Chasing Tides | Throne of Glass

XV

longa nocte

Sam almost laughed at the obscenities that left Celaena's mouth in that single heartbeat. Almost. If it weren't for the fact that he was ready to piss his pants – stranded in the middle of a very large, very thin (or so it now seemed) piece of ice much too far from the shore than he would have liked. With a giant, red eye staring up at him, and below said eye a row of giant, dagger-like teeth. Dagger-sized, even.

He hadn't quite thought this through well enough, proposing himself to be bait for Celaena – and what now appeared to be fish food for whatever that monster was beneath the ice. Never mind what Rowan was thinking or doing.

'We're getting the hell off the ice now,' he hissed, voice so low in fear that the creature would somehow pick up on the vibrations. He grabbed Celaena's hand, pushing her incessantly enough that she eventually gave up trying to convince him to go in front.

'It's valiant,' he panted, commencing an awkward shuffle-slide across the ice, wary not to apply too much pressure at once with a step or to break into a run in case it simply shattered beneath his feet, 'to want to put me ahead, but if we both die from bickering, it defeats the whole point.'

She was still adamantly inching towards the shore behind him, eyes half-trained on the translucent surface beneath their feet, and he didn't even bother fighting at this point just as long as they could continue a smooth passage across the ice.

'Oh, hell,' he heard her breathe. That was the moment the creature began to meander itself towards them at an arguably lazy pace, but Sam's heart was reaching a dizzying rate now. He had imagined death, but not like this. Not being consumed as some ancient, giant water-dwelling serpent-that-wasn't-exactly-a-serpent's afternoon tea or torn clean in half by those razor sharp teeth as mere sustenance to whatever the hell that thing was. The entire situation right then seemed completely surreal. He'd have rather been poisoned by Rolfe.

The ice beneath his feet thickened suddenly. Sam's head snapped up – as did Celaena's – immediately finding the source of the reinforcement to be Rowan, who apparently had been none the wiser to what lurked in the cave and done the only thing he could to offer them aid. They had no weapons, and were in reach of none, either. Something about the mountains of blades embedded deep into the rocks beneath the water told Sam, however, that blade or no blade, it wouldn't have made much of a difference. The Fae male's face was taut, eyes wide with something that seemed close to rage, although Sam was in no hurry to find out what. A little more reassured that the ice would hold his weight, he widened his steps, yanking at Celaena's sleeve when he found that she'd stopped. He looked down then, too – and immediately wished that he hadn't.

The creature began to propel itself at a much faster speed, its scaled, streamline body cutting through the water with ease despite its being of unnervingly large stature.

'Faster,' Rowan barked, and Sam would have very much liked to stress to the male that they were trying, confound it all and the stupidly slippery ice.

A roar that came not from a being, but from the noise of the creature's approach had begun to sound in his ears. He glanced back at Celaena, catching the simultaneous widening of her eyes and a flash of bone-white teeth snapping from the depths. She shoved him just as the ice beneath their feet shook, the entire sheet covering the expanse of the lake's surface seeming to displace itself. Sam went sprawling – in the direction of the shore, thank the gods, as both forces sent him careening to his knees. He was up, and then down again on his knees as the creature charged again at the ice, with the very clear intention to break it.