Chapter 54
Fifty-Four
It’s dark now—the water unnaturally still.
Don’t panic.
Don’t panic.
The only thing I know is that I need to get rid of the water to see what I’m dealing with.
I kneel on the soil bordering the pool’s edge and close my eyes.
With all my might, I sharpen the energy within me.
I’ve brought it out before. I can do it again.
I refuse to think about what might happen if I fail.
Fire lunges from my palms, scorching the grass before it smolders.
I search my well of power, deeper and deeper. I don’t even know if this will work, but I have to try. Ever since I created my first flame… I’ve had my suspicions, but now it’s my only chance.
Fear creeps up my neck, squeezing tight. If I don’t do this. If I can’t control my mind, Rett will be gone forever—he’ll die down there…
And it’ll be my fault if I don’t save him.
My power has to have more meaning than just taking life.
The little hairs on my arms stand up as power emanates from me. A gust slides over my back. Another one. My shift billows as the wind bears down, pushing waves to circle the perimeter of the pool.
Faster and faster.
Water sloshes out, drenching me in its spray. The depth of the water lowers, but it’s not enough. A hint of burgundy is barely visible as a wave careens.
I concentrate harder.
The surge allows Rett to uncover his face and gulp a mouthful of air before it crashes over him again. In the swirling darkness, flashes of color reel by. The surge slows—something is fighting my magic.
Numerous female heads pop up, their skin varying in shades and tones—yet all of them wear a sickly pallor despite their unnerving and haunting beauty. With hair slicked over their slender and voluptuous forms, they smile, their sharpened white teeth gleaming in the night.
I plead, “Give him back!”
They giggle shrilly, glancing at each other with a cruel spark. Their laughter echoes between the trees, instilling fear and uncertainty into me.
“We couldn’t possibly. You were having so much fun with him that we became quite jealous,” the nymph with plump red lips says mockingly. “And we don’t like being jealous of humans…”
The black-haired one purrs, “It’s our turn, selfish girl.”
Rett’s time ticks.
“Release him,” I grind out. “Now.”
“Or what?” she asks before swimming in circles. The others mimic her and swim in circles as well. I take a deep breath, fighting the disorientation. They laugh as if this is the funniest thing they’ve ever done.
“Hurry! He can’t breathe!” I warn them. “I don’t want to hurt any of you.”
“He doesn’t need to be alive for us to have a bit of fun!” A squeal of glee burns my ears.
I close my eyes and focus on the wind, bringing it near again.
The pool spins like a cyclone, the waves crashing over the edge.
The nymphs scream, kick, and splash, trying to hold on while being swept away in the current.
I concentrate harder and harder until Rett’s face emerges.
He spits out a mouthful of fluid, gagging and struggling for breath.
Vines wrap around his naked body, traveling up his neck, preventing him from moving.
My focus slips, and the water level rises again. The nymphs hold onto boulders, screeching slurs, their voices like whips in the wind.
“Human trash!”
“Ugly and useless!”
My confidence plummets. Useless. How often had Balor called me that? Tears prick at the corners of my eyes.
“The stupid girl cannot save her lover-boy.”
My body flares with searing magic, but the water doesn’t recede.
I step forward and submerge my lower body into the pulsating pool as the wind continues to whip around me. I close my eyes. The wind ceases, and the pool sloshes and returns to an unnatural stillness. I wade farther in.
The nymphs’ mouths move, mocking and insulting, but I can’t hear them anymore.
They remind me of the cruelty I left behind in Alexandria. The way I’ve always been an outsider.
The way I was used.
My skin grows hotter.
Bubbles break the surface above where Rett is located.
Radiant heat flows through my veins and out from my fingertips as they skim the ripples. My back arches, and the entirety of the spring disappears into a thick wall of steam.
My hearing returns, and I listen as the thuds of bodies hit the bottom of the empty pool. One by one, the nymphs cry and hurl insults. A gurgling comes from the spring’s center. Cold water seeps over my feet, slowly refilling the basin.
“Rett!” I call. “Where are you?”
Damn it all!
How will I ever find him in this maze?
I run toward where I last saw him, but I slip and crash face-first into the thick mud. A freezing hand with razor-sharp nails digs into my ankle and pulls me backward through the muck.
With a loud rip, my shift tears and exposes my thigh. The sound mixes with my scream.
A water nymph with a snarled face crawls toward me. Gray scales cover and accentuate her hips, thighs, and arms, while her webbed legs drag weakly beneath her, folding unnaturally. She’s naked and beautiful and terrible, and her ice-blue eyes spell all the ways she would love to torture me.
My heart beats wildly.
I try to pry her grip from my ankle, but she tries to bite me, snapping with those razor-sharp teeth, sending me stumbling backward.
She laughs as I fall again, caking myself in more mud.
With my other leg, I kick her hard in the face, foot meeting bone, and she collapses, howling and clutching her bleeding nose.
I jump up and run once more. But this time, I focus on my keen hearing, paying closer attention to where the nymphs might be, zigzagging through their crawling bodies to find Rett.
Louder gurgling noises reach my ears. The spring is filling the basin at an alarming rate, and now the shallow, choppy waves lap at my knees.
A flash of emerald—I see him.
Tied between two trees that were formerly underwater, Rett’s body hangs in a net of vines suspended from them.
There, around him, three nymphs sit in the web, caressing and touching his body, rubbing his upper thighs and inspecting his manhood.
His eyes are open but heavy-lidded with effort. A wad of moss gags his mouth.
They giggle with each other, pleased that their pool is filling again, as they splash each other and massage their prey. One lashes out, “Go away, human. This isn’t your home, and you’re not welcome here. We plan to leave no scraps by the time we’re done, so leave!”
“Selene! Quit hogging him!” a nymph with short blonde hair and dark skin demands as she elbows her sister. “Let me have some.” The elbowed nymph hisses as she falls backward into the water with a splash.
“I found him first! I should have more. You two haven’t brought a man into our den in over three hundred years—you’re getting lazy!” says the third one. Her hair is as dark as her soulless eyes.
They bicker as the water grows deeper, now up to my waist. Bile rises in my throat. I’ll die in this pool alongside Rett if I don’t get him out soon.
Moving slowly to not attract their attention, I ease around them, lowering myself near the base of one of the trees. I grab the slimy vine.
“Stupid beasties! You argue while the girl doesn’t give up!” hisses the raven-haired one.
Their gasps fill the air as my palms grow hot.
The simmering coals deep in my belly still burn.
Fire shoots from my hands like arrows, igniting the vine where it connects to the shriveled tree.
Some of the vines give way, and the nymph with blonde hair falls to the water below.
Rett’s body sags, his weight no longer suspended by the taut web.
The fallen nymph splashes toward me, but I wade to the other side.
I clench my fist around a new vine, and this time, my power is ready. It erupts, scorching the vine.
The remaining nymph tumbles into the rising pool, but Rett still hangs from the highest vines.
Freezing water now reaches my breasts.
The nymphs swim toward me.
I have one chance.
With my hands raised overhead, I project a thin rod of lightning extending from my palms.
Goddess, help me!
It’s not the power I tried to pull forth, but it’s more than I’ve ever dared to hope for—but I’ve no time to marvel. Sparks fly, burning small spots on my skin, as the web of vines comes crashing down with Rett entangled in it.
The nymphs wail and screech like nails on a chalkboard. The pool grows deeper; they swim faster; their full attention is on me as I struggle through the water to reach him. He thrashes in the confines of the web, knotted and heavy around his straining body.
My side aches, and I’m out of breath, but I can’t stop. I won’t stop. I swim across to Rett and pull him upward so he can breathe. I tear and tear at the vines until they fall away in sheaths. He hooks the wad of moss from his mouth and coughs out stringy brown goop.
The nymphs circle us like sharks as the moon above illuminates their floating breasts and soft bellies, which peek above the water as they swim on their backs.
“You know, she’s not as ugly as I thought. Maybe we could play with her too.”
Terror sinks its claws deep within me.
My teeth chatter as a breeze tousles my hair.
A breeze.
I pull the air with my magic, making the nymphs spit like angry cats as the receding waves splash in their faces once more.
The swirling current grows larger and larger until it propels them away.
I plant my feet, and Rett grabs my arms. We use each other as a brace to trudge through the lowering water as quickly as possible.
We pull ourselves out, collapsing on the embankment and scrambling away from the edge. The wind stops. The pool sloshes back.
Rett throws on his clothes while he looks for the horses, but they are long gone. With all the commotion, they likely broke free and fled in a panic.
“Get your things.” His voice is broken and hoarse. “We need to leave. Now.”
Haphazardly, I throw everything into my bedroll before tying it. I don’t bother to put on my dress. I can find that later.
The nymphs’ heads pop up, but they wear tired and lazy expressions. Some swim on their backs, but this time their limbs move slowly and seductively, like they’ve stopped caring.
“Goodbye, stupid human and halfling. Remember us when water caresses your flesh,” the raven-haired nymph curses. “We’ll be there. A promise of revenge.”
“Move.” Rett pushes me forward, his arms full of our supplies. “Don’t look at them.” But I’ve already locked eyes with her black pupils, her words etching into my mind. He grabs me by the arm and yanks me from the clearing.
We sprint until our pace slows into a stumbling walk. Finally, we are so far into the forest that they couldn’t possibly reach us.
Hand braced on a tree, Rett stops abruptly and drops his things onto the ground. He breathes hard for a moment before he whirls to face me. We’re half-dressed, alone in the middle of the night, with our supplies jumbled at our feet. I would laugh if we hadn’t almost died.
Rett pulls me into a tight hug, his arms wrapping around me protectively.
Smelling like pond water and soil, he kisses me on the forehead.
“Tabitha. Tabitha. Tabitha. Together, we are unstoppable.” He cups my cheeks in his hands, his face wild with survival.
“Mother will be thrilled by your agreement to marry me. We’ll win your kingdom back, uniting our lands so that we’ll rule both realms—but most importantly, you’ll be mine forever. ”
My heart stops.
The growing smile across my lips crests downward.
I think I might become sick as I remember the tiny nod I gave him in the heat of passion.