Page 69

Kearan tries to leap to my side, but burly men restrain him. One throws a punch into the center of his stomach, toppling him. Meanwhile, my head whips back from the sting of the cut. I feel my blood drip down my face, though I can’t feel the cold air against the open wound.

“She still bleeds. He hasn’t performed the ritual yet.”

“What ritual?” I ask.

“Sorinda, what’s going on?” Kearan asks. “How are you talking with them?”

“We need to make sure he doesn’t find her body,” the one who spoke before continues.

“What do you want done?” another asks.

“To the deep with her.”

Something hard crashes against the back of my head, and everything goes black.

Chapter 13

WHENIREGAINCONSCIOUSNESS,my eyes feel so very heavy, so I keep them closed.

And then I realize I must be dreaming.

For I feel weightless, and my body drifts as though it were floating.

At least I’m not falling, I think distantly. Or having some nightmare about the night my whole life was ripped from me.

I think it curious how muted and strange everything feels. Sounds seem too far away. Or perhaps too close? There’s a whooshing that sounds nothing like wind and a pressure on my skin that has no temperature.

And finally, I register the sensation at my heart. That warmth that seems contained. Out of my reach. Yet vital somehow. My entire life force held within one spot.

And then I remember Threydan.

My eyes shoot open.

I blink several times before I can make sense of what I’m seeing. Light threading down from above. Thick shapes hovering above me. A large void spread out in front of me: darkness in every direction as far as I can see. Which admittedly isn’t that far.

I try to stand, to move my fingers. Pinch myself awake.

But then I realize I’m restrained.

I look down, my head moving more sluggishly than usual. Some sort of iron weight rests on the ground, dirt flecks stirring when it shifts. My arms are bound in front of me at the wrists, and as I try to free myself, to thrash, bubbles drift upward.

Bubbles?

The realization sends my pulse hammering away at lightning-fast speeds.

I’m underwater.

I’vebeenunderwater for stars’ know how long, and yet I’ve been breathing just normally. Or at least I was before I realized my predicament.

Now my lungs have increased their pace.

This is a horrible nightmare.

Except …

That heat within me, the numbness to temperature in my limbs. That all really happened, didn’t it? Some frozen, sleeping man did something to me. The faint taste of bile still sits on my tongue.

I don’t know what’s real and what’s not at the moment, but I know one thing. Regardless of whether or not I’m dreaming, I do not want to be down here.