Page 118 of Daughter of the Dark Sea

“Cadell.”

She met panicked, dark chocolate eyes. Black rimmed their edges, and Theron panted, dragging her from the crowd into a shadowed corner leading to the servant’s exit, near the musicians.

“Therrrrrrrron!” she cheered. “Wherehaavvee you b-been, matey?”

“Kora?” Her name was weird on his lips, and she giggled. “You are three sheets to the wind drunk, snap out of it.” A glass of water appeared, and he tipped it to her lips. “Have you seen Ivar?” He scanned the room as she stumbled in his arms,spilling water down his brown shirt. He wasn’t dressed for a ball, donning simple trousers tucked into laced boots.

“Thisss is a b-ball. What areeeyouu wearrrring?”

“I have been looking for Ivar. Has he been here?”

Kora could feel his pulse beneath his shirt, and it was erratic. She shook her head, and attempted to joke about him needing to visit Koji, but she couldn’t get the words to form on her lips.Thanos, what’s going on, pal?

“Theron, what’s happening?” Erick appeared, stricken as she swayed in Theron’s embrace. “Kora?”

She rolled her eyes, wiping dribbling water from her mouth.

“What’s happened to her?”

“She’s drunk as a skunk. Have you seen Ivar? I cannot find him.”

Erick cursed, shaking his head. “You need to get out of here . . . I’ll help . . .” Their voices faded in and out, her hearing distorting. “She needs a . . . I’ll find you . . .”

Theron nodded and slipped out the servant’s exit.

Erick tentatively wrapped his arms around Kora, guiding her through the crowd. She glimpsed Samuel in the corner with a hoard of females circling him, blending into one, sparkling, poofy person. Aryn observed nearby, tensing when Erick nodded to him as he assisted her out of the ballroom.

Her pounding headache felt as though her mind was being cleaved in two.Gods,how much had she had to drink? Her vision tunnelled, swimming, and she grumbled at Erick as her stomach threatened to show the whole ballroom how much she’d exactly drunk.

He slipped off her silly shoes and they stumbled up the grand staircase. Tripping on her skirts, Kora fell through her bedroom door with a grunt. She tore at the forsaken gown, suffocating in swaths of shimmering fabric, and collapsed ontothe bed. Erick sighed, lifting her feet under the covers before departing.

What felt like hours passed, the room spinning violently before she could fall into slumber. The last thing she saw was a lingering shadow behind her door, and the last thing shefelt. . . was a creeping coolness dripping down the side of her face.

47

Kora? You need to open your eyes.”

Kora groaned, nausea churning in her stomach.

“Wake up now, you silly child!”

Her eyes flew open. She knew that voice.

“Agatha?”

Her void-defying, glacial dome had not shattered like she thought, but thick, deep cracks lined the curve of the shimmering blue bricks. The light of her little protective world seeped through the glowing cracks into the nothing beyond.

And before her knelt Agatha. Kora stared in shock as Agatha leaned forward, her knobbly, aged hand taking Kora’s rippling liquid one.

She wasreal.She could feel her. Agatha was really here. And not only that—her sight had returned.

“Your eyes . . .” she whispered.

Gone was the endless white, replaced with piercing black pupils and gleaming beryl irises. Every time Agatha blinked, a new colour appeared in her eyes, shifting from red, to blue,to yellow, and green, and so on. It was a stark contrast to the opalescent white and gold robes caressing her aged, withered body.

“Kora, you need to listen to me.” Agatha’s comforting hoarse voice brought tears to her eyes.

“How are you here?” she asked dazedly as she reached out to touch her grey braided hair, rubbing the course strands laced with silver thread.