she said, sliding away her knife, "the fish will go for it first. It'll last perhaps ten heartbeats at most."
"Are you sure? I quite like my fingers."
"So do I." A sinful smile so unexpected it made his own lips curve. "The plant is a delicacy to them - my father uses it as a reward after they take care of another enemy."
"Back in the boat," he ordered, and waited until she'd scrambled inside before taking the hunk of dead plant and dropping it in the water. As the hideous white fish, their eyes a dull pink, swarmed in a frenzy, he dipped in his fingers into the shallows and whispered, "Your help I ask, one guardian to another. It is time to wake."
Teeth grazed his fingers just as he wrenched them out of the water. Liliana cried out in dismay when she saw the blood running hot and slick down his - still whole - finger. "You may kiss it better later," he told her, his eyes on the lake.
The surface remained placid, the fish having calmed.
"Micah," Liliana whispered, her eyes on the watch she wore around her neck. "It's almost midnight."
"Patience." There. A bubble of water too big for a fish.
Running to the back of the boat, he began to push it into the lake, jumping in right before it would've been too late. "Row, Lily!"
Tiny crunching sounds came from all around them and Liliana knew the revolting fish with the pink eyes were eating away at the boat. A cold sweat broke out along her spine as she lifted her oar out of the water to dig it in again and one of those foul creatures appeared, teeth clamped on the wood as it flopped in the night air. "Micah."
"We're almost to the deep."
That didn't reassure her, since it ruled out any possibility of escape. But she'd promised to trust Micah, so she continued to row with frantic determination...and almost dropped her oar when a giant tentacle appeared, curling over the side of the boat. Another gleaming tentacle appeared on the other side.
She felt a tug, realized Micah was taking her oar and putting it on the bottom of the boat. "Hold on," he warned, just before the water began to churn and they crashed over the lake at a speed that had her fingers going white-knuckled from the force of her grip. Around the lake, other mysterious creatures rose with a haunting song, their bodies so immense as to be incomprehensible, their jaws massive as they swallowed up her father's evil creations with slow dives that rippled throughout the polluted water.
Exhilarated, she wiped away the filthy water spraying onto her face and held on tight as they headed straight for the shore - and the back of the castle. The tentacles slid away as they reached the shallows, but their momentum crashed them right onto the rocky edge, the boat falling apart on impact.
Scrambling onto the rocks with Micah behind her, she looked out over the churning surface of the lake. "My father's creatures are vicious," she said, able to see the flesh-eaters clamped on the tentacles that waved in the air. "They'll hurt the guardians."
Micah was already leaning back down to touch his fingers to the water, the fish too distracted to pay him any mind. "Sleep once more," he said. "Wake when the lake is pure. You have my thanks."
The lake began to calm an instant later, the guardians diving to the deep, where the flesh-eating fish could not follow. "They survived," she whispered. "All this time while my father thought he had this land cowed, they survived." A fierce happiness bloomed in her heart. "If they survived, so must others."
Micah grinned at her, and it held the lethal chill of the Abyss. "It's time to destroy the monster, Lily."
A screeching cry overhead interrupted her response. Looking up, she saw the scorching form of a firedancer. It dropped flames as it flew, and only then did Liliana become aware that parts of the island were ablaze. "The menagerie!" she called to Micah as they began to scale the rocks to the castle. "The bird must've escaped!"
She heard the trumpet of a great tusked mammoth an instant later, followed by the stampede of smaller creatures. "My father trapped them to bleed," she said, wiping her damp face with her equally damp sleeve. "They aren't creatures of evil."
Nodding, Micah raised his arm.
And the firedancer arrowed down to rest on his gauntlet, its entire body flaming, from the