Page 70 of A Sea of Fate and Starfire

I hung on, wrapping her reins around my forearm, bracing Kye to ensure he didn’t float away. The water slowed her movement, but she bucked again, the snap of my own teeth slicing into my cheek forced a small puff of blood from my mouth.

“Kolibri,” I coaxed, my voice lost under the water. “Kolibri!”

But the dark cloud plumed around us, thickening. It burned my eyes, the bitter chill setting ice to my veins. From my periphery, Aegir swept in, long braids floating behind him as he tried to grab hold of Kolibri. She reared, and I finally flew off.

I tumbled, scrambling to cradle Kye’s head as we were flung to the rocky side of the water. Sharp protrusions stabbed and sliced, pain flashing from my spine up my back. Kolibri darted in the direction we’d come, and I was only vaguely aware of Cebrinne tearing after her. Shapes hovered in the edges of my vision, the faces of my Naiad friends leaning in to scan for injury. Kye’s cheek against my chest, I stared through the muck above toward the surface.

The sky had been erased.

Light glowed from above, abstract and opaque. The way an oil lamp’s light dims after a cloth is layered over it. Pushing through the worried faces to the surface, I pressed my palm into a thick blanket of ice.

Olinne and Nori followed me, a blindfolded Diara in tow behind them.

The underside of the ice sheet was sharp, tiny serrations spiraling slowly. It was growing thicker. I turned to face them as Aegir joined us, eyes wide at the ice. It spanned the entire surface, from both sides of the river.

The Videre pounded on the sheet with a single fist. But it wasn’t enough to break through. He cast about the riverbed, assessing the loose rock. I glanced behind us, the sun now blocked by the ice above. I didn’t know how far the ice traveled ahead, but we’d only been swimming a few minutes since my last break. If we backtracked, we could find an opening and come up with a new plan.

Follow me, I said to Nori, hiking Kye higher on my shoulders and turning back.

She and Olinne trailed me through the cloud of green, and when I glanced back, the others had followed as well. I searched for Kolibri and Cebrinne as I swam, hoping to catch a glimpse of blue-black hair from either of them.

But I ran into something else instead.

A Naiad.

He appeared through the silt—a shadow at first, then a siren fully formed—too quick for me to avoid colliding into him. We hit so hard I bounced off his frame, but with Kye at my back, I didn’t go very far. The Naiad reached for my neck with a single, clawing hand. I swerved, and he grabbed Kye’s wrist instead.

Before I could wrench away, he turned, dashing into the haze. Taking Kye with him.

32

Maren

Iripped through the murky water, following the Naiad’s trail.

Keep the humans safe, I directed Nori.

Aitne has them. Wait for us, she shot back. He’s trying to lure you. They’re trying to trap you.

And let them drown him? Humans needed air every few minutes. I thrust my senses ahead, calling through the current, desperate to lock onto where the Naiad had gone.

The water didn’t answer.

It ignored me, my call a distant echo in an empty room with fractals of ice for walls.

My mouth parted. I knew who had just stolen off with Kye.

Drones, I warned Nori.

She swore into my thoughts, her words near silent over the blood pounding in my ears. Terror leeched away everything else—what if they’d already found Kolibri and Cebrinne, too?

A dim shimmer of scales in the corner of my eye, a male body beside mine, catching up to me. I thought it was Aegir, but when I looked, Pheolix pushed ahead. He reached out a blind hand, and I wasn’t sure if he was searching for me or not, but I took it.

Abruptly, he stopped, forcing me to stop, too.

He glared through the sediment, gray eyes unseeing, waiting for something. The water whooshed from our combined wake, sending the silt swirling around us. I flexed and unflexed my fists, prisoner to the rise of adrenaline in my veins. When I tried to leave him, he held tight.

“Wait,” he said calmly, his voice watery, nearly inaudible. “Listen.”