Chapter Twelve
Freya
I cocked an eyebrow at Walker.
“Really?” I said. “Didn’t we just discover the root of the problem with your magic is that you’re a little too careful?”
He frowned and gestured at the pocket of wind we stood in.
“Just tell me what to do,” he grumbled.
“Walk to the edge of the bubble,” I instructed, “and touch it with your hand. I’m going to have to release you without letting the whole thing collapse.”
Walker did as I told him, and I tracked his movements like a hawk. As his hand raised, I lasered in on exactly where it pressed against the bubble and tried to tunnel the air around it without leaving any gaps.
“It’s working,” he said.
Walker stretched out his arm to reach farther outside the bubble and flew back. I ducked out of the way and reinforced the bubble, so he wouldn’t pop it as he hit the other side. He flailed and slid across the bubble again, but I caught his sleeve and helped him to his feet.
I studied his wildly askew hair and ragged breath.
“Okay,” I said. “We’ll have to try that again.”
“You think?” he asked.
With even slower movements, Walker raised his hand to the swirling wind once more. I focused on his movements and imagined the air flowing around his body like a rock in a stream. Instead of trying to manhandle the element, I gave myself over to it and encouraged it to flow around Walker, rather than attempting to manipulate every molecule.
“As a witch, control is crucial.” Mom’s words rang in my head. “But the ability to give up control is just as imperative.”
I had just chastised Walker for manhandling his magic. I needed to take my own advice.
As both of Walker’s arms reached out of the bubble, he took a deep breath and held it. He pushed his entire upper body into the pond, and his legs quickly followed.
Our pocket of wind held strong.
Walker swam the short distance from the bubble to the moss. My eyes were glued to his form, and I mentally counted the seconds that passed as he held his breath. He grabbed the first clump of glowing moss, and nothing happened. I breathed a sigh of relief—I had been half-convinced it would burn him or trigger something terrible.
Walker grabbed several clumps of the glowing moss and stuffed it into his pockets. After grabbing one more clump, he turned around to swim back. Only twenty seconds had passed, which gave me plenty of time to ease him back into the bubble—
Something long and green and with dozens of teeth slammed into Walker and dragged him away. For a moment, my fear was so blinding that the bubble wavered. I reinforced it and stuffed down my terror.
I would find him.
I had to.
???
Walker
Countless short but sharp knives dug into my torso.
Not knives, I realized. Teeth.
The creature raced through the impossibly huge pond. Its body was well-camouflaged by the dark water, but up close and personal, I glimpsed its massive body. Small, black horns sprouted from its wide, flat head. Its feet were tiny and clawed, but its speed came from its long, thrashing body. It whipped through the water with force that jarred my wounds with each thrash.
Panic threatened to consume me, and my heart boomed. Desperate to be released, my magic roared in my ears, and my lungs ached with the need to breathe. I needed to get free.
Now.
Despite the panic pounding in my chest, I couldn’t bring myself to relinquish my control over my magic. It threatened to act out without my command, but the only thing stronger than my fear of death was the fear of my electricity going haywire while underwater with Freya. Though I couldn’t see her, she was still down here. Regardless of where we stood romantically, she would never abandon me. For once, my magic abated, as if it too couldn’t bear to hurt Freya, not even to save itself.
My lungs burned worse and worse. Pressure weighed on my chest—very soon, I would run out of air. Even if I freed myself, I was a long way from the top of the pond. I scrambled for a solution.
My mind went back to that fateful day at Nathan’s barn. Lightning and thunder had wreaked havoc on all of us, but wind had blown the storm in.
When I needed balance inside Freya’s pocket of wind, my magic had righted me with air.
Air.
I had some affinity for the element. Overwhelmed by the electricity, I had never intentionally wielded it before today. Now was as good of time as ever to give it a go. My desperate need to survive brought me back to a place I rarely thought of.
The moment just before I awoke as a witch.
It was the only time that instead of being afraid of my power, I was grateful for it. I had rejoiced in its strength and relied on it to return to the people I cared about most.
I wasn’t done here. I had a chimera to find, a sister to protect, and a witch to get back to, whether she wanted me or not.
I closed my eyes and focused on the magic singeing its way through my veins and begging to be released. I leaned into the weight on my lungs and faced my desperate need for breath head-on. I let all the magic burning through my body spread around me. I cast it like a net over the water and pulled back what I needed most—air.
I wasn’t a chemist or physicist or even a very good witch, but my body recognized the molecules I needed most and grabbed them. On a leap of faith, I took a huge breath and got a lungful of air, not water.
Thank God , I thought, or goddess or whoever.
Not wasting a second, I reached for the sword strapped to my side. I was met with resistance from the water rushing past, but my magic strengthened me. Even the wounds from the beast’s many teeth had become mere pinpricks. I unstrapped the Sol Sword, gripped it like a vice, and swung at the monster that clutched me.
Though no flames sparked from the sword, it was sharp enough to make a dent in the creature’s thick, black skin. In some ear-splitting mix between a growl and a scream, it cried out. Its breath heated my skin. The creature thrashed but did not release me. I wrenched the sword out and swung again in the same spot. This time, it let me go and roared.
Over its shoulder, a flickering light caught my attention. In her bubble of air with a small flame in her hand, Freya raced toward me.
I summoned another breath of air. “Get out of here!”
I didn’t have time to see if Freya heard my garbled command. The creature lunged at me. I caught a glimpse of wickedly sharp horns, vivid green eyes, and a long, serpent-like body before I was trapped inside its huge mouth.
I crouched awkwardly in the creature’s jaws and raised my sword with both hands. As my blade tore through the monster’s soft palette, the sickening squelch would haunt me for years.
At least you’ll be alive to be haunted.
I attempted to stand and considered I shouldn’t have gotten ahead of myself. My legs had only been scraped by the creature’s teeth, given that it wasn’t able to clamp down on me, but the serpent had gone limp. Inside its mouth, blackness eclipsed my vision. I quickly shut my eyes when something hot burned them—probably its blood.
I tried and failed to heave its body off me. My lungs ached with the need to breathe, but the water around me was so saturated in blood, I wasn’t sure I would be able to summon more air.
Suddenly, wind wrapped itself around me and pulled me out of the serpent’s jaws. Freya blasted the creature with air, and it was launched into the dark water. Freya lost control of her bubble and was forced to swim.
With air filling her cheeks, she gestured for me to follow her and frantically swam to the top. I sheathed my sword, checked my pockets, and followed her. Despite her head-start, I easily caught up. Freya was fast, but my reach was much longer.
As we swam higher and higher, I wanted to ask if she knew how to breathe underwater, but it was becoming more and more apparent that she didn’t. There was desperation in the way she swam toward the dim moonlight.
Finally, we reached crested the pond, and Freya took heaving breaths. When she noticed my easy breathing, she frowned.
“You’re showing me how to do that,” she demanded.
I laughed. “I don’t know. I think I like having something over you for once.”
She rolled her eyes and swam toward the nearby bank. Sand brushed against my feet, and I stood. The depths of the pond confused me, but now wasn’t the time to consider it. I was ready to get out of the damn water. Ryder approached from the tree line, but I was too exhausted to summon a greeting.
Having reached the bank, Freya turned back and frowned. “You’re bleeding—”
Something sharp clamped down on my leg, and my body snapped backward. The water hit my back like a slap, and down, down, down, I went.
???
Freya
One moment, Walker was there, and the next, he was gone. I raced toward the water, but strong arms held me back.
“ Let me go.”
I seethed and thrashed, but Ryder’s hold was unbreakable. Arion hissed and paced but made no move to help free me.
The murky waters suddenly came alive with brilliant streaks of blue light.
“You wanna get fried?” Ryder said. “Think the cowboy could live with himself, then?”
As the fight drained out of me, paralyzing fear replaced it.
I couldn’t get to him.
“Walker!” Cadence screamed.
She barreled out of the trees with tears streaming down her face. As another streak of lightning arced across the water, I prepared myself to stop her, but Cadence drew short.
“He’ll be okay,” I said and willed it to be true.
???
Walker
Growing up, I always wanted a hot tub or one of those fancy heated pools.
That dream was dead.
At first, I thought the serpent I killed had magically come back to life, but this one was slightly smaller. Its skin was more green than black, and its horns were more finely pointed. Judging by the rage that shook its body, this was the other one’s girlfriend.
I tried to reach for my sword, but we moved too quickly through the water. Left and right, the serpent thrashed. My body snapped in different directions, and in the darkness, my head swam with disorientation. The blood loss wasn’t helping either. A dark realization hit.
This thing was going to kill me by tossing me around like a ragdoll.
I needed to act.
Now.
I searched the murky waters for Freya but caught no sight of her flaming hair or her air magic. Good. Ryder held her back, and Cadence had been nowhere in sight.
Inhaling another lungful of air, I focused on the magic that burned even in these frigid waters. It swelled in the pit of my stomach and spread through my veins. I thought of how it came alive when I kissed Freya and how it developed a life of its own when she or Cady were placed in harm’s way.
They’re still here, I told my magic. We’re not done.
As the serpent thrashed, I didn’t worry about my snapping body or the whirlwind of water rushing at my eyes. I let them fall closed and focused on doing the one thing I had been determined not to do since waking up with magic in my blood.
Utterly and completely, I let go.
The heat of my magic rushed through my body and beyond it. Lightning—vividly blue and bright—arched across the godforsaken pond and struck the serpent. Its jaw went slack, and I pulled my leg free from its grip. As I swam to the top, however, something stirred behind me. I glanced back.
The serpent shook its huge head, and its vision cleared. Its slit pupils homed in on me. My magic roared in response, and more lightning struck across the water, but it only stunned the creature once more. I needed to get a direct hit, and, judging by the exhaustion threatening to darken my vision, I needed to do it fast.
The Sol Sword.
As the serpent swam at me, I freed the sword from its scabbard and leaned into the pang in my chest when it didn’t come to life with flames. It hurt to be abandoned by my family’s magic—my father’s magic.
My magic hurt with me.
As the serpent charged, electricity danced on the Sol Sword’s blade. Its glow was near blinding. When only a foot separated us, the serpent tried to change course, but it was too late. With all the strength I had left, I drove the lightning-covered blade into its thick-skinned side.
Light flashed behind the serpent’s eyes before they went dark and lifeless. As it drifted to the bottom of the pond, I braced both legs against its side and pulled my sword free.
My lungs burned with the need to breathe, but only a ghostly echo of magic remained in my veins. It was too flimsy to do anything with. I was out of gas, and I would have to reach the top of the pond the human way.
Only twenty feet separated me from the rest of my life.
I swam.
And swam.
And swam.
My wounds stung, and my lungs screamed. As I got closer to the moonlight, hands jutted into the water. Freya and Cadence pulled me to the shore. Their voices were eclipsed by the gasping breaths I couldn’t stop taking. I caught the words bloody and mangled, but they weren’t a surprise. Ryder stood guard over all of us. He stared at me with…well, not respect, but without the usual level of disdain he reserved for me.
“Thanks,” I rasped. For protecting them.
Ryder nodded.
“Freya,” I whispered. She tore her gaze from the wounds on my leg. “Did you get it? The moss?”
She ran a hand through my wet hair and smiled weakly. “Of course.”
“You’ll be okay,” Cady said, though tears streamed down her cheeks. I wanted to wipe them away, but I couldn’t find the strength. “Magic will heal you.”
“Right,” I said. My magic trudged through my body, trying to patch up skin and stop the bleeding, but I was conscious enough to recognize that it moved too slowly to save me. It wasn’t even strong enough to keep me warm. I shivered, and as my adrenaline died down, the searing pain of my lacerations hit me full force.
In his saber-toothed tiger form, Arion crashed through the woods with a mouthful of herbs. Freya and Cady took them, but I lost the will to focus on their work. My gaze settled on the moon, partially hidden by clouds far above. As my vision grew blurry, I chuckled. My wounds protested, but I was too delirious to care.
“What’s a trip without me almost bleeding out, huh?”
Before I heard the response to my joke, everything went black.