There are two types of people in the world: people who see a flooded room with no exit and panic, and people who see a flooded room with no exit and say "hold your breath, Gav" like they are placing a lunch order.

Gav was drowning next to the second type.

Gav: We portal if there’s no air on the other side.

Serena: Don’t worry, Gav. I won’t let you drown.

Gav: That’s not what I said. We make a—

He cut off mid-sentence. The door they were approaching swung inward into dark and the water all around them was sucked through, and they both were pulled with it.

It dragged them with a force that was not natural and was not accidental. The temple wanted them on the other side.

The current pulled them through a jagged archway carved into the rock. Serena’s lungs screamed. The water here was shallower, though, a ceiling of flickering air visible above them. She let go of his hand and kicked hard towards it.

Gavriel stayed on her heels, his strokes sloppy but relentless.

They broke the surface together, gasping, coughing, sucking down air. Serena’s chest heaved as she treaded water, blinking the sting from her eyes.

A low, grinding rumble vibrated through the walls. The waterline was dropping.

"Gav." She grabbed his arm and pointed toward a ledge about ten feet above them. "Swim. Now."

He didn’t argue. They cut through the water side by side, reaching the ledge just as the surface began to fall away beneath them. Serena hauled herself up first, rolling onto cold ground with a grunt, and Gavriel dragged himself up after her, collapsing onto his back beside her.

The water kept sinking. Fifteen feet below them. Thirty. Fifty. The chamber revealed itself in layers: ancient walls etched with symbols, a vaulted ceiling crusted with mineral deposits.

Serena lay on the floor, chest heaving, staring up at the ceiling.

"Interesting," she panted. "They used water to raise us here."

Gavriel propped himself up on one elbow and peered over the edge. The surface was a distant, dark mirror now, still falling.

"Why didn’t they just build steps?"

The question of the century.

Serena turned her head towards him. He turned his towards her. For a full second, they held each other’s gaze with completely straight faces.

Then Gav’s mouth twitched.

Serena’s composure cracked at the same moment, and they both dissolved into laughter, the sound bouncing off the ancient walls like the chamber had never heard anything so stupid in its entire existence.

The laughter faded, leaving them both winded and dripping on the stone. Gavriel shoved his wet hair out of his face and jerked his chin towards a dark opening at the back of the ledge. Serena pushed herself to stand.

A doorway was on the other end of the ledge, half-hidden by shadow. She caught Gav’s eye and tilted her head toward it.

"Lead the way, Frostborne."

They stepped into another room. It lit in gold as soon as Serena entered.

Rows of stone figures stood in formation. Over one hundred. They were staring forward.

Serena: Do not look at them or react to anything they do. Eyes on the door. No talking.

Gav took note. She delivered orders through the mindlink the way Fin delivered orders. Calm. Absolute. Someone was rubbing off on her.

Gav: What happens if I look at them?

As soon as Serena took one step, a stone figure lunged, blade drawn, and swung at Serena’s head. It stopped a centimeter from her ear. She didn’t blink. She kept walking.

Behind her, Gav’s breathing went shallow and controlled. The breathing of a man overriding every combat instinct he had.

As they walked, more broke from the line. One drove a blade towards Serena’s face, stopping a hair’s width from her cheekbone. She didn’t even twitch.

Gav: How did you know to do that?

Serena: I didn’t. I guessed.

Gav: You GUESSED?

Serena: Keep walking, Gav.

The figures grew bolder the closer they got to the door on the other side.

Their feet stomping the floor in loud patterns designed to startle. One reached out and touched her hair.

The next one lunged and stopped with its face an inch from Gav’s. Its eyes stared into his as it walked backwards in front of Gav, matching his pace.

Two massive doors opened at the other end, grinding weight against weight.

The figures returned to their positions in unison, weapons lowering, faces resuming their carved disapproval.

Gav glanced over his shoulder once they crossed through to the next room. The statues looked disappointed.

As soon as the door sealed shut, he exhaled so hard it echoed off the walls. "What in the absolute fuck was that."

"I don’t know. Good thing I was right. Or we’d both be dead from not fighting back."

"Serena." Gav’s voice was tight. "If you ever make me do that again, I am resigning from you personally."

"Moving on, Gav. Keep up."

She was already walking. Her hair was wet, her robe was soaked through, her slippers were leaving puddles on ancient stone, and she was giving orders like a general. Gav followed.

They moved into a massive chamber, larger than the one under the library.

The lake sat in the center of the temple like a held breath. Still. Black. Seventy feet deep at least.

Gav groaned. "Another one."

Serena stepped in. The water turned pink the instant her skin broke the surface.

Gav watched the water turn pink around her ankles.

"This seems like a solo mission."

"Fair. I’ll be back."

Serena dove. The pink water closed over her head and the world above disappeared.

"Of course she does that without a care in the world."

Gav had met women who hesitated at cold bath water. Serena hesitated at nothing. It was her most terrifying quality.

"I didn’t survive a hallway of stone psychopaths to have her drown in a damn lake."

He dove in behind her.

She kicked downward, Gav beside her, his strokes strong but burning oxygen fast. The deeper they went, the darker the pink became. Forty feet. Fifty. Sixty.

Her ears popped twice. His popped three times and kept threatening a fourth.

At the bottom, a dragon statue. A medallion sat on its crown, gold and ancient. She reached out and pressed her palm to the medallion. It felt hot against her skin.

The lake vibrated. Pink became gold in one violent pulse. Gold light tore through the water from the contact point and swallowed everything, moving through the water, through her body, through Gav beside her.

Her ribs fused together and the lingering pain from being stabbed vanished so fast it felt like a lie. Every trace of silver that had been poisoning her system for over a year burned away in three seconds. It had been in her so long that she had stopped noticing the weight of it. Now that it was gone, the absence was staggering.

She was whole.

Gav had run out of air ten seconds ago and was on borrowed reserves at this point. He grabbed Serena, who was floating in gold light with the peaceful expression of a woman who had forgotten she had a body that needed oxygen.

He kicked as hard as he could, pulling her up with him, until they broke the surface gasping.

Serena sucked in a full breath of air, her lungs working for what felt like the first time in months.

Gav hauled himself out of the water, flopping down on the stone floor, chest heaving.

"Serena."

Serena moved to lay beside him, steam rising off her skin in faint gold wisps.

"Yes."

"You look incredible."

"Thank you."

"You got healed by a dragon god. I got waterboarded by a temple. We are not having the same day."

She raised her palm and gold erupted from it without being called. She fabricated a shield, dissolved it, fabricated a full set of arrows, dissolved those too. Everything materialized faster and brighter than she had ever seen it.

The gold magic wasn’t just back. It was better. This was the gold that existed underneath everything, beneath the silver damage and severed matebond. Without effort, it stretched in every direction, and she could not feel the edges of it.

"Well. That just made this a lot easier," she said.

Gav looked at the gold in her hands, then at the soaking wet camisole plastered to her body, then at the slippers that had survived a temple, a flood, a seventy-foot dive, and a stone army. It was official. Serena Frostborne was the most ridiculous person he had ever met and also the most impressive, and the two facts were never going to separate.

A sound echoed from the chamber behind them. Rock sliding on rock. The door they had come through was opening again.

"Of course," he said. "Why would it be over."

Serena turned towards it, with an expression Gav knew.

"Ready?"

"No."

"Last room."

"You’re guessing again."

"I’m guessing again."

He was going to need a very long bath and a very strong drink when this was over.