Kane’s next step struck nothing, and he was falling through open darkness until he plunged into a frigid, brackish pool. He splashed and sputtered as a current dragged him along curved walls slick with grime, his hands slipping and scraping. The current quickened, and a glow pulsed ahead. From it he heard chanting. The roar of falling water. He knew what came next.

The current pulled him under, out into the crashing chaos of the waterfalls that poured into the arena. He curled into a ball as he slid down a slimy slope, jolting and bouncing between clots of moss until finally he rolled to a stop.

Water hissed to steam all around him on a floor of glittering black. He was aware of dropping into a brand-new, stunned silence, like when he’d entered homeroom that morning. He sat up and stared, and three thousand cloud-white eyes stared back. The crowd, the entire arena, was captivated by the boy who had just gushed out of their giant god’s weeping grimace.

Kane felt like he should pose. Or wave. Or do something. It felt strange to make such an entrance with so little flair. He looked at Adeline, bound to the altar, and her face was the only one absent of awe. The cloud of her black curls rocked as she shook her head. She looked deeply, witheringly annoyed with Kane’s arrival.

The silence ended when the other sacrificial virgins started screaming.

“We’re saved!”

“Our hero!”

“We knew you’d come!”

And, just like that, the plot twist was complete. Kane went from distant spectator to sudden savior. Outrage exploded from the crowd, bathing the court in a dissonant demand for sacrifice. Sacrifice. SACRIFICE!

Shivers rocked his body, rattling his teeth. He had messed up so bad that the worst possible scenario was being realized, and there was nothing he could do to stop it now.

“Kane! The sorcerer!” Adeline shouted.

Up close the man was something between corpse and exoskeleton, his skin scaled in smooth burns, his teeth just rotten pebbles jammed up into gooey gums. He pulled a twisted bone dagger from his sleeve and, locking his white eyes on Kane, rushed toward Adeline. He drew the dagger back, aiming right for her stomach. She flinched, but there was nowhere to go.

Against all his instincts, Kane sprinted after the sorcerer. He was not as fast. His soaked clothes caught with every stride. There was no way he could reach the dagger as it plunged toward Adeline…but…