“Don’t you think I would’ve, if I could?” he retorted and shifted his focus to me, cocking his head to the side. “Seriously, are you all redundant like this, or is it just the deep pressure getting to you?”

Despite our supernatural origins, we could all feel the ocean weighing down on us. There wasn’t any magic to fix that. But it was manageable. I swam upward, following the coral dome’s shape, until I found the top. My nerves were stretched, a little too ready to snap. The thought of the Soul Crusher waiting for us made me anxious.

The Widow Maker had subjected us to absolute hell back on Cerix. What was the Soul Crusher ready to do in order to protect Zetos and relinquish it only to those whom he deemed worthy? What kind of torture or sacrifice would we have to subject ourselves to, in order to get the second piece of Thieron?

Reaching the top, I sucked in an icy breath. A burst of bubbles left my breathing device, and my gaze fixed on a small, circular opening in the purple coral mass. “I think I found something,” I said. Soon enough, the rest of the crew joined me, while the Widow Maker stayed down at the bottom.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Why not come up here and see?” Herakles replied dryly.

A second later, the Widow Maker stood on top of the coral dome, inches away from the small opening, towering over us. “Like this, you mean?”

“I hate you,” Herakles grumbled, and Riza gave him a soft nudge, as if beckoning him to play nice. There was obvious tension between the Widow Maker and Herakles, but not enough to spoil our quest here, fortunately. We were all too focused and determined. It dawned on me, then, that maybe the Widow Maker was still testing us, somehow. Maybe his jabs and sarcasm were meant to poke and prod us until he found our limits, even though his task had already ended.

“I can fit through,” I said. “It’s wide enough.”

“We’ll follow,” Lumi replied firmly.

I poked my head through first and my arms next. It was dark, but as I moved my hands around, I could feel the space widening, the coral lightly scratching my fingertips. I gripped two rough branches and pulled myself down. “There’s some kind of tunnel,” I added, following the gentle current.

Glancing back, I saw Eira, Lumi, Nethissis, and the others slip through and swim after me. The tunnel descended in a spiral. The cold water numbed my limbs, but I kept moving. Eirexis cast a powerful light, making it easier for us to swim down to the very bottom, where a small oval chamber opened up.

“Whoa,” Raphael said when we all made it inside. “This is incredible…”

The light from Eirexis shone across the dark purple coral walls, causing a play of colorful glimmers to dance all through the room. As I moved, so did the glimmers, waltzing through the water like flakes of pink, purple, and blue fire.

“What’s that?” Amelia asked, looking down at the center of the room.

Settled in the middle of the sandy floor, a box awaited. It looked old and was likely made of some type of metal, though most of it was covered in rust and algae. I swam toward it, feeling Eirexis’s vibrations pulsing through my thigh. Zetos had to be in there, for sure. The box was long and wide enough to fit the blade that would match a handle as long as Eirexis.

“Did you find it?” the Widow Maker asked, though he was nowhere to be seen.

“Where are you?” I replied.

“Still up here. Why?”

Raphael scoffed. “Gah, you’re about as useful as shoes on a dragon.”

“Was that supposed to be an insult?” the Widow Maker retorted.

“Yeah, I think we found it,” I said, dragging the conversation back to where it needed to be.

“What does it look like?” he replied.

“Come down and see for yourself. I’m about to…” I reached out.

The water felt hot around the box. It seemed to solidify as my fingers got closer to its latch. I encountered a peculiar kind of resistance—the water was perfectly normal, yet something coming from the box tried to push my hand away.

“You might want to be careful with that box. Maybe don’t open it yet,” the Widow Maker said.

Too late. I’d already pulled the latch, my heart pumping erratically. I was so close to getting Zetos that nothing else mattered. As I opened the lid, the same heart that had been thundering excitedly inside my chest suddenly stopped.

Something was released from inside the box. The blast was so powerful, it blew through me. It disintegrated my consciousness, and I felt myself hurled backward through the water. My ears hurt. My chest tightened.

Darkness engulfed me, and I felt myself floating. Unable to breathe. Unable to move, to react. Darkness prevailed, and I was helpless.

Amelia

My body weighed a ton.

Or so it felt, anyway. The last thing I remembered was watching Taeral opening the box. Something had exploded from it. Something that had knocked us all out. Coughing, I managed to open my eyes. Blinking rapidly, I realized that we weren’t in water anymore, but in a room.

“What the…” I whispered, my shaky hand pulling the breathing device down. The floor was hard and cold against my face. All I could hear were the breaths of others.

I tilted my head slowly, to find Raphael on his back, as his eyes peeled open. Startled, he shot up—by far the quickest reaction. He helped me up. “Are you okay?” he asked, worriedly watching me as I fully came to. I’d been in a daze until now…

Nodding slowly, I glanced around. Taeral. Eira. Herakles. Riza. Lumi. Nethissis. Eva. Varga… We were all here, except the Widow Maker. The rest of the team woke up, gradually realizing, like me, that we weren’t in the coral chamber anymore.

Taeral rubbed his face and looked at me. “I don’t know what happened.”

“You opened the box, then boom.” Raphael sighed. “I’m not sure what that was. Or where we are, for that matter.”

Eva gasped, taking in the details I’d yet to discover. “Guys. Check out the walls.”

It was a simple room, about forty feet wide and long. There were no doors, but all the walls were covered in levers. Hundreds of them, made of iron, unmarked and in no way differentiated. My pulse started racing.

“Well, that can’t be good,” I murmured. “How is everybody holding up?”

“Aside from all the confusion, I think we’re okay,” Riza replied. “What the hell is this place, and how did we get here?”

Taeral’s expression went blank, the color draining from his face as he glanced down at Eirexis, still strapped to his thigh. It no longer glowed, but there had to be something about it that made Taeral uneasy. “The Soul Crusher. I think he did this.”

Lumi groaned as she pulled herself up, wobbling back and forth slightly before she regained her full balance. “Please, don’t tell me we’re in some kind of ancient-Reaper-created dimensional pocket or… whatever.”

“You’re actually on to something!” A strange voice echoed through the room.

I jumped to my feet, my instincts immediately stirred and ready. “Who’s there?!”

“If I give you a second or two, I’m sure you’ll figure it out by yourselves,” the voice said. It sounded soft and male, not as harsh and raspy as the Widow Maker’s. It was smooth and filled with knowledge that had yet to be imparted to us. And that made me uneasy.

“The Soul Crusher,” Herakles said, getting up slowly and carefully.

“Ding, ding, ding!” the Soul Crusher exclaimed. “You get a prize!”

Herakles stared at me, clearly confused. “Is he… off, someway?”

“Hey! That’s rude!” the Soul Crusher replied. “You’re in my house, now. Be nice.”