Page 61 of A Dark and Drowning Tide

Lorelei opened her eyes to a smothering heat. For a moment, everything around her was hazy, as if she were watching the world from beneath a deep pool of water. Her hair was damp against her temples.

Drowning again.

But then she registered the fur blanket soft against her cheek. The canvas of the tent around her. And then: Sylvia, draped over her like some over-affectionate squid.

It took all her strength not to thrash free. She’d been a child the last time anyone had slept in her bed. Rahel used to crawl into her room whenever a nightmare struck. It wasn’t wholly unpleasant, except for the fact that Sylvia was a veritablefurnace.

Lorelei became too aware of her own breathing, her quickening pulse. This was its own kind of torment, knowing how it felt to have Sylvia pressed against her. It was a cruel vision of something not meant for her.

“Von Wolff,” she said quietly.

Sylvia only made a sleepy noise.

“Von Wolff,” she repeated, more urgently. “Wake up.”

Sylvia stirred. When her eyes opened, they were twin full moons bare inches from Lorelei’s face. She blinked once, then jerked back with a soft shout of surprise. “Ah! Lorelei! I’m so sorry!”

“It’s fine,” Lorelei muttered.“Just...Getoff me.”

She disentangled herself, taking her hypnotic warmth with her, and said, “Well. I suppose that is one way to ensure neither of us freeze in the night.”

“Thank you for your quick thinking,” Lorelei said dryly.

Reluctantly, she crawled out of the tent. Her boots crunched in the snow that had fallen overnight. She was still cloaked in Sylvia’s residual warmth, but the cold nipped at her exposed skin. And now that she had risen, the insistent pressure behind her eyes returned in full force.Every breath felt shallow, as though someone were trying to smother her, and she felt exhausted despite the full night’s rest.

The sooner they got off this godforsaken mountain, the better.

It occurred to her that she had no idea what time it was. The snow glittered beneath some cold light, but she saw no sign of the sun in the eerie purple sky. For that matter, she had no idea where they were anymore. Nothing looked familiar. As she drank in her surroundings, she became more and more certain that the trees had uprooted and rearranged themselves while they slept. The path they’d been traveling had been stitched shut like a tear in fabric.

Sylvia emerged only a moment later. “I don’t like it here.”

That, at least, they could agree on.

After they struck camp, they continued to follow the schellenrock’s stream. The terrain only grew morebrutal—andthe air colder. Every now and again, Lorelei swore she felt snow seep into her boots, and when she lifted her foot to inspect the damage, a small hole had begun to wear through the sole. That promised frostbite eventually. Assuming, of course, she didn’t keel over from altitude sickness before they reached the summit. Her pace had slowed to a crawl, and her every breath rattled feebly in her chest.

“I thought it would feel different,” Sylvia said absently.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know.” Sylvia adjusted the straps of her pack with a preoccupied expression. “Is this really where the Ursprung is? This place is certainly striking. But I expected something more . . .”

“Sublime?” Lorelei offered.

“Precisely!” She looked pleased. “If this is truly the origin of all magic in the world, don’t you think it should look more,well...magical?”

“I’m sorry you’re disappointed.” Lorelei tipped her head. Right now, the sky was perfectly clear: a thin, airy purple threaded with distant stars like a needlepoint canvas. “The perpetual twilight isn’t enough for you? Perhaps you would have preferred a ray of light piercing the heavens? The face of God himself peering through the clouds?”

“Oh, leave it,” Sylvia muttered. “Perhaps we need to be closer to the summit.” Then, she nodded, as if agreeing with her own assessment.

Lorelei was too exhausted to continue to prod ather—especiallywhen her final conversation with Ziegler popped into her head.Are you sure?

No, Ziegler had assured Lorelei of her certainty. Lorelei refused to pick open this wound again. Ziegler had been meticulous with herresearch—andthe legend they’d heard in town all but corroborated it. It would be a cruel twist of fate if someone had murdered her over a false conclusion. It was unthinkable that she’d died for nothing.

As they rounded a bend in the stream, a vista stretched out before them. Lorelei stopped dead in her tracks. Soaring above her was the mountain’s serrated peak, crowned with snow. It seemed to her both close enough to touch and a thousand worlds away.

She turned back toward the path just as a gust of wind shook the snow loose from the trees. Through the shroud of white, Lorelei could make out a faint smudged shape in the distance. She squinted, and blink by blink, a lean-to materialized. Her heart swelled with such hope, she was certain it had to be another hallucination.

“Do you see that?”