an elf, but against a massive nokk, it was like trying to kill an elephant with a toothpick. I needed a different approach—
Then the nokk screamed: a high, piercing sound that slid through my bones. Its tentacles spasmed, reaching frantically for Skalei to pull the knife free.
My lips twitched in a smile. The beast might be big, but its skin was sensitive.
No—wait. It wasn’t Skalei that was upsetting it. A tentacle from the second nokk had wrapped around the base of the first nokk’s body.
The nokk holding Marroc thrashed back and forth, slamming itself against the rocks as more tentacles latched on to it. Marroc swung in its grasp.
“Drop him, drop him,” I whispered under my breath.
The second nokk lunged. Its snout split open like a pair of pliers, revealing rows of yellow teeth. With a slobbery crunch, it bit into the first nokk’s side.
The first nokk screamed again, its tentacles lashing its attacker. Nokk screams and howls echoed in the dark cavern. Marroc swayed to and fro, then, finally, he slipped from the nokk’s grasp and dropped into the lake with a splash. The nokks ignored him as they fought. The cavern filled with their primordial cries; gray nokk blood fell like rain.
I swam toward Marroc’s body as fast as I dared. He was floating on his back when I reached him, his eyes closed. Still and beautiful.
“Marroc,” I whispered. “Wake up.”
But the lich didn’t move. What had happened to him? He couldn’t die if he was already dead. Whatever the nokk had done to him had left him completely unconscious.
Grabbing hold of his shirt, I pulled him away from the fighting nokk, though his weight made me groan. I scanned the darkness as I pulled him into deeper water. Something moved, and my stomach clenched. Above us, more nokks began to poke their heads from holes in the rock, their tentacles twitching in the direction of the two fighting each other.
I had to get Marroc out of here now. If we stayed here, I was certain we’d be eaten.
Chapter 37
Marroc
Whack.
A wet slap against my cheek.
Whack.
I groaned, trying to move my head out of the way.
Whack. Whack.
“Marroc, wake up.” I recognized Ali’s voice.
Whack.
I opened my eyes a sliver, just in time to see a delicate hand fly into view. Immediately followed by a painful smack against the side of my cheek.
“Mhhggghh,” I half groaned, half growled.
I opened my eyes wider. I could see. It was no longer pitch dark. Pale light filtered through a gray mist.
Ali crouched beside me. She leaned close, her silver hair damp against my neck. She was clothed now, but the memory of her kiss still burned on my lips.
She raised her hand to hit me again, but this time, I caught her wrist.
Now this is an interesting kink. I was about to pull her to me, to feel her body against mine, but she glared at me and tried to wrench her hand away. Why so shy now? She’d been trembling against me only moments ago.
“Marroc,” she whispered sharply, “are you all right?”
Why was she asking me this? I was completely satiated, of course. And why was she suddenly so shy? She should be straddling me.
She interrupted my thoughts: “Marroc, we need to get moving. We can’t stay here. I don’t think it’s safe.”
I sat up, confused. Last I remembered, before I’d fallen asleep in Ali’s arms, we’d been on our own private island. I’d taken her hard up against a boulder.
Yet it appeared Ali was right. We were sitting on a dirty bank. At my feet, brown water rushed over gray stones. The scent of death hung in the air. What was going on? I reached for my pen and notebook, but I found no sign of it. Just as well. The paper would be soaked.
“I don’t know where your notebook is,” said Ali. “I think it must have been lost in the river.”
I wrote in the dirt with my finger. How did you get your clothes back?
Ali looked confused. “What? I never lost my clothes.”
Then, as she stared at my dirty scribble, her mouth slowly fell open.
“Marroc,” she finally said, speaking slowly, “after we went over the waterfall, we were swept into an underground cavern. A great subterranean lake. We were separated. I swam to an island. There was a nokk. It almost caught me, but I was able to slice off its tentacles.”
I stared. A nokk? Ah… They were supposed to have extraordinary powers of illusion and mind control.