Chapter ten
KRAK’ZOL
The ancient corridors leading to the Heart pulsed with an energy I could feel through my scales, a vibration that grew stronger with each powerful stroke of my tail.
Beside me, Imoogeen moved with increasing grace through the water, her transformation progressing faster than I had anticipated.
The venom bond had taken hold completely, her body adapting to survive in my world.
And survive she must.
Tonight, we faced Rynor, and I would not lose her when I had only just found her.
“These passages weren’t on any of the maps,” she observed, her keen eyes scanning the crystalline walls that grew more luminescent the deeper we traveled.
Small flecks of bioluminescent algae clung to the ancient stone, casting her in an ethereal blue glow that accentuated the delicate pattern of scales now visible along her collarbones.
“They wouldn’t be,” I responded, watching how her fingers traced the carved symbols etched into the corridor walls.
“The path to the Heart is known only to the ruling bloodline and the sacred guardians. Even Zorath has never ventured this deep.”
Her eyebrow arched in that challenging way that sent heat coursing through my veins.
“Yet you’re bringing me here.”
“You are my queen.” The words emerged more possessively than intended.
“Whether you have accepted the title or not.”
She didn’t argue, which surprised me.
Instead, she studied the way the water currents shifted around us, carrying particles of light that swirled in our wake like tiny stars.
“These symbols,” she said, changing the subject.
“They’re similar to the markings on your skin. The ones that glow when you’re—”
“When I’m aroused?” I finished, enjoying the subtle darkening of her cheeks.
Even now, after she had surrendered to our bond, her human modesty surfaced in these small, endearing ways.
“Yes. They tell the history of my bloodline, our connection to the Deep.”
We approached a vast archway where two guardians stood sentinel, their ancient forms more serpentine than my own, with elongated spines and ceremonial armor that had grown into their bodies over centuries of service.
Their eyes, clouded with age but sharp with awareness, fixed upon us immediately.
“King Krak’zol,” the elder guardian intoned, his voice like stone grinding against stone.
“You bring an outsider to the sacred Heart?”
I drew myself to my full height, feeling the royal markings along my spine begin to pulse with proximity to the Heart’s energy.
“I bring Queen Imoogeen, Bonded of the Deep, Shield of Two Worlds.”
Beside me, Imoogeen stiffened slightly at the formal title.
I felt a tremor pass through the water between us—surprise, uncertainty, and, beneath it all, a reluctant pride that she could not quite suppress.
The guardians studied her for a long moment, their ancient eyes unblinking.
Then, as one, they inclined their heads and parted, revealing the chamber beyond.
“The Heart awaits,” the younger guardian said.
“It has been restless these past cycles. Perhaps it sensed her coming.”
Before we entered, I reached for Imoogeen, adjusting a piece of ceremonial armor on her shoulder—a curved plate of iridescent shell that I had commissioned for her in secret days ago.
“It was my mother’s,” I said simply, watching her eyes widen at the significance.
The piece sat perfectly against her smaller frame, the royal insignia catching the ambient light.
She was transformed in this moment—not just physically by my venom, but in presence.
She carried herself like a warrior queen, her human resilience blending with Leviathan grace in a way that made my chest tighten with a possessive pride I’d never experienced before.
“Ready?” I asked, offering my hand.
She took it without hesitation, her fingers intertwining with mine despite the difference in our forms.
“Lead on, Your Majesty.”
The Heart’s chamber opened before us, a vast cathedral of living crystal that stretched beyond sight, its ceiling lost in darkness far above.
At its center floated the Heart itself—not a single crystal, as most believed, but a complex latticework of crystalline formations that pulsed with inner light, sending ripples of energy through the water in hypnotic patterns.
“It’s alive,” Imoogeen whispered, her voice filled with awe.
“In its way,” I confirmed, watching how the Heart’s light seemed drawn to her, tendrils of luminescence reaching out as we approached.
“Not conscious as we understand it, but aware. It chooses the rulers of the Abyss, rejects those unworthy of its power.”
“And Rynor wants to control it.” Her eyes narrowed, taking in the strategic implications immediately.
“If he corrupts this, he doesn’t just gain power—he rewrites the rules of succession.”
“More than that.” I guided her closer, feeling the energy intensify around us.
“The Heart doesn’t just sustain our kingdom. It maintains the balance of all oceanic realms on Sanos. If corrupted, it would poison everything—the currents, the reefs, the very water that gives life.”
As we neared the center of the chamber, the Heart’s energy surged, responding to our presence.
The royal markings along my body ignited fully, glowing with silver-blue light that pulsed in rhythm with my heartbeat.
Imoogeen’s fingers traced one that curved across my forearm, her touch sending a shiver through me even in this sacred place.
“They’re beautiful,” she murmured, watching the patterns shift and flow beneath her fingertips.
The Heart pulsed more intensely, bathing us in waves of light that seemed to penetrate to the core of our beings.
I felt its ancient consciousness brushing against my mind, testing, evaluating—and then accepting, as it had since I first took the throne.
But then it turned its attention to Imoogeen, and the chamber filled with a light so bright it nearly blinded me.
“Krak’zol?” Uncertainty edged her voice as tendrils of energy encircled her, lifting her slightly from the chamber floor.
“What’s happening?”
“The Heart recognizes you,” I breathed, watching in awe as her skin began to shimmer with faint patterns that mirrored my own royal markings—not permanent, but a manifestation of the Heart’s acceptance.
“It’s showing you something. Don’t fight it.”
Her eyes closed, her face a canvas of shifting emotions as the Heart communicated with her in ways only she could perceive.
I watched, torn between fascination and concern, as her body temporarily transformed further—her skin luminous with delicate scale patterns, her hair floating around her like a dark halo shot through with threads of bioluminescence.
She was the perfect balance of human and Leviathan in this moment—fierce and vulnerable, familiar and alien, mine and entirely her own.
When her eyes finally opened, they shone with unshed tears and a newfound certainty.
“I saw Earth,” she whispered as the light receded, letting her drift back down beside me.
“Not as it is now, with poisoned oceans and dying ecosystems. But healed. Restored.” Her voice strengthened.
“The Heart showed me a future where humans and the kingdoms of Sanos work together—our technology and your natural power combining to heal both worlds.”
Hope flared in my chest, sharp and unexpected.
“A true alliance, not just sanctuary for your people.”
“More than that.” She turned to face me fully, her expression transformed by what she’d witnessed.
“A new beginning for both our species. But it also showed me what happens if Rynor succeeds.” Her voice hardened.
“Death. Destruction on a scale that would make Earth’s ecological collapse look merciful.”
The Heart pulsed again, more urgently this time, and I understood what it was telling me.
What must be done.
“Imoogeen.” I took both her hands in mine, feeling the weight of generations of Leviathan rulers who had stood in this exact spot.
“The Heart has accepted you as my queen, but that makes you a primary target for Rynor. There is a ritual—ancient, seldom used—that would complete your transformation and bind you formally to the Abyss.”
Her eyes searched mine, wary but not retreating.
“What would it mean? For me? For us?”
“It would give you full Leviathan abilities while maintaining your human form. You would be stronger, faster, able to command the waters as I do.” I hesitated, knowing the cost.
“But it would bind you irrevocably to the Abyss and its fate. If Rynor corrupts the Heart . . .”
“I would feel it. Suffer with it.” She finished my thought, always quick to grasp implications.
“And there would be no going back to being fully human.”
I nodded, unwilling to deceive her about the gravity of this choice.
“It is your decision, Imoogeen. I will not—”
“Do it,” she interrupted, her voice steady despite the gravity of her choice.
“If this is what it takes to stop Rynor and secure a future for both our peoples, then do it.”
The certainty in her voice humbled me.
This human woman, thrust into my world against her will, now stood ready to bind herself to its fate forever.
For her people.
For mine.
For us.
I summoned the ancient priests who had been waiting silently in the shadows of the chamber, their forms so still they seemed part of the architecture.
They moved forward now, carrying ceremonial implements carved from the same crystal as the Heart.
“The ritual requires an exchange,” I explained as they prepared.
“My essence freely given to you, yours to me, beneath the Heart’s witness.”
A small smile curved her lips.
“Doesn’t sound so different from what we’ve already done.”
Despite the solemnity of the moment, I found myself smiling in return.
“Perhaps less pleasurable, but more permanent.”
The priests began chanting in the ancient tongue, their voices creating harmonics that made the water itself vibrate around us.
I must recite the traditional vows, words passed down through countless generations of Leviathan rulers.
I began confidently, the familiar phrases flowing easily, until I reached a particularly complex passage.
The ancient word caught in my throat, tangling my tongue momentarily.
Imoogeen squeezed my hand—a gesture so human, so uniquely hers, that I couldn’t help smiling even amid the ceremony’s gravity.
The ritual reached its climax as the eldest priest presented a ceremonial blade made of heartstone.
I took it, making a shallow cut across my palm before offering the blade to Imoogeen.
She didn’t hesitate, drawing it across her own palm with a warrior’s steadiness.
When our bloodied hands clasped, the Heart erupted with a blinding white light, and a wave of raw power surged through me, searing my very essence.
The water around us superheated, hissing and bubbling as it was forced into a swirling vortex.
I could smell ozone and something ancient, primal, like the birth of stars.
My blood sang with hers, a symphony of power and connection that resonated deep within my bones.
I felt her blood mingling with mine, her essence becoming part of me as mine flowed into her.
The transformation was immediate and breathtaking.
I watched, transfixed, as the delicate scales hardened and darkened, taking on the royal hue of my lineage.
A primal surge of possessiveness ripped through me.
Mine .
She was utterly, irrevocably mine .
The delicate scales that had begun to form along her body solidified and strengthened, taking on the royal blue-black hue of my lineage.
Her eyes flashed silver momentarily before returning to their human green, now ringed with luminescent silver.
Most striking of all, the royal markings appeared permanently on her skin—subtle enough to pass for tattoos in the human world, but unmistakable to any Leviathan as the sign of a queen.
As the energy subsided, I did something no Leviathan king had done before.
I kneeled before her in front of the assembled priests, reversing traditional roles to show that while I am king, she is not beneath me but truly my equal.
“Queen Imoogeen,” I pronounced, my voice carrying through the chamber.
“Bonded of the Deep, Shield of Two Worlds.”
The priests murmured in surprise, but none dared object.
The Heart had chosen, and its will was absolute.
Imoogeen regarded me with complex emotions swirling in her eyes—wonder, determination, and something deeper that neither of us was quite ready to name.
She reached down, offering her hand to raise me back to my feet.
“Rise, Krak’zol,” she said, her voice carrying a new resonance that vibrated through the water.
“We have a battle to win.”