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Hesitantly, I stepped onto her abandoned spot, the mass bobbing under my boots. Peat flexed uneasily over the viscous slurry like a mottled elastic bubble ready to pop.

My blood rushed to my head, and I trailed Breena as she bounced to the next, sounds of joy bursting from her as she landed.

I breathed in, expanding my ribs so they weren’t clutching my lungs so tightly.

“Feck it!” I hollered and followed my friend as she leaped from hummock to hummock. My friend, who was alive and safely out of the Stygian Murk.

“That’s the fecking spirit!”

We dashed and vaulted over and over. Cricket song crescendoed with each landing, only to pause as my boots met moss, then resumed behind me as I left.

A few times, the mounds threatened to collapse as I landed on them, the squelching of mud sucking at the air. My thighs burned from continually bouncing and balancing.

But I was free. Reckless and untethered. Pure delight ripped from my lungs; my gleeful squeals swallowed by the haze coating the bogland.

On my next jump, I veered off to the right as Breena went to the left, the fog absorbing her.

Unabashedly, I dashed across several, the breeze smacking into my teeth as I grinned. From the corner of my eye, an ebony shadow flew past me, the beating of wings whooshing against the mist as it tore into the obscured sky.

I whipped my head forward again as I jumped toward a smaller pile of vegetation. Too late, I realized my error as the peat licked at its wobbly edges. The lumpy moss quivered and crumbled under my feet, and my body was a stone swallowed into the thick pool of sticky muck.

With a yelp, I squirmed within the gooey sludge, but its gummy embrace dragged me slowly downward, my movements causing me to sink further.

“Breena!” I screeched, terror shredding free from my frame and leaving me to the muddy depths.

The murk and fog swallowed me, dampening my cries as my arms slapped against its viscous surface uselessly. The nearest hummock was out of reach.

My blood and breath whirled within me as I screamed.

“Calm yourself, child.” I stilled as the soft demand grated over me. A gilded glow peeled through the haze, followed by the bent form of a woman atop the lifted moss .

The fog dispersed, and I blinked my eyes as if finally seeing clearly for the first time.

Her flowy, pale hair fluttered to her chest, wispy strands brushing against her ashen cheeks and dark, gauzy robes. Her skin delicately creased into a patchwork of wrinkles like a map drawn on crumpled paper.

“Would love to, but as you can see, I’m being eaten alive by a bog!” My voice rose at the end, cresting along the ridges of my panic.

Her lips set in an unamused line as she flicked her wrist nonchalantly. All at once, I flinched, sinking deeper, as a long, thick branch flew straight at me and landed near my hand with a splat.

I spit out flecks of gunk, glaring at the ancient woman. “Thank you for this … this stick. I hate to ask the obvious, but would you mind using your ember to get me out?” My words sounded shrill, fear squeezing my windpipe.

Patiently, as if she were dealing with a small child and not a woman about to be gobbled up, she folded her hands in front of her, glancing pointedly at the bough.

My eyebrows rose, forehead creasing as I realized she was insane. I hollered again, my throat aching and voice cracking as the gray goo met my collarbone.

I whimpered, ignoring the female and staring at the branch. Sucking in a lungful of air, I snatched the wood, gripping it at each end for dear life. It wouldn’t reach the bottom and would only get stuck if I tried.

With an exaggerated sigh, I slapped it in front of me in annoyance. It clung a bit to the peat coating, and my brows rose.

I pushed my arms down against the branch, wiggling it against the muck. Painstakingly, I slowly leveraged my weight against its wider surface area until my body inched forward bit by bit.

Twenty minutes was a lifetime when you were struggling to survive.

The sludge tugged at my weary limbs, trying to drag me back down, but I pushed and writhed until I reached the hummock the female stood upon. I clutched the moss and pulled myself onto it .

Dragging in ragged breaths, I feared my limbs were made of mud as they wobbled. Standing wasn’t worth the risk of toppling into the bog, so I plopped onto my back.

“Bleeding muck on a mound. Where’ve you been, Ryn? And who the void is she?” Breena landed near my shoulder as I stared dully at the sky.

Breena propped her fists on her hips as the female ignored her and pressed her mouth into an unamused line.

Pushing damp curls off my temples, I groaned. “I’ve been here, getting eaten alive by the bloody bog.” I flopped my hand in the female’s direction. “While she just watched.”

Breena frowned, glancing at my left hand. “Rhaegar said that trinket on your finger makes you go—” She sliced her hand through the air, a buzzing sound vibrating between her teeth. “Why didn’t ya just use it?”

I held my hand up, glaring at my ring, and then plunked it back down. I groaned, annoyed that I’d been too panicked to think of it.

Layers of wrinkles pushed up into the older woman’s hairline as she studied me. “I hear you’re in need of my guidance.”

“Like I need a dagger to the face,” I muttered weakly.

Her mouth quirking was the only sign that she’d heard me. “And after witnessing your determination, I’m willing to give it.” She placed her bony fingers against her chest. “How can the Augur assist?”