Page 98 of Prince of the Sun

How it can only ever be him.

My breath comes faster. Tiny gulps of midnight air that don’t seem to fill my lungs. I slap at the water. I’m being too loud. I know I’m being too loud. But I seem to have lost control of my body, and I don’t know if I can get it back.

“Quinn?” Cara asks.

My head shoots up. I lock eyes with Cara, who has stopped swimming to watch me.

“Are you all right?” she asks. “You look sort of—”

But I never hear how I look, because, at that very moment, something grabs Cara beneath the water and her head disappears.

“Cara!” Berendir yells. He doesn’t waste a second. He dives beneath the river, feet slapping at the surface.

As soon as my brain catches up to the situation, I dive in after him.

I’m a decent swimmer. Not the best, not the worst. I spent most summers in one of the many lakes in Minnesota, but that’s where my experience with large bodies of water ends. Which is why, as soon as I dive beneath the black waves, I know I’ve made a mistake.

I can see nothing. No moonlight penetrates the water. I hear only muted grunts and groans, the squealing of something that sounds inhuman and terrifying. I paw at the freezing river, searching for Cara’s body.

What I find is much worse.

Something long, slimy, and strong as an elephant trunk wraps around my leg. I scream, sending bubbles up in a dark flurry as my body plunges deeper into the icy water. I fight with everything I have, kicking at the beast below me, clawing at its tentacle with my hands, but it holds fast. I’m sinking. I’m freezing. My limbs are so cold that I can feel my muscles starting to seize. My chest is so tight. My throat squeezes shut. How deep is this river? How long until I reach the—

Two hands close around my arms. At first I fear they belong to a mermaid, a siren, a creature ready to fight over my warm flesh with the monster below. But then my eyes flutter open and I catch a glimpse of long black hair, long muscular arms, a jaw as hard as ice, and I know.

It’s Daerios.

The sight of his face kicks me back to life.This is not how you die.

Fight, Quinn.

Fight.

I kick with everything I’m worth. I must catch the creature below me by surprise, because its grip loosens enough that I manage to hit something else, round and soft, like a belly or the top of a gelatinous head. The tentacle recoils. Daerios seizes the opportunity, wrapping one arm around my torso while jabbing his other arm down. Something flashes past us. It takes me a second to realize that it’s his sword. The creature below lets out a miserable cry before disappearing into the inky black.

After that, I have very little oxygen left in my lungs and very little idea of which way is up. Thankfully, Daerios seems to have no problem with direction. He sheathes his sword and wraps his other arm around me, then kicks toward the surface.

We break free of the water with twin gasps for air. I expect us to be way out in the middle of the river, far from anything, butthe creature dragged me closer to the other side. Daerios doesn’t release his grip on my torso. He swims for the both of us, headed directly for the riverbank.

Cara.

Where is Cara?

I squint through the water running down my face. On the approaching shoreline, I make out two figures: one lying prone in the grass, the other bent over the first.Cara and Berendir.They made it. Cara is on her back, seemingly unconscious, but she’s alive.

When we reach the shore, Daerios and I haul ourselves out of the freezing water. I don’t pause to collapse, even though I desperately want to, because I can now see that Cara’s eyes are shut, her lips dangling open, face pale and lifeless.

“Cara!” Berendir yells, pumping her chest the way we learned to in CPR class. “Cara, wake up!”

I fall to my knees at her side.

Berendir finishes his pumps and bends over to give her mouth-to-mouth. He blows into her slack lips three times, then starts pumping her chest again. “Cara, for fuck’s sake, wake up.” Tears have started to form at the corners of his eyes. He keeps pumping—probably too hard for her small body—but he doesn’t seem able to go any softer. “Please. You have to wake up.” He chokes on the last word. “Please.”

“Berendir,” Daerios says softly.

“Shut up,” Berendir growls. He stops pumping and bends over. He presses his lips to hers and blows once. “I’m not giving up,” he says, then blows again. “I’m not”—puff—“giving”—puff—“up!”Puff.Pu—

Cara’s eyes fly open right as Berendir’s lips land on her mouth for the final breath.