27

27

The Warning Stones

Before I can react, Dex slashes at me, but a swell of water pushes him out of range before the blade makes contact.

Heart hammering, I swim backward, putting more distance between us. “Dick move.”

“Sorry, but I’m here to win.”

Mental note to stay away from Dex from now on. “I’m here to not die,” I tell him. “Victory is all yours.”

“Yeah, right.” He waves my relic in the air. “Thanks for this, though.”

With strong strokes, he swims away from me toward the opening of the cave. What? Does he plan to swim all the way from wherever this island is to the shore?

His funeral—

The pearls. I have four of the six tucked into a pocket of my vest. I could get away if I wanted. Hades would come get me in the Underworld, if that’s where I end up.

No.Dire needs only.

“There are words!” Trinica points across the way from where she’s climbed up onto a ledge.

Sure enough, the sinking water has revealed words in English carved deeply into the cave walls. At first, they barely show over the waterline, but it goes down fast enough to make them out. And as soon as I read them, a kick of dread plows into my gut.

If you see these words, then weep.

Not good. Very not good.

A glance tells me most of the others are free now. Isabel is assisting Aphrodite’s champion down her post, but Zai is still up on top of his own. And I can’t cut him free.

“Isabel!” I call out. “Dex took my axe. Help Zai when you’re done.”

Her head comes up from what she’s doing, and then she waves an acknowledgment, so I start cutting a swift path through the water away from the carved warning in the rocks, back toward Trinica and several others now up on the ledge.

I’m almost to the wall when Neve’s eyes go wide as she stares over my head toward the carving. Trinica must see the same thing, because her mouth forms the words Oh shit before she’s waving and yelling at all of us. “Get out of the water! Get out of the water!”

If I’ve learned anything in this life, it is to not hesitate when someone yells at you to run. So I swim hard, heart pounding like it wants to break through my rib cage as I cut through the water, feeling like I’m not going fast enough as my muscles cramp from the cold. Any second, I expect something to catch me by the feet and drag me under.

Every time I lift my head to breathe and make sure I’m swimming the shortest path to the ledge where the other champions wait, I can see their faces grow slacker and paler with fear and shock. I hit the rocks and try to climb up, but unlike the wood posts, the surface is slick.

“Come on. Come on. Come on.” I’m muttering to myself as I crab walk my hands, trying to find a spot, any spot, to pull up, when suddenly a large hand appears before me. Randomly, my brain gloms onto the detail of long, tapered fingers before he grabs me by the wrist.

I look straight up into midnight eyes crinkled in a smile.

“I’ve got you,” Samuel says in a deep voice––his English is accented, but I can’t make out from where––then hauls me out of the water one-handed as if I’m a very wet feather.

I’m congratulating myself in relief as my feet touch down, only to have Samuel yell, “Watch out!”

He tackles me to the ground, wrapping me in strong arms and taking the brunt of the impact against the rocks as we both go down.

That doesn’t help absorb the horror that hits me at the sight of the thing sliding back into the water, inches away from where we were just standing.