“Hold onto Erekkus,” he told me—not that he had to, because Erekkus was already holding onto my other forearm, tethering us.
There wasn’t enough air to speak. My head pounded, a nasty side effect of being surrounded by such an overwhelming quantity of people—and emotions—in such close quarters.
Neither Atrius nor his men killed a single person.
We just fought our way past the tides, pushing through the morass of sweaty, terrified flesh until it thinned, then disappeared.
Atrius and Erekkus released my arms, and I let out a shaky breath. My headache throbbed, but subsided. Sweat plastered my clothing to my body. Distantly, I sensed that mass of innocent people continuing down the tunnels to Weaver-knew-where, blind with terror, like a herd of panicking cattle.
Atrius muttered something in Obitraen to Erekkus, who nodded. It was harder than ever to sense Atrius’s presence now, with my abilities so exhausted by the pack of people, but I glimpsed a faint whiff of disgust.
“Good to know that human kings have so much respect for life,” Atrius muttered to me, and I couldn’t help but let out a ragged laugh at that.
“I’m sure vampire kings are very kind to their subjects.”
His lips thinned. “Maybe kings are the problem,” he remarked. Then, before I could answer that, he lifted his chin down the hall. “How much farther?”
It was hard to tell how much closer, overall, we had come to the peak of Alka. The tunnels were disorienting, rising and plummeting in seemingly equal measure, twisting so frequently it was impossible to say which direction we were headed. Aaves’s sea of humans hadn’t helped that, either.
I paused, my breath coming heavy. “I need a moment,” I said. My magic was exhausted, but I reached through the threads, letting my awareness ripple out in all directions.
Nothingness around us—not a soul. We hadn’t climbed far. If anything, we were deeper than where we had started at the gates. I could sense the sea nearby, the salty brine scent stinging my nostrils.
I followed the threads up, up, up. Up to a cluster of auras far above us… to one in particular, far above them.
“He’s far,” I said.
“How far?”
My brow furrowed. The threads shivered and trembled.
I ran over them again, following them to the castle.
No, this wasn’t right. I had to have missed something.
“There’s no one for a long time,” I said.
But that didn’t make sense. Aaves had plenty of bodies to throw at us. And yet, the halls were empty.
I leaned against the wall. My palm touched wet stone.
The realization came too late.
There were many things that were very unique about Alka. The rocky terrain, its confusing tunneled construction, the many interconnected formations that made up its body.
But perhaps the most dangerous was the tide.
It was an unusually low tide the night of a full moon, revealing paths that were usually underwater.
But the tides of Alka were vicious and swift and sudden, more so than anywhere else in Glaea or, perhaps, the world.
My vision had specified the crescent moon. I had taken us during the full. And Aaves had just driven us into the deepest tunnels of Alka. The ones that really belonged to the sea.
A sea that was ready now to take them back.
I whirled to Atrius. “We need to go back—” I said.
But the sudden wall of water swallowed my words.
14
I’m six years old, and the water hurts so much as it fills my lungs. My mouth keeps opening and opening, like if I can get my jaw open wide enough I’ll find air, but there’s no air, there’s just sour salt water and it just keeps filling me and filling me and filling me, and I know it will kill me.
I am six years old and I’m going to die.
The man’s hands are firm at my throat, tangled in the back of my hair. I thrash against it but I can’t fight his grip. His fingers are so tight around my neck, they hurt almost as much as the salt in my lungs.
Almost.
I’m six years old and I’m going to die.
Water had filled my lungs by the time I was aware enough to realize what had happened. It poured into the tunnels with such force that it struck us like a giant open palm. My body hurt—something broke. I couldn’t orient myself. We were moving fast, so fast I struggled to grab hold of the threads around me. The moment my consciousness returned, I clawed at the stone wall, breaking fingernails but failing to—
My body lurched as someone grabbed me—Atrius. I knew it was him immediately. But the water was so strong, and he was being swept away in it too. He held me for a moment and then I was pulled away from him again. My body crashed against what must have been Erekkus, who was forcing himself against the rock wall, trying to slow himself against the current.