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Timarra lay in ruins,a staggering sight to behold.

Caspian masked his shock, his sadness. So many memories of a beautiful kingdom shimmering with colorful gems and alive with underwater plants and coral and fish.

All dreary and desolate.

It would have been unrecognizable if not for the untouched circular archway, the monumental landmark that led the way into the once-rich kingdom of Timarra.

Caspian tugged on Aria’s hand, keeping her close to his side. He observed the ruined kingdom, his senses reaching out for resistance to his magic. He received none.

“Dima!” he barked, throwing his voice on a sound wave through the destruction. Only the plink of falling rocks answered his call.

Aria hugged his arm as they crept deeper through the waters, swimming over patches and mounds of dead sea life and structures that once used to dress this place in beauty. It brought back memories of Astauria, the glory of his kingdom and how quickly it could be taken away.

Caspian caught the slithering tendril of kelp reaching up between the cracks of rocks for Aria’s tail. He spun them away, protecting her from the enchanted plants.

“Where is she?” Aria whispered.

“Watching us, I have no doubt.”

“Great.”

Caspian would have laughed if his scales and skin didn’t sting under the acute watch of his enemy. “Dima, you wanted me to return. Here I am!”

“Forgotten Prince, it’s been some time.”

Caspian spun around, but he wasn’t fast enough.

A shark bulleted from somewhere below, plowing into his gut and driving him back until his body slammed into the jagged rocks spread over the ocean floor. Somehow, he kept his grip on Aria. She shrieked, her voice painful and high, the scream of a siren. Tremors racketed through the ground and the water pulsed.

Until the sound of her voice cut off abruptly.

Kelp sprang up from the rocks again, this time snaking around Aria at a speed he could barely register. When he tried to slice through the sprouts…

Nothing happened.

He focused on the shark that kept him pinned to the rocks as Aria’s hand tore out of his and the kelp bound her to Dima’s wishes.

He tried to thrust out a wave to get the creature off him.

Nothing.

A sickening weight settled in the pit of his stomach.

“You have no power here, except for the power I need.” The demon finally came into sight, her sleek form curling through the water with ease. Her dark eyes glinted with malice, her dark scales like an ominous shadow coiling around her body. “I drained you along your journey here.” She laughed, her pointed teeth as lethal as her black claws. Claws she clicked together as she said in mock apology, “I know your power. I’ve seen what you can do. I wasn’t taking chances. I’m sure you can understand.”

“I’m here, Dima. There’s no need to keep Aria and her family any longer. I’m here, so release them.”

Dima coiled around Aria, coming up behind her. She patted Aria’s hair, her smile caustic. “You have yet to fulfill your end of the bargain, prince. You value honesty? Equality? Well, release me from this curse your father placed on me and I’ll release your beloved Aria and her family.”

Caspian grunted, laying a punch into the shark’s snout. “Tell your pet to release me.”

“But how am I to be assured you won’t try to attack me?” Dima tapped one of her claws on her chin as she pretended to give it some thought. “Ah, I’ve an idea.”

The shark dug its snout hard into his abdomen.

A shockwave shot through him.

Numbness followed.