Fate.
A giant mountain of blood rose over the sea, its hungry mouth gaping wide.
Alana tore the child away from herself, gripping the wriggling body with one arm, and cast the girl up over the cliff edge above as the leviathan wave swallowed her whole.
The last image she saw was her daughter, onyx eyes wide and hands outstretched.
Part I
THE GATEWAY
1
Kye
Once upon a fucking time, a fire defied the laws of nature when it shattered the surface of the sea.
The water devoured it alive, of course. Nothing burns with more rage than the sea.
I didn’t know where the fire came from. But it was suddenly at my boat, screaming as it climbed through the air on an invisible ladder, drunk on hunger for my breath. My throat closed in a raw cloud of heat, oxygen scorching my lungs.
Maren laid at my feet, fighting to stay awake.
“Don’t fall asleep,” I choked out, throwing my eyes over my shoulder toward the cliffs.
The burn of a different blaze seared down my back, pulsing under the tip of the sun-damned arrowhead lodged somewhere above my scapula. There was nothing I could do about an arrow, though. Not with my arms pressing against the angry tide, oars shaking in my grasp. “We’re almost to land. We’re almost there. We need to run. Be ready to run.”
My words meant nothing to Maren.
Her eyelids flickered, head nodding until her chin tucked into the floor of the dinghy. A wave lashed at the side of our boat, washing her hair over her nose and mouth. She didn’t move.
Hurling a string of threats to Aalto, I threw my weight into my arms. My right arm trembled, wrist refusing to bend.
My shoulder screamed.
My jaw clenched.
And the pirates slowly fucking gained on us. They wouldn’t catch up before I reached the rocks. But like at Laurier Palace, these cliffs stood high overlooking the tide. We’d have to climb.
I’dhave to climb. I’d lost Maren to theValerianyabout two minutes ago—
Flames erupted again beside my boat.
They roared to life, reaching out over the surface like curled talons, engulfing the air in vivid orange color and stifling heat. Then died just as quickly, consumed by hostile ocean waves. I swore, ducking into my oars as I shot a look back at the pirates.
One of them aimed another glass bottle my way, stroking flint against the cloth that hung from the bottle’s neck.
Fuck.
The sea bucked under the dinghy. Saltwater and wind whipped in my eyes. Another pump at the oars. Muscle tore under the arrowhead. Slicing pain sent white stars across my vision. A groan rumbled out from low in my chest, my throat raw. Keep rowing. Keep rowing. Keep—
A sudden scrape of rock against wood vibrated under my feet. The cliffs.
Maren had curled into a soaked ball. She unfolded lazily as I bent to rouse her. A crash lit against the rocks.
Glass ruptured at my side. The boom of fire split the air over my head. Heat waves lashed my face, stripping the ocean-spray from my skin in an instant. I flinched away, dropping over Maren as flames licked themselves clean on the wet rock,burning dry sand and weeds in the cracks of the cliffs. It only lasted a moment, a rogue wave extinguishing the small flames. I pushed to my knees, ignoring the burn in my shoulder as I grabbed Maren at the waist and heaved her against my chest.
Fucking arrow.
