Adara’s muscles burned as she clawed her way up the last sweeping slope of the mountain, brimming its summit. Her lungs ached with each heaving breath she sucked in, trying to ignore the sting shooting through her ankle.
When she finally hauled herself up the steep rocks, she lay upon a plateau, catching her breath. The faint sound of rippling water was ethereal music to her ears.
Slowly, she rose on aching feet. A dark, cavernous opening was carved into the side of the mountain, an unearthly glow rippling in the darkness. Vines snaked over the stone around the opening. Adara gently pushed them aside as she entered, blood rushing in her ears.
Her jaw dropped at the beauty before her. The large cave was studded with dozens of crystals embedded into the rocks all around. They glimmered in the light that shone through the mouth of the cave, reflecting off the shimmering water, creating a picture of a night sky full of twinkling, bright stars. Walking into the cave, she stopped before the pond of enchanted water, turning slowly in a circle, taking in every one of the colorful gems that illuminated even the darkest shadows. It felt like she’d been transported to another world.
Taking a deep, shaking breath, she kneeled before the pond, its luminous glow illuminating her features in an azure hue. Adara pressed two fingers to her wrist, felt her heart beat twice. Then she pressed them to her chest, over the black flame-shaped mark of her power, and finally to her head. The simple motionwas a reminder of what the gods had given her: life, power, and soul. A life that was a gift of adventure from the Goddess of Life, Elysian. Power that was hers to take by Adara, the Goddess of Fire and Courage, whom she was named after. And a soul of which her own mind could choose who to be. A quick prayer to the gods that she didn’t follow some myth or fairytale that only led to disaster and death in this otherworldly cavern.
Cupping her hands, she dipped them into the pond. She stared at the glittering, vibrant water, imagining the limits of time slipping through her fingers as easily as the droplets of water. “I am eternal,”Adara murmured. Then she eagerly brought the water to her parted lips. Its taste was cool, refreshing, but nothing about it felt magical.
Dropping her hands to her side to dry them on her pants, her shoulders slumped. Disappointment and hopelessness washed over her. Why didn’t it work? Damon had witnessed the power of these waters himself. Dominic Nite had been alive for far longer than anyone should live. So why didn’t it work for—
All at once, everything came rushing back to her. Images of the past flooded her mind. Looming stone castles with shadows lurking in every corner. Old friends who were now long gone. Burning villages. Bloodied hands holding even bloodier weapons. Poison. Carnage.
Torture, so much torture. Crimson clouded her vision.
Adara fell to her knees in agony as memories continued their assault on her mind. She squeezed her eyes shut as if it would stop the images from flashing before her eyes. Gritting her teeth through the pain, she let out a groan at the ache growing stronger in her head. She wanted to scream, to let the pain escape her in some way—
As suddenly as it came, the feeling stopped. All the pain vanished like it was never there, nothing more than an illusion.
Brows furrowed, she sat back on her heels and peeled away the vambrace on her left forearm. Adara gasped in shock at the sight of her skin.It worked, she thought, astonished.It actually worked!She bit back the smile threatening to grace her features, feeling as if it would all wash away if she acknowledged it.
She stared at the mark for a second.
Ten seconds.
Thirty.
A minute.
Nothing changed.
A radiant grin broke out on her face. Adara Rhyes had crossed the Plagued Sea and drank from Andreilia’s enchanted water. After nineteen years of living, time halted for her. She no longer had to count down the days, anxiously awaiting her doom. She no longer had to glance over her shoulder for the monsters creeping in the shadows. She no longer had to lie in wait while others watched her fall apart. She had been saved. She had been reborn.
Something slammed into the back of her skull.
Her mouth opened in a scream, silenced as her head was shoved underwater.
Chapter 4
Waterfloodedherlungs,a flaring wave that cascaded through her chest as she desperately gasped for air that would not come. Muffled shouts echoed throughout the cavern. Adara thrashed violently beneath her assailant’s hold. Fingers tightened around her hair, yanking her up from the pool of water.
She gasped, fresh air burning in her lungs. Water sprayed from her lips in a cough, fighting for the breath knocked out of her as she slammed into the ground. Rough calluses scraped her skin, thick hands tightening around her neck. Adara blinkedrapidly through the haze of pain and wet hair plastered to her face.
Her wrists ached beneath the weight of someone’s knees, unable to reach for her weapons. Shoulder-length blond hair curtained a tan face. Caramel eyes were alight with malice. A twisted sneer painted his mouth. His nose was crooked, as if previously broken a few too many times, and a jagged scar marred his face stretching from beneath his eye down through his lips.
She struggled beneath him and his fingers clenched harder, nails biting into her neck. Shouts rang out, sounding from a distance, yet Adara knew they were from the blurred figures crowded behind her attacker. Black spots faded in and out of her vision, mingling with the blurred colorful gems in the stone ceiling.
“Knock it off. You’ll kill her,” someone said.
Her assailant ignored it. The noose of his fingers cinched until Adara’s eyes fluttered closed and her body fell limp. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t fight back unless she used her powers. It would be so easy to kill them all in an instant, but she refrained. She would not reveal her abilities yet.
The yelling crescendoed, calling out for him to stop, but his stranglehold did not release. Adara tried to calm her racing heart, to fight the panic flooding her. How many times had she been through something like this? Brought to the brink of death to see how she’d break. Pain was a nuisance, secondary to the lethal calm that settled deep within her bones in the face of death.
Adara continued to let them believe they had won, her insides crying out in agony, fighting for the breath of life, but her body was still.
“Tyson, stop,” one of the Andreilians demanded. “Lest you want to explain to Dominic why you killed his shot at another key.”
