Chapter 52 Serpent
Sebastian POV
The cold hits me like a blade. So cold it burns. Of course, it’d have to be the coldest water known to mankind.
The moment I slip beneath the surface, the water closes around me with brutal force. My body jerks instinctively as the shock tries to steal the breath from my lungs.
Darkness swallows me almost immediately. The faint daylight from the cavern above disappears within seconds, replaced by a thick black void pressing in from every direction.
Then the pendant around my neck flares.
The blue stone bursts into a bright white glow, cutting through the darkness like a lantern. The light pushes outward in a sphere, illuminating the water around me.
I can see about five feet.
Maybe a little more.
Not much, but enough to see where I’m going.
I angle downward, kicking slowly. The cold is already trying to stiffen my limbs, creeping into my fingers and calves. Even with Lycan blood, this water feels like it was pulled straight from the heart of a glacier.
When I get my hands on that with brother of Sybil’s.. I swear to the goddess, I’ll make him pay extra just for this.
The cavern beneath the pool slopes down like a submerged throat. Jagged rock walls close in around me, slick with algae and pale mineral deposits. Pale moss sways lazily in the slow underwater currents like ghostly fingers brushing the stone.
If I weren’t in water, I’d get the chills just being here. I’ve never been a big fan of deep water. But for Amara.. I’d do anything.
The pull in my chest sharpens immediately.
This way.
It hums through my bones, guiding me deeper.
Pressure builds in my ears as I descend. The only sound is the dull rush of bubbles escaping my nose and the faint thrum of magic from the glowing pendant.
I’m maybe a minute down.
Then the cavern opens wider.
The floor drops away beneath me, revealing a massive chamber hidden below the surface.
My kick slows.
Something about the space feels incredibly.. wrong.
The water here is heavier. Colder. Still. I do not like this.
The pendant’s light drifts across what kind of looks like a ridge of dark stone rising from the cavern floor.
Except for the ridge curves.
The surface is rough, layered in thick overlapping plates that look almost like obsidian. The longer I stare, the more wrong it feels.
That, is not rock.
My body goes perfectly still.
The “stone” shifts slightly with the water, revealing the shape of something enormous coiled along the cavern floor. One massive loop of its body disappears into the darkness beyond my light. Then another.
A coil thicker than I’d ever seen before.
My heart slams against my ribs.
A serpent.
But not just any serpent.
A leviathan.
The creature’s body winds through the entire chamber, ancient scales layered over muscle that could crush a house. Faint blue lines trace between the ridges of its armor-like plates, glowing dimly beneath centuries of scars.
At first glance, it looks like part of the cavern itself.
Then its chest expands.
Slowly.
The movement pushes clouds of silt into the water as the massive rib cage rises before settling again. The pressure of that breath ripples through the water around me.
Dear Goddess. Spare me.
My instincts scream at me to turn around and swim back to the surface immediately. No artifact in the world is worth disturbing something like this.
But the pull is still there.
Stronger than ever.
And it’s coming from somewhere beyond the creature.
I force myself to move.
Every kick is slow. Controlled. Careful not to disturb the water too much. Even the smallest movement feels too loud in this silent cavern.
As I angle around one of the massive coils, the pendant light glows brighter now, across more of the leviathan’s body.
Ancient scars crisscross the armored scales like pale rivers carved into obsidian. Long whisker-like tendrils drift lazily from somewhere near its head, swaying in the dark water.
Feeling around.
Waiting.
I keep my distance from them as I swim past.
The water grows slightly warmer near the creature’s body, the heat of something massive and alive bleeding slowly into the freezing pool. Every slow breath sends another faint tremor through the water.
My eyes catch a glimpse of something just ahead.
At the base of the cavern floor, nestled within a cradle of black stone between two massive coils of the serpent’s body, something faintly glows.
Small.
But unmistakable.
I kick closer.
The object rests on a natural pedestal of stone, no bigger than my fist.
The artifact. I inch closer to see what I’m dealing with.
The surface looks like petrified flesh turned to crystal over centuries. Deep crimson veins run through blackened stone, frozen in twisted patterns like lightning trapped inside rock.
The Petrified Heart.
Even underwater I can feel the power rolling off it. Ancient. Heavy. Alive in a way that doesn’t make sense. Why a heart? At the bottom of a cavern, at that?
The pull in my chest surges violently, like two magnets snapping together across distance.
This is it.
But as I drift closer, something else comes into view.
The serpent’s head.
It rests only a short distance away, partially buried in silt. The skull alone is the size of a carriage, lined with teeth long like daggers that curve inward like spears.
Along its neck, thick gill slits pulse slowly with each breath.
One eye sits just above the stone floor.
Closed.
The eyelid is covered in the same armored scales as the rest of its body, but even shut I can see the faint bulge of the massive eye beneath it. Fck. I can’t do this.
Its eye is the size of a shield.
It’s sleeping.. Sebastian. Just.. go get it..
I glance back toward the surface far above.
My lungs burn now, the first sharp warning that my air won’t last much longer. I’ve been down here long enough.
The pendant’s magic is helping, but not by much.
My gaze shifts back to the artifact resting between the serpent’s coils.
Close enough to reach.
If I move carefully.
Very, very carefully, I reach out and wrap my fingers around it.
The moment the Petrified Heart comes free from the stone cradle, the pull in my chest vanishes.
Just like that. I got it.
The strange humming that had guided me down here goes silent, leaving only the dull roar of blood pounding in my ears. I need to hurry. For a split second, I hover here, staring at the artifact clutched in my hand.
It’s heavier than it looks. Cold. The crimson veins inside the stone flicker faintly before settling into a dim, steady glow.
No reaction from the leviathan.
Thank the Goddess.
Carefully, I tuck the Petrified Heart against my chest and push off the cavern floor. My body moves faster now, kicking toward the path I took down. Still trying my best to stay silent, I’d rather not wake the sleeping water monster.
The pendant’s white light slices through the darkness as I swim.
Past the stone pedestal.
Past the massive coils.
Each movement feels louder than the last. My lungs burn fiercely now, a sharp pressure building beneath my ribs. Even with the necklace’s magic stretching my breath, I’m pushing the limit.
Just keep moving.
The leviathan remains motionless behind me.
Its enormous chest rises and falls in those slow, earth-shaking breaths. Silt drifts lazily from its scales as the currents shift around its body.
Still asleep.
Still unaware.
Thank the fcking moon goddess.
I glide over one of the enormous coils again, careful not to brush the armored plates. Another breath ripples through the cavern.
The coil lifts slightly beneath me.
Then settles.
My muscles scream from the cold as I push forward. The slope of the cavern rises now, leading back toward the narrow throat that connects to the surface pool.
The light above is faint but visible.
A distant gray shimmer through the dark water.
Twenty feet.
Maybe less.
My chest feels like it’s on fire now.
I kick harder.
Ten feet.
The cave entrance widens above me, a dark oval in the rock where faint daylight filters down. I can almost feel the fresh air waiting above the surface.
Almost there.
Then the water behind me moves.
A violent shift that sends a ripple tearing through the cavern.
Instinct jerks my head around.
The darkness behind me explodes with motion.
A massive shape lunges forward out of the black water, jaws snapping open wide enough to swallow a horse whole. Rows of dagger-length teeth flash in the pendant’s white light as the leviathan’s enormous head surges toward me.
The shrill scream that follows doesn’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard before. Even underwater it slams into my skull like thunder, vibrating through bone and blood.
Every thought in my head disappears.
Pure panic takes over.
I kick with everything I have left.
The surface is right there.
Right there.
The leviathan’s jaws snap shut barely a few feet behind my legs, the force of it sending a violent shockwave through the water that nearly spins me sideways.
I don’t look back again.
FCK THAT.
I surge upward the last few feet, lungs screaming, vision starting to darken at the edges.
Then I break the surface.
Air crashes into my lungs as I suck in the largest breath of my life, water spraying everywhere as I scramble toward the rocky edge of the pool.
“Sebastian?” I barely hear Luther’s voice.
Behind me, the water explodes.
A massive surge ripples across the cavern as something enormous shifts beneath the surface. The entire pool churns violently for a moment before going still again.
Like the cavern itself is settling.
I cling to the stone edge, gasping for breath, my heart trying to beat its way out of my chest.
Then I look down at my hand.
The Petrified Heart is still there.
And somehow..
I didn’t get eaten.