Page 55 of I Summon the Sea

… and loses his footing.

I only realize it when we drop. I cry out, the only sound a sharp breath leaving my lips, already snatched by the wind.

Our fall stops abruptly, jolting every bone in my body. My teeth clack together.

I dare glance up.

Jai is hanging from one hand near the top of the tower, with me clutching him like a limpet.

My heart is pounding fit to burst out of my chest. I don’t like heights. That’s the understatement of the year. I’m terrified of heights. Birds aren’t scared because they can fly, but I’ve never had wings.

And air, unlike water, is too thin to hold my weight so I don’t plummet to the ground.

I start slipping, my arms sliding where I have them wound around his neck, but he grabs at them with his one free hand, keeping me on his back. His grip convulses, tightens.

He’s panting, I can hear it over the pounding of my own heart, over the screeching of the death birds diving down to skewer us on their sharp beaks.

Shadows curl around me.

Damn, I’d forgotten about his powers. The shadows whisper as they condense, a thick black cloud twining around us. Pulling us up.

Why in the hells not do it from the start? Why start climbing and only call the shadows when we’re about to crash down and die? Does he enjoy scaring the shit out of me? It’s as if he has trouble using them. As if they use up too much of his energy.

The shadows slowly haul us up the face of the tower, higher and higher, until we are shoved onto the top.

There, we go sprawling.

After a moment of breathless shock, I pull my arms free and roll off him to kneel on the flat roof. I stare around me in wonder.

It’s a strange place, a cream-colored pavement with an opening like a chasm running through the surface. Is that a door?

Below us and all around extends the arena and then the sea, with the gleam of the Sea Palace and the spread of the dark shores beyond. The giant World Pillar looms not far from us, emerging from the water and piercing the sky.

A stench fills the air.

And the other humans at the top are already climbing into the opening.

I turn to Jai to see what he thinks, and my action bothers me. Since when do I ask for his advice, whether he’s a mighty magical warrior sorcerer or not?

He’s standing but doesn’t look steady. Blood is spilling from his nose. He wipes a hand under it, smearing it over his cheek, over the black blooms on his cheekbones.

Cost, I think.Using shadows has a cost. All magic does.

He isn’t looking all that good, the pallor of his skin ghostly, the dark crescents under his eyes edging on the black swirls.

I point at the chasm and the last of the humans who made it up here. They are struggling inside. One by one, they disappear into the fissure.

Jai frowns. “What new hell…?” More blood dribbles over his mouth, turning his handsome face into a mask, half-black, half-crimson. His wild black hair falls in his eyes, but he still seems to realize what I’m staring at. “Don’t worry about the blood loss. It clears my mind.”

What in the hells does he mean?

I start toward the fissure, since I can’t hang around forever for him to make up his mind, but he overtakes me, sitting down on the edge of the crevasse, swinging his legs inside.

Then he seems to heave a sigh, broad shoulders rising and falling.

“I’m going in first,” he says. “I’ll catch you.”

I don’t need anyone to catch me. I seethe inside at the presumption, although this is twice today he saved my skin.

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