I crashed into the stone floor, a sickening crunch reverberating through one of my ankles, though I didn’t hear a sound. A ringing echoed in my ears, throbbing against my skull. My body sent icicles scattering, one of them caught under an arm, sending pain shooting up my elbow.
I cried out, pushing against my injured arm to stand. My ankle gave beneath me; I fell back against the cold floor. Chunks of ice skidded from my kicking feet. The room was dark now, the brief flash of lightning inches from my eyes burned into my pupils.
“I must admit,” Sidra said, stepping through the sharp crystals towards me, “I’m disappointed. I thought this would last longer.”
She spoke the words almost sincerely. I reached for a nearby chunk of ice and Sidra swiped it away with the flick of a hand. My arm ached, and I coughed again, peppering the floor with shining red.
Sidra stopped before me, kneeling to gaze into my eyes. “We would have been awe-inspiring together. I would have taughtyou all I know, all you would ever need, to be queen. You would have been my daughter. My fate, my future.”
Leaning closer, she tilted her head, her silver eyes shifting over my face. I shuddered, the air suddenly cold.
The water snake wrapped its triangular head around the Queen’s shoulder. It slid across the elderly Naiad, opening its great mouth as it neared. I tried to call to it, but the snake was firmly under Sidra’s grasp. It ignored my summons.
There was nowhere to go. Nowhere to escape. I wiggled away, my ankle screaming as I scrambled back. The snake’s watery throat stretched before my eyes, wide enough to swallow me whole. My fingers roamed for anything that might help, scraping the soft skin of Sidra’s arm. I grabbed hold and Sidra stiffened, though she didn’t pull away. The Queen’s other hand found mine.
I grasped it. If I were to drown, I’d drown her, too.
The Queen laughed. “You forget that I can breathe in water.” She extracted my hand from hers. “Sleep well, my child.”
The snake plunged over me.
Water invaded. It cut down my nostrils and throat, forcefully wrenching my jaw wide. The room blurred into wavy lines, Sidra’s face hovering just out of reach, the flash of silver eyes bright enough to see through the clear water.
Salt flowed across my palate. Water streamed through my eyelids, though whether it forced in or out, I couldn’t tell. I twisted and thrashed, but the snake calmly advanced, engulfing my head and neck. The icicle rolled out from under my arm, sending numb tingles from my elbow into my shoulder. I wrapped my hand around it.
You forget that I can breathe in water.
The snake slithered over me, trapping me under its weight. But I lifted my opposite hand, fingertips aimed at Sidra’s blurry face. And forced every ounce of remaining moisture away.
Through the water-snake’s head, Sidra’s eyes bugged. The blood vessels in her face shivered into view, threads of scarlet suddenly rising to the surface, deepening with color as her blood capillaries popped. She choked, falling back on her heels beside me, hands clasping the gills at either side of her neck.
But still, the snake didn’t move. And I began to weaken, my lungs filling with the sea. Beside me, Sidra writhed and rolled, pushing to her knees as she tried to escape my bubble of pure, dry air. The skin along her cheeks and between her knuckles cracked open, and she began to crawl toward her snake, face poised to thrust herself inside it.
Mere inches from my face, Sidra pushed into the water, eyes staring into mine. Relief bloomed across her skin as the capillaries faded.
I sputtered, tinting the water red. I had one shot, one chance, before I was lost entirely. Grabbing Sidra’s arm, I yanked the Naiad closer—
And drove the icicle into the Queen.
For a moment, the world stilled. Sidra’s eyes locked with mine, wide and unbelieving. The Naiads gathered in the passageways became so still, they might not have been breathing.
The icicle protruded from Sidra’s throat. A look passed between us, something hidden under the Queen’s gaze. Something akin to pride. Sidra coughed, the sound interrupted by a fierce gurgle that stained her lips and chin in a surge of red.
The snake dissolved into lifeless sea water. But not before my world went black.
63
Maren
“Wake up, creature,” Nori’s voice wavered in my ear.
I choked as frothy liquid gushed from my throat. Someone’s mouth pressed against mine, potent Naiad air filling my body.
They breathed again, their oxygen reaching to the lowest lobes of my lungs, so deep my belly swelled. My feet moved, pain shooting from my ankle, but a collective sigh ushered across the air, numerous voices exhaling at once. My eyes blinked my vision back into place, mottled at first, slowly sharpening into clarity.
A pair of irises hovered over mine, rich and warm like amber. The Naiad they belonged to sat back, offering me room to sit up. She was my age, golden hair like honey, straight but for a loose wave that claimed the ends of her long strands.
Beside her, Nori and Olinne leaned forward to help me sit up. My eyes fell onto Sidra, her skin ashen, open eyes silver and unseeing.
