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“Vitar!” Solat yells, even as he surges forward. Then, Kerren and Markos pull their swords, Markos’s pole slipping into the water.
I lean over and reach for it, because we need oars. I do it without thinking, and just as I grab the end of the pole, I see something pale and snakelike slither under the raft. It pushes up against the center of the raft, and the entire thing capsizes underneath us.
A moment later, I hit the water, and it shocks the breath out of me with how cold it is. It feels wrong, too, thick and heavy, and I claw at my surroundings, trying to find the surface. I’m utterly terrified, my mind full of anacondas and crocodiles and whatever else this world can cook up that will eat us. I can’t breathe, either. I can’t find the surface, and I swivel helplessly in the murky depths, looking for light.
There’s a bright spot below me, and I realize I’m flipped upside down. I turn over in the water, then surge toward the light. I hit the surface and cough, gasping and choking as I suck in lungfuls of air. Confused, disoriented, I squint, wiping water from my eyes. My traveling robes are heavy and with water soaking them, I’m dangerously close to being pulled under again. It’s cold as hell, and my teeth chatter.
I don’t see anyone, though.”
“F-Faith?”
Behind me, I hear Yule
She shivers and just huddles against the raft, not answering.
I look around, and Kerren is thrashing in the water. For a split second, I think he’s drowning, and I start to move toward him, but then I realize he’s stripping off his armor as quickly as he can. Markos’s shoulders are bare as he stabs at the water with his sword, and Solat dives under with a flash of bare leg.
“Has anyone seen Vitar?” Markos calls out.
“Where’s Aron?” I ask a split second later, realizing I don’t see him anywhere. “Aron? Are you here?”
I count heads in the water. Yule
No Aron.
“Aron!” I bellow out again, terrified. He can’t die. We’re tied together, I remind myself. I’m his anchor. He’s stuck in this world with me. “ARON!”
“Get the women on the boat,” Markos calls out, swimming toward us. “Hurry, before it surfaces again.”
“What is it? Where’s Aron?” I cry, even as they crawl onto the floppy raft and haul Yule
Another person grabs at me—Solat—and I’m hauled into the raft. “He’s here somewhere,” Solat says. “I promise this, and he’ll be mad if you die on him.”
“Vitar?” Yule
“Gone.” Markos sounds hollow. “Just…gone.”
She sobs, and I crawl to the edge of the raft, staring into the water. Aron doesn’t need to sleep, so maybe he doesn’t need to breathe, either. Maybe he’s just waiting under the water for us to notice him—
Something white flashes under the boat again and I feel it ripple underneath the flimsy raft.
“Oh shit—”
The raft capsizes again, and back into the water we go.
My mouth and nose fill with water. Coughing, choking, I claw to get to the surface again, but something snags my heavy skirts and tugs me back under. I sail through the water, dragged along by my hem, and I realize dimly even as I claw for the surface that I’m being pulled away from the others.
I’m going to drown. First Vitar, now me.
Then Aron.
Something flashes all around us, and a jolt rockets through my body. The charge rushes through me, like prickling heat, and then it’s gone, leaving nothing behind but an intense, throbbing headache.
Everything goes still.
Something brushes against my legs, but I realize it’s floating past me, toward the surface.
My lungs burn and I swim forward, desperate for air. Darkness swims at the edges of my vision, but then I make it to the surface and gasp, sucking in deep breaths.
The air above strangely feels as heavy as the water below.
“He’s losing his mind,” Solat screams, and he sounds very far away.
Who? I want to ask. Who’s losing his mind?
Something crackles again, even as pain lances through my head. Lightning streaks across the surface of the water, and thunder crashes overhead, so loud and fierce that it feels like it’s right on me.
I know who’s losing his mind. I’m filled with relief even as I’m filled with fear.
Aron. My Aron.
A floating object bumps up against me and then bobs against the surface. It’s a tentacle of some kind, pale and unearthly and made of the same material as our boat. All along the surface of the water, other dead, limp tentacles are gently bobbing to the top, motionless and still.
Lightning crashes overhead again and I fight back a moan. It feels like my brain is being squeezed dry, and I nearly black out with the pain. Red and black dots swarm through my vision, and I struggle to stay conscious, desperate to focus. Something hot runs from my nose and ears. I swipe it away in irritation. Aron.
Where’s Aron?
Hands grab me, fishing me from the water even as the sharp pain racks through me again. What’s happening? Have I been bitten? Electrocuted?
“She’s bleeding,” I dimly hear Solat say, and someone swabs at my face. “Where’s she wounded?”
“It’s him,” Yule
I struggle to sit up, because I know she’s talking about Aron. My red, hazy vision won’t focus, but I can barely make out a dark form drifting over the water a short distance away. Not in the water, but floating above it. Wind whips my hair, ice cold, and more thunder rumbles. I watch in shock as Aron—because it has to be Aron floating out there—extends his hands and lightning curls around his palms.
Then, he blasts at the water again. Thunder shakes the boat and the air grows heavy with the force of the lightning.
And this time, I can’t breathe. I’m like a sponge being squeezed of every bit of life. It’s the water in my lungs, I think. The water and the cold. That’s why I’m so weak. Why there’s so much pain. Why it’s so hard to focus.
“He’s pushing the boat forward,” someone cries. “Toward the shore!”
I want to smile with relief. Of course Aron’s rescuing us. He won’t let me die.
But the moment lightning crackles again, my vision goes red—then black—and then I crash with the thunder. My head feels as if it’s splintering. Something tears inside me.
The world goes utterly dark as pain sweeps me away.
Maybe Aron didn’t save me after all.