“Doesn’t seem like I have much of a choice, does it?” she snapped. “Fuck.Fuck!” she breathed, her voice hoarse and shaky. “Okay, we’ll have maybe a second once the door is open, but there’s not much air left in this chamber, so take a deep breath. I’ll send the rest of it into the lake. I’ve never used the Soleia power underwater before, so I have no idea what to expect. You may need to break through the ice.”
My stomach dropped, and I looked blindly at Vulcan.
“Try not to boil us alive,” was his only response.
I had the inexplicable urge to laugh. Was Vulcan being sarcastic? Surely, this meant the end was near if he was joking.
“Shut up,” Nerissa snapped. She took a few deep breaths, steeling herself for the power required to get us out of here.
“Do it,” she finally said, her quiet voice hardened with determination.
Nerissa pulled me to the far side of the landing, away from where the door would swing inward, as Vulcan chiseled away atthe stone lid. A strained groan whined from above, and Vulcan’s chiseling paused.
“Get ready?—”
The amplifier on my chest burned as Nerissa reached for it. The stone lid slammed against the wall in a deafening bang, followed by a surge of lake water.
As quick as the water charged in, a rush of air whipped upward from below the stairs, shooting a tunnel of solid wind straight into the bottom of the lake as Nerissa screamed. I bent my leg as Vulcan’s hands shoved me into the opening.
Nerissa moved beside me in the strange wind tunnel, as water quickly filled the space between the opening of the burial chamber and our feet. The three of us kicked against the upward swell of water. The massive sack of air floated upward, like a giant bubble. Frigid water engulfed us as the air outpaced us high above, floating beneath a wall of ice.
We neared the surface, the ice so thick that only a soft, dark hue of light escaped its crystals into the water below. Nerissa tensed as her hands landed on the surface, and her white flames fought against the water. Small bubbles formed on either side of her hands, but the wall of ice didn’t budge. She shot a panicked look at me before gritting her teeth and sending more power into her palms. The water warmed around us.
Vulcan pulled me farther away from her as her hands melted into the ice, making two small indents in the thick wall. Nerissa’s brows furrowed. Her brown hair glowed golden as it floated in the water, illuminated by her brilliant white light. Her eyes shuddered a moment, and she swayed beneath the surface. The white light beneath her palms flickered, and her eyes closed.
No.No.
Vulcan left my side, grabbing hold of her with one arm and pounding against the thinned ice with the other.
Oh, gods. We were going to die.
Devastation gripped me as Vulcan pounded against the ice in a panic, somehow still treading water with Nerissa and holding his breath.
My lungs burned as the last bit of oxygen traveled through my veins, and a sad awareness swept through me. My thoughts drifted to my friends, my found family. I would never see them again.
And Tiberius… My caeluma. He was a part of me, a part of my soul. I had the briefest desire to cast to him, but I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t let him see me die. He would be so lonely. Would he find other caeluma? Choose another Bellator?
You didn’t find them, a voice seemed to whisper.They found you. Remember.
A soft, not-so-distant darkness beckoned me once again. Death. Would it be so terrible to go now? Maybe I’d see my father again…
The dead are trapped,the voice said.Remember. See.
Free them.
I had to be here to free them.
The caeluma found us.They are the key.They can manifest our powers.
My eyes shot open as Vulcan’s fluttered closed beneath the surface. He was fading, barely hanging on, yet his arms still gripped Nerissa as his legs kicked and his fist beat weakly at the ice.
Aquila.
Bayne said Aquila lacked certain abilities to be a caeluma. He lackedtheir power. I kicked, realizing I’d begun to sink, and threw my mind out to the seahawk. A panicked sense of urgency responded.
Hurry, I urged him, with every desperate wave of emotion I could muster. A dark form materialized above the surface of the ice. I threw every last bit of energy I had left into the depths ofmy powers, grabbing hold of the delicate song, latching it to the amplifier on my neck.
Threads danced in my mind's eye, the golden connections that hung suspended in midair. I latched the Transcindiel power to the bond connecting me to Nerissa and Aquila, my energy draining by the second.
A distant shriek echoed from above as the dark shadow disappeared in a tunnel of golden light, breaking free a moment later, larger. The shadow of massive wings beat against the night across the surface before a wave of white flames licked along the other side of the ice.
