Page 208 of The Spider Queen
But unlike Alice, I didn’t have a bottle to escape into.
Thane’s petrified body was now a few feet under water. I held onto him, but the force of the water and the bottoming out of the ground ripped him away from me.
Down, down, down, he sank, vanishing into the dark, murky depths.
Before I knew it, I was completely submerged in the water, too.
The desert had become an ocean.
The barren tree’s roots stretched for miles below.
I was immortal, but I didn’t have gills.
My lungs began to burn as I struggled to the surface, somehow knowing it was futile, somehow knowing there was not a speck of dry land left. And even if I could find a way to climb the barren tree, and sit among its dead branches, I knew there wouldn’t be anything for me there.
Nothing would save me.
So I stopped fighting and let myself sink.
Specks of silver light danced before my eyes.
Could an immortal drown? Would I come back to life only to drown again?
These were the thoughts swimming through my head as my eyes deceived me.
The specks of silver weren’t light at all, but scales covering a long, powerful, shimmering tail.
And my last thought right before I was about to drown was that Hunter wouldn’t let me die.
Chapter 36
Hunter opened his mouth like he was going to speak. He moved his lips and blew out his breath. He swirled his hands around the air bubbles, pushing them together to form one giant bubble. He cupped it in his palms and guided it toward me. It hovered over my head and then molded itself to my skull.
Once it covered my nose and mouth, I gasped.
And breathed in air.
He’d made me an oxygen mask.
I took a few deep breaths, filling my lungs. The fuzziness of my head cleared and I blinked, somehow able to see clearly underwater now. The oxygen mask doubled as a pair of goggles.
Hysteria battled its way through my mind, but I forced it down.
The ocean wasn’t nearly as dark as I’d thought. It was deep blue, and the farther down I looked, the darker it became. Right now, I could see everything in front of me.
There was no marine life. No colorful fish or curious crustaceans. No dolphin pods or sharks.
Only Hunter.
Who was now a merrow. Human face and upper body…and then a long fish tail instead of legs.
And looking at me like he knew me.
Why are you here?I asked in my head.
But there was no answer from him because we didn’t share a mental connection. I briefly thought of Thane, but knew if I dwelled on what had happened to him and where he was, I’d have a mental breakdown.
I focused on the merrow treading water. Hunter’s blond hair was no longer completely golden but streaked with silver and green, the color of algae. His skin had a silver sheen and his tail glinted.
