Page 31 of A Sea of Fate and Starfire

If Kye was growing tired, I couldn’t see it. He fought with as much force as he had in the first few minutes, swiping, twisting, diving. Flying. I realized I’d never watched him fight without the threat of danger looming over us. When we returned to Calder, I’d make a point to do so. I’d trod out a chair and watch him practice all day—

Sharp. Hot. Deep.

It wasn’t even pain at first. Something slammed into my back, small and hard, restricting movement and flexibility. Before my mind could catch up with my body, I turned to analyze the sensation. And collapsed to my knees instead. Gasped into the snow, my blood splattering across the white. I inhaled, and raw fire crawled up my lungs.

A man stood over me, silhouetted against the dying sun. He fixed a boot along my spine, ripping a short blade from my back. I hadn’t felt it slide in, but I felt it come out. It rocked my body as he tore it loose, my fingers twitching in the wet snow.

My water-serpent folded in on itself. Water flooded, tumbling over me in a smooth wave. I turned my head to avoid it invading my nose and mouth, releasing a silent shriek of pain. They descended on me like a pack of wolves, teeth bared and eyes wild. The one who stood over me readied to stab again. But he dropped his knife, hands clawing at his throat in sudden, silent horror. Patches of violet bloomed across his cheeks. His eyes bugged. He fell to a knee, and in the distance, Cebrinne watched, her arm thrust straight at him.

A flash of bright silver. And the man’s body suddenly didn’t have a head.

15

Maren

“AITNE,” Kye bellowed.

He grasped my shoulders, the small of my back, holding me up.

I coughed all over him in return, painting his black jacket with frothy scarlet. Air burned as it rushed into my back, seeking to fill my lung. Blood filled it instead, heavy like sludge. My breath rattled, gurgled. It blazed inside my chest, eating me from the inside, the weight of it threatening to drag me under.

Panic thrashed as I realized I was drowning.

Golden eyes darted between me and the drawing wolves, Kye’s sword still tight in his hand, lips peeled back in a silent growl that I’d only seen a handful of times.

A splash at my hip, and Aitne sank to her knees in the slush. “I’m here.”

He didn’t have time to respond as the first man rushed him. Steel clattered, a loud ringing in my ears. Sword to sword, Kye threw the soldier back with a shove, then stepped over us both to advance on the line.

Behind me, feet slapped against mud as the Naiads swarmed in, their shadows cast me into cold.

Or maybe the cold was coming from the inside.

Because my chest suddenly moved like frost, hard and frozen. And I realized, with waning focus, how thirsty I’d become in a matter of seconds.

I’d lost sight of Kye.

He’d cut ahead, into the fray. And I couldn’t see him.

Alarm washed me in a sheet of cold. I pushed up, but a second set of hands forced me back down.

“Don’t move,” Aitne ordered.

But I don’t think I could actually stop. I staggered upright, eyes searching in terror.

The vision of Kye with a sword through his chest raided my thoughts. Kye falling. Kye lying broken in the snow.

Kye! I think I screamed it. Kye!

Let them work, Leihani, came a tight reply.

If it soothed me to hear, the relief was nominal. It had happened before, too fast to stop. Too fast to even anticipate. Like wind or rain or lightning. One moment Kye was alive.

The next he was gone.

A strange pull from behind my ribs, a liquid suction, and heat streaked down my spine.

Three healers stood beside me now, calling blood from my wound. The weighted promise of drowning receded, but as the winter air took its place, my lungs flamed with each gasp for oxygen.