I wake up groggy, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. My head's foggy, my body feels like lead, and everything’s annoyingly slow. I blink, stretch, and—

  Freeze.

  There’s something in my room.

  A huge something. A dark something. A why-the-hell-is-this-happening-to-me something.

  Vaurun.

  He’s hunched in the corner, broad enough to make the whole freaking room feel smaller. The shadows eat him up, his breathing gear humming. He doesn’t move.

  I should be scared. I should be screaming. But my brain’s still booting up, running on the world’s slowest startup sequence. Instead, I just sit there, staring at him, blinking slugishly.

  Then I notice my View is on.

  And he’s using it.

  Crack.

  I nearly fall backward. Not out of terror—though, yeah, some terror—but mostly because I’m still half-asleep, and my balance is garbage right now.

  I don’t say anything. He doesn’t either.

  I stand up. Walk past him. Out of my room. Down the hall. Into the kitchen.

  This is fine. Totally normal. Just an apex sea predator snapping my life savings in half. No big deal.

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  I inhale. Exhale. Get to work.

  New mission: Feed the ocean demon before he decides to feed himself.

  I grab a tray and start piling meat onto it. A lot of meat. Bear meat, thanks to Zett(don't ask why I butchered it). Because I am not about to find out what happens when Vaurun gets cranky and carnivorous.

  I grunt, adjusting the ridiculous weight in my arms. Just as I step into the hall, Klev wanders in, View open, lost in whatever nonsense he’s reading. Then he sees me. Sees the tray. The absurd mountain of food.

  He quirks a brow. "What’s with the feast?"

  "Jerky," I say, deadpan. "Zett’ll like it."

  He snorts. "Yeah, sure. That’s a normal amount of jerky. Not suspicious at all."

  I smirk, sweat glistening, then keep walking. Klev, luckily, just flops onto his self-proclaimed couch like everything in this place belongs to him.

  I don’t stop. I can’t stop. I have a sea monster to feed.

  Vaurun is exactly where I left him. Still massive. Still making my room feel like a shoebox.

  I set the tray down. The metal clinks.

  He looks at me.

  Not a normal look. Not a human look. It’s slow, heavy—like he’s peeling me apart, piece by piece, deciding if I fit into whatever deep-sea horror show he crawled out of.

  I cross my arms. "Eat."

  Nothing.

  Then, his voice—low, rippling, distorted through the translator.

  "I can hunt."

  I sigh, rubbing my temple. "Yeah, well, you can’t leave."

  He tilts his head. "You mistake this for a cage."

  I wave a hand at him, at the situation. "This was your idea."

  A pause. Then, finally, a slow nod. "It was."

  Good. At least he acknowledges that.

  I turn to leave. The door creaks as I step into the hallway—

  And Klev is right there.

  Grinning. "So, uh. Funny thing. Saw a massive black shadow yesterday. Nearly made me faint."

  I squint. "Nearly?"

  "—Okay, fine. Actually."

  I blink. "Oh."

  "Yeah..."

  Silence.

  Then, he strolls past me, stretching. "Looked so insane, I have to carve it out. Y’know, artists and their truly blessed hallucinations."

  I watch him go. Exhale slowly.

  This is going to be difficult.

  And worse? If Vaurun doesn’t find what he’s looking for here?

  It’s bad. Real bad.

  I could call the cops. Tell Vortex—he’d bring the whole freaking military.

  But that’s not what Vaurun asked for.

  He asked me to prove him wrong.

  So I will.

  I’ll show him humans aren’t what he thinks.

  Even if I have to shove an entire history book down his gills.

  How should Cherry handle Vaurun?