“Splash me and I’ll kill you,” Malicine said.
Briar laughed. “You’ve cursed me for less.”
She continued swimming with Elly, while Malicine cast a black cloud over their head for shade. Beside them, a tiny tree sprouted from the sand, where Talon perched to also avoid the sun.
Corin tried not to pay attention to the rosy glow on Briar’s bare skin and instead shifted her focus to the cliffside in the distance. She needed to remember what she came here for. Her mind fixed on a new life after claiming her treasure. She’d find a sprawling home in the borders of Gyldan, where she could be away from the noise and memories, the mistakes and loss. She didn’t want to deal with people ever again. Corin had seen the consequences of rebels like Harlow who risked their lives for the greater good, and it was never worth it.
Malicine’s voice broke her reverie. “You two had an argument, didn’t you?”
The muscles in Corin’s jaw jumped. She instantly thought of Elly before realizing Malicine had meant Briar Rose.
“I figured something happened,” they said. “You’re extra prickly around her.”
She hated that Malicine forced her to pay attention to Briar again. Cylinders of light moved across the sea and radiated across the girl’s skin like glitter. Corin’s mouth tightened into a grimace.
“I know I should be grateful that she’s giving me the treasure. But she irritates me.”
“Of course. She’s a spoiled princess who’s never worked a day in her life.”
“Then how are you friends?”
“That’s a long story.” Malicine tossed their hand, as if the memory was too distant to bother grasping. “I suppose the short answer is that we both wanted an escape, and we found that with each other. She has her reasons for hiding in an imaginary world. I have mine.”
Corin repeated Malicine’s words from their solitary ice castle. “You don’t like people?”
“I loathe them. Pathetic little parasites clawing at each other for scraps of power and praise. They dress their wars in different flags, but it will always be the same hunger underneath. I don’t regret leaving your world behind. They certainly never paid me any kindness.”
The demon tilted their head back. Their horns created a stark shadow over the sand, a shape of two crescent moons that no longer hid in the skies. The sun beat against their green skin, and they lacked any shame to hide it.
“Why fight to stay in a world that’s not worth saving,” they said, “when it’s so much easier to be on our own here?”
Corin’s gaze drifted toward Elly. The girl swam back to shore, her hands cupped over a collection of shells. Shades of pink and translucent blue sprinkled across her palms. They reflected light into her widened eyes, gleaming in wonder at the novelty in her hands.
It would have been so easy for Elly to be happy, Corin thought. If she was born in the right place, the right time. The right family.
“All we’ve ever done is fight to survive,” Corin murmured.
“Maybe your sister doesn’t want to survive,” Malicine said. “Maybe she just wants to live.”
Corin didn’t respond, because Malicine was right. Elly should know what it meant to enjoy simple pleasures. Swimming in water. Feeling the sun on her skin. Being loved. The weight of Elly’s wet clothes should have dragged her down, yet she bounded across the sand as if she were light as air. This was what someone looked like when they weren’t restrained by cruel soldiers or selfish sisters.
Corin let out a long exhale, shoulders sagging. Fine. She would settle inside this moment, even if it was fleeting. Elly’s laughter was rowdy and obnoxious, the kind that demanded attention. Corinwanted to bottle the sound in a jar and shake it beside her ear so she could hear it even in the darkest of nights.
She took off her boots and swam in the ocean, catching up to Elly. “You learn fast,” she said, then splashed water on her sister’s face.
Elly kicked her feet forward. “Bet you can’t catch me.”
Before Corin could reply, Elly already dived below. Corin followed without hesitation, puncturing clouds until they turned to white foam, deep blue-greens transforming to bursting corals, fuchsia, tangerine. She locked her arm around Elly’s waist and thrust her other hand over Elly’s stomach to torture the girl with tickles. Her sister’s laughter came out in bubbles, and she silently flailed until they reached the surface again, gasping for air.
Corin listened to the steady beat of Elly’s heart as they held each other. Sunrise turned the waves to gold, the horizon a line of silver. Waves rippled gently against their brown skin. She stared at her sister and wondered how someone could grow so fast. Despite her best efforts to hide Elly, the girl was too bright and beautiful. It scared Corin, knowing the world was cruel and often took beautiful things away from her.
As they breathed the briny air and tasted ocean salt, she wondered if this was what life would look like without fear. The lull of the ocean, the swell of the waves, her sister beside her. The feeling of being safe in an infinite world.
But this isn’t real.
Salt trickled in Corin’s eyes and burned. A blot of ink stained her vision. She blinked hard, yet the black spot did not disappear from the horizon. A dark patch had disrupted the silver line, so pervasive that even when birds flew toward it, dusk swallowed their silhouettes.
Thick clouds wrapped around the island in a gray halo. Among the swelling sea, the island looked dead. When had this island appeared? Or had it always been there, and she hadn’t remembered? She realized too late that someone had been calling her name. The wind had drowned out Malicine’s voice, barely carrying it over to her ears as she turned around and saw the demon’s face had contorted to panic.
