The ascent from the bottom of the world is a slow, agonizing decompression.
Inside the cramped cabin of the Nereus IV, the air is thick with the smell of recycled oxygen, damp earth, and the sharp, metallic tang of my own blood. The neural halo sits disconnected on the console, its thick, braided cables coiled like sleeping snakes. My head feels like it has been split open with a wedge of titanium. Every time the submersible shifts against the changing water pressure, a spike of blinding, white-hot agony shoots down my spine, settling into the dead, numb weight of my left arm.
Kade is beside me. He has unsealed the collar of his thermal suit, his face pale, his jaw set in a hard, furious line. His right hand rests on my knee, his thumb tracing slow, grounding circles against my leg. Thro
