Page 75 of Eldritch (The Eating Woods #2)

“Wouldn’t yank your cock just yet.” Kazhimyr searched through the darkness for any sign of land, but there was nothing.

Nothing but open water beneath the dim moonlight.

He could still make out the ship in the distance, but it was farther still, and they’d never outswim whatever lurked below. “Fuck!”

“What now?” Ravezio asked.

“We wait and hope the pointy-eared codbollock notices.”

Ravezio shook his head. “Don’t hold your breath.”

A hard thump beneath them dropped Kazhimyr to his knees.

“What in seven hells was that?” Another hard thunk followed, and a splintering sound drew his attention behind them, where deep fissures crawled over the ice.

A third thud broke the ice free, and the two of them drifted toward the watery center on a small chunk that measured no more than the length of their bodies.

“This just keeps getting better.” Ravezio pushed to his knees, keeping his hands braced. “If the little wenches slowed enough, I’d turn them into decorative anchors.”

“Unfortunately, I think they’re too smart for that.”

The ice teetered, slowly at first, nothing more than a gentle rock. A warning.

“Brace yourself,” Kazhimyr warned, as the teetering quickened, and Ravezio patted around for something he could get his fingers into.

“Grab my arm!” As if those relentless fish hags wrenched each side from below, the teetering turned violent, each upward swell nearly throwing them from the iceberg.

“Hang on!” Kazhimyr dug his spiked palms deeper, muscles flexing as he fought to hold onto the icy surface.

They tipped upward again, and Ravezio lost his grip, slipping down the length of his body and clutching his leg.

As Kazhimyr’s hands popped free, the ice shifted again, sending them sliding across to the other side. He slammed his palm again to lodge it and braced for another rough jostling.

Instead, the floating piece of ice rocked calmly back to level again, and frowning, the two of them stared back at each other.

All was quiet. Not so much as a splash from below.

Kazhimyr dared to peer over the edge and found a pearly white substance spreading outward from the ice. “What the hell is that?”

Ravezio slid up beside him, looking over the edge. “If you managed to give yourself a cocktug through all of that, I’m impressed.”

A high-pitched squeal rattled Kazhimyr’s skull, and both of them slapped their hands over their ears.

“Balls of Castero!” Ravezio clenched his teeth. “I think my head might explode!”

A thunderous crack breached their hands covering their ears, and a cold, wet object struck Kazhimyr’s face. He opened his eyes to a glistening glob of pink falling onto the ice as he sat upright. More globs and chunks fell to the ice, raining from the sky.

The two of them frantically looked around, where arms, ears, and fins lay scattered over the surface.

The water below them held floating bits of what Kazhimyr was certain were Syrenian body parts.

The iceberg lurched toward the flat, icy surface from which it’d detached earlier, and the two of them scrambled onto the clean stretch of ice.

Peering into the water showed a shadowy figure rising up toward them.

Hand held out, ready to send a blast of ice toward it, Kazhimyr waited—until, at last, hunter green hair breached the surface.

He lowered his arm. “Dravien?”

“Care to help me out of the water? Sharks will be scavenging any moment.” He raised his hand, and Kazhimyr took hold, yanking him up onto the icy ledge. Long, black spikes protruding out of his spine slinked beneath his clothing and vanished.

“It’s not the meat that’ll draw them, but the sheer force of your massive balls.” Ravezio chuckled, taking hold of his other arm to hoist his lower half onto the iceberg.

“You did this?” Kazhimyr asked, spying the lower half of a Syrenian, a scaled silvery fin, twitching in the water where a shark must’ve bit into it.

“Sometimes, I can be useful. Heroic, even.”

“Godsblood, what did you do?” Ravezio peered into the water.

“The spikes on my back release a toxin. In water, it spreads quickly and gets in their gills. Keeps the water trapped inside their bodies until they burst.”

Snorting, Ravezio stepped away from the edge. “I was certain you’d have skipped off without us.”

“Believe me, I wanted to.”

“Must be some curse, if you’re willing to dive into the icy sea like that. That, or you have the biggest, most generous heart.” Ravezio placed his hand over his chest and cracked a laugh.

Dravien rolled his eyes and looked out toward the ship. “Captain anchored, but he can’t get close to the ice. If you can offer a path, we can walk most of it.”

“Think I can handle that.” Kazhimyr pushed to his feet, and his surroundings shifted.

He shook his head and held out his hand, sending a blast of mist outward, extending the surface from where they stood.

The ship in the distance swayed and blurred, his vision widening and closing in. Shrinking smaller and smaller.

“Fuck. He was bitten” was the last thing he heard Dravien say, before the blackness swallowed him.