Chapter Twelve

Aliana’s POV

The water closed in around me...

Above, I could see Dikaios’s body, floating in what looked like a starry night.

It was beautiful...

It was terrifying!

Darkness swarmed me, and it felt like I was being swallowed whole! One moment, I was clinging to Ani’s limp body. The next I was yanked downward, deeper and deeper into blackness.

My arms flailed and my lungs burned!

But it was as if the shadows themselves had hands, pulling me lower into their cold embrace. The sheet around my body had turned into chains that were dragging me into a cold depth that robbed me of air...

The world narrowed to darkness, alive and shifting.

Frightening with its welcoming embrace...

Panic tore through me!

I kicked, I clawed at the silk, trying to tear it off my body. But suddenly it felt like it was made from endlessness – no matter how hard I pulled, there kept being more. More and more, it wove around my body until---

I didn’t want to die!

I screamed… But only a strangled rush of bubbles left my mouth. My chest ached now, and desperation clawed at me.

I had to breathe!

But the darkness kept pulling me down!

Down and down, into the cold…

Shit!

Was I going to die here?!

One last desperate reach, I screamed for him. He was so far away, I could barely see him now. A dark shadow against the silver-lit surface…

Please!

Everything around me vanished into a world of black…

“Dikaios...”

Heat…

Strong arms wrapped around me from behind, a sudden strength that pulled me towards---

Light!

The second I broke the surface, my lungs sucked in much-needed air. I coughed and gasped, choked for air as if it might never come again. My body slammed against Ani’s chest, his hands steady as he cradled the back of my head, his voice low and steady against my ear.

“I’ve got you, little girl,” he cooed gently, caressing my back. “I got you!”

I clung to him, trembling while water was streaming down my face like tears. My whole body shook, my mind still reeling from everything. My skin was still itching, as if I could still feel those dark hands that wanted to end my life...

“I’m sorry,” I suddenly heard Ani whisper, gently brushing a strand of hair away from my face. “I didn’t realize you couldn’t swim.”

“Wh-what?!”

My voice cracked, half-hysterical, half-relieved. Fully pissed, as I kicked off the sheet, which of course now easily detangled from my body, as if mocking my ordeal!

“Of course I can swim!” I exclaimed, hating how my voice betrayed me. “But you could have bloody warned me that it’s the fucking Mariana Trench down there!”

Didn’t he fucking know how deep this was?

Then again, considering how he could change shit around him, making an infidelity deep pool was probably no problem for a guy like him!

Ani froze, confusion flickering across his sharp features. His crimson eyes met mine, darkened with something I couldn’t read. Deciding it was best to just show me, he shifted, standing tall in the water. The motion dragged me with him, and I realized---

The pool barely reached his waist!

His broad shoulders rose high above the surface, gleaming like carved obsidian under the dim light. He easily carried me above the surface, water rushing from our united bodies like small waterfalls.

“That’s--- impossible!” I whispered, gaping at the obvious bottom. Sure it – like everything here really! – was black, but the silver lightning bolts and the glowing glimmer that looked like stars gave a clear indication of where the bottom was!

“I don’t like deep waters,” he explained, as if that was only natural. And honestly, I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry. That an apparent god didn’t like deep waters--- or that I nearly drowned in a barely 4 feet deep bathtub…

Seriously?!

Had I imagined all of that?

I could still feel the ghostly touch of cold hands wrapping around my feet, and I shivered. Still, testing the depth, I slid away from him and lowered my feet. My toes touched solid marble almost instantly. The water lapped at my chest, warm and smelling like the oils from before.

It reminded me of spring...

“I--- I could have sworn…,” I mumbled, my voice trailing off, as the words dissolved in the air between us. My heart raced, my thoughts a chaotic blur.

I knew what had happened!

I had felt something pulling me under, deeper than this pool should have gone. I had seen the horned god floating above me, unreachable no matter how hard I’d tried...

But here we were, steady and unmoving, with half our bodies above the surface… I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering now that I was out of the warm water. Maybe--- maybe this was just how things were when a mortal trespassed into a god’s world. Maybe the rules bent around me, twisted into nightmares I couldn’t explain...

“What did you mean?” Ani’s voice cut through the haze, sharp and watchful. His eyes were narrowed, searching mine.

Which somehow pissed me off right now!

“Nothing!” I snapped, shaking my head quickly, brushing it off even though my pulse thundered in my ears. But before I could stop them, the words tumbled out of my mouth, raw and wild just like my emotions: “I don’t know what the hell is going on anymore! It feels like I’ve been dragged into a fantasy world that I don’t understand. I don’t even fucking know what’s real and what’s not!”

My voice cracked with rage, fear, exhaustion… and probably something I hadn’t identified yet. Or maybe I had, but I didn’t know the proper godly term for it yet. Hell, a part of me still wondered if I’d died back then or if I’d just lost my mind.

Maybe both?

I mean, who the hell fucked their savior as if they’d lost all mind and reason?

Me apparently!

I couldn’t stop shivering. I couldn’t stop thinking about what had just happened. And I couldn’t stop blaming myself for not even stopping and asking all the important things before I let it become this complicated!

Something warm brushed against my skin, and I once more felt his warmth and strength seep into me. He was the reason why everything felt warm and good. Like he was the light my soul needed, the life my heart kept beating…

I couldn’t take it anymore!

“Stop it!” I cried, shoving at his chest--- although that was like trying to move a solid rock! But he did pull his hand back, his eyes once more that scorching red that felt like it could consume me alive. Eyes that somehow never seemed to be angry or disappointed in me. Yet always shrouded in mystery and so far away I could never reach him...

I hated it!

“Who the hell are you, Ani?” I asked again, my whole body trembling with so many emotions it felt impossible to feel them all at once. “And don’t spin me some bullshit about being human! You have horns, for Christ’s sake! Humans don’t have horns! And gods don’t exist!” I took a deep breath, glaring at him with all the fury of hell. “What the hell are you? What the hell is this place?”

My throat burned...

Tears pricked my eyes, blurring my vision.

My body shook with anger, I couldn’t contain...

For a long moment, he said nothing. His eyes softened, a flicker of something like sorrow passing over his face. Then he reached for me again, and though I knew I should stand firm, I didn’t have the strength in me anymore. Apparently, I’d used it all on my rant, and now I was just drained. So this time I let him pull me into his arms, feeling a strange sort of relief being close to him again...

“I’m sorry,” he murmured against my hair, holding me as though I were fragile glass. “I’m sorry that you’ve been dragged into all of this against your will, but---,” he trailed off, his voice a rumble of velvet and thunder. “I can’t be sorry that I’ve finally found you. Still, I should have explained. You’re right! Please, if you have any questions, I’ll try and answer them to the best of my abilities, my little Muse...”