She was in there.
How I knew, I didn’t understand. But vicious need surged with primordial desperation and I couldn’t fight it. I didn’t even have the power to look back at Whisper.
All I could do was answer the summoning and dive headfirst into the churning pool.
Chapter Forty-One
FOR ONE WEIGHTLESS MOMENT, I FLEW.
The mountain spat me out of its battering sluice, ejecting me into the sky with its thundering waterfall. My gaze fell on the Nujiang Gorge in the distance, the huge expanse glittering with moonlight, snaking leisurely through the Gaoligong mountains.
And then, I plummeted.
I hit hard—smacking against the river’s surface before slipping beneath and sinking. It took too much effort to keep breathing. All my willpower to justhold on.
My nerves howled as water touched what should never be touched—drowning the inner workings of my flayed body.
I kicked and swam to the surface, breaking the frigid water and gasping down air. The roar of the Burning Phoenix falls thundered behind me. Its mist and rain pummelled my shoulders, threatening to tear the rest of my skin off my bones.
But it was my heart that threatened to kill me—cruel and urgent, forcing me to hurry, hurry,hurry.
Swimming as fast as I could, I flowed downstream, buffeted by currents and hitting my legs on the occasional submerged rock.
I couldn’t see her.
Couldn’t sense her.
“ROOK!”
My voice was stolen by the night—carried away by the river as I fought to stay conscious. My torn skin lost its shield of ice andthrobbed.
The banks blurred past on either side—dark walls of trees and ferns and flowers.
High above me, the jagged silhouettes of the mountains seemed to mock me. I felt as if I was at the mercy and entertainment of long forgotten gods.
I searched desperately.
Every floating branch and patch of moonlight.
But nothing.
The summoning in my heart was getting weaker. Panic crawled up my throat with every stroke as the river pulled me further downstream.
“Rook!” I choked as the current slammed me into a boulder, toying with my already brutalised ribs. I sank for a moment, using up the last of my strength to keep going.
Fighting for the surface, I spluttered and coughed but then...
My gaze snagged on a pale shape caught in moonshine up ahead.
She drifted near the bank, tangled against a snag of half-submerged branches. Her hair streamed like black seaweed, her body limp and wrong. Deep wounds sliced all over her, shredding her white clothes, her blood black in the night.
“ROOK!”
I swam with everything I had left.
The nearer I got, the colder the water became.
Cold enough to chill the fire in my blood.
