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This was an abandoned sewer connector. The dried-out pipe they stood in was one of several that had once filtered water into the impossibly deep and dark room looming just beyond the toes of his boots.

He inched closer. Peered down.

Far, far below loomed a pit of black water, the twining bodies of aquatic serpents breaking the scummy surface. Those serpents had to be hundreds of years old—and likely hadn’t had a meal in a very long time.

Wings flapped. The Harpy screamed.

She was coming.

Shit, he was going to have to fight this thing on his own, wasn’t he?

He leaned Malakai against the curve of the pipe. “Don’t move,” he said.

Malakai sagged against it with drooping eyelids.

Travis palmed a knife as the Harpy barreled toward him. Chest heaving, heart pounding, he steeled himself, praying that the Harpy would not decide to scream as she closed in on him. The closer she got, the more fatal the scream—which was exactly why they were so hard to kill.

He would have to be very accurate with his throws.

In the corner of his eye, he saw something fall.

Malakai was tipping off the edge.

“Delaney!”Travis reached for him, but he wasn’t fast enough, and before he knew it the Reaper was plunging head-first into the serpent-infested water.

87

Below

YVESWICH, STATE OF KER

Travis had two options.

Fight the Harpy on his own

Take his chances with the water serpents

The odds of surviving either were slim to none. But that was Jewels’s brother plummeting into the murky depths. And while Travis certainly wouldn’t shed a tear if this son of a bitch drowned or got eaten, he cared too much about Jewels to stand by and allow either to happen.

So, he picked option two.

He spun and jumped, the Harpy reaching for him with snapping talons that snagged the back of his jacket.

And then he was in a free fall. Hurtling toward the black water. Wind tore at his clothes and forced tears out of his eyes.

The Harpy unleashed an ear-shattering scream.

Travis cried out in pain. He dropped the knife he was holding, rammed a finger into each ear?—

And broke the surface of the water with a stingingSLAP.