Page 5 of A Sea of Fate and Starfire

I cleared my throat of the raw anger that had clogged it, ordering my heart to slow after he’d almost banished me from his house. Darkness gripped the stone firmly in his fingers. Its light seemed to burn into his skin. I watched, breathless as his palm simmered and flaked in thin patches only to float away, like delicate paper used for tinder in a fire. Ash sailed aimlessly away from us, though he made no indication that the slow charring of his flesh bothered him. Silver ink beaded underneath, shimmery like molten steel. His blood, I realized. The ichor of a god. He continued to stare at the stone, a blue glow scattered across his face, a desolation in his eyes I hadn’t expected.

“I found it,” I answered.

“Where?”

“The bottom of Nahli. The volcano. On Neris Island.”

He didn’t move. But I became aware that my body stood upright once again, my feet pressed into the nothing that held me erect.

“You retrieved it?”

I bit down the urge to remind him he’d claimed the ability to see into my past. “Yes.”

“Do you know what this is?”

My mouth opened to answer him. Did I know what it was?

Was this stone more than a powerful tool through which Theia had punished Sidra and Thaan?

Darkness released the stone. The last of his ashes simmered as he reached for me, and I stiffened as his fingers slid over the shell of my ear, tucking a wayward lock of hair away, then pressed his fingers into the side of my jaw, turning my head to face him again. The cold drip of his fingers didn’t meet my skin. His touch was warm instead, though it only lasted a moment.

“You remind me of another Naiad,” he said. “One who refused to give me a certain name. I won’t make that mistake twice.”

“I am Maren of Leihani.” I ignored the twist of my stomach, slowly unraveling the longer he gazed at me. “You will grant me passage to the sea monster so that I can reclaim what I’ve lost. So that I may return to find Thaan of Safiro and restore the world from his grasp.”

“Impertinent as her as well,” Darkness muttered under his breath. I faltered slightly, wondering what that meant, though he didn’t give me time to ponder it as he flicked the stone between his fingers. “You haven’t worn this long enough to kill the Abyssi. Your blood still oxygenates through your lungs. Come back to me when you have reached the height of your power. When gills have fully severed tunnels to your bloodstream.”

“I can’t wait. Theia said I only had three days.”

Darkness laughed, the sound a cold penetration into the borders of my mind. “Three days to reach Brána Do Podsvetia and kill the Abyssi.”

“And to cross the sea of stars to Perpetuum.”

“This is a favor too heavy, sweet wraithling, should you fail. You are asking me to interfere with the whims of The Fates. If I do what you ask, even if you uphold your end and return to this world with your Triad, you will become a servant of mine the day your mortal life ends. No eternity in Perpetuum. You will exist much as the Abyssi exists, after your death. Fail to make your crossing in three days, and you will fall through the stars and find yourself back here, in my house of shadow. A wraithling for my collection.”

Darkness exhaled through his nose. “Even if I get you there,” he said softly, “even if you succeed in killing my creature, the Guardians would never let you pass without taking their own payment from you. And their toll will be steeper than mine.” He continued surveying me. My jaw firmed. “You have much to live for, in the world of light above. Even without your bond. Be certain, darling, that there is nothing you would refuse to trade in the name of a moon that sends you to your death. Be certain there is nothing worth returning home to protect.”

I’ll come for you.

“I’m certain.” I didn’t even pause to consider my answer.

Darkness gazed at me almost sadly. “Nothing?”

The question enveloped me in a rush of cold. My nerves stretched under my skin, tight ropes through my body, fragile as I pondered an existence as a monster. Alone for an eternity, guarding a cavern to the stars I could never cross.

But that empty void echoed in my mind as I murmured Kye’s name.

The cordae.

It broke. It broke. It broke.

“Well?”

“I have love for many things.” My voice hardened as I nocked my chin towards the ceiling. “Up there. None that I would not trade.”

Darkness tilted his head. “And what about the things in here,” he asked, pointing to my chest.

My jaw firmed. “Take them.” The words doused me in bitter, chopping waves of wintry sea. My chin quivered in the chill, my muscles hardening to ward off the shiver that fell through my spine. But my anger was enough to keep me warm.