“It’s not going to fly,” I said, touching his arm. Without my scissors, I couldn’t fix it. My demon’s magic was destructive, and Amana’s I could not control. I had understood my scissors—how to wield them and channel magic into the garments I’d sewn—but now they were gone.
“The only way is to jump into the lake.”
“Together, then,” he said, pulling me up toward the parapet.
The wind howled, and my hair flew wildly behind my shoulders. I looked down and was immediately grateful for the fog shrouding the waters, obscuring just how high we were. Even then, I could see the foam curling over the dark, stormy waters.
“You can’t swim,” I remembered. “Edan?”
“There’s no other way.”
Behind us, the wind grew strong, and the tower rumbled.
“Ready?” he asked.
I nodded, interlacing my fingers with his. “On the count of three. One, two—”
We jumped.
I couldn’t see the water below, which made the plunge even more frightening. The water growled, alive with the wrath and fury of all those who had perished in its depths. I gasped, feeling the force of gravity pull us down, down, down.
I braced myself for landing, my stomach twisting and my heart in my throat.
At the height of my fear, the wind wrenched my hand away from Edan’s, tearing us apart.
“Maia!” he shouted.
“No—”I started to shout, but no sound came out. Salt air rushed up into my nostrils, and a beat later, I shattered.
The crash into the lake hurt so much my body was in shock. I had forgotten what pain felt like. Water thundered in my ears and the cold began to numb me.
But it was the burning in my throat that reminded me to kick, to work, to live.
Reflexively, I swam for the surface.
I sucked in a gulp of air. The tides were fierce, hungrily trying to bury me in their depths, and water splashed at my face as I thrashed.
“Edan?” I yelled. It was so dark I couldn’t see anything. “Edan!”
My dress lit up with the brilliance of the stars. At once, the waters were illuminated, and I saw him, sinking into the depths of the lake.
I dove after him, grabbing him under the arms and kicking back to the surface. Then I hooked his arm over my shoulders.
“Edan?” I cried worriedly. “Edan, are you all right?”
He coughed, water spluttering out of his nose and mouth. His arms splashed clumsily until I steadied them, relief thudding in my ears.
“That’s the closest I’ve come to drowning in centuries,” he said.
“You scared me!”
Behind us, the isles sank into the lake, creating a vast whirlpool whose violent winds I could feel even from here. I watched Lapzur fold into the darkness, the Thief’s Tower disappearing last. Never to be seen again.
“Well, I guess there goes our option of swimming to the nearest shore,” Edan said, his tone more wry than grave. I placed a salty kiss on his mouth. Only he could find humor in a moment like this.
But he did have a point. The carpet had flown us quite a distance to reach Lapzur. Without it, we were stranded in the water—from our point in the lake, I couldn’t even see any sign of land.
Yet I didn’t panic. My mind was already spinning with an idea: after he had marked me, Bandur had been able to journey far from the isles through glass and nightmares and smoke. A demon that was not bound as guardian of Lapzur could probably do much, much more. I remembered how Bandur had thrown me into the well—and how I’d flown up away from its depths. Heat coursed through my fingertips, a spark I’d been struggling to hold back, igniting the flames within me.
