Page 62 of Of Serpents and Ruins
Still, Brandt cast an approving glance in my direction, his dark-red eyes shining. "See? You remember the spirit, Stella!"
"The spirit?" I raised an eyebrow as I picked up more stones. "What’s that supposed to mean?"
"Kapis aren’t that bad if there aren’t too many, and you’ve got enough room to maneuver, and you’re significantly larger and more powerful than they are. Is it coming back to you, Stella?"
The pulse in my chest grew more insistent, and my fingers twitched with the urge to transform. Flashes of memory teased my mind of hunting alongside Brandt, our serpent bodies twining together in a deadly dance. I ached to release the transformation, to unleash my water serpent self and fight by his side. Yet there was only hollowness where that urge remained as if my mind could perceive the form and yet something was missing to let me fulfill it.
This wasn’t what either of us wanted exactly, but I chucked more rocks at the attacking kapis.
Brandt continued to tighten his coils around the leader. The kapi wheezed, claws scraping helplessly against Brandt's thick, sleek hide. Its struggles grew weaker as its eyes bulged. It gurgled a final hiss before going limp in Brandt's clutches, unconscious.
Brandt released his grip, and the kapi's body slumped to the cavern floor. The remaining kapis shrieked their fury, baring knife-like teeth. Muscles bunched under their heavy scales asthey prepared to attack. The nearest one charged forward. Brandt darted around it, coiling it up and squeezing.
Another kapi darted forward, jaws gaping. I snatched up a shard of marble and flung it hard. The heavy stone struck the kapi's neck, and it reeled back with a choked hiss.
The whole cavern shook.
Another earthquake!
I stumbled, barely catching myself before I tumbled to the ground. The walls trembled, stones raining down. One struck my shoulder, and I cried out.
Brandt flung the half-conscious kapi away and swept his tail around me, shielding me from the falling debris. His scales brushed against my skin, smooth and cool. I leaned into him, fingers curling into his hide as I ducked my head.
Two earthquakes so close together?
Fear speared me as silt rained down on us.
The remaining kapis hissed and huddled against the stones as rubble tumbled from the quaking cavern walls. Brandt stayed coiled protectively around me. The stalactites swayed as the ground rocked.
The tremors intensified, the rocky walls of the cavern groaning as the crystals screamed. Cracks spiderwebbed through the dark stone as more debris pelted us. I turned my face down, clinging to him.
If the cavern collapsed, we would be buried.
A thunderous crack split the air. I jerked my head up as a section of the cavern wall crumbled away. Beyond was a churning rush of water, another channel of the underground river that ran alongside the cavern. Filthy, raging currents burst through the gap, crashing into the cavern in a foaming torrent.
Brandt’s muscles tensed all around me. His coils tightened.
I couldn’t move. A deep heaviness pressed on my chest, encasing my heart with an urge to leap so intense it paralyzedme. My mouth went dry. The formerly calm river crashed and surged.
He spun around, seized me in his jaws, and lunged forward onto the highest of the outcropping boulders. His massive form closed around the dark-blue boulder as he dropped me at its center. The slick surface offered me no purchase. I flung my arms around his sides again and pressed my face down. Grey froth splashed up around us. The icy waters struck me like a giant’s fist, flattening me and ripping the breath from my lungs.
The quake ended as suddenly as it began. An eerie silence fell over the cavern, broken only by the groans of shifting rock. Dust clouded the air even as the river settled. I coughed and spat grit and foam.
Slowly, I lifted my head. Chilling fear lanced through me, the light eerie and intermittent as some of the bioluminescent lichen had been destroyed.
Brandt’s sides heaved. "You all right, Stella?" he asked, his voice heavy and rough.
I swept my gaze over Brandt's serpentine form resting protectively around me, his scales glinting in the eerie bioluminescent light. The cavern trembled and groaned in the aftershocks intermittently. Some of the crystal clusters still vibrated, their hum uneasy. The waters were no longer rising, but the currents were powerful. Only strong swimmers could brave them.
"I’m all right. What about you?" I scrubbed my hands over my face and hair, squeezing out the silt-filled water. The grime and cold seeped into my bones.
"We’ve got to get you out," he said hoarsely, all traces of play gone.
Blood oozed from his side as a few of the punctures and cuts from the stones slowly healed. It trickled into the river and turned into red spirals that vanished into the dark depths.
"There’s never been two earthquakes back-to-back. Could be a third. I… You have to go now." He moved his horned head back and forth, scanning the broken rocks and passages. "Serves me right for getting cocky. Shouldn’t have enjoyed that moment. Thanks to the rock slides, I don’t know which paths are safe. Your seer instincts, do you feel anything?"
I pushed myself up shakily. My feet slipped, and my cheek bumped against his side. His heartbeat had quickened, throbbing throughout his body, but it wasn’t from lust or need. All I felt now was fear. Awareness that something was wrong.
