Instinctively, I sucked in the breath Einar pushed into my mouth. Giddy relief swept through me as oxygen filled my lungs, but before I could exhale, Einar pulled away.
“Try again,” he told me, his voice sounding strange and distorted by the ocean water. “Let go of your fear, and try again. You can do this, Adara. And if you can’t, Prentis and I are here to help.”
He kept his hands on my shoulders, grounding me, steadying me amidst the weightlessness of the ocean. Closing my eyes, I let out the breath I was holding, and with it, the lump of dread and fear that had settled in my chest. Einar was right—even if I couldn’t do this, he and Prentis were here, ready and waiting with gillflower and oxygen. Failure didn’t mean death, at least not today.
But I wouldn't fail. I'd done this before. I could do it again.
I opened my mouth to take in a breath, and the sides of my neck began to tingle. Water rushed into my throat, and my gills opened, filtering the oxygen into my lungs and allowing the liquid to pass harmlessly through the flaps in my neck. Einar’s golden eyes gleamed with pride as I pulled in another breath, then another, giving me the confidence to let go of him.
“I did it!” I yelled, spinning around and punching my fist skyward. I beamed at Prentis, who looked as though he wasn’t sure if he should be pleased or annoyed. “I’m breathing underwater!”
“Congratulations,” Cascada said dryly. “You’ve accomplished something the rest of us have been able to do since we were five.”
Prentis elbowed his cousin in the ribs, who let out a yelp. “What Cascada means to say is that we’re proud of you,” he said, scowling at her as she rubbed the spot where he’d jabbed her. “Now if you’re ready, let’s get going. We have a current to catch.”
“A current?” Einar repeated. “You mean we’re not just going to swim there?”
“Swim?” Cascada laughed. “The sea temple is eighty miles west of here. Do you have any idea how long that would take, dragon?”
“Longer than I’m prepared to swim,” Einar said dryly.
“Indeed,” Prentis concurred. “Which is why we’re not going to swim. We’re going to ride the Orphyx current.”
He pointed to a section of the ocean to the left of the reef, and Einar scowled. “I don’t see anything,” he said.
“That’s because you’re not a water fae, dragon,” Cascada said with a roll of her eyes. “We’re the only ones who can see the currents.”
I squinted my eyes, trying to figure out what Prentis was pointing at. “Don’t squint,” Prentis told me when he saw what I was doing. “Relax, and open your mind.”
I did what he said, allowing my vision to unfocus. The moment I did, three long, colorful ribbons of water appeared before me. Each was about twenty feet wide, snaking in different directions—a yellow-green one heading north, a steel-blue one southwest, and a purplish-green one that appeared to be going east.
“I see them,” I whispered, a little awestruck. “Is it the purple one we’re taking?”
“Yes.” Prentis beamed at me with unmistakable pride. “The purple one will carry us to the temple.”
He took my hand, and we swam toward the current, passing over the reef. Prentis allowed me a moment to take in all the sea flora and fauna—the spiny anemones, the rainbow coral, the striped fish and armored sea turtles flitting about as they searched for breakfast. But all too soon we swam past it, until we were directly beneath the current.
“Prepare yourself,” Prentis warned. “This is a bit like being sucked into a vortex.”
He kicked his legs to propel himself forward, dragging me with him. The current sucked us in, and I screamed as we shot forward, hurtling through the water at breakneck speed. I tried to look behind me to see if Einar and Cascada had followed, but the force of the current was so intense, I couldn’t even turn my head.
“Relax!” Prentis shouted back at me. “You’ll get used to it!”
My thundering heart disagreed, and I held onto Prentis’ hand for dear life as we rocketed through the current. The water roared in my ears, drowning out my pulse as we tore past sharks, schools of fish, sea turtles, and a variety of undersea life. I even thought I saw two whales at one point, engaged in what looked like a mating dance.
We traveled like this for close to an hour before Prentis plunged his hand through the current wall without warning. The current spat us out, and I floated aimlessly in the water for a moment as I tried to catch my breath, the ocean spinning around us.
“Giant’s teeth,” I gasped, holding my stomach as I tried not to retch. “That was brutal.”
The current spat Cascada and Einar out next to us, the latter looking quite a bit worse for wear. “I take it back,” Einar rasped as he let go of Cascada’s hand. It could have been the water, but his skin had a green tinge to it, and there was a dazed look in his eyes as he floated toward me. “I would absolutely rather swim than go through that accursed ride again.”
“Oh, don’t be such a baby,” Cascada said cheerfully, slapping him on the shoulder as she swam past. She looked as fresh and rosy as someone who’d just stepped out of a morning bath. “The currents are a thrill ride! Surely it must be similar to diving through the sky.”
“Not at all,” Einar said, crossing his arms over his chest as he scowled. “When I’m skydiving, I’m in control. In that tunnel, I had to rely on you to get us in and out safely.”
“Which I did with flying colors.” She pinched his cheek, and I had to clamp down on the urge to growl at her as a wave of possessiveness filled me. “Now, are you two going to keep whining, or are you going to look at what we’ve traveled all this way to see?”
She pointed to something behind us, and Einar and I turned to look. My surroundings came into sharp focus, and I realized we were standing at the mouth of a valley. Two undersea mountains towered above us on either side, and nestled in the valley between was an undersea village that looked like something out of a storybook. Dwellings of coral and clamshell crouched in the mountains’ shadow, their roofs thatched with kelp, and glowing lanterns illuminated the streets, though I couldn’t tell from this distance what powered them. Beyond the village, perched on the edge of an undersea cliff, was a grand, domed building that I assumed was the water temple. But I hardly noticed it as I caught the telltale flash of a mermaid tail, flitting from one building to another.
