had the presence of mind to ask Kiera, my sword nicked the base of a tree. I didn’t think much of it until a low drone erupted, and the berry-like barnacles separated from the trunk.
“Aw, crap.” I joined my hands on the sword’s handle and raised it as a dozen overgrown ladybugs descended on me.
What I needed was a paddle, not a sword as thin as a toothpick. Grip slickening, I backed up, my boots sinking into softer sand, and reshaped my weapon. I dared a glance over my shoulder at the water. I was probably better off jumping in.
The buzzing grew so loud I whipped my head back toward the fleet of vamp beetles and swung, knocking out the first wave. Instead of plopping to the ground, they dipped like pollinating bees before rising anew and soaring straight at me. I batted the air, then whirled, my racket bowling a ribbon of them over.
A violent sting on my collarbone had my chin dipping into my neck. One of the bulbous things had latched on to me. The droning grew anew, and I flailed backward, one hand going to the bug and the other wrapped firmly around my paddle.
What was Gregor’s obsession with toothy flying things? Did he regret being born a faerie instead of a vampire?
Sweat pooled between my shoulder blades as I tore off the gelatinous bug and lobbed it at the tree it had come from, before whirling around to smash its incoming friends. My footing faltered, and I sailed backward, smacking into the stream. The momentum ripped the paddle from my hands.
The vamp beetles dove toward my floating body. Before any could dig their sharp teeth into my exposed flesh, I sank, and they hit the surface like toy balls. When one dipped below the rippling surf, alarm gripped me.
Please let them not be engineered to swim.
Like a buoy, the submerged bug rose back. Blood ribboned around the stream of bubbles escaping my nose. I parted my lips to take in air, forgetting I couldn’t breathe underwater. I snapped my lips shut around a mouthful of silt. Reflexively, I blew it out, along with my reserve of oxygen.
When I returned to Neverra, I would use a meat mallet and pound Gregor’s bones, and then I’d drag him to the very bottom of the Pink Sea and wait for his lungs to seize and his organs to fail. These heinous contemplations scared me, not in their atrocity, but in the lack of guilt and disgust I felt visualizing them.
My own lungs cramped, urging me to break the surface, but the red bugs droned inches from where my air bubbles popped, and where the hell was my racket? I extended my hand, summoning my dust. When no golden filaments shimmied toward me, my pulse ramped up. I kicked to go faster, scanning my blurry surroundings for an oblong shape, but the only thing I saw was the uniform layer of vamp beetles reddening the top of the river. Had they all congregated to keep me interred?
I finally understood why non-Daneelies described suffocation as feeling like your lungs had been set on fire. My insides teemed with searing heat that spread as though my veins had torn and were leaking kalini into the rest of my organs.
I’m done dying, Gregor Farrow.
Estimating I had a couple seconds of air left, I squinted harder. Fortunately, the stream dragging me toward the cliff was narrow, and the water sweet and clear—salt would probably have stung in this world.
Come on, come on, I urged my racket. Come back to me. I need you.
Unless it had gotten stuck in the sandy riverbed, it would go over the drop with me, but I couldn’t even spot the drop yet, which meant I would be out of oxygen long before I went over. The edges of my vision began to fray, which couldn’t possibly be a good sign.
Maybe I could break the surface for a quick breath. I stared up. The beetles were no longer hovering over the water. They were sitting atop it, bobbing like bloodied ducks.
Time for Plan B.
If only I had a Plan B.
Something bumped into my foot. I craned my neck, and although I felt like I was floating in a puddle of opaque glue, I made out the faintest, shimmering curve. Like a faulty pendulum, my arm arced toward my thigh, and then my cramping fingers curled around what had hit me. Hoping I wasn’t hallucinating, I dragged the thing toward