Page 61 of Claiming Sarah

I pulled out my bone knife, stabbing at the tentacle, but another came out of the water for my other ankle, followed by another for my waist. I stabbed at anything, everything, frantic to get free before I reached the water, until the spinning wrapped my arms in the tentacles, too.

Another tentacle came out for my face, and I couldn’t see or breathe or scream as it wrapped around my head. Then the water swallowed me whole.

CHAPTER 18

Deacon

I’m coming, Jac!

I had just opened the door to the balcony for some fresh air when I had seen him go under. I jumped from the balcony, the landing jarring my entire body, but pure adrenaline filled me as I stood up and ran toward where the tentacles had taken him. My feet barely registered the ground beneath them—the world was a blur in my vision. The only thing in focus was the exceptionally still water of Rex’s moat.

It was as though nothing had even happened, but I’d witnessed everything with my own eyes and knew Jac was beneath the surface.

Diving straight in, I realized I was unarmed in the water with whatever thing had dragged Jac under. Beneath the water, I could see within the first two meters, but deeper was pure darkness. Fallen branches at the edges provided detritus forsmall fish and other creatures to hide around or eat, while jagged black coral protruded from the bottom in random clumps.

I swam up to catch a big breath, before dipping back under.

I broke off a branch—the sharpest one I could find in a hurry—and hunted for that thing. I had never seen anything like it in my life and had no idea what it was capable of. I had seen squids and brolacs, of course, but nothing with tentacles that long and thick. Something squiggled in the dark below and ahead, so I dove toward that cold blackness.

It was like the water column was distinctly layered. As soon as there was no more light, everything was frigid, trying to suck the air from my lungs. They burned like fire from the heaviness of the water and my relentless strokes through it. At least my lungs would keep me warm for a time.

Another squiggle ahead.

I pressed on, desperate to find Jac. After decades of friendship, I was intimately familiar with his worst fear—drowning, because he could not swim. I couldn’t believe this was happening to him. I refused to believe it.

No! I’m going to find him!

But, as fates went, it sounded better than being eaten alive by that thing, whatever it was.

As I dove deeper into the abyss, the jagged coral came closer. Unsure if it was moving toward me or if it grew in tighter bunches near the bottom, I could no longer avoid it in the pure dark. I swam into a cluster of it, slicing my hands and arms to ribbons. I almost dropped the branch, but I clung to my only weapon.

I’m coming, Jac.

The pressure built in my body under all that water. I couldn’t guess how deep I was, and I didn’t want to know. Stars burst in my vision, and I knew I would have to turn back soon for air. I’d be no good to Jac dead.

But then I realized it was fish and not my lungs causing the star bursts. Tiny fish pulsed pale blue light near me. They began to pick at my skin, but I didn’t feel it, so I didn’t mind it. The deeper I went, the more there were, and I could see again.

Just in time to see the gaping maw in front of me.

I dodged to the left of the massive beast, but its protruding teeth scraped my leg before I could move it. It was twice my height and had the same width. As it swam by, tentacles trailed behind. Creatures, great and small, hung in the tentacles as future meals, I assumed.

Jac.

His limp body dangled there behind the living mouth, illuminated by those tiny fish having a nibble.

I grabbed onto the tentacles, pulling myself up them as the beast wriggled and tried to escape my grasp. My mangled hand was barely strong enough to hold on, but I managed to climb them. When I was close enough to the rear of the creature, I plunged the branch up wherever the tentacles dangled from, puncturing…something. The creature swished side to side until it began to drift downward in the water. No voluntary movement. It was dead.

The tentacles released Jac and some other fish. He sank next to his fellow victims, but I swam down and caught him. Kicking as fast as I could, my lungs on fire from lack of air, I pushed him up to the water above me, trying to get him to the surface. As he broke through, something latched onto my leg and tried to pull me down.

I kicked it off of me, and boosted Jac over the edge of the moat, with only his legs hanging in the water. The thing beneath me tried again, this time yanking more violently on my ankle. I was close enough to the surface to catch sight of it when I looked down—another one of those beasts like the one that had taken Jac.

I panicked.No more weapons. I can’t reach the branches anymore. Jac is unconscious at best.

We are fucked.

As it pulled me down, I thought in desperation of trying to break off some coral for a weapon with my ruined hands. Before I could, a shadow zipped toward me and the tentacle beast. Twice as big and much faster, the razoeeth zoomed behind the tentacle beast and swallowed it in one gulp, severing the tentacles. It didn’t even slow down to chew.

Those tentacles released my body, and I did everything in my power to reach the surface, muscles straining and my lungs screaming for air. When I broke the surface, I gasped so hard, I thought my lungs might collapse.

---