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Everything is too cold, too dark.
Even if I knew where the surface was, I can’t swim. Distantly, I remember Einar talking about kicking my feet. They won’t move, though. They can’t, weighed down by my sodden overskirts.
They’re trapping me. Suffocating me.
In an instant, I’m back in the icy waters in Jokith.
But this time there is no Khijhana to pull me to the surface. This time, my sister is going to drown with me.
Logically, I know it’s not as cold as the lake was. I know that I’m not alone. That there is no ice preventing me from reaching the surface. The saltwater burns my eyes and my throat, bringing home the fact that this is a different body of water, a different situation entirely.
But I can’t seem to convince my limbs of these facts.
And I’m sinking deeper.
I look around for Aika, terrified that she has sunk to the bottom. Terrified that sharks have made a meal of her—that everything is coming to an end far too soon.
I try to remember more of Einar’s lessons, to remember his warm hands on my skin in the hot springs.
Don’t make me watch you die.
The echo of his voice forces me to wrestle myself out of my overskirts, to will my legs to move. I kick one foot, then the other. I hear him again, and my arms are moving, too.
I’m still too slow.
My lungs are burning, and the urge to cough, to gasp for breath is too strong. The water grows a little warmer, a little lighter and I wonder if I’m nearing the surface. I can’t come this close to drowning now.
A shadow moves at the edge of my vision. I could almost believe that it’s Aika, but the shape is too large and it’s moving too fast and Iknowthat it’s a shark.
Will I have time to drown before it reaches me? Before it sinks its jagged teeth into my flesh?
Would drowning be preferable to that?
I squeeze my eyes shut, kicking even harder, for all the good it does me, when cool, smooth fingers close around my arm.
A mass of turquoise envelops me as the hand yanks me past the water’s threshold. I gasp for air, sputtering and choking while the waves crash into me. Only the hold on my arm keeps me from going under again.
“Beautiful one.” The siren’s voice is lilting and melodic like Madame’s, but Natia’s tones are far warmer.
It might be the most enchanting sound I’ve ever heard, next to my sister’s cocky rasp sounding from right behind me.
“Told you we could do it.” Aika coughs.
She’s clutching the cork block she had the sense to grab after she shoved me off the edge of the ship. After she saved us both.
Natia secures me to the other side of it, still holding on to me, when my sister speaks again.
“Thank you, Natia.” Her voice is more sincere than I’ve ever heard it, completely absent of the usual sardonic undertones.
I nod my agreement, grateful that she can speak while I claw at the cork and at her and at anything to keep myself from sinking again.
“She can’t swim,” Aika adds, as if that wasn’t already apparent.
A wide smile crosses the siren’s face, a small giggle escaping her lips like that’s the funniest thing she has ever heard.
The sound cuts off as a shadow crosses over us, blocking out all light from the sun.
Madame stands at the stern of the ship, staring down at us with a mixture of shock and disbelief. Only I realize that she isn’t looking at me or Aika. She’s staring at Natia.
