The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., a Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Queen Anne by - (top 100 books to read .txt) 📕

I averted my gaze from the transformed siren, and I saw a large, dark-brown wooden chest. The wood looked weathered and worn out, but tarnished gold trimming sparkled along the edges of the heavy lid.

Then I realized this box looked exactly like the chest in the cave wall sketches.

My eyes immediately widened with curiosity as I drew closer to the mysterious container. I tentatively reached out and touched the lid, and a heavy, electrifying sensation shot up through my entire body. Then my fingers caressed the wood, and I could feel holy energy flowing through my veins and sending a painful thrust into my heart. My heart began to beat wildly like a drum inside my chest, and the pounding was so intense and agonizing I thought it would burst through my ribcage, but I fought off the sensation and forced myself to lift the lid and peer inside.

Down deep in the bottom of the chest laid something covered in a piece of filthy, moldy, and tattered cloth, but as soon as I tore off the rotted fabric, I saw a round wooden item connected to a thick gold chain. I pulled the object out of its hiding spot and lifted its small circular lid to reveal a compass. The glass was cracked, but the thin silver needle was wildly spinning in every direction, and the tighter I held onto it, the faster the pin spun.

“What is it, master?” Marina asked from the pool of water.

“It’s some kind of compass,” I replied as I stared down at the spinning arrow. “I’m not sure what it’s saying, but I feel like this is the clue we’ve been looking for.”

“Then let’s take it and go,” Marina suggested with an arched purple eyebrow. “You need to recite the charm and get down here, master. I have a feeling we can’t stay long…”

“I agree,” I said before I tucked the compass and my wand safely into my clothing, and I moved to the edge of the pool. Then I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Satanae concedere potestatem faceret Bina Aquis nature sub gratia vires dum patitur! Mutantur et errant respirare possunt in eis qui mare oceanum!”

Even without my wand, my body began to transform, and I felt myself changing both inside and out. I gritted my teeth and crouched down in pain as gills sprouted from behind my ears and grew like petals on a flower. Then my entire body shook with agony as my feet and hands became webbed, and scales grew all over my hands, up to my forearms, and slowly spread up from my feet and up to my knees. My lungs instantly felt as heavy as lead, and I struggled to breathe as the painful transformation took over my body once more.

When I was fully transformed, I was about to hop into the pool of water and back down into the submerged ocean cave with Marina until there was a sudden explosion from one of the cave walls. A rain of stones went flying in my direction, and one hit me right in the head. I fell down, and as I laid there, I struggled to breathe and stand. The salty ocean water was quickly overflowing the cave, and something was trying to break through.

I knew I had to dive back into the small pool before whatever was trying to break through found me in a weakened state.

“Master!” Marina cried out before she lifted her arm and aimed her wand at the shattered wall. “Something is crawling through! I can see its limbs! They’re as sharp as daggers!”

I instantly recalled the crude painting on the walls and the giant squid splayed across the rocks. I tried to move my fishlike body and plunge myself back into the water, but it was difficult to move, even with the incoming water.

Finally, I pushed myself upward with all my might and pulled out my wand right before I dove back into the water to join Marina. We both ducked into the ocean water and submerged ourselves deep back inside the underwater cave, and we paddled through a sudden current that was trying to push us back like a strong gust of wind.

“What the hell is going on?” Marina screamed underwater.

“I think the beast that’s guarding the compass is controlling the current,” I shouted back as we tried uselessly to swim out of the deep-sea cave. “I don’t think we’re going to make it out of here without killing it first!”

“Unholy shit!” Marina shrieked when she looked up. “Look out, master!”

The giant squid-like creature was breaking through the small pool, and large pieces of the cave roof were falling down.

I quickly dodged each rock sinking down, but when I looked at Marina, a large one was falling straight toward her tail.

I aimed my wand at the rock. “Dissulto!”

The giant boulder shattered into a thousand pieces, and when Marina and I swam apart to avoid any more falling rocks, I looked up and saw the ocean beast in full view.

It was a giant gray squid-like creature with tooth-covered tentacles, dagger-sharp ends, and glowing yellow eyes. Its mouth was at the bottom of its hefty body, and when its jaws parted open, I saw rounds and rounds of giant teeth as yellow as parchment and as sharp as the daggers I had in my waistband. Its menacing eyes glanced down at me, and a terrible shiver ran down my spine before it tried to shoot one of its knife-like tentacles in my direction. I swerved out of the way just in time, right before its long, deadly tentacle could pierce me right in the heart.

“Secare!” I cried out, and a bright light left the tip of my wand and hit the bladed tentacle.

My spell snipped the rubbery but lethal limb from