They were halfway to the surface when the water ahead split open.
Something enormous barreled towards them from the dark above, descending at speed, and Gavriel's blood went cold the instant his Fae senses registered what it was.
Shark-like, but warped. Mutated. Built wrong on purpose, the way dark magic built everything, functional and nightmarish in equal measure. Its jaw was hinged too wide, hanging open at an angle that shouldn't have been anatomically possible, and inside that jaw were rows of jagged teeth that spiraled inward like a funnel designed to ensure that anything that entered never came back out.
It was headed straight for Serena's leg.
The spike. The goddamn spike still embedded in her leg, still pulsing dark magic, still broadcasting her blood into the water like a dinner bell that had been ringing since the tentacle put it there. Mr. Shark had tasted her and was coming to collect.
