Page 24 of A Sea of Fate and Starfire

Coward. Worthless. Weak.

You are not a coward, Maren murmured into my head. Whenever she did that, whenever she challenged the sneering voice, my feet seemed to float atop the silver soil, the scorch of it diffusing into the air. The same happened to her. She had no way of telling me I’d banished one of her demons, other than the smooth glide of her toes over the silt rather than through it.

A string of pride laced through me whenever I knew I’d silenced her hostile thoughts. That I could have that effect on her.

I hiked another step. Do you know what fate you’ve sealed her to, human?

Nori’s voice.

I froze, immediately knowing what came next.

She is a Naiad queen, and her life will extend hundreds of years beyond your own. Inevitably, human, you will abandon her to a life without you.

Maren passed as I listened to the mountain’s new form of attack. I wondered who echoed inside her head. Had her voice morphed into someone else’s as well?

You may seethe into the distance as I stand here reminding you that you are worthless. But the truth remains that you are a mortal who took the one and only bond of a deity you do not understand and, with that one selfish act, cursed the rest of her days. Your life will run its course, while hers will continue on.

I glanced at her. Nori’s words twisted and cut like barbs on a wire, slicing into the walls of my mind, my throat, my chest. I’d done my best not to think of them while in Perpetuum, so naturally, I’d thought of little fucking else.

Maren still hadn’t looked up at me. But her body had locked into place, the tendons in her inner wrists taut and hard, the space between her knuckles white. The burn in my legs slowly began to return. I stole a glance at the top of the mountain. We were only halfway.

Worthless, selfish human.

My stomach heaved. Behind us, Perpetuum glimmered in distant pools of silver and starlight, ethereal and lovely. But here, the sand beneath my boots made me want to retch.

Cebrinne released a broken growl as she belly-crawled past me. The sand sizzled against her fingers.

Maren still hadn’t moved. I didn’t know whose voice traversed her mind, but I knew how to help. Taking her hand, careful not to pull her up, I waited for her to focus her attention on me. Then, opened my mouth.

And couldn’t speak.

Not that the words weren’t there. Not that the mountain had taken them from me the way it had from Cebrinne.

Do you know what fate you’ve sealed her to, human?

Dark eyes waited. The anger in them ebbed the longer she gazed at me. Cracks formed in her volcanic gaze, tiny fractures in onyx glass. She hung there, desperate.

…With that one selfish act, cursed the rest of her days.

I didn’t know what was in her head.

I didn’t know what was in her fucking head.

I didn’t know what to say to fight it. The only thing I could think to tell her was that I loved her.

Cursed her days, the voices echoed. Her days, her days.

“Kye,” Maren whispered.

Ahead, Cebrinne’s growl of pain stretched into a soft scream.

What fate you’ve sealed her to? Sealed her to, sealed her to?

You think you deserve her? My voice again. When all you do is leave? Everyone in her life has left her. Abandoned her. And you think you love her? You cursed her.

…Cursed her, cursed her.

“Fuck.” The word tumbled out of my mouth without my meaning it to. My chest constricted. Tightened like a fist had wrapped around it. Shame bubbled from the pit of my stomach, threatening to spill over. Was she still cursed by me if our cordae was broken?