In the space between one heartbeat and the next, several things happened at once.
Fin, Hyran, Rex, and Aeron were shoved through the chamber entrance by a violent surge of shifting stone. They stumbled inside just in time to witness a nightmare explode out of the lake.
A massive tentacle shot out of the water. It was thick as a tree trunk, studded with serrated spikes, and dripping with dark magic. It moved with impossible speed, a blur of shadow and violence. Before anyone could react, it coiled around Nova's waist, striking with such force it knocked the wind out of her, and yanked her into the depths.
She vanished beneath the freezing water in a flash of silver hair and sapphire light.
Gone.
Just like that.
Jax didn't think.
He dove.
He hit the water so hard it cracked like glass, shifting into a blur of alpha speed even underwater, chasing her silhouette into the dark. Fin was right behind him, faster than any human had a right to be, and Rex followed with a snarl that shook the cavern, launching himself after them without an ounce of hesitation.
None of them panicked. Their bodies moved before fear even had time to register.
Behind them, Hyran and Aeron stood frozen at the shoreline, staring at the churning, icy-black water where the tentacle had disappeared. The lake hissed, seething with dark magic and cold that felt like it might stop a heart on contact.
Hyran slowly turned to Aeron. Aeron slowly turned to Hyran.
Both wore the exact same expression: Absolutely not.
Whatever dragged Nova into the depths did more than pull her. Something pierced into her side—deep, sharp, cruel—and the pain blasted through the matebond so violently that Fin, Rex, and Jax all felt it as if they were the ones being stabbed. It ripped the breath out of all three of them underwater.
And then something else happened.
Fin's power surged toward her.
Jax's followed in the same instant.
Instinctive. Absolute. Full force. It sought her like it had a mind of its own.
Rex's body lit gold—not from his own power, but from hers. She pushed warmth into him, shielding him against the freezing black with a steadiness he hadn't expected. In the same breath, the energy around them shifted.
And then, impossibly, weapons formed in their hands.
One moment their fingers were empty. The next—golden swords materialized, vibrating through the water in a low, resonant hum as they solidified. The force of it thrummed along their arms, ancient and commanding.
Nova had done that through them. With their magic—not hers—channeled and shaped with a mastery neither Fin nor Jax could begin to fathom. Even in agony, even dragged into the depths, she could weave them together like threads in her own hands.
All three men looked around sharply.
Jax spotted her first—far below them, at least fifty feet deeper into the sapphire black. He kicked hard, slicing through the icy water with an alpha's ferocity. Fin shot after him, and Rex followed like a golden comet, his warmth cutting through the dark.
Nova's eyes glowed gold—not silver, not green, but a burning, unnatural gold that did not belong to her but to the magic she was channeling.
And she was fighting.
She drove a golden dagger—conjured the same way she had shaped their swords—straight into the tentacle that had wrapped around her waist. The blade sank deep, slicing through dark flesh and magic alike. The creature spasmed, the water around her shuddering with the force of its pain.
She twisted the dagger once, viciously, her teeth clenched in fury and survival.
The tentacle recoiled.
And all three men tore through the water toward her like wolves hunting blood.
A tentacle shot toward Fin from the left—fast, silent, lethal. He twisted in the water and sliced it clean through, golden sparks trailing from his blade. The severed limb recoiled, and dark magic bled from the wound like smoke dissolving into the current. The water hissed where it touched.
Another tentacle whipped toward Rex. He met it head-on, swinging his sword in a brutal, clean arc. The limb tore apart under the strike, disintegrating into a cloud of corrupted magic that cracked and fizzled before vanishing entirely.
Jax didn't break stride. He plunged deeper, cutting through the water with ruthless purpose as he closed the distance to Nova.
She had already shifted tactics.
A golden bow formed in her hands with a violent shimmer, the string pulling taut as though the water weren't resisting her at all. She moved with a predator's efficiency—aiming, locking onto a target in the abyss—then fired. The arrow cut through the water like pure light and slammed into something hidden in the dark.
It exploded in a burst of golden sparks, illuminating a massive shadowy form for an instant before it recoiled into the gloom. Dark magic erupted from it, thrashing into the currents like ink swirling through the water.
Another tentacle lunged for Jax, coiling around his torso—but he slashed it off in one savage motion, golden magic cracking across his blade. The severed flesh evaporated on contact with his sword, turning to ash in the water.
Nova's eyes blazed gold again.
And then she saw it.
The token, embedded inside the mouth of a carved stone dragon-serpent curled around a submerged obelisk. Its stone scales gleamed faintly in the sapphire light, and its jaws were sealed shut beneath layers of ancient runes—runes that responded only to her. The serpent's eyes glowed as she approached, recognizing her instantly, reacting to her presence the way the temple itself had reacted since the moment she arrived.
Inside its opening jaws glimmered a small, circular medallion of pure celestial gold, etched with constellations that shifted across its surface like living starlight—the key to the temple's final gate.
She moved toward it, her body screaming in protest, but her will razor-sharp. Fin and Rex felt it through the bond—her determination, her refusal to bend—and they understood instantly. They didn't try to stop her.
Nova pressed her fingers to the serpent's snout, and the runes ignited.
The stone jaws opened.
She seized the medallion, cold and impossibly heavy, and realized it was attached to a delicate chain. She wrapped it around her hand, securing it, then kicked off the obelisk and swam toward the surface with everything she had left.
Blood streamed from her side in long crimson ribbons, dissolving into the water.
Jax reached her first. He wrapped an arm around her waist and launched upward, swimming so fast the currents warped around them.
But halfway to the surface, something slammed into her ankle.
Hard.
Violent.
Bone-deep.
It ripped her out of his arms.
Jax spun immediately, fury blazing in his eyes, but Rex was already there—slashing the tentacle clean through. Dark magic burst from the wound in a cloud of corrupted ash. Rex caught Nova before she drifted, pulling her against him and kicking hard toward the light above.
He could feel her lungs failing through the bond—shallow, strained, desperate. Panic scorched through him, but he kept moving.
Then everything went to hell.
A tentacle spike shot out of the darkness and pierced into Jax's side, burying itself deep before coiling tight and yanking him backward.
Another erupted from the gloom and drove straight through Fin's chest, the force violent enough to shove him several feet before it dragged him down.
Nova gasped, eyes widening, and before Rex could tighten his grip—
A third tentacle wrapped around her waist and ripped her out of his arms, dragging her downward into the black, her blood spiraling through the water like red smoke as she disappeared into the depths..
Her eyes blazed molten gold.
A bow of pure celestial light formed in her hands again, the water vibrating around her as if it sensed the power coiling in her palms. She drew the string back, muscles trembling, and fired. The golden arrow tore through the water with a low, thunderous hum—splitting mid-flight into a dozen smaller arrows that wove together into a massive celestial net.
The net expanded around Fin and Jax—not touching them, not pulling them, passing over their forms like they were carved from the water itself. But when it met the tentacles dragging them down, it snapped tight, binding them in crackling golden light. The creature shrieked—silently, violently—the tentacles retracting as if electrocuted, thrashing backward into the abyss.
Rex used the opening, shooting downward in a blur of alpha speed, cutting through the water with terrifying force as he swam straight toward Nova.
But she was already aiming again.
Her bow glowed brighter than before, gold searing through the dark water as she loaded another arrow. Rex was still twenty feet away when she fired.
The second arrow split into a constellation of golden shards, forming another net—this one shooting straight downward, capturing the tentacles rising from below. No one else had seen them. Only Nova, because she was the lowest from being dragged back toward the lake's depths.
The net snapped closed with a resonant hum.
The tentacles shuddered once—then recoiled in agony.