24. Sapphire

Sapphire

Riven, with Ghost by his side, leads the way to the center of the lake.

As we approach, something beneath the ice starts to glow. It’s a pale blue, eerie glow—like a warning from another world.

“That glow is the key buried beneath the ice,” he tells us. “Your task is to retrieve it.”

“This is insane.” Zoey’s eyes are wild, and she’s shaking with fear. “We can’t?—”

“You will,” he interrupts her, turning back to his knights. “Surround the lake. Be ready in case they try to leave prematurely. And be aware of potential threats. We never know what might be lurking in these parts.”

The knights obey, fanning out in a tight circle around the lake’s perimeter, their swords drawn and gleaming in the morning light. Riven and Ghost fill in the final empty spot, their eyes trained on us.

Go, their expressions seem to say. Before you freeze to death.

Zoey’s staring hollowly at the ice.

“We need to think this through,” I tell her, knowing I’m going to have to be the voice of reason through this task, given her water aversion.

“Think it through?” Her eyes snap to mine, wild with panic. “I can’t go in there. I haven’t been in water since… you know when. I don’t even think I can swim anymore. I’ll drown.”

“You won’t have to.” I squeeze her arm gently, trying to reassure her. “I’ll be the one to go in.”

“No.” She shakes her head, her lips pressed into a thin line. “It’s too dangerous. How am I supposed to help if you’re drowning?”

“I have water magic,” I remind her with a small smile. “I’ll be fine.”

“You’ve known about your magic for a week,” she says. “You were so bad at using it that you almost drowned us in my bathroom.”

I smile at the memory of us in her bathroom, soaked because the shower water sprayed everywhere.

That moment—and our entire lives in the mortal realm in general—feels like a lifetime ago.

“I think my magic’s getting stronger,” I tell her, and a buzz of energy rushes through me, as if it’s supporting my thought. “Ever since I got here, it’s like the magic of this world is sinking into my bones, helping me harness the power that’s always lived inside me.”

She frowns, apparently unconvinced, then looks back down at the glowing spot beneath the ice.

“Maybe you can project yourself beneath the surface,” she says. “Since Riven’s sword didn’t touch you when he tried to kill you, it’s possible that you can’t die in your projected form at all. So, even if something happens to you down there, you’ll be okay.”

“And then we’ll have to answer to the knights when they ask how we got the key while I was unconscious and you stayed up here with me,” I say softly, not wanting them to overhear. “I can’t give my secret away. Not yet.”

She glances down at the glowing ice again, studying it, as if she can figure out a solution that doesn’t involve me jumping in there.

As she does, Riven calls over from the shore, calm and mocking. “If you’re going to take a swim, I suggest you do it soon,” he says, leaning against Ghost, as if this is an entertaining show. “The water’s not getting any warmer.”

“If I freeze, I swear I’ll haunt you for the rest of your immortal life,” I call back, which seems to quiet him down—for now .

Satisfied, I turn back to Zoey.

“So, where were we?” I ask.

She examines her dagger, studying the blade. “I highly doubt these are sharp enough to cut through the ice. Unless they’re enchanted.”

“They’re definitely not enchanted,” I reply.

“How do you know?”

“I can sense it,” I try to explain. “There’s no magic in them. It’s like they’re dead or something.”

She raises an eyebrow, no longer focused on her dagger. “So, you have a sixth sense now for magic now?”

“Apparently so,” I say, and even though I doubt it’ll work, I raise my dagger and ram the tip of it into the ice.

It barely leaves a mark.

Zoey does the same, with the same result.

“I don’t care if that worked or not,” she says with a smirk that rivals Riven’s. “That felt good.”

Despite the situation, it feels good to see Zoey smile.

“It definitely felt good,” I agree. “But I melted that icicle in the trees. I can probably do something similar now.”

“It’s either that or chipping away at this ice until we freeze to death,” she says. “And I’d rather not turn into a popsicle today.”

“That makes two of us.” I take a deep breath and focus on the ice beneath us, where the key’s glow is pulsing like a heartbeat under the frozen surface. “Stand back. Way back. If I end up melting too much of the ice, well… I don’t want you to be anywhere near it.”

Fear dances in her eyes, and she puts almost fifteen feet between herself and where I’m standing.

Satisfied that she’s far enough away, I kneel and place my hand on the ice—on the place where it’s glowing the most. Eventually, it starts to melt under the warmth of my skin, creating a layer of water.

Now I need it to heat up faster. Otherwise, this will take forever.

With the icicle I used to hunt the deer, I heated up the water with my palm to speed up the process. I don’t exactly know how I did it, but it involved tapping into the warmth I feel while using my magic and expanding it out to the water.

Heat up , I think, pulling on the magic buzzing inside me and pushing it out through my palm.

Slowly, the frozen barrier melts, turning into a small hole with glowing water splashing inside of it.

As it expands outward, I keep my hand on the ice and back away, continuing to heat it up until the hole is large enough for me to jump through it.

Some of the water splashes up at me.

It’s freezing. So freezing that it makes me lose hold of my magic.

I glance over my shoulder at Riven. His smirk is gone, replaced by something that looks more like intrigue. Ghost sits calmly next to him, his tail circling Riven’s legs, as if he’s trying to stop him from doing something stupid.

Although, despite all the highly descriptive words I could use to describe Riven, stupid isn’t one of them.

But it would be stupid to sit here staring at the winter prince instead of jumping into this icy hellhole before it has a chance to freeze over again.

I take a moment to glance back at Zoey. She’s the last person I want to see before I do this—not Riven.

She’s fidgeting with her dagger’s hilt, as if readying herself to fight all the knights at once if it comes down to it.

“Saph, please—be careful,” she says, and I don’t like the way she’s looking at me—as if she thinks these might be my final minutes alive.

“I will,” I promise, even though being careful won’t guarantee I’ll survive this.

Heart racing, I stare back down at the hole, hoping and failing to see the key now that the water isn’t covered by a layer of ice.

I see the glow, but all around it, it’s dark. Really, really dark.

But I can’t afford to hesitate. If I do, I’ll freeze—literally and figuratively.

So, I take a deep breath, clench my fists, and jump.

The cold slams into me like a steel wall .

It’s worse than I expected. So much worse.

Every muscle seizes up. My skin is burning, my nerves screaming as the cold sinks into my bones.

I sink fast, panic clawing at my chest as I struggle to swim. I’ve always been a good swimmer, but as I kick, it’s like swimming through quicksand. I’m being dragged deeper and deeper into the lake’s icy depths, far faster than I can handle.

The rocks, I realize.

I still have the rocks in my pocket. The sharp ones I stole from the forest last night to use as weapons in the trials.

I have to get rid of them.

Still sinking, I fumble around for them, my fingers numb and uncooperative from the cold. It takes everything I have to pull them out and let them sink to the bottom of the lake—wherever that is.

My lungs scream for air. Every instinct urges me to suck in a deep breath, even though there’s nothing for me to breathe in other than freezing cold water that will cause sudden death.

How ironic would that be? Someone with water magic dying by drowning.

I can’t do it. I can’t reach the key. I still can’t even see the key. And even if I could, I doubt I’d be able to swim back up in time .

No—I know I wouldn’t be able to swim back up in time.

Which means I have to turn around.

The water presses in on me, suffocating and relentless, as I claw my way up.

Finally, just when I think I’m not going to make it, my head breaks through the surface, and I gasp, choking on the freezing air as my arms flail for the edge to escape this watery hellhole and figure out what to do next.