Something had changed in the Faulty, though it was barely noticeable. The Widow Maker’s words must’ve gotten to him earlier, because I could almost feel his self-confidence seeping out of him. His gaze was down most of the time, and his brow was permanently furrowed. I’d also seen Riza stealing worried glances at him whenever she could.

I moved toward the Widow Maker and gave him a discreet nudge. He looked down at where I’d touched him first, then at me. “You need to make it right,” I whispered. “Lumi made a point about you railing on him like that.”

The Widow Maker gasped. “Are you serious right now?”

“This team functions on trust and respect. We all have it for each other,” I hissed. “Make. It. Right.”

“If anyone here can’t handle the truth, they don’t belong on this mission,” the Widow Maker replied dryly and quickly diverted attention back to the swamp witches. “Ladies, can we stop?”

“Why?” Lumi asked.

“The glow on Eirexis is fading slightly. We just passed Zetos,” he replied.

Lumi and Nethissis quickly put their arms down, and the spell bubble came to a sudden halt. It nearly knocked me off my feet, but I managed to stay upright. I didn’t even realize I’d caught Eira’s hand in mine until I became aware of her soft touch.

“What now?” Amelia asked. “We put our breathing gear on and go down there?”

“Seems like the sensible thing to do,” Raphael replied, slightly amused as he fitted the breathing device over his mouth.

As soon as we were all ready, Lumi snapped her fingers, and we all fell into the ocean. We shot through like speeding projectiles, piercing through the mass of ice-cold water. One by one, we swam downward, taking advantage of the velocity from our fall. It made about twenty feet easier to navigate, as we made our way toward the bottom.

“Can everyone hear me?” I asked, testing the breathing device’s comms line.

“Loud and clear, toots,” Varga replied.

“Call me ‘toots’ again, and I will tie you to a rock on the bottom,” I said, stifling a laugh.

“Oh, come on, I thought you loved me being sweet on you,” Varga returned, continuing our brief banter. We all needed it, it seemed, as the crew tried hard to breathe through their devices without laughing.

Eva cut in. “Now I’m jealous. Stop it.”

“What’s that?” Riza asked, pointing down.

We all followed her gaze and noticed the peculiar shimmer. It was deep and likely on the bottom of the ocean—which was still quite far away. But it was visible enough to warrant an inspection, especially since Eirexis, now strapped to my thigh again, had regained its full glow.

“It’s got to be Zetos,” I said.

“Where’s the Widow Maker?” Raphael asked, looking around.

Herakles grunted. “Ugh. That jerk doesn’t have to swim like the rest of us. I don’t think he needs to breathe, either. I bet we’ll find him down there, smirking beneath his gimp suit.”

“How do you know he smirks?” Raphael chuckled.

“Dang it, you know he does! That arrogance needs to come out somehow; otherwise, he’ll swell up like a balloon and explode,” Herakles retorted.

It got darker and colder as we descended deeper. Mountains of coral formations rose all around us, waves of orange and red that rippled across the ocean floor. We made our way down one of the ridges, occasionally startling banks of fish that depended on their camouflage resembling the corals to survive.

They scattered in what struck me as some kind of organized panic, their bright red and orange scales shimmering as they moved upward. Phosphorescent plants and creatures dominated the bottom of the ocean—not that we needed any additional light to guide us. Eirexis itself was a powerful beacon at this point.

“Over there,” Eira said, pointing ahead as we reached the bottom. White sand stretched endlessly beneath our feet, and clouds of red and yellow jellyfish hovered here and there. As if reacting to music only they could hear, they danced their way up, their tendrils twitching rhythmically as they pushed through the water.

Following Eira’s gaze, I could see what had caught her attention. A mound rose from the white sand, approximately fifty feet away. Next to it, someone stood upright, unbothered by the physics of liquids. “The Widow Maker,” I murmured. “He found it.”

“How is he just standing there?” Amelia asked.

“I told you,” Herakles replied. “Reaper, not from this dimension, not necessarily subject to our physical rules.”

“That’s actually pretty cool,” Raphael said.

We swam toward him, aided by Lumi’s bursts of telekinetic energy that pushed us closer to the mound. As we reached it, I realized it wasn’t just an ordinary pile of dirt. No, it was a cluster of dark purple corals, and it was the size of a cathedral’s dome, big enough to hide all sorts of incredible secrets.

“Can you see through it?” I asked Varga.

The corals’ arms stretched in a wavy, circular pattern. I wasn’t sure there was a way in, but that had never stopped us from making one if we had to. Shimmers traveled along the mineral-like surface of each of the corals, as if they’d been sculpted from precious gemstones.

“No,” Varga replied. “My True Sight can’t get past the corals.”

“Not surprised.” The Widow Maker’s voice echoed in our heads. “Zetos is protected from all.”

“Dammit, get out of my head!” Herakles snarled.

“Then you won’t be able to hear me,” the Widow Maker said, matter-of-factly.

Eva laughed. “I think that was the point.”

Looking up, I couldn’t see anything headed our way. No strange lights. Nothing to make my skin tingle. For the first time, I felt as though we might have a decent extraction mission on our hands. Maybe Pyrr and the others had pulled through, and then some.

“Okay, what do you think?” I asked the Widow Maker. “You got to this thing before us. You’ve already implied that Zetos is here.”

The Widow Maker nodded. “I can feel the Soul Crusher’s presence.”

“You guys really went all out on those names, huh?” Varga muttered.

“What did I tell you earlier?” the Widow Maker shot back, and Varga joined him in unison. “Perks of being my age.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Varga added. “We get it. You’re old and cool.”

I swam around the mound, looking for a way in. The others spread out, doing the same thing at different heights up and down the domed coral.

“I don’t know how to get you in, if that’s what you want me to tell you,” the Widow Maker said. I saw him below, his boots in the white sand, as he looked up at me. I made my way back down, grasping the coral fingers to pull myself along the dome’s surface.

“If it’s in there, then we can get to it, somehow,” I replied.

I crossed paths with Eira, who shook her head. “Nothing at this level. Maybe head for the top?”

“You should know, though. If I can feel the Soul Crusher, he can feel me too,” the Widow Maker added. “He knows we’re here. He’s likely waiting for us.”

“Can’t you just zap yourself in there?” Nethissis asked him, pointing at the purple coral.