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Each harsh, loud beat echoed through the room, coming from inside the chrysalis.
Tor’s firelighter spluttered and died, but the heart had its own glow.
I looked down at the blade in my hand, stained with blood. My skin was sticky with it. I could taste its foul patina on my tongue.
I had been inside Charybdis for so long that I couldn’t remember what it felt like to breathe air that didn’t stink of decay.
With a single thrust, I plunged Shay’s dagger into the beast’s heart. The muscle was thick, and the blade sunk in, appearing to do nothing. My damp hands slid from the blade's hilt when I tried to free it. I tried repeatedly, each time ignoring the burning of my muscles. The shaking hands and the wheezing breath.
I sunk to my knees, holding the blade in both hands, hanging from it. Praying.
Be brave.
Be brave.
Be brave.
Once more. I closed my eyes. I’d try once more. I didn’t open my eyes as I wiggled the blade free, cradling it with both hands.
I didn’t open my eyes as I plunged the blade into Charybdis's heart for the final time, and the floor I stood on began to dissolve with the rest of her body.
Iccor rained from the sky around me. The moon greeted me as her flesh parted around me, leaving me in mid-air. The lake yawned below, and before I knew it, I was falling.
I was too tired.
I couldn’t move.
The lake raced up to greet me, and I knew better than anyone how dangerous water could be. How solid. It was going to hurt, and if it didn’t hurt, it would be because I was dead.
Be brave.
Be brave.
Be brave.
I prayed to Belisama and begged for the power the High Throne had gifted me.
I became the water before I hit the surface, but I was too tired to find my own body. I allowed the current to cradle me as Charybdis’s blood and organs rained from the sky into the lake—becoming food for the fish.
I washed up on the shore, naked as the day I was born, gasping between forms as each wave raced over my body, only to retreat and leave me on the sand.
I quickly realized I wasn’t alone.
All four princelings stood on the beach, forming a line as if trying to create a barrier between my prone form and the nymph village.
Rainn smirked as soon as his eyes met mine. “I told you she was fine.” He said, pride shining on his face.
I had no idea what he was so smug about; I felt like I’d been put in a sack and bashed against a stone wall. I pushed myself up onto my elbows, ignoring the feeling of grit and pebbles against my skin. I opened my mouth to ask if the males could stop staring at me and perhaps find their way to getting me some clothing, but as soon as the thought formed in my mind, a familiar weight settled on my shoulders. Rainn’s coat emerged from the ether, responding to my silent call.
Tor was the first to break from the line, rushing to my aid and pulling the fur blanket tightly around my body. He pushed my hair away from my face, his fingers delicate as he searched for any sign of injury.
“You frightened me.” Tor’s brow furrowed, his dark eyes unfathomable. His kelpie form was so close to the surface that his eyes were rimmed with gold. “I prayed to Belisama that you would return, as you did outside of Cruinn, but there are only so many favors the Gods are willing to grant.”
I reached up, cupping his face. “I did not turn to foam.”
“The beast swallowed you. I saw it.” Tor took a shaky breath. “I came out of the tent, and the mist was so thick. I couldn’t get to you in time. The nymph held me back. He said you had a plan.” Tor spat the word nymph like a curse.
“I did have a plan,” I told him, trying to smile but unable to find the strength. “I couldn’t let it reach the village.”
