Page 107

“Of course I did. Every step. Their ancestors treated me abysmally.” She flicks her fingers. “I’ve been planning to wipe out their bloodlines for centuries, but I waited until I found the right person to stand beside me.”

“You’re mad.”

“No, I’m not, Cordelia.” The corners of her mouth stretch to each side of her face in an unnatural grin. “We’re alike, you and I.” She tugs on my necklace. “Others fear our talents, so they try to take them from us. They say we want too much.”

“Maybe you do want too much,” I say. “You were a human-born woman once who made an offering to the Altar of the Undine, but after you received the gift of divine transformation, you didn’t stop taking.”

“That is a very old story.” Her lips quiver. “It’s not my fault that others lack imagination, but I’d rather collect souls for myself than for some unseen entity.”

The grey light behind the storm clouds is fading. The moon will rise soon, and the Goddess will be watching. “I’m nothing like you. I will never be like you.”

“That’s what you say now, but I have all the time in the world to change your mind.” She stands and expands her chest, unleashing an aria as she takes a ritual knife from a bowl near her window. “Let’s get started.”

“I never agreed to your offer.”

“I didn’t give you an option.” She waves the blade. “Unless you prefer death, but I hope that you don’t, because I’d rather not have to wield your voice myself.”

“All you have to do is drive this through their heart.” The knife handle slips into my hand, and she crouches beside me again. “Kill your love, and you can have everything you’ve ever dreamed of.”

I pause, waiting for the exact right moment to drop her knife and reach for the one my sisters gave me. I’ll only get one chance.

I can’t miss.

Zephyr turns on their side, their arm falling across their chest. They don’t know about the knife, but I try to channel my confidence over to them, hoping they can sense that I have a plan.

They drop their chin subtly, so subtly that only I can tell it’s an acknowledgment, a quiet understanding. They touch their breastbone, but their eyes shift toward Cosette as they say, “Do it.”

I drop Cosette’s knife and pull the witch-killing blade from my bodice, swinging it toward her, the tip hitting the hard shell of her corset. Zephyr’s hand grips my upper arm, and their aether drops over me, expanding out to the point where I’m making contact with Cosette.

My consciousness slips away, and I plunge into nothing, coming to in a place that’s almost as dark as the void we just vanished into. A stone statue of a mermaid transforming into a woman becomes visible as my eyes adjust to the shadows.

Zephyr has taken us into the Sunken City, and we’re floating right above the Altar of the Undine. They release my arm, and I drive Cosette down to the stone slab.

White tentacles wriggle up from beneath her gown. They wrap around me, the slimy appendages trying to pull me to her.

But I’m stronger. I use one hand to keep her pinned, then flick my thumb out from around the blade’s handle, biting into the fleshy pad.

A ribbon of blood swirls up from my skin, initiating the Full Moon ritual. I can’t speak the incantation without my Ocean Voice, but I shout it in my mind, stating my intention as I stab the blade into Cosette’s heart and make my offering.

Her tentacles writhe around my legs and back as tendrils of grey shadows curl out of her mouth, morphing into phantoms of stolen souls that swim toward the surface. I stick the blade in further, and her eyes begin to sink into their sockets, her mouth peeling away from her teeth as they fall from her head.

Her body disintegrates into a pile of bones on the table, the shell pendant hovering above her skull. A golden orb glows within, and the valves unhinge, allowing it to break free. It swims back into my mouth, burning down my throat as moonlight streams in through the crack in the ceiling.

The beam slides over the markings on the altar, hitting each rune and symbol before it shines on me. My wedding gown bursts at the seams, my mother’s pearls sinking along with the heavy fabric. The permanent latch on top of the pendant pops open, and a link breaks in my necklace, the metal slithering away from my neck.

Cool, celestial energy washes over me and swirls up around my body, transforming me from within.

It’s not painful like Cosette’s process was. It’s magical, an aurora of pale light painting my figure and seeping into my bones as my legs unravel into a fin.

Fennelith’s song plays on the current, unlocked from the salt because the magic of the Undine is alive again. The enchantment uncurls itself from my body and sweeps over the temple, touching everything.

It’s a momentous occasion, but there’s no time to celebrate it. I flip backward as soon as I’m released.

“Zephyr,” I sing and swim over to them.

They can’t move. The pressure is too heavy. They’re not supposed to be in this form down here. They must have stayed like this so that I could keep my grip on the sea witch.

I wrap my arms around their ribs, careful not to jolt them.