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We drag Maeva’s unconscious body closer to the shore.

Though she’s weightless, the exertion has taken its toll on our bodies as we fight to stay afloat in the frigid water.

My legs ache from swimming so quickly to flee the sacrificial grounds for the kelpies.

I’m sure they’ll be vengeful when they arrive to find their meal no longer there, and some of their minions dead.

Riordan meets us in the water. “Pass her to me,” he says. As we push her toward him, his arms wrap beneath her body, cradling her against his chest. He lifts her quickly, running out of the river. Her body limply sways with his steps, unresponsive to his voice as he talks to her.

Once on land, he lays her down, hovering a hand over her mouth. “She’s not breathing, mates,” he cries. He places two fingers along the side of her neck, shaking his head in disbelief. “I-I can’t find her pulse,” he wails.

She’s not dead.

She can’t be dead.

Laisren quickly drags us onto the shore.

Then he hurries over to Riordan’s side, removing his cloak and placing it over Maeva’s blue-tinged body.

“We need to warm her up,” he says. Turning his attention back to where Virgil and I lay shivering, he curses under his breath.

“They all need warmth before hypothermia sets in.”

Grabbing our cloaks, he throws one over each of our backs, attempting to cover us as much as possible. Virgil and I cough and breathe heavily against the snowy ground, attempting to find the strength to stand. I reach a hand toward Maeva. “Rosey,” I murmur.

She doesn’t respond.

“Maeva, I need you to wake up,” I croak.

Her fingers don’t even twitch.

Laisren starts rhythmic compressions on her chest. “She’s going to be okay,” Laisren answers.

After several seconds, he blows air into her mouth, while holding her nose. He continues this method for several minutes, but she still isn’t breathing.

My body screams as I crawl to her. “Rosey, wake up,” I say.

Panic lingers in Laisren’s features when he’s unable to produce results.

“ I see two deaths in this group before the end of three winters,” my mother’s words echo.

Maeva can’t be the one to die. She’s the only one that can fulfill the prophecy. She has to survive.

I need her to live.

As Laisren grows weary, Riordan pushes him to the side. “Let me try,” he says.

As Riordan continues the compressions, I grip her hand, reassuringly. Her pallid appendage doesn’t return the gesture.

Heat stings my face as I struggle to breath.

She’s not dead, I tell myself. She’s not .

“Rosey, come back to us,” I whisper. “Please, return to me.”

Riordan is leaning down to breathe air into her lungs when Maeva’s eyes shoot open and water catapults out of her mouth—straight into his face. Laisren rolls Maeva onto her side as she continues to vomit. “That’s it,” Laisren says. “Welcome back, Maeva.”

I sit up, rubbing circles along her back with one hand while my other holds her damp hair out of the way. Tears prick Riordan and Laisren’s eyes—tears of relief that our Rosey is still with us.

“You scared us there for a minute, Mae-Mae,” Riordan scolds.

Maeva slowly sits up, looking around the bank. “Well, perhaps next time you should warn me we’re this close to the Bones River, and I won’t be so careless when closing a door that was left wide open,” she half-heartedly jests.

Laisren quirks a brow, looking between the three of us. “The door was secured before we went to sleep,” Laisren says defensively. “I swear it. I checked it myself.”

“Could the lock have broken?” Riordan asks.

Maeva shakes her head. “All I can tell you is that it was wide open when I woke up to a cold breeze. I checked the latch, but it didn’t look like it’d been broken,” she replies. “Perhaps the wind knocked it open?”

“Perhaps that would be the case if it were an ordinary latch,” I growl. “However, enchanted locks can’t be opened except from within the hovel by one that isn’t sleeping.”

The elves were clever in their designs of their small outpost. They knew the dangers of the river in the evening and early morning, so they made sure to ward their hovels so that the songs beyond couldn’t call them out to their deaths…

even in their sleep. They’d have to be of sound mind and fully awake for the door to unlatch.

“I swear on my life that I made sure it was locked, Emyr,” Laisren pleads.

“Then who unlatched the door?” I seethe.

“I don’t know, but I swear it wasn’t me. Maeva’s my friend. I’d never wish her harm,” he replies.

As I stare down my Second Commander, I know he’s speaking the truth, but something about all of this doesn’t make sense. The door wouldn’t have unlatched on its own, would it? No, someone had to have done it, but I genuinely don’t believe it could’ve been Laisren.

The only question is who ?

Virgil finally moves from where he’s been lying on the snowy bank, standing to his full height. His hand covers his eye that was gouged out by his father years before. “In happier news, I’m glad you’re alive, Little Star,” he beams.

Maeva’s lips quirk as she nods. “As am I,” she replies. “Now let’s get out of here before more grindylows show up.”

“Agreed! I just need to find my eye patch that fell off in the snow,” Virgil says, looking at the ground.

“I’ll help,” Maeva offers.

Virgil dismisses her with a wave of his hand. “I’m sure I’ll find it in a moment,” he replies. “Why don’t the rest of you go back to the hovel and warm up before we set off toward the Abyss. I’ll join you soon.”

Frowning, she nods and attempts to stand up, though her limbs are trembling.

Using my shadows as leverage to help me rise, I extend my hand to her.

She peers at it as if it were a poisonous serpent, ready to bite her.

I offer a smile. “Let me help you, Rosey,” I say.

Gazing warily at me, she curls her hand around mine, allowing me to hoist her up.

Her footing is unsteady, and I instinctively wrap my arm around her waist. “I’ve got you,” I whisper, my tone like gravel.

Maeva’s cheeks are pink, as she steps out of my grasp. “Thank you, but I’m going to walk with Riordan,” she says. She quickly loops her hand around his bicep, and Riordan hesitantly bounces his gaze between us.

“It’s okay,” I mouth.

He nods, escorting Maeva toward the hill. Laisren and I aren’t far behind them as we slowly make the trek back to the hovels. As we near the top of the hillside, Virgil’s deep voice booms across the expanse. “I found it! ”

Smiling, Maeva turns around to reply to him, but her mouth falls agape as her skin becomes ashen. “Virgil! Behind you,” she yells.

We spin around just in time to see a massive horse, made entirely from water and kelp, towering behind Virgil, who’s drifted too close to the edge of the water… Giving the kelpie the advantage.

No!

I run down the hillside as quickly as my legs will carry me. “Virgil, don’t move!” I yell.

Confused, Virgil places his eye patch over his eye, then slowly turns to look behind him.

“Don’t!” I yell.

But it’s too late.

The kelpie opens its massive jaws, latching around Virgil’s neck, disappearing with him beneath the surface.

“VIRGIL!” Maeva shouts. Her voice pierces the sky as she screams for her friend that risked his life to save hers. I look over the edge of the bank for any signs of him or the kelpie. Maeva rushes past me. Riordan and I quickly grab her arms, hauling her away from the edge. “Let me go!” she wails.

“You can’t go after him, or you’ll die too,” I say. “Kelpies are ruthless, and you barely survived the grindylows.”

Maeva violently jerks against us, screaming, “I can’t abandon him. Let me save him. Please, he’s like a brother to me. He protected me.”

“I’m sorry, Mae-Mae,” Riordan croaks. “He was my brother, too, but there’s nothing we can do for him now.”

Maeva sags to the ground, still pulling against us. “I won’t give up on him!” she screams. Her cry echoes over the water as she shrieks his name over and over again. The veins in her neck pop out as she throws her body forward and she breathes raggedly. “VIRGIL!”

Nothing ripples or moves below the surface.

I can’t bear to see her so broken. Regardless of how I’ve felt about him as of late, I won’t allow her to lose another person she loves. I quickly push my cloak off my shoulders. “Laisren, don’t let her anywhere near that river,” I say, wrapping his hand around her arm.

“What are yo?—”

I’m already diving into the water before he can finish his question.

Despite my exhaustion, I push my body, looking for where the kelpie could’ve taken him.

As I suspected, there’s no sign of the direction they went.

This river runs all the way to Abeautrox and kelpies are unnaturally fast. They could be anywhere.

I resurface for air, drinking it in with deep gasps.

Then I propel my body deeper, praying that I can find a clue to get to him before it’s too late.

I’m losing hope with every minute that passes by with no luck.

After two more diving attempts, something glimmering along the bottom of the river catches my eye.

A thickness wells in my chest as I dive to retrieve the black scale that once adorned Virgil’s eye, and a few shreds of clothing that he once wore.

He’s gone.

Clutching the scale and the few scraps of cloth, I resurface, finding myself quite a distance from the others.

I swim quickly to the side of the bank and pull myself ashore, allowing myself a few moments to catch my breath.

Shivering, I walk back toward the group as Maeva’s wails bounce off the riverbank.

The guttural sorrow brings tears to my eyes, as does the realization that I couldn’t bring him back.

It takes me about fifteen minutes to reach them on foot. Upon seeing me, Maeva desperately tries to break free of my cadre’s hold. “Where is he?” Maeva yells. She pushes against Laisren and Riordan who hold her steadfast. “Where is he?”