Hunter remembered me.
I inhaled a shaky breath.
Had Thane lied about Hunter or had he genuinely thought Hunter wouldn’t know me?
Did it matter? I’d chosen Thane.
Hunter swam in a lazy circle around me before whipping his powerful tail, propelling him down. When I didn’t follow after him immediately, he came back, lightly smacked my butt with his glimmering appendage, and took off again.
I kicked and dove.
He was still visible, despite the water turning murkier until finally all the light from above disappeared completely. Tiny jellyfish-like creatures with wispy tentacles flashed in a display of neon colors, illuminating the depths of the ocean. Everything had a dark green hue.
Deeper and deeper we went until we reached a crevice that ran along the bottom of the ocean floor. Hunter slipped down into the rift and faded out of sight.
I stopped swimming and treaded water, but when it was clear Hunter wasn’t coming back for me, I kicked my legs and went after him.
The bottom of the ocean was a tropical paradise. Here, the waters were crystal blue, stocked full of bright schools of fish. They darted around me, releasing a stream of air bubbles. Sea anemones in fluorescent pinks and blues reached out to stroke my body suit.
When I tried to stop and take it all in, I was urged along by the water current. It was a gentle flow, and I didn’t fight it. I glided, Hunter’s tail sparkling in the distance, a beacon.
Without the struggle of having to breathe or swim, my mind drifted to Thane again.
He’d sacrificed himself for me. He wasn’t dead, but he was petrified, and our connection was silent. Was he lucid? Cognizant of his surroundings, yet trapped in his own mind without the ability to communicate?
I hoped he wasn’t aware, and he was in some sort of alternate sleep state. Thane had been confined before and suffered insanity for years.
Was he at the bottom of the sea floor? How long before he looked like a forgotten statue from a shipwreck, covered in algae?
Lost in my own thoughts, I hadn’t realized the current picked up speed. It was now forceful, ruthless, and wouldn’t let me go even as I fought against it.
There was a flash of Hunter’s tail, but then it winked out of existence. I was being shoved along course, and the crevice widened, revealing the bottoming out of the sea floor.
A huge drop was coming. There was a giant whirlpool, an underwater tornado, spinning and spinning.
Every few moments, I was able to see Hunter as he ricocheted around the powerful funnel until finally he was sucked into the middle. I couldn’t even detect the gleam of his silver scales anymore.
Fighting was useless. I let my arms and legs go limp. I felt like a ball in a slingshot. Thrust out of the current, I was caught by the swirling funnel.
I couldn’t tell up from down, so I closed my eyes, fighting the rebellion of my stomach. Finally, I blasted through the center of the whirlpool and launched upward. The moment my head broke free of the water, my air bubble disappeared.
The three moons illuminated the dark sky, and the stars glittered, looking close enough to touch.
Off in the distance, I caught moonbeams caressing a silver-scaled tail resting against a gray and black rock.
I headed for the cluster of stones, wondering what my conversation with Hunter would bring.
Chapter 37
