“And she won’t let you go. What do you think will happen? That you’ll swim in there and she’ll embrace you with open arms? You gave your blood to her enemy, Maren. That makes you her enemy as well. She’d have every right to kill you on the spot.”
I stood, forcing her to take a step back. “Please let Kye out by morning.”
“Maren—” She grabbed hold of my elbow. “I can’t watch you go there. I watched my sister leave for the stone. She never came back.”
I pulled my arm calmly out of her grasp. “I’m not your sister.”
“I can’t help. I can’t go with you.”
“I wouldn’t let you.”
Desperation flickered in her eyes. The air suddenly tasted as sour as it had in the tower. “No one knows where it is. It’s hiddensomewhere, and the lore tells that it can’t be found. I don’t even know that it’s real—”
“I know where it is.”
Selena stopped and gazed at me, mouth open in surprise.
“I found it on Neris Island. Months ago, inTaurennos. Dry season, before I came here. I gave it to Nori.”
She crossed her arms. “Whatever you found, I’m certain it wasn’t the Breath of Safiro.”
“It was.” I lifted my chin a fraction. “It was in the base of Nahli, the volcano. I had to swim in through underground channels to find it, and when I dove for the stone, the water changed. Thick and sludgy until I hit ice. It almost killed me.”
Selena stared at me. I stared back at her. Thaan and Cain’s breathing came through the walls, the soft thrash of the sea beating against the rocks a murmur through Selena’s cracked window.
She slowly shook her head. “This is not… She will not give you back, Maren. You will never see any of us again. Me, Diara, Kye.”
My stomach turned at her words. “Everything in the Naiad world is about choice.”
“It is.” She stepped in closer. “It is, and you made your choice. You made it months ago, and then sealed it in blood.”
“Either help me or don’t. You won’t change my mind.”
“This is not your fate—”
“Yes, it is,” I seethed quietly, suddenly impatient with the exchange. Selena leaned away, throat taut. “Nori and Olinne knew where to find it. They’d tried to reach it before, and they were Naiads, stronger swimmers than I was as a human. For whatever reason, they couldn’t get it. But I did. The stone chose me. It choseme, Selena, and I didn’t realize it at the time. I gave it away. But this is the pathMihaunahas laid for me. Not whatever Thaan wants. Not whatever you think will keep mesafe. The Breath of Safiro is my path. I can feel it in my bones. In my blood. This is my fate.”
Her mouth closed as I spoke, her shoulders softening, hands finding each other over her waist. I watched as her neck tightened and relaxed several times, and she finally gave a quick nod, blinking rapidly. “Alright,” she said, the word verging on soundless.
Mihaunaalive. I exhaled, the sharp burden of the night lifted from my shoulders, at least by a fraction.
Selena frowned. “Thaan wants that stone. If he knew you retrieved it, you’d be even less safe with him than you are now.”
That didn’t surprise me. If Ceba had looked for it, I imagined he had too. “Do me a favor and don’t tell him.” She released a cold chuckle. I paused and gnawed my lip. “When I return, I want to learn to speak Rivean.”
Her eyebrows raised, though she tilted her head to one side and back, as though I’d provided a fair if not unexpected point. “I can arrange that, though I’ll have to find you a tutor. I know some Rivean, but not enough to teach you myself.”
“And Kravan.”
She nodded again, slower this time. “They’re similar languages. Learning one would aid in studying the other. Anything else?”
“Yes.” I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “I want to learn how to heal by water-calling.”
Selena clicked her tongue, her chin dipping slowly. “That’s a harder task.”
“I can do it,” I argued. “I guided an arrow from Kye’s shoulder by calling to the water in his muscle tissue. I cleared Hadrian’s airways and flushed blood from Kye’s lungs. I know I can do it.”
“Of the fact that you can master the skill, I have no doubt,” Selena said. “The knowledge is rare. I only know one Naiad whocan heal extensively through water, and I’ve never seen him take a student.”
