Page 102 of The Shrouded Queen
Instantly, the pressure on my chest eased. I took another gulp and my vision cleared. It wasn’t much, but it would be enough to reach that archway below.
Rade appeared beside me. He drank from the dorsal fin, several quick sips. Then he met my eyes and pointed down, at the exit. I took one more drink of the Behemoth’s blood and nodded. Together, we pushed off and swam toward the sandy floor.
The Behemoth gave an enraged cry that filled the water with an unearthly sound, and when I glanced back, it was following us. And it wasnotslow.
I grabbed Rade’s sleeve and pointed. His eyes widened, and he kicked his feet faster. I matched him, rowing my arms frantically, my wounded shoulders bleeding in earnest now, but I fought through it. Faster and faster, channeling all my strength into my legs.
Agony shot through me, and I cried out, losing the precious oxygen I’d gained.
The Behemoth had caught my ankle in its mouth. Its eyes were entirely black now. Its nostrils flared wildly as it released my ankle—only to clamp its teeth higher up my leg, digging into my knee, shredding my flesh. A cloud of bubbles burst out of me as I screamed, vision blackening.
Red light exploded, and then the Behemoth released me with a roar.
I tried to swim away, but my shoulders throbbed with each movement, and my right leg wouldn’t work. It weighed me down like an anchor. There was no more breath in my lungs.
I was going to drown. I was going to die. I was going to the Trench.
An arm wrapped around my chest. Rade, hauling me toward the exit, paddling as hard as he could with one arm. The light from the archway was spotted with stars as I struggled to hang on to consciousness.
We broke the surface.
I gasped, hacked, sucked in as much air as physically possible, scrambling onto the rocks, already shivering against the horrific cold of the lake.
Rade sputtered beside me, water sluicing off him as he struggled to catch his breath. “Your magic,” he panted. “What happened?”
But I couldn’t answer him as pain ripped through me. I cried out and turned on my back to see the damage.
My leg was a mess of blood, and I thought I saw the white of bone at my ankle. My hands quaked as I pressed them against the wound, trying to stop the bleeding, but another bolt of agony just sliced through me.
Rade’s eyes widened as they landed on my wound. “Shit!”
The pain was fading—and so was the world. I fell back againstthe stone floor as darkness encroached along the edges of my vision.
“Amunet? Amunet, look at me! Amunet, I need you to stay awake.” He tapped my cheek, light but firm. His eyes hovered over mine, his hair a sopping curtain around us. “I have to set the bone. All right?”
I heard his words, but they didn’t make any sense.
The darkness closed further around me.
“Bite this,” Rade ordered. Something rough was shoved between my teeth—and then fire blasted against my ankle. Melting me from the inside out.
I lurched upright, biting down hard on the leather belt as a screech tore out of me.
Rade’s runes glowed as he wrapped one hand around my ankle and the other around my knee. Wave after wave of excruciating pain radiated up my leg.
My foot snapped back into place, and the world went black.
FORTY-ONEAMUNET
Wethai is a few days’ walk north of here,” Jasim said from where he sat at the base of one of Athar’s statues. “It’ll be risky, but now that Anwar has made a move, Prince Ilias may be in the market for a royal ally.”
I gazed up into Athar’s face. He had the same curling lips as Shaya, the same regal nose, but his eyes weren’t slitted, and his cheekbones were rounded where Shaya’s were sharp as a blade. Despite his mischievous smirk, Athar’s face was soft. Open. All bits of Ketet. “We can’t go to Wethai,” I answered absently.
“I’ll do better this time. No more distractions. And you’ll make a real jinni deal so he can’t go back on his word—”
“No, Jasim.”
“What do you want to do?” he demanded, lurching to his feet. “Walk into the mischief god’s playground? Try your chances against people with half a face or music that comes from nowhere and drives you mad? Only a handful of people have ever gone in there and lived to talk about it, Amunet, and anyone unfortunate enough to survive has entirely lost their mind.”
