Page 1 of I Summon the Sea

PROLOGUE

Once, a long time ago, I loved a fair boy.

He’d come to the river shore, sit with me on the wet pebbles, and stare out, toward the glittering, rotating Pillar that supports the metal dome of the sky.

His adoptive family called him Jackal, or so he said. Golden hair. Gray eyes. A smile that lit up the world. A laugh that sent my heart soaring. My laughing Jackal.

I called him by his real name.Mars.

Mars gave me pretty shells and flowers that he seemed to magic out of thin air, looking pleased at my gasps of surprise. He told me stories of the other eight worlds, stacked and held together by the sacred Pillar, considered a high deity manifesting in the concrete world.

He told me of the dark, mysterious spaces between them, full of caverns, tunnels, and eldritch creatures, spaces ruled by the telchins, creatures outside of time, priests and guardians of the gates.

He told me stories of the last Reversal, which upended the universe, sending the waters cascading down into the worlds that used to be at the top, now sent to the bottom, drowning them.

Mars knew so many stories.

He was growing into a fine young man. Beautiful. Smart. Kind. He captured my heart and my mind.

“In this hollow world,” he’d say, pointing at the dragons streaking across the sky, “you can only hope to catch a ray of hope.”

“From crazy flying reptiles?” I’d tease, because he was obsessed with them.

“They are the way across.” His face was serene, blond hair falling into eyes like gray crystal. “They are the answer.”

Such a handsome face.

Such a warm voice.

“Do you like me?” I’d ask.

“Likeyou?” He’d cradle my face. “What do you think, Little Thorn?

That would cause me to scrunch up my nose. “Thorn?That doesn’t sound like you like me.”

“And yet,” he’d say with a secret smile. “You don’t bend. You don’t wilt. You are full of anger, pain, and beautiful promise.”

I’ll always recall those words. So ominous and prophetic.

But those were fine days, and I had been so young.

I’m still young, but also old. I feel as if the world ended and hasn’t begun again, not since he was taken from me.

He was killed by fae soldiers who came riding the dragons he adored.

And soon after, my family was slaughtered, too, along with the entire palace staff and the townspeople.

Along with me.

They say the gods have fled and abandoned us. That is not true. They have fallen asleep and are dreaming of us. Now fate is unraveling. Everything is possible.

I’ll never forget the boy I loved or my family and townspeople. I’ll never forget what was done to them.

So it’s personal for me, you see.

And I’m here to take revenge.

Speak Softly but Carry a Secret

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