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Gerarda didn’t hesitate. “With my life.”

I grabbed her hand. “Dive as low as you can and whatever you do—don’t let go.” We both took a final breath before thrashing our legs in wide circles behind us to dive below the depth of the flames. Then I squeezed Gerarda’s hand and called the current of my magic forward. Pressure swirled around our legs, propelling us onward without the need to kick. Gerarda relaxed into the current and I propelled us under the flames and into the channel.

I squeezed her hand asking her if she needed to surface.

Two squeezes back.

No.

I kept us flying through the water until my lungs were pierced by a thousand tiny blades of ice and I thought they would explode from the weight of my own blood. I released the current and let go of Gerarda’s hand, needing both my arms to reach the surface before I ran out of air.

I gasped as I broke through the sea at the edge of a small peninsula. The smoking snowy mountain loomed high overhead and the western ports of the channel were far behind us.

“Why didn’t you suggest that earlier?” Gerarda gasped.

My shrug was hidden by the wave. “I didn’t know I could do it until I tried.”

I swam until my boots rested along the ashy bottom of the channel. I waded through the water as Gerarda swam beside me and we both collapsed on the beach.

“I think the seal is just on the other side of here.” I pointed up at the snowy rocky shore that created a barrier between us and the eastern edge of the island.

Gerarda crawled over to the rocks and peered over the edge. “Keera, there are at least thirty ships out there and who knows how many soldiers waiting on the island.”

“There aren’t many places to hide.” I pointed at the ashy beach and snow-covered rolls along the base of the mountain. An ambush was unlikely.

Gerarda unlatched the leather straps along her chest and wrenched her bow free. “Ready?”

I nodded and climbed over the frozen rock behind her. Gerarda moved almost as quietly as Syrra through the snow. Her head scanning in every direction like a swing swaying back and forth in the wind.

I pointed in the distance. Gerarda couldn’t see it yet, but along a flat piece of the snow was a seal made of deep blue ice. I gripped the bone hilt of my dagger and pulled it from its sheath. We crouched, stalking toward the seal with our eyes locked on the horizon. No horns had sounded yet and I prayed that meant we had reached the seal first and hadn’t been spotted.

I kneeled at the edge of it and Gerarda gasped as it came into view for her, the glamour shattering like glass. I mapped my path over the webbed designed and the circular edge as I gathered the courage to begin.

I closed my eyes and hoped that Riven would survive what I was about to do. A warm tingle flooded through my skin that felt just like the bond between us, as if Riven was telling me to do it.

A slash across the ground made me spin on my knee. My chest heaved as I lifted my dagger into the air.

Gerarda shook her head as she stabbed another short blade into the ice around me. “In case we need them,” she said over her shoulder. The handles were sticking out at waist height, ready to grab if we found ourselves under attack.

I tilted my head, appreciating Gerarda’s strategy. No matter where I was in breaking the seal I would be within easy reach of a weapon.

“Get on with it,” Gerarda urged, pointing to the seal with her chin.

I took a final breath and slammed my red dagger into the ice. A cold pressure pulled at my arm until it felt as if my limb had been swallowed by the mountain. I cut through the circular edge of the seal first, feeling the drain on my powers as my blade moved through the ice. The fire under my skin burned down my arm as a whirlwind pounded against my chest. It was as if my magic was fighting me, begging me not to continue but I persisted.

I cut through the second of the eight intersecting lines when something hit me on the back of my head. My vision blurred but I could see Gerarda fending off two soldiers dressed in black. The tallest of them was almost as large as Lash and had a long cloak that billowed in the night air.

A silver shield glinted in the light of the torch he held in his thick arm.

Damien’s Arsenal was here.

I turned my head, my hand still locked against my blade, to see another cloaked figure standing above me with a thick chunk of ice in his hand.

“Did Damien bother to learn your name before he named you Dagger?” I eyed the silver fastener at his neck. I lifted my gaze and recoiled in horror as I realized his left eye was completely black. Not inked by a loose fist, but inked by magic. The green hue of his other eye was gone, as were the whites around it, there was nothing but black and a small pupil the color of amber.

It sent a chill down my spine. The new Dagger had a scar that cut across his lip. It turned white as he scowled. He dragged a hand through his ginger curls and took a swig from a small flask. He spat his swallow onto the ground, leaving my captured hand dark and sticky.

His lips curled into a predatory smile. “They will sing songs of how Henris killed the Banished Blade.”