Page 50 of All the Devils are Here

Another inch into the water. It was at my belly button now, and there wouldn’t be too much time before this was dangerous. My feet were already going numb from the icy cold, my teeth starting to chatter, and arms starting to shake. Like the magic was answering me, the cage started to swing back and forth, creating waves that were washing higher over me and making me colder.

“Please stop,” I begged. “I don’t want to die.”

“I see why he likes you. Infinite optimism and naïeveté. Easy to manipulate.” Prospero was leaning against the door frame like he never left. “But I don’t care. Once you live as long as I have, you understand how little meaning life has as a mortal. If I’ve had to sacrifice some? So be it.”

“You’re insane.”

He smiled. “You just noticed?”

When he disappeared, he was really gone this time. The door slammed shut and the sound of a lock boomed through the room with a stale echo.

I dropped another six inches, a small scream coming out of me. The cage was sinking. Slowly, but steadily. I pulled on the chain holding me, but there was no way I was going to be able to break the thickness of that metal. And the cuffs were flush against my skin like they were made for them.

My hands were shaking now, and my breath was coming faster. I was desperately trying not to panic, but it wasn’t working. I’d already drowned once recently, and I didn’t want to do it again.

With my feet on the bottom of the cage, I kicked off, reaching with my legs to reach the bars. Pain lanced through me, my entire body going rigid and electricity flowing through me.

Fuck.

Of course the magic would do that. Make it easy for me to escape? Never. Or was that what Prospero had done to the cage to keep whoever he needed in here?

I couldn’t make my body move now. Was that what had happened to Myranda? She’d tried to escape too much and was just a shell of herself?

The water was just over my breasts, and I could barely feel the rest of me. Where was the chain coming from? There was no mechanism above me, just appearing from nowhere.

Before I’d come here I’d been fascinated by magic. But I hadn’t fully thought through what could be done with it. Maybe Prospero was right. I was naïve.

The water hitting my neck made it so much harder to breathe. Was the water getting colder? My lips must be blue by now.

Stretching and grasping the chain, I heaved myself upward, giving myself a little more breathing room. But there wasn’t much. I was too cold to grip properly, and I couldn’t hold on to the top of the cage without being electrocuted.

Where were they?

Until right now, fear hadn’t been at the forefront of my mind. Because I already knew they would come for me. They were trying. I hadn’t had enough time with them.

I fucking hated feeling this helpless, even though it was Prospero’s—and the island’s—intention for me to have no power at all. I was nothing more than a pawn for him to sacrifice in the massive game of chess he’d trapped us all in.

My hands slipped, and I plunged back into the water. I had to arch my back to keep my mouth above the water. In seconds, there wouldn’t be more. Forcing all my air out, I heaved in a deeper breath, filling my lungs before the cage dropped me below the air. This was it.

Suddenly I was seeing darkness, flashes of lightning behind my eyes as I watched the boat sink, and all those people.

Oh god, I was going to die. The knowledge and feeling coming back in full force.

Please, please, please.

I didn’t even know if it had been this cold that night. My lungs couldn’t hold on to the air as well when it felt like every inch of my skin was being stabbed with frozen knives.

Water moved past my skin, and my body moved. I opened my eyes and saw Trin slam into the bars of the cage. His body went rigid too for an infinite moment. Before he released the bars and shot upward. There wasn’t enough room for him to slip between them.

I was fading. They were here, but I was running out of air.

The distant sound of a splash, and suddenly the cage was sinking faster, falling into the infinite blue and taking me with it. I pressed against the cage as it dragged me down and blessedly wasn’t electrocuted.

It was hard to describe the sound of metal underwater, but that’s what it was. The cage was sinking, and hands were tearing the bars open. Stone hands.

As soon as the opening was big enough Trin was through it, threading his tentacles through the bars first and wrapping me close. “Breathe out,” he said, and I was perfectly able to hear him.

I did as he asked, releasing the last tense piece of my air before his mouth slammed into mine. Pure, sweet oxygen laced with the taste of the ocean hit my lungs. I inhaled him, my mind coming back, though I was still cold.

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