“You merely have witch blood. It is not the same thing.”
She lifts her chin a fraction, gaze sliding over Seren like a finished assessment.
Seren pushes up on her other elbow, moving to sit, and hissing at the pain in her…everything.
“So my blood means nothing then?” Seren presses, her irritation flaring.
“Witch blood is nothing without loyalty. Your blood won’t buy you a damned thing here, child,” the woman says, eyes drifting away as if the matter no longer requires her.
Seren stills.
The words land wrong. Not quite like a threat or a challenge.Like a correction.Like every place she’s ever stood—at the edge of it.
She pushes harder, forcing herself upright inch by inch, refusing to stay sprawled at the woman’s feet. Her arms tremble violently as she gets one knee under her, breath sawing in and out of her chest.
“I passed the test. I know that’s what it was—the ocean,” Seren snaps, defiance a welcome arrival.
The woman huffs a humorless laugh.
“The oceans of The Perils are no test. They weremerciful,” she corrects. “They let you pass… today. ButIhaven’t.”
Seren’s jaw tightens, breath punching out through her teeth.
“You crawled,” the woman continues, eyes tracking the blood smeared across Seren’s leathers, hands, face. “Instead of drowning.”
Seren bares her teeth. “Didn’t feel like giving the sea the satisfaction.”
“You didn’t scream until it hurt, either,” the woman adds, unperturbed.
Seren freezes.
“And you didn’t pray.”
Seren swallows thickly.
The woman steps closer then, and Seren has the sudden, visceral sense of being weighed. Measured. Not by what sheis, but by what shedid.
Up close, the woman’s face is even more beautiful. A dangerous kind of beauty that draws her in despite herself. The woman’s eyes are sharp and tired and far too experienced for mercy.
“You think you’ve been tested,” the woman says.
Seren lifts her chin, blood dripping freely from her cheek now. “I didn’t crawl through that fucking storm for nothing.”
A pause.
The woman turns away, already disinterested.
“Come back tomorrow.”
Like she’s already decided Seren isn’t worth another heartbeat of her time.
Seren’s stomach turns.
“Come back? Where am I meant to go?” she pleads, desperate.
The woman scoffs. “You’re a witch, aren’t you? Go where you please.”
Seren throws her hands in the air, words evading her. Eventually, she stammers, “So I’ve— I’ve come here for nothing?”
