Keep it near your heart, Edan had said as I tucked the walnut into my tunic.It’ll give you warmth.
I knelt by the pool, Edan the hawk on my shoulder.
“There?” I pointed to the center of the still water, where moonlight glistened brightest. “That’s what I have to get, isn’t it?”
The hawk’s neck jerked.Yes, I assumed. It was impossible to tell how deep the pool was.
My body shook as I removed my cloak, pants, and shoes. I folded them into a neat stack on a rock. Then, as I’d done before with the sun, I put on my spider-silk gloves and grasped my scissors.
The cold numbed my fear. Sucking in the biggest breath I could hold, I jumped.
Nothing could have prepared me for the shock of the cold water. Without the walnut of sunlight spreading warmth through my blood, I would have frozen within seconds.
I dove down, away from the dim light of the surface. It was so quiet all I could hear was the sound of my pulse slowing.
The pool was bottomless. The air stored in my lungs grew thin. Pinching, pinching. Tight.
Go back!My mind screamed at me.Go back now!
But I kicked on. After nearly dying on the climb, I couldn’t give up now. I tried to think of Baba and Keton, that I couldn’t fail them. But this trial wasn’t about my heart.
Stop kicking, stop swimming. Relax.
I let go. Released everything. My body began to float back toward the surface, and my throat burned, nearly out of air.No… Had I made a terrible mistake?
Then a strong current caught me, pulling me down so fast and deep into the pool that my stomach surged into my throat. There below, a soft, silvery light penetrated the water, illuminating the city of stone and crystal surrounding me. At first, the light was gauzy, thin and faint. But as I was carried deeper, it separated into thick, bright beams that blinked like eyes—tears of the moon! Around me they shimmered, long whorls of melting silver. All I needed to do was catch one.
The moonlight was slippery. Even with my spider-silk gloves, it curled and twisted out of my grasp. The next beam I caught, I quickly tied into a bow, as if it were not light but a ribbon. The beam flickered and glowed, becoming so bright I had to look away. I cut the end, clamping my scissors over the light before it could flee.
I coiled the ribbon of light over the blades and forced it into Edan’s walnut. Underwater, the task was harder than with the sunlight. My breath leaked out of me, the bubbles gurgling to the surface.
No one can rescue you, Maia.
Above, I saw Edan’s hawk form fluttering over the water.
At last, I sealed the nut and swam up. As I broke the surface, my lungs exploded with a gasp. Each breath was like inhaling ice. If I didn’t get out, I would be dead.
I kicked the water. It felt thick, and every kick wearied me, the ice lacing into my bloodstream. I stretched out my arms, reaching for something to hold. A rock, an icicle—anything.
Frost bloomed over my lashes, forcing my eyes shut. I was so cold I couldn’t see and I couldn’t feel. But at last something blocked my way. The edge of the pool, surrounded by rocks. I gripped one as tightly as I could, dragging my legs up onto the stony bank.
I had never been so cold. My skin was blue-gray, the moisture in the corners of my eyes hard as ice.
Edan wrapped his wings around my chest, which helped, but it wasn’t enough to thaw the cold in me. With trembling fingers, I reached into my tunic for the sunlight, and I clutched it to my heart.
• • •
I didn’t know how long I languished on the cave floor. When my eyes fluttered open again, it was snowing outside. My body was cocooned in warmth, hot tea steaming by my side.
And Edan was human.
He lay beside me, his arms bare and wrapped tightly around me, his powerful shoulders casting shadows behind him. Both our cloaks were draped over me, and I was wearing his tunic—a realization that made me draw in a sharp breath, even though I was too cold to care.
He let go of me quickly, but I wished he hadn’t. The warmth of his touch washed away and I shivered uncontrollably.
“You fell asleep,” he said, sounding stern yet worried.
I sat up, poking my hands out of the coverings to reach for the tea. “Y-you m-m-make it—it sound…like a—a c-c-crime.”
