Page 101 of A Dark and Drowning Tide

“Yes,” Sylvia said brightly. “Nixies tend to make their homes in places like these, so I’m inclined to believe them. We’ll have to dive.”

“Oh,” Lorelei said dryly. “Wonderful.”

As if on cue, a dark shape cut across the pool. A nixie.

Lorelei’s heart thrummed wildly against her rib cage. All she could see was potential tragedy crystallized over the world. All she could think of was Johann, dragged into churning red waters. Of Sylvia’s panicked face, the wild spill of her hair, as the alp dragged her under that alpine lake. She didn’t know if she could endure it again.

“Do you trust me?” Sylvia asked.

This time, her answer came without hesitation. “Of course I do.”

Sylvia smiled at her. “Then let’s go.”

“Is that all there is to your plan? Let’s go?”

Sylvia ignored her and lowered herself to the ground, letting her feet dangle into the water. Reluctantly, Lorelei joined her. The sweet smell of crushed grass wafted between them. Lorelei shrugged off her jacket and let it pool on the ground behind her. The light refracting off thesurface danced across Sylvia’s face. Her eyes sparkled with mirth, and Lorelei was once again struck with wretchedfondness. Everything delighted Sylvia. Even something that might kill them.

Nixie-song burbled up from below them, and magic sparked hot against her wards.

Lorelei did trust Sylvia. She had to.

As if sensing her hesitation, Sylvia rested her hand over Lorelei’s. The nixie cut through the water like a knife, then surfaced barely a foot in front of them. Sylvia’s fingers tightened against hers as she began to hum. It was a strange thing, to watch them communicate with their call and response. Everything in Lorelei recoiled when the nixie lifted a hand from the water. It placed something on the ground beside Sylvia and then, with an almost mischievous smile, dove once again. A single heart-shaped scale rested in the grass, shining like an opal in the sunlight.

“What is that for?” Lorelei asked impatiently. “What did it say?”

“She didn’tsayanything.” Sylvia picked up the scale and turned it over in her fingers. “It’s a gift. I’m not sure what it’s for, exactly. But I think this means we should have safe passage.”

“I thinkandshouldare not reassuring phrases.”

“You can’t plan for everything, try as you might.” Sylvia added, “Do you know how to free dive?”

“Why wouldI—No,of course not!”

“Ah...Well,then you’ll want to follow quickly.”

Before Lorelei could respond, Sylvia drew in a deep breath, then dove into the water. Lorelei’s heart reflexively leapt into her throat. Beneath her, Sylvia was a smear of white against the bottom of the spring. Dark silhouettes circled her. She looked terrifyingly small from above.

Lorelei had well and truly lost her mind to even consider following. And yet, somewhere deep down, she knew she’d never had a chance at remainingsensiblewhen it came to Sylvia von Wolff. She’d already lost her heart. What was one more thing?

Lorelei let her inhale swell within her. Before she could talk herself out of it, she plunged into the water. She’d expected her breath to be snatchedaway by the cold, but it was strangely warm beneath thesurface—andimpossibly dark. Only a single column of golden light filtered down from above, slicing clean through the murk. Lorelei’s hair unfurled around her and reached toward the sun.

As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she saw they were surrounded by nixies. They lounged in the jaws of rock formations. They swam farther below, skimming the bottom of the pool and kicking up clouds of sand in their wake. They were eerily beautiful, their fins translucent and shimmering with an unearthly glow. Some were golden, others silver, others as brilliant as gemstones. All of them had teeth sharp enough to shred them to ribbons.

Nixie-song reverberated through the water, resonating in the very core of her. On land, its magic was muffled by her wards. But here, it sounded sweeter than any aria. Here, colors seemed more vivid. She could feel every beat of her heart in every pulse point in her body. She was dizzy, with either ecstasy or oxygen deprivation. Maybe the two weren’t so different.

Sylvia glanced back at her. Her eyes were as bright as an open flame. She waved a hand as if to sayfollow me. The air burned in Lorelei’s lungs, and that was enough to remind her to keep moving. She couldn’t afford to drown here like some lovestruck fool. As she swam toward Sylvia, the nixies wove around them, tantalizingly close. She could feel the brush of their webbed hands catching on the billowing fabric of her shirt. Some of them drifted close enough that she feared they meant to brush their lips to hers. They were horrible, but they were beautiful, too. If there was a way to speak with God, to lay eyes upon something sublime, this surely came close.

A few nixies swam through a narrow opening in the rock face of the spring. Without hesitation, Sylvia wedged herself in after them. Lorelei hesitated. If Sylvia’s trust in these creatures was the thing to kill her, Lorelei would return as a dybbuk to haunt her. She would never let her hear the end of it. Steeling herself, Lorelei brushed her fingertips against the stone and eased herself inside.

It was narrower than she’d expected. Rocks closed in on her, scraping against her back. Panic threatened to set in, her lungs straining with the effort of holding the breath inside her belly. With a twitch of her fingers, she tugged on the current of the water. It glided past her in a rush, guiding her through and out into open water.

A stream of light filtered down from above. Sylvia swam toward it, her hair billowing around her like smoke from a snuffed candle.

Lorelei’s vision went black at the edges.Just a little farther.

She couldn’t succumb to the urge to draw breath when a lungful of water would sink her like a stone. She kicked desperately toward the surface as her magic buoyed them. Together, they broke the surface, gasping. With the last of her strength, Lorelei pulled herself onto land, spluttering and coughing.

Every pull of air into her lungs burned terribly, as though they were filled with broken glass. Sylvia watched her with something caught between relief and wonder.