The Thing Beneath
259 Words
Chapter Seven
The kiss doesn’t fade. It detonates. Light bursts from the water in a blinding ring. The sea pulls back from the shore as if bowing revealing dark rock that hasn’t seen air in centuries and then it moves. Something enormous shifts beneath the surface. Not a wave. Something alive. The hybrid is the first to step back.
“Oh,” he breathes. “That’s new.”
The wolves begin to howl, not in attack. In warning.
Elias pulls away from me slowly, eyes locked on mine.
“What did you feel?” he asks.
I don’t answer. Because the answer is impossible. It felt like recognition. Like something old and starving just realised I still exist. The sea splits and from the black water rises a shape made of shadow and tide. Not fully solid. Not fully spirit.
Massive antler-like horns formed from coral and bone. Eyes glowing abyssal blue. A voice fills the air, not heard with ears, but inside the ribs.
“Blood of the Warden.”
My knees nearly buckle. Kevin falls to one knee instantly. The wolves lower their heads. Even Elias stiffens.
“You were not meant to wake,” he says quietly.
The creature’s gaze turns to him.
“First Blood.”
The words drip with hatred. The hybrid swallows.
“Oh this is bad.”
I know its name before anyone says it. Morrath. The Sea Devourer. Bound centuries ago by the Wardens. By my bloodline. By my mother. And now it’s free because I kissed a vampire king.
Wonderful.
- Writer
