Chapter 153

The water hit me like a wall of knives.

Icy. Crushing. Absolute.

The breath tore from my lungs in a strangled gasp that bubbled upward, lost in the blackness swallowing me whole. Panic flared sharp and hot in my chest, but I forced it down, thrashing forward, deeper, deeper—because if I turned back now, what had been calling would claim Dante instead.

This was mine to face.

The lake’s darkness pre