Page 8

S eidon had executed a perfect dive into the deep water at the base of the cliff.

He stayed for a moment there, stretching his arms out to both embrace the sea and cut his way through it.

The salt water felt like balm on his skin.

The puncture wound on his arm tingled, as it always did when the healing began.

Then it burned.

That was new. He flipped, neutralizing his momentum.

Burn wasn’t quite the right word. It felt…

brighter? That didn’t seem quite right either, but it was the closest he could come.

He held his arm in front of him, watching the trickle of blood slow, watching the trail of it that already slipped out curl into spirals and flourishes.

He hovered there under the water, even as his sea-senses told him that Enoch hadn’t paused and was crossing into the cave’s opening. Good. Whatever had made Seidon’s blood alert could mean danger—and his old friend was en route to the safest place in Daryatla.

Seidon moved again, toward open waters rather than the hidden entrance to the lagoon. Toward whatever had made him react so.

He’d swum only a few strokes when the sensation returned, this time ten-fold. More. Blood . He knew it not from instinct but from training. Blood speaking unto blood, connected by the water.

Magic unto magic. He’d experienced it many times in the Awakening Ceremonies, but never like this. Never this strong.

It slammed into him like a wall, starting at that small wound but then following his vein up his arm, into his heart, out again to his whole body. It was fire and light and joy. It was pain that didn’t hurt. Sensation that brought an awareness of something…something…

Someone.

Yes. He felt… her . He was almost certain it was a woman. He caught glimpses in the vision that had nothing to do with his eyes of someone fighting. Flailing. He sensed the flash of a blade.

He reached out, through the water, searching for her. He could always tell when someone was in danger in the water near him, though never as intensely as this. She must be close.

Yet the waters around him were empty. He reached farther. Farther still. He hit the barrier islands, dove around them, reached out into the sea. As he reached with his mind, he stroked with his arms.

Someone was in danger. Maybe he could help. If he could find her, or even get close enough to gauge the bodies in the water and not just the waters themselves…

But the more he reached out, the more aware he became of the distance still between them. He could almost taste the blood in the water, but it must be miles away.

And then it ebbed. Faded. He drifted to a halt, but only a vague awareness filled his mind. Whatever blood had entered the water was dissipating.

What of the bleeder though? Was she still in the sea?

Had she gone farther away or gotten out?

He wasn’t sure. A sense of panic and fear settled on his heart—not his own.

Hers . But with the blood connection lessening, he couldn’t track it so well.

The bodies of people in the sea were hard to differentiate from all the other marine life.

He waited several minutes more. Nothing. That strange brightness faded to underwater blues and grays. His arm not only stopped bleeding, it healed over.

Maybe that was the problem though. Maybe it wasn’t that she had stopped bleeding— he had.

He debated what to do. The chance of finding who it was right now, when she was so far away, was low. So he flipped, kicked, stroked his way through the water.

He passed into the cavern, dark and water-filled, swimming through darkness blacker than night. A half-minute later he surfaced in the lagoon and triggered the pulse that would spout up in the barracks at the palace.

Blue and green and water-damp black. Sky and tree leaves and rock surrounded him on all sides.

Another cave opened opposite him, a slender waterfall making a curtain of mist and melody.

Enoch sat on the little slip of pebbled beach, frowning at him.

“If you were letting me win, you went a bit overboard. Even at my best, I couldn’t beat you by that much. ”

“No.” Seidon reached the shallows and walked out of the water to sit beside Enoch.

He studied his arm. “Something…happened.” He explained it as best he could, though perhaps he sounded every bit as confounded as he felt, because Enoch had that look on his face that he only got when a puzzle stumped him.

“So, you think there was someone with magic out there? Somewhere nearby?”

“Near…ish.” Seidon fingered his hair away from his face and squeezed the water out of it. “But with strong magic. Stronger than I’ve ever felt in an Awakening, when there’s no distance at all between us. When our fingers are in the same bowl of water.”

“And you’re sure it’s a woman?”

Seidon could only shrug. “That was my impression, but how can I be sure?”

Enoch’s eyes lit. “Praise be to the Triada—you know what this means, don’t you?”

Seidon raised a brow.

His old friend grinned. “Someone out there is strong enough to match you—and close enough to find.” He leaned close. “There is hope, Si. Hope for the future of Daryatla. Hope of the next generation.”

Hope? Did hope feel like fire and light and joy and pain in his veins? He let the water lap against his legs and considered.

Maybe it did.