Page 35 of All Your Deadly Truths (The Filthy Duet #2)

Kairhyse

I ’m not sure what I expected being dragged through the water at this speed would feel like, but how she’s holding onto me is an incredible feat. We’re propelled forward with such velocity that the pressure on my body is overwhelming… and we haven’t even begun our descent yet.

“We are diving now,” she says, and while I won’t be able to communicate verbally with her, I can at least do so in other ways.

Squeezing her forearm to confirm I’m ready, we plunge.

The weight pressing down on me becomes nearly unbearable almost instantly.

My ears pop—once, twice—and on the third, I’m shaking my head.

I keep my free arm tucked as best I can, while also aligning my body to Sinnix, as to not hinder her swimming.

Minutes pass, and only then do I truly take in my surroundings.

If I was terrified of not seeing the bottom before, now, darkness like a void surrounds me entirely.

The surface is so far above that the sun is no longer visible.

It’s as though I’m in the Beyond, with no sense of up or down, unable to tell five feet from thirty.

I know my body can’t go any further, so I squeeze Sinnix’s arm. She quickly comes to a stop. Our bodies angle toward one another, and she looks down before turning back to me.

“The cage is about thirty more feet. Give me the necklace.”

I unwrap it from around my fist and gently place it into her webbed hand.

I want to ask if she can see her, because I can’t—not even with my heightened vision.

The darkness surrounding us isn’t just from a lack of light; it’s something deeper, and I’d be lying if I said it isn’t terrifying.

The thought that Xeraphine has been here alone for who knows how long, before Sinnix ever showed up, twists my stomach into knots.

“Slowly begin to rise straight up, don’t swim about.”

I nod.

“If you see a shark…” My pulse rises slightly, though not out of fear, but anticipation. If it’s that shark Shifter, I’ll kill him right now and make him fish food.

She eyes me, as if she can see the thought of it floating around in my eyes, and smirks. “Don’t get eaten.”

She angles herself, and when she flaps her fin, I begin to slowly ascend. I had hoped my body could withstand the pressure, but I know that if I go any further, I’ll be fish food. Or… Sinnix food.

Small, bioluminescent creatures drift by, but other than that there’s little life here. Occasionally, I hear the whoosh of a fish in the distance, but my focus is consumed by the bending of metal.

Seconds stretch into minutes, and minutes begin to feel like an eternity.

I’m drifting further from them, but I’m not yet close enough to the surface where light has pierced the darkness.

Suddenly I hear a sharp thrust of water, but I can’t tell where it comes from.

My head jerks to the side, but there’s nothing. Only darkness.

Another hiss of the current pulls me in the opposite direction, and I instinctively raise my hands in front of me. Sharks attack from below, but if it’s the Shifter, he could strike from any angle.

In the silence that envelops me, I can feel my own heartbeat. Then my ears pop, and that’s when I hear movement below. I look quickly, but it’s not a shark, or any other animal.

It’s Sinnix.

My entire being succumbs to a feeling of relief.

It’s difficult to actually see her, because although I know it’s my Xeraphine, her entire body is consumed by her Amoro and blends completely into the darkness that surrounds us.

The ache in my chest intensifies and a feeling of emotional weightlessness holds me tight as I take in completely that she’s carrying the woman I love right to me.

Time seems to stretch infinitely as they approach, and I swim down to them. Once she’s within reach, I extend my arms, ready to pull her in. They are barely in front of me before I’m grabbing her and tearing her from the Siren’s grasp.

One of my hands takes the back of her head, and the other holds around her waist, flushing her body tightly to mine. Everything that surrounds us fades away—the danger of where we are, Sinnix swimming beside us—everything but her .

Her arms lay limp, and I know she’s still dead, but I have her.

I fucking have my girl.

“Xera…” My muffled word is lost as I choke, not on the water flooding my mouth, but on a sob rising from joy instead of sorrow.

I’ve got you, baby. Fuck, I’ve got you. I tighten my grip on her, and place a kiss against her forehead before burying her face tight to my chest.

The underwater world around me comes into focus as a gentle hand grabs onto my shoulder. I turn my head, seeing Sinnix watching with a thoughtful look. “She got through two of her restraints, and all I had to get through were the shackles at her ankles. Villian-boy didn’t do us dirty.”

For the first time since the night of Xera’s birthday, I smile.

I fucking smile and pull her impossibly close to me.

Suddenly, the Siren’s expression shifts from calm to pure panic. “Fuck, he’s here!”

I’m tossed through the water, swept by a rushing current. But it’s not just that—out of the corner of my eye, a blur of gray streaks past me.

“We need to go!” she screams, swimming directly toward me. I grip Xeraphine tightly around the waist as I’m snatched by my free wrist and dragged to begin our escape.

I tuck Xera’s head under my chin as Sinnix takes us at an angle, and I’m more grateful than words can express. A straight upward shot could cause me to black out due to the pressure at this speed.

The sound of a second swish behind us makes me glance over my shoulder.

A massive great white shark is barely a body length away. On pure instinct, I pull Xeraphine higher, even though my legs are dangerously close to its jaws.

Sinnix bursts forward, pushing us slightly farther from the shark. As we ascend at a tight angle, I grit my teeth, my body protesting the strain.

We can’t stop—there’s no way. That shark is ready to feast the moment we slow. I glance down at my girl, then ahead of us. Sinnix is doing a great job keeping us just out of reach, but I need to do something to give us a moment to breathe.

“Noctis Duplicatus.” As the words come out of my mouth, a shadow of myself falls behind me. Taking a quick glance, it smacks against the Shifter and grabs at its jaw before jabbing a fist into its eye.

I turn forward. No point in watching now. Hopefully, we reach the boat before it takes a bite out of my shadow. As I mentioned to Xeraphine before, I feel everything they do.

An eternity seems to pass before we distance ourselves from the Shifter and the shadow of our boat comes into view. My anxiety peaks, and I glance back, just to be sure. I don’t see the shark or my shadow.

Seconds drag on, and then finally we break through the surface. Sinnix pulls us toward the swim deck, and I haul myself up with Xeraphine in my arms. The sound of feet pounding on the hollow deck of the ship rushes toward us, but I don’t spare them a glance.

Once I’m fully on board with my girl, I crawl on my knees to straddle her hips and bury my face into the curve of her neck. I clutch her tightly, my arms wrapping around every inch of her, and release a scream of relief.

A body slams into mine—Sydni. She immediately wraps her arms around Xera’s head, grasping for any space she can find. Her sobs blend with her cries. “Thank you, thank you! Oh my Gods, thank you!” I’m not sure if she’s rocking us or if it’s me, but I don’t care.

Her shaking, me shaking, the world could be the one under a quake and all that would matter is that I’ve got her.

I’ve got her.

I’ve got my girl back.

“Get going!” Sinnix captures my attention, and without releasing Xera, I turn to look at her. “I’ll keep the Shifter busy. Go!”

I nod and shift to pick up both my girls. I’m grateful that when I pull back my shadow, I find that it had stayed as safe as possible. The last thing I need is to be cut in half and have to deal with that thrilling experience.

After carrying them to the far side of the boat, I set them down on the floor just as we begin to move. Sydni shifts, and I carefully move Xeraphine to lay down in front of me, finally allowing myself to look at her.

I’m brushing away her soaked hair from her face when my hand slices on something sharp.

It’s now that I see it—her horn. There’s only one of them, and where the other one should be, her skin is completely gone and I can see…

bone. It’s cracked and dipped, and my only logical assumption is it’s where the other horn was once attached.

My stomach churns with the thought of it being torn from her.

The one that is still intact is only a few inches in length, and it sits right where her hairline begins. It’s more inward than where her temples are, and curved slightly up.

As my touch moves down to her cheek, I see how badly I’m trembling, a stark contrast to how still she is. “Baby…” I whisper. “Wake up.”

“Phiny?” Sydni has both of her hands gripping tightly to her forearm, slightly shaking her.

I don’t hear her heartbeat, and I don’t know how long she’s been dead for to know when she’ll wake. My eyes scan down her naked body, and it’s now I know that too many eyes can see what they shouldn’t.

“Sydni, can you get a towel?”

She does as I ask and walks away from us. I pull Xeraphine up, shielding her with my body to cover as much of her as I can. I tighten my hold, burying my face into her neck and squeezing her tightly. The smell of familiarity slamming into me.

Beyond the saltiness of the sea, it’s her; the night sky, the scent of sweet peonies and cherry blossoms, it all hits my senses, and confirms she’s here.