2_-_court_of_mist_and_fury_a_-_sarah_j._maas

now—toward it. The water calmed further, straining to obey my command.
I ran, gripping her thighs probably hard enough to bruise. Step by step, water now
raging down, now at my jaw, now at my mouth—
But I hit the stairs, almost slipping on the slick step, and Amren’s gasp stopped me cold.
Not a gasp of shock, but a gasp for air as a wall of water poured down the stairs. As if a
mighty wave had swept over the entire site. Even my own mastery over the element could
do nothing against it.
I had enough time to gulp down air, to grab Amren’s legs and brace myself—
And watch as that door atop the stairs slid shut, sealing us in a watery tomb.
I was dead. I knew I was dead, and there was no way out of it.
I had consumed my last breath, and I would be aware for every second until my lungs
gave out and my body betrayed me and I swallowed that fatal mouthful of water.
Amren beat at my hands until I let go, until I swam after her, trying to calm my
panicking heart, my lungs, trying to convince them to make each second count as Amren
reached the door and slammed her palm into it. Symbols flared—again and again. But the
door held.
I reached her, shoving my body into the door, over and over, and the lead dented
beneath my shoulders. Then I had talons, talons not claws, and I was slicing and punching
at the metal—
My lungs were on fire. My lungs were seizing—
Amren pounded on the door, that bit of faelight guttering, as if it were counting down
her heartbeats—
I had to take a breath, had to open my mouth and take a breath, had to ease the burning
—
Then the door was ripped away.
And the faelight remained bright enough for me to see the three beautiful, ethereal faces
hissing through fish’s teeth as their spindly webbed fingers snatched us out of the stairs,
and into their frogskin arms.
Water-wraiths.
But I couldn’t stand it.
And as those spiny hands grabbed my arm, I opened my mouth, water shoving in,
cutting off thought and sound and breath. My body seized, those talons vanishing—
Debris and seaweed and water shot past me, and I had the vague sense of being hurtled
through the water, so fast the water burned beneath my eyelids.
And then hot air—air, air, air, but my lungs were full of water as—
A fist slammed into my stomach and I vomited water across the waves. I gulped down