Page 33 of Fallen Star

Ghost lowers himself so I can slide off his back, and I try not to wince at how stiff my muscles feel.

Sapphire steadies me, her hand on my elbow.

“I’m fine. Just need to stretch my legs a bit. And refill my waterskin,” I say, shaking her off and taking out the leather pouch that passes as a water bottle around here. “Drinking from this river won’t bring me to another realm, right?”

Given how Sapphire and I got to this realm in the first place, I’m only half kidding.

“There’s no marker,” Riven says, which I assume is a reference to the silver tree. “But let me check it out first to make sure it’s safe.”

He walks over to a break in the rapids and kneels to take a closer look.

The water churns.

In seconds, waterlogged, humanoid, skeletal creatures rise from its depths, their bodies covered in slimy, moss-like tendrils.

There are somanyof them.

And they’re coming at us from all directions.

“Nixies!” Riven shouts, which I figure is either a fae curse, or the name of these water creatures.

I’m guessing the second.

They’re surrounding us so quickly that I suddenly forget how to breathe.

“Get back on Ghost!” Riven tells me as he moves to the closest creature—well, nixie—easily managing to continue to talk as he kills it with his sword. “And whatever happens, don’t let them grab you.”

Heart pounding, I scramble onto Ghost’s back and reach for my dagger, which I’m only mildly capable of using, thanks to those years of wood whittling with my dad.

A nixie lunges at us, but Ghost pivots, letting me slash at it with my dagger.

The blade catches its shoulder, and muddy water sprays from the wound.

Another point for the human.

“Good hit!” Sapphire calls out, hurling her water magic like deadly spears at two more of them.

Her spears go right through them, not affecting them in the slightest.

Apparently, water zombies can’t be killed by their own element.

Riven swoops in, taking them down with his sword before they can get to her.

But I can’t celebrate. Because more of them are emerging from the falls, their bodies twisting unnaturally as they climb over the rocks, groaning like zombies.

“Stay close,” Riven says, and he, Sapphire, Ghost, and I keep our backs to each other, our formation tight, guarding ourselves against the nixies as they close in.

“What happens if they grab you?” I ask Riven, my dagger ready to strike.

“They’ll drag you into the river and drown you,” he says casually, killing two more of them with his sword.

My heart drops, and I scan the area, looking for a break in circle of them surrounding us.

Other than the space where the waterfall starts, there’s nothing.

And I’mnotletting one of these nixies get me. They can grab me and drag me into the water over my dead body.

Ghost apparently feels the same way. Because he lets out a rumbling snarl, his massive paws striking out at an attacking nixie and tearing it to watery shreds.

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