Page 98 of Flame and Sparrow

Eager to be rid of me,I thought.Eager for me to fail.

I clenched my fists at the thought, looking back to the restless sea just as the whirlpool changed directions and ribbons of water began to peel away from it, reaching toward me like the arms of some sentient, horrifying monster.

Gasping, I tried to stumble farther out of the ocean’s reach.

I wasn’t quick enough.

The monstrous appendages wrapped around my ankles, pulling me toward the waves—I had to move with the monster or else I would have been ripped right off my feet. I was knee deep in the water before I finally managed to shake it off while still maintaining my balance.

Mairu started to rush forward but stopped just as quickly, reluctant resolve mingling with the concern shining in her eyes. She wasn’t allowed to help me survive this.

I don’t need her help, I told myself, fiercely.

I’d survived one trial on my own.

I would survive this one, too.

The whirlpool had calmed. There was no sign of any monster—yet.

Nerves buzzing and heart thumping, I waded deeper into the sea, putting a wide, clear space between myself and the Serpent Goddess. As I stopped and steadied myself, the water around me began to recede, pulling out toward the distant horizon with a violent swiftness, building into a massive wave at my back.

I should have turned around. Faced it. Braced myself for the deluge. But my gaze caught Mairu’s again, and for a moment I couldn’t move, couldn’t pry my eyes from hers. Her lips moved, and on them I read the same advice she’d given me last night—

Burn brightly.

I swallowed hard, like I could ingest those words, absorb them, make them an intrinsic part of my very being.

Brightly, brightly, brightly.

The wave crashed down, ripping me off my feet and sending me tumbling aimlessly through a terrifyingly cold darkness.

Chapter28

Once my directionless tumbling ceased,I thought I was back in one of the rivers between realms.

I floated steadily downward, just as I had in the river I’d traveled into the middle-heavens, and again, I could breathe despite being underwater—though each inhale was laborious and heavy, collecting like stones in my lungs and weighing me down more and more quickly.

My feet eventually touched a sandy and shifting bottom. I huddled there for a moment, gathering strength. Then I stood…and somehow broke immediately through the surface and came up gasping for air.

The water was shallow again.

It drained rapidly as I found my balance, sinking away until there was nothing more than a damp shoreline beneath my feet.

I was no longer on the same shore I’d been walking along with the Serpent Goddess. It looked vaguely similar, but Mairu was nowhere in sight. The water had shifted to a deep shade of turquoise, and an island had risen in the distance with a building made of grey and white stone standing in its center. The tide receded farther as I watched, revealing a rocky path stretching from where I stood to the island.

A wave crashed toward me, carrying something that glinted in the hazy light—a rusted sword. It washed to rest at my feet. The sapphires embedded in its hilt looked like eyes peering up at me, and I shuddered at the feeling of being watched by them.

I heard a low, threatening sound—something between a growl and a rumble of thunder—and I snatched up the sword and braced myself for an attack.

I turned in a slow circle, searching for the source of the noise. Not finding it, I lowered the sword, picked a direction, and started to walk with purpose. I was determined not to reveal how disoriented and unsure I felt to whatever gods might have been watching.

“Potential Ascendant of Fire,” said a sudden voice, deep and cold as the depths of the sea I’d just tumbled through. “Where are you going?”

I spun around. Another wave rose behind me, and I stumbled back as a rush of power radiated out from the water.

This wave did not crash down like the one that had separated me from Mairu. It simply loomed for several beats, suspended and curling in a way that made no natural sense, before it parted to allow a being clad in sea-colored armor to step from within it—Kelas. The middle-god of the Ocean.

“I was going to look for you,” I answered, forcing myself to keep still, to not show fear, as he came to stand before me.

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