It came from the south. The direction we were headed.
Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuck—
The small pile of wood dropped to my feet. I snatched the pack and sword as I ran. Visions of Maren swept through my head, filthy fucking pirates forcing her onto a ship, even though I’d given myself a headache staring at the dull patch of sunlight reflecting off the horizon, ensuring none appeared. All the frustration of the moment before vanished, leaving my veins as cold as the churning sea beside me.
Gravel and pebbles crunched under my feet, salty sea spraying my arms and face as the surf crashed against the cliff. My shirt clung to my skin, damp, sending goosebumps along my arms and chest.
Where are you?
The coastline stretched for miles ahead of me, but all I saw was the same dark gray rock, wet and shining. It was an asshole of a coastline too, rock shelves stacked on top of each other, forcing me to climb up and down as I ran, slowing my pace.
“Scream again, Leihani,” I muttered, fingers stinging from the rough handhold I’d forced them into. A wave crashed against the rock, and my eyes strained to see through the thick sheet of mist it left suspended in the air. I climbed a section of rock higher than the rest, above the haze of sea spray, scanning the length ahead. But still found nothing.
My fear burst into full-blown terror. Terror and fucking panic. Twin serpents coiling and twisting, knotting around my heart and hissing chaos into my veins. With a running leap off the other side, I sprinted across the rock.
“Maren!” The waves swallowed my voice. I barely heard it in my own sun-damned ears. I threw a curse to Aalto and tried again. “Maren!”
Another wave thrashed the rock at my side. I might as well have been swimming for how soaking wet I found myself, pants heavy and boots rubbing the sides my ankles raw.
A small creek emptied into the channel, the saving grace we’d been waiting for. It fell off the rock face in a thin waterfall down to the sea, and I splashed through it, gripping the surrounding stone to avoid being swept over the edge, recording the location in my memory. How far had she gone?
My boots landed on a shallow pebble beach, half covered with the gaining tide, and a floating log caught my eye. A log in the shape of a woman, face turned away, hair a tangled mess behind her. She bumped against the rocks, limp and unmoving.
My heart stopped. I froze for half a moment before I dashed for her, legs wading angrily through the surf until she was close enough to grab, latching my fingers onto her satin dress and dragging her toward me, wiping wet hair from her nose and mouth to feel for the vein at her neck, pulsing weakly.
The beast in my chest snarled with relief. I scooped her up, carrying her up shore where the waves couldn’t reach us and laying her on dry pebbles to look her over. No broken bones, though gashes in her legs and shoulder met my wary eye.
“Leihani?” My voice strained against thewhooshof the sea. The relief at finding her ebbed away the longer I took her in. Unresponsive to my voice and touch, her flesh pale and cold, her eyes bloodshot when I lifted her lids. Her breath came shallow and labored, and a rash bubbled under her skin, though that didn’t scare me as much as the thin trickle of blood escaping her nose and ears.
Everything in our pack was soaking-fucking-wet. I didn’t even have a fire to warm her. Worry coiled in my stomach, the twin serpents twisting again as I sat her up to pull her dress off over her head. She gave an involuntary cough, blood from her mouth landing between her legs. Her head fell back, her eyes hovered open, and she stared into the sky without an ounce of life. Still holding her up, I raked a hand through my hair. I'd witnessed countless wounds, but I'd never seen this. The serpents slithereddeeper into my chest, the sun sank below the horizon, and darkness whispered from behind the corners of the wet rock, watching us with a gleam in its cold, predatory eyes.
11
Maren
Sleep wove in and out like a needle made of vapor.
Solid one moment as it stitched tight around my head, dissolved the next. I was underwater; I was in the sky.
The silver face of the moon gazed down at me, waiting to see if I might live or die, until clouds stretched over its bright face, blocking out its light and leaving the world black.
A tunnel opened underneath me, and I swam down through ice-cold water. My hands stroked a sheet of ice. I turned over to kick my heels against it. The stone I needed was below. But I didn’t have heels—I only had a tail that I thrashed and thrashed against the ice. Weakness came and I grew tired. Gloriously tired. My head throbbed. My lower back blazed with pain.
Rock bit my palms, the darkness too bright, leaving me nauseous.
“Little Creature.” Nori sat beside me, watching the waves of the sea. “Did we not teach you of the dangers of man?”
“You didn’t teach her that,” Selena said, beached on the other side of the rock. “You taught her about twigs and roots and birds.You taught her tocordaewith her island. You nevertaught her to protect herself.”
Nori’s fingers tightened on the rock. “I would have. I would have taught her all she needed to know, every risk and every defense, had you not stolen her away. I, who reared her as a child, would have shown her how to swim, how to seduce, how to forge herself as a weapon upon which to slay greedy humans. It’s yourfault she fell victim to the whims of man.”
Selena’s blue eyes ignited. “You squandered your time, bonding her to your land, waiting for the final moment before the door to transition closed. Then, you panicked.”
Their voices pounded into my mind, and I opened my eyes to tell them to stop, suddenly finding myself alone. I tried to sit up. Clouds in the dark sky tilted to my right, then snapped and tilted left. They rebounded like a tree branch, pulled back and released. The ground heaved with them, leaving my head spinning. I leaned over and vomited.
It was dark. My lungs ached. My ears felt as though someone had ripped them from my skull.
A door creaked open.
