Hidden Depths Novels & Stories

nothing. “What the hell?” I whispered. How did I get here? I looked next to me and saw a shovel in one hand and a knife in the other. I tossed the knife away from me in revulsion. My hands were bloody and I trembled in horror. Then, I realized there was a hole near me. Not ready for what I was about to behold, I peeked into the hole and screamed. In the dugout pit. . . was Hailee. . .dead

--- "That's unfortunate." --- Elena rolled her eyes. --- Adrian noticed the blueprint immediately. --- "You found something." --- Not a question. A statement. --- Elena hesitated. Then handed him the document. --- As Adrian studied it, his expression gradually darkened. --- "A hidden level." --- Elena nodded. --- "And somebody worked very hard to erase it." --- The room fell silent. --- Because both understood what this meant. --- Factory Seven was never simply a factory. --- Something else existed beneath it.

BOOK THREE: THE DEEP FORGE (Jace’s Perspective) When you drop a fishing line into a black ocean, you expect to catch the water. You don’t expect the water to bite back. I stood in the subterranean vault beneath the Emperor’s palace, staring at the glowing blue chain that vanished into the two-mile-deep shaft. The five hundred miners were celebrating, passing heavy skins of water, their exhausted laughter echoing off the granite walls. Valerius and Elara were completely absorbed in the euphoric, rhythmic stability of the newly anchored capital grid.

The carcass of the Abyssal Leviathan disappeared into the pitch-black freezing waters above, taking the madness of the trench with it. At the bottom of the world, bathed in the soft, ancient luminescence of the flawless white jade gates, Caleb Blackwood stood motionless. The timer in his HUD was a relentless executioner: 69:40:12.

A faint golden static flickered between their skin, warm like sunlight breaking through frost. “I’ll warm it,” he said softly. “So you don’t have to be cold anymore.” Phoenix’s chest seized. She buried her face in his hair, hiding the tremor in her lips. Midnight bled into the East Wing. The analysis finished loading. Target Locked: Deep Abyss Ruins – Central Caldera. Warning: Prime blood required for access. Foreign touch triggers eruption. Footsteps. Rain. Burnt pine. Kael stopped at the three-meter line, hollowed out by guilt.

Stood back and looked at it as though seeing it for the first time. It was one of the pieces she was most proud of, large, maybe four feet by five, predominantly deep blue and charcoal with slashes of gold that she had laid in on a single night, working fast, working from somewhere below conscious thought. She had titled it Depth, because that was what it felt like from the inside, the feeling of going deep into something, past the point where you could see the surface anymore. She looked at it now with Doyle's words running through her head.

I need a little help here. The map glows for a moment, points toward the bed, and then goes blank again. I walk over to the bed. I pull back the covers and look under the pillows, but nothing. I go to my knees and look under the bed. Beneath the bed, I see a dark brown and black amulet shining at me, waiting for me to take it home. There is also a set of eyeballs looking at me.

The stone-cold man has finally surrendered to whims of destiny. His body finally surrendered to the battle of regret and soon everyone realised that the height of iceberg above the water, was nothing compared to its depth beneath it. His depths were not visible to the naked eye, but she surely was able to dive in deep through. ..................................................

He was alert, but even he seemed dwarfed by the intensity settling over them, a pressure that bent reality in subtle, disturbing ways. A low rumble echoed through the forest, more felt than heard, vibrating in the soles of her feet and reverberating through her chest. Aria’s glow responded instantly, flaring brighter, illuminating the clearing in stark silver light. Shadows around the perimeter twisted and danced unnaturally, moving with intent, congregating toward the altar. Figures began emerging, cloaked in darkness, but unlike anything she had seen before. Their eyes shone with fiery amber, reflecting the light from her hands, and they moved in silence, deliberate and measured, as though

Chapter 44 – Beneath the Surface Cold swallowed her whole. Not the clean, sharp cold of the pool’s surface, but a deep, crushing chill that seeped into her bones and stripped the air from her lungs. The world tilted into disorientation—no up, no down—just currents that twisted around her like invisible hands. Shadows swirled in the murk, shapes that seemed almost familiar before dissolving again into the dark. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, a panicked drumbeat counting down the seconds she had left before she drowned.