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They were halfway there when her lungs reached their li airabout to involuntarily breathe water He swaainst her ear

They breached the surface into a storiant swells She blinked against sea spray, trying to get her bearings

"Where are?" She trailed off when Thronos’s head craned up She twisted to look over her shoulder, saater all the way up to the sky

Inconceivably high About to crash over theht But if he couldn’t get high enough

Her mind couldn’t accept the size of the wave--like aover "Faster, Thronos!"

His jaas clenched, his heart sounding like it’d explode "Don’t let go of an to crest over thehtly around her The wave collided with them so fast the water became as solid as brick

The ed stone cliff When they crashed into it, the rocks tore his wings like ato rip her away fro to each other

The wave sucked the harder

The force raked theainst the wall

But when it receded the second ti to the cliff with one quaking hand

Gritting his teeth, he leapt higher, pulling them out of the wave’s reach The next crest slapped just beneath their feet, foas, but it couldn’t catch hold of them

He hauled thee, he shoved her ahead of hiround, heaving breaths, coughing seawater Beneath the wave

"Melanthe, speak to ulps of air "Are you hurt?"

She shook her head Again, he’d kept her cocooned for the most part "Just some wounds fromfrom where ere" Swatches of her skin had been loosened by the acid, then sucked away

She’d been food Still would be, if not for Nïx Except that the Valkyrie had sent them there in the first place! Why, hy?

Most of Lanthe’s breastplate was gone; the scant re do you think ere inthere?"

"Could’ve been hours or days," he answered "Even weeks I doubt our conception of tiht" She would never have words to convey to anyone else how horrific it’d been Only Thronos could understand those tentacles, the pus, the burning

Lanthe shuddered She si her ever-living shit

When he rolled toward the edge of the cliff, scanning the waves as if searching for sos looked worse than normal, those scale mosaics even more skewed

"How bad off are you?"

Over his shoulder, he said, "I’ve got a forearfor?"

"I think so--followed us out It was difficult to see in there, but I believe I spied a being"

"Anyone who followed is probably dead No one could break free of that current" She frowned "How did you?"

"I’m not as weak as you think me" As if to prove his point, he lumbered to his feet His shirt had been either eaten away or torn free; rated from acid "I’m an immortal male in my prime"

"And that was the equivalent of an immortal current Our bodies should have been dashed to pieces"

"Well, they’re not" He reached a hand down, helping her stand

As he steadied her, she asked, "Do you think we had supernatural assistance?"

"Is it so difficult to believe I did that on my own?" He stared down into her eyes as he said, "Maybe you "

He looked so earnest about this, she decided not to argue the point "In any case, thanks for gettingeach other’s asses, don’t we?"

"That’s the way it should be, no?" He see ed the subject

"Where do you think we are?"

"I have no idea"

She turned her attention to herself Though her necklace was unhares cutting into her already daed skin She unfastened the last stubborn clip, then duh to cover most of her breasts In the back, her locks had been eaten away, an involuntary bob cut Her boots looked like acid had been drizzled over them, but at least the soles covered most of her feet

Her skirt had only a few leather strands left For Thronos’s sake, she shifted the garave her an ass-less skirt

He flicked his gaze over her torso "You’re burned worse than I thought You need to rest and regenerate"

"Where? We have no idea what dangers surround us"

"Then we need to get to higher ground whileheals" He surveyed the horizon

She saw only flat terrain, a sheet of slate-gray stone that round" But he could see farther than she could

"Coh the rock had countless craters--just ideal for her acid-eaten stiletto boots--she said, "I can walk on my own"

"I know you can" He kept her hand After that Pandemonian hell zone, he see so would take her away froed this man So ould happen to him once they ultimately separated?

For now, hand in hand, they set off, wending around larger holes

"What if this is another dream?" she asked "That hallucination was so realistic" You know, Thro, the one where ere having hot interspecies action

He nodded "I feel as if I’ve known you Almost"