Page 178 of Blade of the Nightking

But she didn't turn back. She kept going, farther and farther out.

She wasn't going to stop.

The truth hit him then with brutal finality. He wasn't going to be able to save her.

His struggles ceased. His shoulders sagged against the restraints of Veylan's shadows. Somewhere to my left, someone was still screaming, screaming for Levinica, but it sounded impossibly distant now, muffled beneath the roar of rushing water and the pounding of his heart.

“Do something!” My own voice sliced through him.

Tears poured down my face, my eyes wild. The sight of me struck something deep inside him. Resolve flooded every part of him with such force it eclipsed everything else—even the agony threatening to tear his soul in two.

He would never reach her in time. No one could. She was too far away. The undertow was too strong.

There was only one thing left he could give her.

Pressure built inside him as he gathered his magic. Silver light surged through him, filling every part of him, straining against the limits of flesh and bone. He seized hold of it and flung it out to her. His magic streaked across the water like an outstretched hand, punching through her shield, reaching for her mind just as another wave crashed over her.

Levinica disappeared beneath the sea—and his magic caught her.

The world became darkness and confusion. I tumbled through black water, dragged and spun until I no longer knew which way was up and which was down. Water flooded my mouth, my nose, burning as it forced its way into my lungs.

I can't breathe.

The thought was frantic. An animal instinct to survive.

I can't breathe.

Panic consumed every part of me. I clawed for the surface, but there was no surface. Only darkness. Only cold. The sea pulling me deeper and deeper into its icy depths.

Horror struck me as understanding dawned.

I was inside Levinica’s mind.

No! No, I didn't want this!

Didn't want to feel her fear. Didn't want to feel her drowning. Didn't want to know what her final moments had been like. I tried to pull away from the memory, but I was trapped inside it.

And then Rìan's magic began to flood the chambers of her mind.

I felt the absolute control in it. The magnitude of his power, held so tightly in check that it never once threatened to break her. Every ounce of it bent perfectly to his will.

Silver slipped through her thoughts like silk, curling around her panic and unravelling it gently, like deft fingers working a knot loose. Her terror fell away. Then the desperation.

Even her pain—he took away her pain.

Soothed it. Quieted it. Coaxed it into silence with impossible tenderness, like a parent calming a frightened child.

And then he filled the empty spaces he’d made.

Sunlight.

Warmth kissed my skin. A breeze stirred through tall grass that rolled toward the horizon in shimmering waves of green and gold. Wildflowers nodded among the stalks, their petals dancing in the wind, while somewhere unseen bees hummed lazily among the blossoms. The air smelled of summer. Of earth. Of peace.

Levinica stood in the middle of it all, whole and unbroken.

She turned slowly in confusion as her gaze swept across the landscape, taking in the plump clouds drifting across a sapphire sky. The willow tree at her back stretched its creaking branches overhead.

"Mama!"