House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2) by Sarah J. Maas

“This ship can become invisible?”

“Not invisible. Camouflaged.” Sendes smiled with pride. “The Ocean Queen imbued her vessels with many gifts from the seas. This one has a squid’s ability to blend into its surroundings.”

“But the lights inside—” Tharion started.

“The glass is one-way. It blocks the light and any glimpse within once the camouflaging is activated.”

“What about radar?” Ruhn asked. “You might be invisible to the naked eye, but surely the imperial ships would pick you up.”

Another one of those proud smiles. “Again, the Ocean Queen’s power fuels our ship, not the firstlight that the Omega radar is programmed to pick up. We register no signs of life, either—not even as a whale or a shark might on a radar. We are completely undetectable. To a passing Omega-boat, we are only a cluster of rock.”

“What if they run into you?” Tharion asked.

“We can simply drift up or down, to avoid it.” She pointed again. “Here they come.”

Ruhn’s heart leapt into his throat. Athalar’s lightning snaked along his body once more. Bryce muttered something to him that apparently did nothing to calm the angel down.

But Ruhn was too busy monitoring the enemy’s approach. Like a wolf stepping from the shadows of a kelp forest, the Omega-boat stalked for the canyon. Its firstlights blared into the dark, broadcasting its location.

People continued walking past, a few glancing to the enemy closing in, but not paying it much mind.

What the actual fuck.

The imperial ship plunged right after them. A wolf on the hunt, indeed.

“Watch,” Sendes said.

Ruhn held his breath, as if it’d somehow keep them from detection, as the Omega-boat crept closer. A slow, strategic sweep.

He could make out the paint along its sides—the imperial insignia flaking off—the slices and dents from previous battles. Along its hull was written, SPQM Faustus.

“The Faustus,” Tharion breathed, dread in his voice.

“You know the ship?” Sendes asked him.

“Heard of it,” Tharion said, monitoring the warship inching past. Utterly unaware of them. “That vessel alone has downed sixteen rebel ships.”

“At least they sent someone impressive after us this time,” Sendes said.

Tharion ran a hand through his damp hair, claws retracting. “They’re drifting right by us. This is incredible.”

Cormac grunted, stirring in Ruhn’s arms, “Does Ophion know about this?”

Sendes stiffened. “We are not aligned with Ophion.” Thank fuck. Bryce sagged, and Hunt’s lightning dimmed slightly.

“What about the Asteri? Are they aware of this technology?” Ruhn asked, gesturing to the boat around them, now vanishing into the deep, the Omega-boat blindly passing overhead.

Sendes continued walking, and they followed her. “No. And given the circumstances under which we found you, I trust you will not pass on the information. Just as we shall keep your presence confidential.”

You fuck us, we’ll fuck you. “Got it,” Ruhn said, offering a smile that Sendes didn’t return. The ship began drifting farther into the canyon’s depths.

“Here she is,” Sendes announced as a medwitch came running, a team of three with a stretcher close behind her.

“Cthona spare me,” Cormac muttered, managing to lift his head. “I don’t need all that.”

“Yes, you do,” Tharion and Ruhn said together.

If the medwitch and her team recognized any of them, they didn’t let on. The next few minutes were a flurry of getting Cormac onto the stretcher and bustled to the medical center, with a promise that he’d be out of surgery within an hour and they could see him soon after that.

Through it all, Bryce kept back with Athalar. Lightning still skimmed over his wings, sparked at his fingertips.

Calm down, Ruhn said into Athalar’s mind.

Thunderstorms boomed in answer.

All right, then.

The city-ship began sailing along the floor of the canyon, the seabed unusually flat and broad between the towering cliffs. They passed a half-crumbling pillar, and—

“Are those carvings?” Ruhn asked as Sendes led them back down the hall.

“Yes,” she said a shade softly. “From long, long ago.”

Tharion said, “What was down here?” He scanned the passing walls of the canyon floor—all of them carved with strange symbols.

“This was a highway. Not as you will find above the surface, but a grand avenue the mer once used to swim between great cities.”

“I never heard of anything out here.”

“It’s from long ago,” she said again, a bit tightly. Like it was a secret.

Bryce said from the back, “I used to work in an antiquities gallery, and my boss once brought in a statue from a sunken city. I always thought she was fudging the dates, but she said it was almost fifteen thousand years old. That it came from the original Beneath.” As old as the Asteri—or at least their arrival in Midgard.

Sendes’s expression remained neutral. “Only the Ocean Queen can verify that.”

Ruhn peered through the glass again. “So the mer once had a city down here?”

“We once had many things,” Sendes said.

Tharion shook his head at Ruhn, a silent warning to lay off the subject. Ruhn nodded back. “Where are we going, exactly?” Ruhn asked instead.