Her destiny is her greatest fear.
Seventeen-year-old Halen Windspeare will do anything to extinguish the flames that spark beneath her fingertips. But, returning to the place where she witnessed her father drown forces the fire to ignite. Refusing...
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Every step with Dax felt as if it might be the last. Yet Halen followed with the same trust as when she sketched him in her notebook. He knew the way home and when she got her chance, she'd run. He led her to a rock staircase which wound in a spiral, and at the top, a faint light glowed with the hope of daylight, but it was still too far away to tell what lay on the other side.
Dax ascended the stairs in long strides, stopping often to wait for her to catch up. Her side ached where the mermaid dug her claws in her flesh. And she wondered about the dead girl Dax had lost. Had mermaids attacked her too? Did Dax try to save her and fail? Whoever she was, he cared for her. Halen had drawn those same sorrowful eyes and the flecks of tears that rose when he mentioned the girl.
"Almost there." He climbed two more stairs with ease.
"Only one hundred more," she mumbled under her breath.
"What was that?"
"How many stairs are there exactly?" Her calves ached with each step.
"Five hundred and four."
"You've counted them?" She glanced down and her stomach fluttered from the height.
"When I was a kid, my mom made me bring food down here for the cursed. The others in the caves. Nothing can get in or out." He rapped on the wall with his knuckle. "No enchantments can get past these rock walls. Unfortunately, we can't unbind some spells." He now stood in the light of an opening.
"Spells?" She ran up the final few steps to catch up. "Are you trying to tell me those people are under a sp—" Her train of thought snapped, like a key breaking off in a lock.
A breeze filled with floral scents laced with the salty brine of seawater filled her lungs. A river the shade of deep lapis flowed at her feet. Dax grabbed her elbow to keep her from tumbling in.
A vibrant green canoe drifted by. Reeds and strange plants budding with round, pink berries and pointy leaves filled the back of the hull. The girl steering had an impish face with bright, wide eyes.
Dax ducked behind the shrub, dragging Halen beside him, and the canoe bobbed along the narrow river until out of sight.
Along the opposite side of the river stood towering stilt frameworks with enormous white bubble-like structures secured to the tops and connected by a series of tubes. She wasn't sure what the bubbles' material was, as rock would be too heavy to balance on the framework, yet they were as smooth as polished stone. Some had small oval balconies with plants trailing over the sides. Others simply had a single round window.
Halen turned to find a courtyard of inlaid rock. Slate benches lined the outer rims and five pathways spread out from the edges like the points of a star. A dark, turbulent sky swirled above, and every few minutes, a drop of water fell like a giant tear seeping into the mossy ground. "Is this some kind of joke?" She clutched her chest, stepping away. "Where are on Earth are we?"
