Page 60 of Golden Star

The rocks,I realize.

I still have the rocks in my pocket. The sharp ones I stole from the forest last night to use as weapons in the trials.

I have to get rid of them.

Still sinking, I fumble around for them, my fingers numb and uncooperative from the cold. It takes everything I have to pull them out and let them sink to the bottom of the lake—wherever that is.

My lungs scream for air. Every instinct urges me to suck in a deep breath, even though there’s nothing for me to breathe in other than freezing cold water that will cause sudden death.

How ironic would that be? Someone with water magic dying bydrowning.

I can’t do it. I can’t reach the key. I still can’t evenseethe key. And even if I could, I doubt I’d be able to swim back up in time.

No—IknowI wouldn’t be able to swim back up in time.

Which means I have to turn around.

The water presses in on me, suffocating and relentless, as I claw my way up.

Finally, just when I think I’m not going to make it, my head breaks through the surface, and I gasp, choking on the freezing air as my arms flail for the edge to escape this watery hellhole and figure out what to do next.

Sapphire

“Sapphire!”Zoey is beside me in an instant, grabbing my arm and pulling back onto the ice. “Are you okay? Do you have the key?”

I can’t stop shaking, the cold burrowed so deep that it feels like it’s part of my bones now.

“No,” I choke out. “To both questions.”

“It’s okay.” She pulls me close to stop my shivering, although I can tell by the way her voice wavers that she doesn’t actually believe it’s going to be okay. “We’ll figure this out.”

“The lake’s too deep,” I explain, pulling away to look at her. “I can’t hold my breath long enough to get to the key. I couldn’t evenseethe key.”

Riven’s voice floats across the lake, calm and mocking. “Having trouble, Summer Fae?” he asks. “I figured you’d be a natural-born fish.”

“Go to Hell, Riven,” I snap, glaring at him. “You wouldn’t last a second in the heat.”

“I’d survive better in the flames than you are in the water,” he replies without missing a beat. “Even though I don’t have a lick of fire magic.”

“Ignore him,” Zoey says, and I swear she’s shivering more than I am, even though I was just swimming in freezing water. “Maybe there’s another way. Like… maybe you can put your hand into the water and try calling the key toward you?”

“Maybe.”

Unable to think of a better option, I reach into the watery hole, put my hand in it, and “call” for the key.

It doesn’t work.

“Why don’t you just drown already?” Riven calls out again. “It’d be quicker. And easier.”

I reach into my pocket for the one stone I didn’t empty from it while swimming—the whisper stone—ready to hurl it at his face.

Shut up and let me help you,his voice whispers in my mind.

I freeze, startled, and look over to him.

Ready?he says again in my head.

His lips barely move, but they moveenoughthat I can tell he’s speaking—well, whispering—what he’s saying through the stone.

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