Chapter 42

As I fall,obscenities in all the languages I speak repeat on a loop in my head.

Sploosh.

The gooey substance closes over my head, and I don't feel anything resembling a floor under my feet. The sewer must be really deep. Don't think about flesh-eating bacteria and the open wound in my neck. Or brain-eating amoebas. Or the people-eating monster that's made these sewers a home. Or where the monster goes to the bathroom. Or—

Survival instinct wrenches my hands away from my face, and I begin to flail. My head emerges, and I suck in a breath. The stench is unbearable, as if someone had formulated the worst odor that could exist in nature. What the hell is this stuff?

I'd rather not know. That way lies insanity.

Everything around me is dark, but there's a faint light in the far distance. I swim toward it. No one jumps into the sewer behind me. That's good. I guess Hekima can't maintain the illusion without joining Ariel, and he isn't willing to follow me here. He doesn't want his earlier lie of being eaten by Nessie to become reality.

Speaking of the monster, I haven't been eaten by her either. Not yet, anyway.

I keep on swimming.

The horrific liquid is thick and viscous, and I'd rather not think about why that is. At least that makes floating here easier than in the lakes from the black windows in Nina's dreams. Now that I'm out of immediate mortal danger, the grossness of what I'm doing is overwhelming. Is it possible to die from disgust? Desperate, I remind myself that even when I'm clean, there are more microbes in and on me than cells with my own DNA.

Nope, that doesn't help at all. Better not think, period.

I focus on the movement of my arms. Upstroke. Downstroke. Upstroke. Downstroke. The light is nearer. It's daylight outside the castle's mountain.

My foot bumps against something mushy, and I'm able to stand and rest. Best not to think about what I'm standing on.

In the direction I came from, the muck ripples. Has Ariel finally jumped in? Hekima? I pull out the knife, unfolding it frantically—not that it'll help much. Defending myself with this knife will be like trying to put out a forest fire with a water gun.

The ripples intensify, and a head emerges from the mucky water.

My stomach drops to my feet.

There's no mistaking the long neck and the maw full of dagger-like teeth.

It's Nessie, and she's here to eat me.