Sky in the Deep (Sky and Sea, #1)

by Adrienne Young

I’d felt the absence of my mother as soon as she stopped breathing. As if with that last breath, her soul had let go of her body.

He sat up straighter, letting the silence between us stretch out and pull like the thoughts in my mind, trying to find a place to land. “Because we were dying. Because it was the end. And at the end, life becomes precious.”

I met his eyes again and this time, I didn’t look away. I waited to see something I hated. Some trace of the man I’d tried to kill in Aurvanger. But I couldn’t see past the soul who had saved Iri’s life. The soul who had packed snow against his wound and wouldn’t leave him behind.

There was only a beginning. And its light hid everything else. It was so beautiful that it hurt, touching every wound uncovered inside of me.

There was no sound like that—like the soul tearing.

The feeling made me shake, the hazy memories of my mother bubbling up from the depths of my mind. Memories I thought I’d lost.

It was still strange to see them this way—tired and weak. Heartbroken. The spirit in them was sleeping somewhere deep inside, but it was there. It was like the stillness of the air before an angry storm.

I looked into their eyes. They were young and afraid but strong, the way they’d been taught to be. They gritted their teeth and bore the bite of stitches and the sting of infected wounds. Behind the haze of tears and the pink on their noses, they were like fire-steel.

And when his eyes finally met mine, they were open. They let me in.

I knew Mýra as well as I knew myself. I knew the way she held every broken piece of her heart in place, refusing to fall apart.

She cried like I’d never seen her cry and the sound of it echoed through the trees. She cried for her family. For Hylli. For the Aska. For everything. And I cried with her.

I gulped down the cry forcing its way up from my chest. My father was a proud man and I’d wondered which would have a stronger hold on him—his Aska blood or his love for Iri.

She would have to lead with her left and her left wasn’t her strong side. But I’d done as much for her in the past. It’s what we did for each other. It’s how we survived. And being back on the front line with her was like going home. A home that could never be burned or broken.

Ala sál. Soul bearer.