YA Fantasy mm book set in a pseudo-Venice. Main character falls in a canal in first scene, pushed by an androgynous person. 2nd or 3rd in a series about waking a sleeping god or dragon. If you survive almost dying 7 times you become immortal. Spoilers.

[Js700]

Hey!

This was the 2nd or 3rd book in a series about waking sleeping gods (or dragons?) who just need one person to follow them to wake them up. The main character had been involved in the previous book, but went to find a new god to wake in this second book. He arrives in a Venice-inspired city and is immediately pushed in the canal by an androgynous person who is running away from someone else. The main character might be serving as a diplomat in the city? He walks to where the god is sleeping, but the god doesn't want a follower, and so he walks back. When he gets to the city he does diplomatic things, trying to deal with the corruption in the city's leaders. There's a pirate who nobody likes but who is actually not a bad person, just under the control of someone else.

I read it at least 5 years ago on hoopla, not idea when it was written but it was surely 2000+.. The author mainly writes in a slightly different genre. I think there were three of these books and the cover was mostly the figures' eyes with a sort of hazy red ombre around the edges of the book.

***spoilers below***

The pirate is actually a selkie and is trying to protect his people from the big bad guy who has control of him. In the world, if you almost die 7 times you become immortal. The protagonist ends up becoming a river or canal god / protector of the city--turns out that the first time he fell into the canal was one of his deaths. Walking up and down the length of the river was one of the conditions of becoming the magical ruler of the city. Oh! and he is pining after the immortal person whose old lover is the monster who is terrorizing everyone the book and whom he has to kill.