Page 101 of Lady of the Drowned Empire
“The beach?”
“Yes, the one with the ocean, the waves, the water, the caws of seraphim, the ashvan lights in the sky, sparkling and glittering over the crashing shore.” I was rambling now, saying anything I could to make her think of the beach, to make her think of anything but who we were—vorakh—and what we knew—that Arianna was a traitor.
“My lady,” Jace shouted. “Slow down.”
“You’re a soturion,” I sneered. “Catch up.”
“Jace!” Akillus, Meera’s escort, joined our watch.
“The ladies didn’t say anything,” Jace said defensively. “They just took off.”
Fuck. All we needed now was a team of escorts wondering what we were doing and drawing more attention to us.
I moved quicker, pulling Meera down the winding halls and out through the doors. We raced over the glass waterways and past the towers and the pools, following the path down as it sloped toward the beach. The running water beneath the glass was fading under the light of the moon, swaths of it buried beneath the sand.
Meera stumbled, and I grabbed her with both of my hands.
“Morgs! It’s freezing out here!”
“Just a little farther,” I said. “We won’t stay long.” I just needed to get our feet in the water—I had tested it out before, with him. Either the volume of noise coming from the waves or the magic in the ocean drowned out my thoughts. It had been the one place where I hadn’t been able to hear him when we weren’t touching. And whenever Lyr would come down here, I’d stop hearing her completely.
My feet slid through the sand, which was surprisingly loose for winter and with the constant tide. My heels were sinking into the ground, but the sand was becoming damp, and we were so close.
A seraphim squawked above us, her carriage riding low. Wind from her wings blew my hair into my eyes.
“My lady!” Jace yelled. Something’s not right. This isn’t right. His mind was turning in circles.
But I waved him off. Whatever the seraphim was doing didn’t matter. The wind grew in strength, nearly pushing me back. Meera, so thin and frail, nearly fell on top of me.
Another seraphim carriage flew low.
My stomach twisted. Seraphim could fly over the shores here. Plenty spent hours lying about the beach. But it was illegal for them to fly with carriages over the fortress.
I peered up but heard nothing. No thoughts—no one inside the carriages. The rogue seraphim were probably just signs of Cresthaven falling to shit under Arianna’s rule. She was already proving herself incapable of upholding basic protocol.
Water rushed over my boots, and salt filled my nose. I pulled Meera toward me as the first seraphim squawked and circled overhead, her shadow swimming through the waves and casting darkness over our forms.
“Morgs, what the fuck?” Meera yelled, her voice fighting to be heard over the wind and water. “What’s going on?”
Before I could form an answer, the seraphim landed on the shore, their claws throwing gusts of wet sand into our faces.
“Fuck,” I yelled, spitting the grains from my mouth. I wiped wildly at my face, trying to get the sand out of my eyes and my hair from sticking to my damp skin.
“MORGANA!” Jace screamed.
“AKADIM!” roared Akillus.
“Gods!” Meera yelled.
I bent down, cupped the water from the tide into my hand, and splashed my face, finally clearing my sight.
I stumbled back.
Two akadim towered over us, ten feet tall at least, both male. Raggedy yellow-stained cloths hung over their shoulders and around their waists. Their pale skin was corded with thick muscle and red lines—the stretch marks they’d acquired from growing into their bodies upon death.
“Stave!” I yelled, reaching for my mine at my waist.
The first akadim roared, and even at a distance I could smell its putrid breath and see its spit flying past the sharpened fangs hanging over its lips.
