That’s when I see it—the island.
I ditch the canoe and swim. My arms burn with the effort, but sheer survival pushes me forward. The world spins as a metallic tang fills my mouth. My head throbs. My vision stutters.
I claw my way to shore, scraping my exhausted body over a beach of ash and bones. Brittle skeletons crack and crumble under my weight, a sound so haunting that it takes everything in me not to empty the contents of my stomach. I keep scrambling forward until I’m clear of them, trying not to think about what—or who—I’m crawling over.
When I reach the soft sand, I collapse, my chest screaming for air and my hand stinging like a thousand wasps. The wind returns.
Only it’s not wind—it’s wings.
A dark shape dives down from the sky. I roll as fast as I can, instinct shoving me out of the way just in time. Fire scorches the spot where I stood a moment before, the heat searing my skin.
The massive beast lands, wreathed in flame, its talons sinking into the earth.
And its eyes—oh stars, its eyes.
Red. Glowing. Ancient.
The beast from my nightmares. Coming for me.
Another scream slices through the dark. I jerk upright, catching a glimpse of another bride just as she’s engulfed in flame.
I don’t look. I don’t think. I just run.
Flames explode behind me as I raceback to shore, desperately searching for an intact canoe—anything to get me off this godsforsaken island.
But another girl finds me first—screaming, thrashing, soaked and bloodied. She grabs me, pulling hard. Her nails rake across my arm as she brings me crashing down to the ground. We fall together, rolling down the beach and back into the water below.
“Let go!” I shriek. “You’ll drown us both!”
But she won’t. She can’t. Her mind is gone. She’s screaming wordlessly for someone—anyone.
The wind shifts, and talons close around us. Then we’re airborne, yanked skyward like a hawk’s prey, one girl in each clawed and armored fist.
I can’t breathe; the air is too thin. My body dangles limply, the icy wind slicing across my skin.
Below us, the lake glows. The now-empty boats vanish, swallowed by mist. My lungs tremble with the altitude, causing my vision to swim.
The other girl, who I now recognize as Awnya, screams. She kicks and sobs like a madwoman, desperate to get free. She can’t accept her fate. The claws tighten around her, but she only thrashes all the harder and screams all the louder. The beast growls, as if warning her to shut up and stop resisting.
The wind shrieks around us as the beast climbs even higher. My hair whips my face as I try to gulp down air, suffocating in the headwind.
“Awnya!” I gasp. “You have to stop—”
Snap.
Her body jerks once, and then she’s falling, her limp silhouette sinking toward the earth below. From this angle, I can’t look away as she is swallowed by the mist.
I dare not scream. I dare not even move.
The wind is a blade against my skin. My head pounds, thundering a rhythm like an army marching into battle.
And still—we rise.
The monster beats its enormous wings even more ferociously as it carries me into a cloud bank. The thick mist rips away any shred of heat I still had left.
When we clear the cloud, Solmere stretches below in miniature. Another lake glows beneath us like a silver eye in thedarkness. I am a speck. A sacrifice. A soul surrendered to a god I do not believe in.
And yet, something in me quiets. I should be screaming. Begging. Praying. But I’m calm.
