Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
SOFIA
S ofia knew better than to question Fox in that moment. She ran, legs pumping through the rising water as best they could, even as it fought against her body. She lost her footing, propelled forward with the current of the river. Fox grabbed her arm, holding on to her tightly, but even he was struggling through the torrent, barely keeping control of his own legs.
And then the water hit them. A wall as hard as stone came from behind with a roar as it snatched their bodies up and threw them forward. Fox’s grip slipped from hers and her head went under. The air collapsed from her lungs as the icy water took her.
She slammed into the cavern wall or perhaps it was the ceiling—hard rock biting into her back for only a second before she was tossed forward again. She was flying through the night sky, glowing spots all around her, the starworms caught up in the water with them. A shadow floated a few feet away and she reached, hands just brushing against Fox before he was pulled away again.
Her throat burned, lungs aching with every passing second. She was going to die. They were both going to die, drowned in this tunnel and no one would know. If they were lucky, her body might wash up in the cenote base so they might know how she ended. She felt her muscles loosen, the lack of air choking out the remaining strength of her body.
Please gods. No.
She could just make out Fox spinning a few feet away, a shadow among the starworms and she reached out with the last of her strength. Her fingers brushed against his arm and then his hand was snagging on hers. They came together in the water and she saw the same fear and resignation she was feeling reflected in his face.
Something hot brushed against her side and she jerked in the water, trying to see through the churning darkness. As flash of something in her mind, a voice not her own. Fox’s face went pale—a translucent shade of white she didn’t think possible. Before she could get her bearings and understand what had passed by her, there was dry air on her face and she choked in a breath, expecting icy water to flood in. She blinked, breathing in another gasp of stale air as she tried to understand what she was seeing. They were holding each other, heads engulfed in an air bubble as the water continued to churn violently around them.
Across from her, Fox coughed before letting out a long string of expletives.
“How? What? King’s balls!”
His hands were still clasped around her arms, but his eyes were focused beyond her and beyond their protective bubble.
Just ahead of them, as if guiding their way through the dark tunnel, she saw a long lithe body undulating through the water, iridescent scales and feathers gleaming as if the serpentine figure itself was glowing. The water around them hummed and warmed with something. She could feel it in her mind.
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out, her brain too busy chanting the word she couldn’t say.
Dragon. Dragon. Dragon.
Fox didn’t need a response, though. His own eyes, filled with something between terror and awe, told her he knew exactly what they were looking at.
The light around them shifted and Fox’s stricken face came fully into view, the shadows of the tunnel receding. In the same moment, the edge of their water bubble trembled, unsteady.
“Not good,” she said, yelling over the churning water that was echoing around them.
“A genius observation,” Fox said, looking around with wild eyes.
“Not the time for sarcasm, you self-righteous?—”
“Not the time to argue.” With that, he let go of her left arm, linking his right more tightly around her and then jerked backward.
Sofia’s shoulder wrenched painfully as the icy water hit her once more. She sucked in water as she attempted to breathe, the pain radiating through her body, but a moment later, her head was above water. Fox was braced against the wall of the thin canyon, arm wrapped tightly around a root as he pulled Sofia closer. The roots were wide and strong and she wrapped her own arm through one, pressing her body against the wall.
The water still rushed, waves hitting against her chest and face. It was more water than she’d ever seen. And it was that thought that had her suddenly pulling away from the wall.
“What are you doing?” he questioned, as she tried to disentangle herself from the root and his grasp.
“If this is the river that connects to our cenote, then the flash flood could kill everyone! I need to stop it.”
“You can’t just stop a flood! You’re going to get yourself killed!” They were both shouting, yet she could barely hear anything over the crashing rapids.
“I need to try!” She let go of the root she’d grabbed and felt her body begin to pull away. Fox’s hand wrapped around her wrist, tightly. She didn’t fight him, but ducked her head under the water. It was difficult to see anything so close to the surface where the waters churned white.
But it didn’t matter. Sight would do nothing for her right now. She closed her eyes and reached out with her mind, trying to touch the presence she’d felt earlier. She had no idea what she was doing, but something about it felt right.
Please, stop the flood. You’re going to kill someone. Please.
She didn’t know if she was pleading with it or the water or the universe. But nothing spoke back.
It may have been one minute or a hundred, but suddenly Fox was pulling her back, dragging her from the water and back onto the cliff. Just as she was moving to grab back onto the wall, a tree came crashing down the river directly toward them. Fox pulled her into him, twisting to press her against the wall as the tree’s branches crashed into them, breaking apart on the wall. She felt more than heard his groan of pain vibrate against her back.
“We need to climb! We can’t stay down here,” he said over the churning water.
“But—”
She stuttered out the word, not even sure what her argument was. She couldn’t feel her face or much of her body. Before she could pull her thoughts together, the earth itself seemed to groan and she saw Fox scrambling to keep his hold on the cliffside.
The river behind them exploded.
The dragon’s head, ringed with deep blue feathers appeared first but her eyes were almost immediately drawn to the wings that burst from the water, already spread. The skin along them was thin enough that the moonlight shone through and the scales nearly sparkled in the dimness as water cascaded down its back.
The paintings in the cavern had been so beautiful and intricate, and yet they were nothing compared to seeing the real thing arching into the sky above them. Mist trailed its tail and Sofia realized after a moment that it wasn’t just the river water dripping from the dragon, but rain pouring from a newly formed cloud.
Neither of them moved for a moment, eyes focused on the sky and the disappearing dragon. Water was streaming down her face and Sofia realized she was crying, her own tears mixing with the icy river water.
“We should move,” Fox said eventually. His voice was soft and she felt the warm breath ghosting against her ear.
She nodded instead of answering, throat too tight for words. It took a few moments to pull her eyes away from the sky where the dragon had disappeared somewhere to the west. And then she felt the icy air around her and realized they were no longer caught in the river’s current. Looking down, she saw the water, far beneath them and still receding. The gap between where they clung to the cliff and where the river flowed grew with every second.
Fox shifted behind her and she saw him reaching up, grasping onto the ledge above them. Her fingers were numb with cold as she tried to follow after him, struggling to grip the wet stone. She nearly fell, letting out a curse as her elbow caught on a ledge and she managed to stop herself before she plunged back into the river below.
She looked back up to see Fox, climbing down carefully, his own fingers shaking against the wall. He brought himself level to her and then started climbing again, half-pushing her along with him. For every move he made, he waited until she had a handhold. They climbed slowly, but she only focused on the lip of the canyon above, getting closer.
Fox reached the edge first, pulling himself up before turning to help her. They both flopped onto the ground a few feet from the canyon, breaths heavy in the misty air. Sofia wasn’t even sure if she was shaking from cold, exhaustion, or adrenaline.
“What just...” he trailed off.
“That was...” Sofia tried to add, but she was still half-mesmerized looking up at the sky where the two moons glowed brightly, just beginning their blink close.
“A dragon,” Fox said, turning onto his side, hovering over where she was lying. “That was a dragon.”
She nodded, eyes flickering up to take in the bright look of awe frozen on his face. Fox’s blond hair was dripping, small drops of icy water splashing against her skin as he hovered over her. His lips were nearly blue, but his cheeks were flushed and his eyes were wide and shone silver.
“It was real. They’re alive.” Her face ached with cold and the grin she couldn’t stop. It was matched only by the one that Fox was wearing, perhaps the first true smile she’d seen from him since they’d met. He almost looked beautiful when he smiled like this.
“It was real,” he said. “That was a dragon.”
The wet grass seeped into her clothes and she looked up at Fox, his arm braced along her side. Their faces were close enough that she felt the warmth of his breath.
Sofia’s cheeks heated up as she looked into his blue-flecked eyes. He stared back at her with the same intensity, as if seeing her for the first time. His body radiated a warmth that she wanted to sink into. She wanted him to press against her as she breathed in the smell of the forest on his skin.
His eyes flickered down to her lips for only a second, but she caught it and saw the flush of his cheeks as he met her eyes again. Would he close the last two inches? Did she want him to? She had to remind herself that she hated him, yet she couldn’t remember why as his eyes burned a trail along her skin.
She thought she saw him twitch forward, but an instant later he was pulling back, a groan hissing through his clenched teeth.
Sofia pulled herself up as Fox leaned back, his hands groping at his side. For a moment, she thought the claw marks from the shifters might have been torn open by their adventure in the river, but then the moonlight caught the edge of the branch that was embedded in his side.
“Shit,” she said, leaning forward even as he flinched back. “You’re injured.”
“I noticed.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” she practically yelled.
“I was a little distracted!”
Her hands fluttered forward of their own accord, as if she might be able to do something. Do anything. She had a rudimentary understanding of first aid, but this was so far beyond her skills.
“Don’t pull it out,” she said.
“I know that,” he snapped.
“Shit,” she said again, looking around the forest like the shadows might hold answers. “We need to make a fire. We need bandages and thread and a needle.”
“I don’t even have the cloak anymore,” he said, face grim. Sofia was glad to realize her bag was still hooked around her arm, though her bow was long gone, along with her arrows. She tore through her bag, searching it as if she could will to life any supplies of use. She didn’t have bandages, thread, a needle—even the flint would need to dry out.
“We have to move,” she said at last, biting her lip as Fox struggled to stand. “Can you walk?”
“I’m going to have to,” he said, hissing out a long breath as he took one step and then another, unsteady on his feet.
She moved forward, pulling his arm over her shoulder on his uninjured side, feeling his weight as he leaned into her.
They hadn’t made it more than a dozen steps when the crack of a branch and a sudden rush of footsteps brought them both up short. Fox jerked away from Sofia, moving into a fighting stance even as he swayed on his feet. And they turned to face the dark forest, as a half-dozen figures melted out of the shadows.