Finally, I glimpsed a more human shape of a shoulder and arm, then hands that frantically shoved and beat on the immense tail. He was trapped beneath it, pinned against a rock. I swam down as fast as I could and grabbed his hand. He gave me a frantic, panicked look, and his eyes widened. He shook his head, his hair flowing around him like a black halo. A slow stream of bubbles drifted up from the corners of his mouth. He pointed up toward the surface, baring his teeth at me.
The hell I was going to swim back up and leave him! I shook my head and grabbed his hand again, pulling. He let me pull, his body flexing as he struggled to push himself free, but it did no good. I let out a frustrated yell into the water that came out as a series of big bubbles. How long had I been down here? How long had he? I didn’t feel the kind of burning pressure in my lungs I’d have expected after holding my breath for too long, so I kept trying.
I moved behind him, braced my feet on the rock he was pinned against, and shoved. But my feet slipped, and I only succeeded in pushing myself away without dislodging him at all. When I swam back, he gave me a pleading look and pointed at me, then toward the surface again.
This time, I nodded. I’d get air, then come back, and I hoped to hell he’d last long enough. I swam as fast as I could to the surface, broke through with a gasp, inhaled, then dove beneath again.
On the way down, I saw where he was trapped from a new angle, and the shape and texture of the rock sparked a memory that made me realize what a fool I was. The current was slowly eroding that stone into sand, which wasn’t all that far removed from the materials that I dumped into the crucible of my furnace on a regular basis.
Chayton had gone limp, his arms floating up away from his body. My adrenaline spiked, and I swam around to grab him and shake him. He didn’t respond, so I gripped him by the cheeks, pressed my mouth to his, and blew as hard as I could, forcing air into his mouth and willing him to live. He didn’t regain consciousness, but I sensed our connection strengthening. It was as if he’d been retreating into darkness but came forward again, though I didn’t know how long it would last if he stayed down here.
I focused on the rock again, swimming around Chayton and pressing my hands to its surface. Then, with all my might, I pushed power through my hands, holding back nothing. The stone heated beneath my palms, then a crack formed, and within was the orange glow of lava. I still didn’t let up, forcing more power in until the entire outer layer formed a webwork of cracks with the orange glow of molten stone shining through from within.
The stone softened enough to provide give, and I grabbed Chayton beneath the arms and hauled him up with all my might. His inert body moved only a little at first, then finally slipped free. I grabbed hold of him from behind, slinging an arm across his chest, but he was way too big for me to get hold of him beneath his opposite armpit. I kept trying, and he kept slipping free because I couldn’t find a solid handhold on his big body.
I had to get him the fuck to shore before he drowned, and I’d already lost track of how long we’d been down here. That I was still able to hold my breath was a crazy thought itself. But I could do magic. There must be something I could do to help get us out of here. At a loss, I finally had an idea. I peeled off my flannel shirt and stretched it out longways, twisting it to form a makeshift rope, then slung it around him, over one shoulder and under the other, tying the ends of the sleeves together.
With something to hold onto, I kicked hard and swam to the surface, making sure Chayton’s face was above water before turning toward the shore. I stopped and stared, treading water and breathing hard as I got a good view of the fight. But where there’d been only my other five mates and my parents, I saw at least half a dozen new figures facing off against the beast on the shore and in the air above. Who the hell was helping us?
A rippling shadow shot through the water ahead of me faster than any human should be able to swim. I yelped and frantically paddled backward to retreat from it, when a dark head burst through the surface.
“April, I’m here to help. Give him to me.”
Blinking and sputtering, I treaded water to keep from sinking. “You’re that guy…the one who brought them to me.”
“I’m Llyr. One of Deva Rainsong’s mates. There will be time to explain later. Now let’s get you two to dry land.”
He swam close and slipped one arm around my waist and the other over Chayton’s chest. I didn’t see how he could swim holding us like this, but then the world twisted just like it had when Mom had stolen me away from the house when the Bane brothers arrived. It was as if I’d been tossed into a giant toilet bowl, and someone had just flushed. The sensation ended as soon as it began, and my feet hit solid ground. I immediately fell to my knees and retched, dry heaving the breakfast I’d never had a chance to eat.
When I recovered, Llyr was bent over Chayton, his hands splayed across his chest, but he wasn’t doing compressions. Instead, a bluish glow bled out from beneath his palms. A second later, Chayton made a gurgling noise, and water spewed from his mouth. He rolled over and coughed, dark wet tendrils of hair obscuring his face as he regained his breath. I crawled over to him and cupped his jaw.
“Chay, are you all right?”
He lifted his eyes and blinked once, then hauled me into an embrace so fierce I lost my breath.
“Gaia fucking save me, you’re okay,” he rasped, burying his face against my neck. In the next second, his lips were on mine, kissing me ferociously. “The others,” he said when he pulled back then looked around us.
The fight was still going on about a hundred yards down the beach, but the giant creature looked like it was being pushed back now that reinforcements had arrived. I itched to get in there and do my part.
“What the hell is that thing?” I asked.
Llyr had been standing a few yards away, giving us space, but turned at my question. “That’s a creature known as Typhon. It’s one of Chaos’s earliest creations and is fiercely loyal to him. You might have already met a few of its many heads though.”
“You mean Vesh?” I asked. “He’s part of that thing?”
“The individual heads can manifest as chaos energy and exist away from its body. When enough of them are destroyed at the same time, it summons the body from beyond the void. It can’t be killed.”
“Then how the fuck do we send it back?”
In a hoarse voice, Chayton said, “It’s like a dog with a bone. It won’t stop until it’s carried out its master’s orders. Only its master can really control it.”
“Did you guys know it would come?”
“We counted on it,” he said, slipping the rope of my wet, twisted shirt over his head and handing it to me. “The surest way to get Chaos to come and face us is to kick his favorite pet. He should be here before too long.”
I set my jaw and jumped to my feet. “Then let’s go speed things up. I want a face-to-face with that bastard. Are you in shape to fight?”
Chayton hauled himself to his feet, all six foot ten of his naked glory unfolding until he looked down at me with a grin. “A little drowning can’t keep me down, babe. Let’s go kick that puppy in the balls.”
Llyr smiled at us and reached out his hands. “Let’s say we surprise it. You guys be ready to attack when we land.”