For a moment, I just stare, transfixed by theway the colors shift and blend, by the way the dying sunlight fractures across the water and makes everything look like a dream.
Maybe I’ll just stand here for a moment. Stare at this magnificence until the sun sinks below the edge of the world and returns the Shadow to himself. Already, the blazing orb hovers a mere breath above the horizon.
“Sariah.” Amriel’s voice cuts through my wonderment, sharp and urgent. “Sariah, I can see you. I canseeyou.”
I frown, pull the bracelet to my face. “Of course you can. We’re looking right at each other.”
His eyes roll, the whites showing around the edges. “No, I mean I canseeyou. Right now. Throughhiseyes, too.”
Ice floods my veins. I spin around.
The door has disappeared. In its place is the Shadow, stalking toward me on soundless feet. His eyes glint with rage and hunger and triumph. Not an ounce of recognition flickers there.
Cold clarity sinks into me, my muscles coiling. I’m trapped between the Shadow and the river. Between my hunter and the fall.
I step back, my heels hanging into empty air.
Amriel’s voice screams from the orb, tinny and desperate. “Sariah,run!”
I consider it. I do. But there’s nowhere to go.
And in the next moment, the Shadow lunges.
Chapter 23
So many things happen at once.
Amriel unleashes a howl so anguished I swear it shakes the world. The Shadow leaps, his claws outstretched. And I instinctively step back. Into nothingness.
My heart rushes up my throat as I tip past the bluff and plummet, wind tearing at me, my loose hair whipping around my face as the sky rushes away.
The Shadow leaps, too, without hesitation. I fall and fall, my hands scrabbling at thin air, no breath to even scream. But somehow, he falls faster, streaking toward me, gaining?—
Warm water crashes up from below, jetting into my nose, filling my throat. I thrash, trying to right myself, but the current grabs hold and whisks me away. The world spins. A stone slams into my back, bubbles erupting as I scream. My chest spasms. Burns. Oxygen won’t come. Somehow, I get my feet beneath me and push toward the surface. Towardair.
My head breaks water, a clean breath piercing my lungs. Errant waves push me down again, but I claw my way back up, water spluttering from my throat and pouring from my nose.
I hurtle along, carried by a roar of blue and green and purple I canbarely make sense of. Where is the Shadow? In the water with me, no doubt, but I can’t see him, can’t do anything but try to keep my head above water as the current sweeps me away.
The river yanks at my clothes and bashes my dagger against my hip. Wet strands cling to my face as I strain for shore, a sandbar, anything.
I kick and kick and kick. Cough and splutter and choke.
A rock rushes up from nowhere. The impact slams into my hip, spinning me sideways. I try to grab hold, but my fingernails skid across slick stone as the current tears me loose again.
Somewhere upstream, a savage bellow joins the river’s roar—the Shadow, not far behind me.
All at once, the current dumps me into a wide, slow-moving pool. I strike out for solid ground, driven by a single directive.
Escape my hunter. Get out of the water before he does.
My blood pumps hot. The pool turns shallow, my boots scraping against the bottom as I surge to my feet. Dozens of rivulets course across the sand here, each glowing a different color. I slog through one, then another, making for the distant forest.
Another roar sounds behind me. I glance back to see the Shadow emerging from the river, his yellow eyes brighter than the sunset. Glittering purple water streams from his hair.
A scream fills my throat. I spin away, doing my best to flee, but water sloshes in my boots, dragging at every step.
No time to stop and fix it.
