The village without all the destruction, with a river winding up the mountain. Children screamed in excitement as they swam and played while it brought them up to the homes nestled into the side of the steep drop. Ships traveling freely beside them. A dock full of bustling trade in furs and pelts, amber and ivory and weapons of all kinds.
My eyes caught on a white longship, and my lips parted.
Then I was on the ground. My eyes stung as stars glittered above me, peeking through the crowns of the tall trees of Nordoen. Darcke’s chest heaved where he lay on the ground a few feet away, his hair in his eyes as he pressed his hands into the forest bed.
“What was that?” I asked, out of breath.
“What do you think?” Darcke asked.
“I’m asking you.” I rolled my shoulders as the forest around us woke up with the sounds of night, a howl somewhere in the distance weaving over my shoulders.
Darcke got to his feet, turning his back on me. “And I’ve told you I’m not here to answer all your questions,heir. You’ll have to figure out some things yourself.”
So we were back to that.
“That was my father’s ship,” I said slowly.
I was sure of it. It was the same longship Viljan and I had traveled here in.
I’d never heard of my father going anywhere near Darcke’s nation. And in his longship, not one of his warships? It didn’t make sense.
“‘For when you’re ready.’”
“What?” I asked, irritation heating my cheeks. “Did you hear me?”
“I think we’re supposed to take it together.”
“What are you talking about?”
This man was infuriating. Why could he not answer a single fucking question I asked of him?
“Come,” he demanded.
“You are so fucking?—”
Darcke stormed over and grabbed my arm. As soon as he touched me, the world heeled once more.
We were on the dock where I’d said goodbye to my people, and fear chilled my veins worse than the snow had before when their hands lifted in our goodbye, tears glistening on every cheek. Viljan’s hard face turned our way from the longship he already sat in, and when he opened his mouth, I gasped. Somehow I knew whatever would come out of his mouth would be damning—that Darcke with his terrifying perception would understand what I’d fought so hard to hide.
“I’m ready,” I screamed. “I’m ready.”
Dark eyes found mine, and for the first time there was a strange kinship in them when Darcke replied, “So am I.”
We spun toward the chalice, and my hand slipped into Darcke’s on its own. We reached for the cup with our other hands and touched it at the same moment. It instantly split into two, and I nodded when Darcke ordered, “Together.”
Whatever was in it had no taste, but heat exploded within me as the liquid trickled down my throat. My fingers locked with Darcke’s, and I couldn’t look away from his eyes as the world spun, images I couldn’t make out reflecting in what looked like a wind tunnel made of water surrounding us. The mirrored surface turned faster and faster and faster, until the only things that were still were the eyes of the man I clung to, his hostile gaze somehow anchoring me and unsettling me at the same time.
An arm of water escaped the wall of memories—because it was memories that whirled around us—and it reached for our interlocked fingers, twining around our handslike the rope Darcke had tied around my and Kilia’s wrists in the first challenge.
I jerked as something tugged deep in my chest, and the chalice I’d held clattered to the ground when Darcke took my other hand, his eyes darkening as he steadied me. My mouth opened, but he shook his head when a presence filled the walls of water—someone ancient spinning around us, his laugh rattling my spine.
“Don’t look,” he whispered as he moved closer.
I didn’t even breathe as whoever the god was chuckled again before the bond building within me made my entire body convulse, sending me right into Darcke’s hard chest. A shuddering breath went through him as he wrapped an arm around me, the other moving my chin, keeping my focus on him, not on the primordial presence that hummed a song that made my feet twitch, wishing to join him in the water.
“Who is that?” I asked shakily, able to stand still only because Darcke held on to me.
“It’s who you think it is,” he replied.
