Tobias
My mind narrowed to a single, desperate thought as we tumbled through the dark water:
Don’t let go.
We were helpless as it dragged us back the way we came. There was no sense of up or down. No way to tell when my next breath would be.
I yanked Quinn’s hand, pulling close enough to wrap my arms around her.
Using my body as a shield as the water battered us against the stone, I fought the merciless pull of the flood as it tried to wrench her away from me.
The fear of losing her threatened to drag me under as surely as the water trying to drown us.
Something rammed into my back, pushing the last of the air from my lungs in a brutal crack that sent pain racing through me. I needed to breathe. I needed—
My magic surged from me in my panic, lighting up the raging waters.
There.
One hand released Quinn, and I grabbed at the metal ladder. My fingers wrapped around a rung a moment before we were swept away. I held in my scream as my arm wrenched in its socket. The water pounded against me, trying to tear us apart.
My lungs burned, my bicep straining as I tried to brace myself against the wall, desperately searching for a foothold. Quinn wasn’t moving, I realized with dawning horror, her body a dead weight as I kept her afloat. My foot slipped, then caught on a lower rung.
With a final burst of strength, I moved Quinn between me and the bars, then yanked us both upward, gasping in a breath as my face breached the surface. A single ball of my light hovered between us, circling around her like a crazed crown.
“Q-Quinn?” Quinn’s head lolled against me, and I fought my terror. It wouldn’t help her. “Quinn.”
She wasn’t breathing. She wasn’t breathing.
I wedged one arm around the metal rung, then slammed my other hand against her back, once, then again. Tilting her head back against my shoulder to open her airway, I pinched her nose with my opposite hand before sealing my mouth over hers. Her chest rose and fell as I delivered two slow breaths.
The water rushed around us with a vigor I knew wasn’t natural, but I couldn’t focus on that now. Not when every cell in my body cared only about keeping her alive. Fighting the rising tide and my racing heart, I pounded my hand against her back again.
She had to live. If I lost her…
Quinn coughed so hard she convulsed, spewing water in my face before another cough wracked her frame. The relief flooding through me felt like I was the one finally able to draw in air.
I thumped my hand against her back, trying to help expel the water as I croaked, “Breathe for me, sweetheart.”
She sucked in a gasping breath, then another, audible even over the sound of the torrent. I propped her on a higher rung of the ladder as the water rose. Her head almost bumped against the ceiling as I held her there, shielding her with my body.
“I’m okay,” Quinn rasped against my ear.
She almost drowned in my arms. I had almost lost her. Neither of us were okay.
I would make them pay for it.
“We need to get out of here,” I yelled. The water now reached my chest, its roaring nearly deafening. “There must be an Elemental controlling the flood.”
If I could get to them, they would already be dead for hurting her. My light roiled within me, searching for an outlet. Its searing power would only be extinguished by the flood, and lightning would only make this worse.
Quinn closed her eyes. When they opened again, their usual amber had darkened into a dangerous blood red.
She shook her head. “We aren’t close enough. I’m having trouble reaching them.”
The rushing water tore past me so violently I could barely keep my grip on the ladder, let alone her. But I wouldn’t allow myself to be separated from her, even if it broke me in the process.
Perhaps I could blind them. With enough light…
“I can try to—”
“No,” Quinn gritted out. “I can do this.”
Her red eyes went distant with concentration right before my mouth dipped below the surface. My arms trembled, my muscles screaming for relief, but I wouldn’t let go until death released my grip for me.
If this didn’t work…
No, I chastised myself. It would, if only because Quinn didn’t know how to fail.
My arms tightened around her waist, lifting her higher as I took one last deep breath. The current surged, enveloping me entirely—
The water receded so suddenly I nearly fell into the trickle that was left.
Keeping Quinn in my arms, I climbed down the ladder into the flooded tunnel, ignoring the way my shoulders burned as I gripped each rung one-handed. I wanted to collapse on the ground. But I wanted to get out of this fucking deathtrap first.
Quinn silently wrapped her arms around her middle as her feet hit the water, now barely over her ankles. My light circled around her, as terrified for her as I was.
“Are they—”
“Dead.” Her tone was so flat a chill went down my spine. For once, Quinn was the emotionless one. “I didn’t know which one was doing it…so I killed them both.”
She trembled as I held her closer, softly pressing a kiss against her sodden curls. Letting out a shaky breath, she relaxed into my arms.
“You saved us.” I held her tighter like my warmth was enough to stop her shivering. “If you hadn’t done that, we would’ve died today.”
If I could’ve done it for her, and kept her from breaking the oath I knew she must have taken in the mortal realm that pledged to do no harm, I would have without a second thought.
“I told myself I would never do that again,” Quinn whispered, her anguish starting to crack through.
“The reason that type of blood magic is forbidden is because it can corrupt the soul. The stories I read about blood magic said ancient fae would take control of other people’s bodies.
At first it was used to protect, to stop infighting, and for the greater good.
But the more those fae used it, the more that they got used to controlling others…
” Her voice shook. “That’s when their magic took over their empathy, their understanding of right and wrong.
That’s when it corrupted their souls. Blood magic wasn’t forbidden because of what they could do, but what it did to those who used it.
And when they started to stop hearts out of spite, and use it to steal power and murder anyone who stood in their way…
” She sucked in a gasping sort of breath. “Tobias, it was so easy to kill them.”
I had my power stolen over and over, so many times I was sure the pain alone would kill me. I had looked evil in the face and stared into his tortured, corrupted soul. And I knew, without the shadow of a doubt, that no matter what power she wielded, that fate could never be hers.
“You’re the least corruptible person I know.
” My voice was firm, my confidence in her unshakable.
“There’s a big difference between using your magic to hurt someone and using it in self-defense.
I have no doubt about your strength of heart or the quality of your soul.
” Shifting her in my arms, I brushed her hair away from her face so that she could see my sincerity.
“I know exactly who you are, Quinn Sagray, and nothing will ever change that.”
A tear slipped from the corner of her eye, mixing with the wetness on her cheek. She had to be exhausted; her magic spent after days of nonstop work in the lab and harnessing a power she had never really trained.
It was instinct to carry her as I started back toward the entrance. I held her tightly, high above water like she wasn’t already soaked through.
Quinn laid her head against my chest as I trudged down the tunnel, ignoring the way my muscles protested. I was thankful her eyes were closed as I turned a corner to find two lifeless bodies floating face down.
She already knew what she had done—had felt the exact moment their hearts stopped—but I walked faster, keeping my body angled away from them in case she opened her eyes. This, at least, I could carry for her.
When I ducked through the glamoured wall back out into the empty streets, the rain had slowed to a sprinkle.
“I can walk,” she whispered wearily, making no move to extricate herself from my arms.
“You can,” I agreed as I continued holding her against me. “But you don’t have to.”
Just let me hold you? I wanted to say, but the words stuck on my tongue.
Quinn seemed to hear them anyway. Her arms wrapped tightly around my neck, a soft sigh brushing against the damp skin at the base of my throat as she relaxed against me. I wondered if she could hear the way my heartbeat pounded—slamming against my ribs like it was trying to reach her.
The water in my shoes squished with every step as I carried her back to the castle. I may as well have been cradling my own heart in my hands.