Page 57 of Beyond the Winter Kingdom
Kaia cursed under her breath. “How am I supposed to find that?”
Amelia lifted a shoulder in a partial shrug. “No idea. That’s not my problem. You want a portal to the Fold—that’s my price. Take it or leave it.”
“How do I know if it has been used or not?”
“If this glass has cracked, the magic has faded.”
Kaia pressed her lips together, not liking this one bit. “Fine. We’ll be back.”
Amelia saluted her in a mocking goodbye. “I’ll be here. Do send my love to Lucian when you see him.”
I stopped on the bottom step of her porch.
Fire threatened to surface.
That thieving leprechaun was a thorn in my side for many reasons. Now this? They were familiar with each other. What I didn’t know washowwell he knew her, or in what capacity.
And for reasons I absolutely hated, jealousy began to surface.
If Vyrexis so much as suspected a bond had formed—against my will or not—he’d burn me alive in seconds.
It mattered not.
There were no second chances for me.
Chapter 16
Meera
The river caught us like a fist.
Hard, fast, and mean.
It punched the breath from my lungs in a single brutal strike. Darkness swallowed me whole, cold and thick, curling around my limbs like a vice. I tumbled, spinning end over end in the churning current, disoriented and blind. I couldn’t tell which way was up. Water roared in my ears, louder than my thoughts.
The river was a living thing; angry, wild, and intent on dragging me under.
My limbs flailed. I kicked out, reaching for anything—rock, root, a scrap of air—but all I caught were currents that twisted and spun me like a rag doll. Panic bloomed in my sternum, cold and sharp. My lungs screamed. My chest burned. Something brushed my arm—slick, soft, and moving upstream. Not a branch.
I twisted, clawing at the water. My fingers scraped stone, and I pushed, hard, muscles straining.
My head broke the surface. With a gasp, air filled my battered lungs like broken glass. Water streamed from my face, my ears ringing, vision blurred. “Sadie?” I choked, my voice rasping like someone took sandpaper to my throat.
“Best field trip ever!” Sadie whooped somewhere to my left, her voice echoing down the river.
I sputtered, vomiting a little bit of water and bile. “Are youactuallyinsane?”
“Maybe?” she yelled, her laugh maniacal. Despite the significant danger we were still in, I found myself shaking my head and almost smiling at her absurdity. The moment was short-lived.
The current dragged us downstream. I twisted in the rapids, trying to orient myself, but the river had other plans. Foamy water whipped around me, frothing over submerged stones and half-drowned tree limbs. A thick, brackish scent filled my nose, a mixture of sulfur and crushed wildflowers, and the banks blurred past in streaks of dark green and violet. Trees leaned over the water, their branches skeletal, like arms reaching for the riverbed.
Behind us, faint but distinct, I heard Vareck’s voice, rough and panicked.
“Meera!”
“Come on, boys, the water’s just fine!” Sadie called, letting out a cackle even as she dipped under the water before popping back up.
“Nope,” I muttered, coughing up more water, eyes stinging. “This is a terrible idea. This was nevernota terrible idea.”
