Chapter 14

Water retreats under Raeve’s song, revealing a graveyard of bones and forming a churning plug that traps the anthe at the tunnel mouth. As the level drops, Pyrok half-mounts the pier while Kaan hangs below, gripping a frail prisoner. Kaan heaves the prisoner up for Pyrok to pull to safety, then moves to descend toward Raeve despite her warning.

To force Kaan outward, Raeve commands Rayne to surge, walling him toward the exit. She shifts her song to reinforce the water cage around the anthe while edging back across bones toward the pier. The anthe lashes at Raeve, slicing her cheek, and drives closer, its screech battering Raeve’s senses as she fights to hold Rayne’s shape.

Cornered against a pier column, Raeve locks eyes with the anthe, refusing to yield despite Utris’s cautions. She screams a freezing, bestial challenge that meets the creature’s will. Behind her, stone breaks as Kaan reaches her, hauls her up by the armpits, and drags her over the shattered pier.

As the anthe clambers after them, Kaan warns that he will destroy the beast if it touches Raeve again. Raeve yields to his retreat, maintaining a cold, silent threat toward the creature while they back away. Tethered to the lake by a tendriled body, the anthe pursues, but Raeve and Kaan withdraw steadily into the dragon-mouth exit, escaping its immediate reach.