budge.
Another punch. Another. Pain shoots through the fine bones and tendons in my hand, up into my elbow, feeding the bloodlusting fury simmering in my chest.
I’ve tried everything. Sharpened my consciousness into a blade that’s only bent against the ice. Blunted it into a hammer I used to try to bludgeon my way through, searching the frosty expanse for an area that might be weaker. Thinner.
Nothing works.
I even pretended todrown, hoping my Other’s protective instincts would lure her back beneath the ice and hopefully crack open a hole for me to climb through.
Wrong.
She either doesn’t care or is perfectly aware my consciousness doesn’t require oxygen to exist in this watery tomb of doom.
Another strike shreds my knuckles and the remnants of my composure.
“FUUUUUUCK!”
My plan was meticulous—indulge my ravenous hunger for vengeance on a banquet of carefully plotted torture before I’d finally plug Rekk’s mouth with his intestines, pinch his nose, and watch him choke to death while reminding himexactlywhy he’s being so brutally ended.
For murdering my beautiful, miraculous Essi.
For torturing Líri to near death.
Until my Other stuffed me down here like one of my stones; like she expects me to bundle up and sink to the bottom while she doeswho knows whatto the spangle-shit stain I coaxed into my trap—
Wait.
Is that the answer? Sinking?
I whip around and peer down into the gloom. Dark, aside from the speckled light far below, like a squashed star that’s splattered its effulgent guts everywhere.
My eyes narrow, gaze bouncing from luminous speck to luminous speck.
Maybe there’s something down there I can use to break myself free? An option I wouldn’t usually consider, butshe’snot down there. She’s up there, slaughtering. Probably feasting on Rekk Zharos’s flesh.
I frown, thinking of all the shit I’ve tossed beneath the ice. Things I don’t particularly want to see again. Ever. But so long as I don’t divetoodeep, I should be fine. Theoretically.
Fuck it.
Kicking off the ice, I dive through the crisp water one determined stroke at a time until something long and luminous tangles with my fingers, making me pause. I pull my hand close and turn it over, eyes narrowed on the silver hair that’s longer than I am tall.
A chill skitters across my skin.
I’ve seen this exact shade in the tomb beneath Kaan’s sleepsuite. Seen it in the sky south of the wall, nesting amongst the aurora ribbons that sometimes blend with that wonky moon I love so much. I’ve seen it in my dreams, and in aching flashes of memory—the luminous tone coupled with milky eyes framed in pale lashes—
No.
I dump the thought, swish the tendril away, and shove deeper into the unknown.
Find an object to bash against the ice. Break free. Take back control of my body. Make Rekk’s final moments a living slumber-terror, the fuck.
The distant splatter of light swells, taking on a clustered shape of hexagonal ice pillars poking up from the gloom. Like I’m coasting through the dark above Netheryn, the Moonplume nesting grounds. Something else I refuse to mull over.
Refuse to consider too deeply.
I propel closer, drawn to a wide pillar at the center of it all—shorter than the others, fenced in by taller ones crouching close.
I focus on the concave dip typical of a well-used nesting perch. And within that dip, a large pile of treasures. Mainly silver, egg-shaped stones that make my breath hitch. Make me want to turn around, propel toward the surface, and wait patiently to be released, thennevercome back down here again.
