That I would find her, my sister’s daughter, but I couldn’t tell her she was damned until she lost everything—only to send her to some monster only she could find.
She wasn’t even born. She didn’t even have a name. But I wasn’t sure how to keep myself from hating her because I was certain I did. Whoever she was, whenever she came, I was sure I’d hate her simply for making my sister contemplate trading her own life forhers.
I sank my fingers through the roots of my hair, suffering their collected gaze as my thoughts spiraled away from me. Until Pheolix kneeled on my other side, dropping a hand over my knee and reaching through my arms to find my chin. He stroked the very tip of his thumb against my jaw, soft as a feather in the wind.
“Come on,” he said when I finally looked up at him. He took my hand, pulling me to my feet. “If I’m a cockroach, so is Cebrinne. They find lost Naiads on the island shore; let’s wait for her there.”
I let him lead me out.
Aegir’s gaze lay heavy across my shoulders as he watched us go.
27
Cebrinne
Drip…drip…drip…
I’d hit water first.
I’d meant to swim to the other side. Climb out and scale the wall to the opposite end, if nothing else, to prove it couldn’t be done. I knew I’d fail before I even leapt. I knew the water would spit me out somewhere. I knew Selena would pace and rage. She’d yell and throw things to watch them explode. Her hands always gravitated toward objects that shattered. She’d never throw a rock unless it were aimed at a crystal vase.
The strangest curse might be the one where you learn the time and place of your own death. It makes you careless in all other moments. And it was true that I’d always been impatient. My thoughts often ran as rash and wild as a current, predictable only in that it was unpredictable. Rational ideas and slow consideration couldn’t sway a river’s moods or an ocean’s temper because a river and an ocean have no need for sensible, sober thought.
It was too easy to cast the threat of danger off my shoulders. To think,I won’t die today, because I already know that I’ll die on an island laden with tall palms and turquoise waters.
So, I jumped. I fell. I hit water.
And then I dropped.
It rose around me as though I were a stake in the ground, driving it out and away, the force of it misting my toes. But there was nothing to reach for, nothing to hold onto to stop my descent. I free-fell, the quiet glowabove shrinking as it grew distant and dim, the flying wind a scream in my ears.
And then I stopped.
The place I landed felt more liquid than solid, though it wasn’twet, and I didn’t sink into its surface. I tumbled over the top of it, shadows rippling out from under me like I’d disturbed the stillness of a lake, and when I finished rolling, I lay with arms and legs spread, staring up into the throes of nothing.
Water dripped. I listened as I caught my breath. Its rhythm echoed, and something about it thrummed inside me, playing my breastbone like a drum.
Ice dragged across the inner side of my arm.
I flinched, jerking my gaze to the side. But nothing was there. Ice dragged down my opposite arm, and I shoved myself upright, gaining my feet and backing away, a frozen chill sliding down my spine. There was nothing to hide behind, no shield or veil. Just dark. It grew and spilled over itself, whispering tendrils that dissolved and rejoined like liquid smoke. I had a sudden, terrible urge to stroke it.
It wrapped around my arm again, fingers like the filaments in a stray cloud, and struck a shudder through my skin.
“What is this?” it said. “A mortal come to strike a deal?” The wisp slid its cold grasp across my shoulder and down my neck. “Which one are you, darling? Lonely, angry, or in love?”
I tensed, refusing to pull away again.
“None of them.”
“Angry,” it cooed. “And which do you seek? Distance from your anger? Relief from it? A resolution? Or do you simply desire calm, complete control?”
I let it sweep into my hair and out the other side, washing down my front and dropping at my feet in a way that seemed both heavy and weightless. “Am I dreaming?”
“A dream? I’ve never been called such a lovely thing.”
“Fine.” I glanced up, squinting my eyes in the dark. “How do I get out of here?”
“Payment.”
