Page 120 of The Unseen Hour

He followed my gaze over the railing, to the falls.

“We barely survived the rapids! We’d have to be out of our minds!”

“I don’t like it any better than you! Charon is here, and the front of the house is floor-to-ceiling glass. Even if we made it down and around to the front, he’d be sure to spot us before we made the gates. We have to chance it, unless you think Charon would forgive us for this.” I pulled the rolled-up music from my pocket.

That was our only other problem. We had to protect what we’d found, or the entire endeavor was for naught.

“Here, use this.” Orion pulled out a waterskin, one holding regular water, not the supply from the cavern. He turned the waterskin and poured the contents over the balcony, shaking out the final drops. Then he handed it to me.

“Damp is better than destroyed,” he reasoned.

I tucked the music into the waterskin, shoving the stopper on tight. The waterskin had its own strap, and I wrapped it several times around my forearm, tying it there and then tucking that arm against me.

The other, I held out to Orion.

“We go together!”

He nodded.

“Together.”

He helped me over the railing, and I teetered on the thin ledge on the opposite side.

Orion was barely over it himself, hand clasping mine again, when he shouted.

“Now!”

The two of us leapt.

The roar of the water was deafening, and I prayed to all the gods, except Charon, that we wouldn’t strike a rock on the way down.

CHAPTER 48

Wind whistled in my ears. The spray from the falls battered my face.

I only had time for a split-second of relief when we hit the water below, followed by terror as the force of the current pulled us under. We’d survived the rapids, and I wasn’t going to lose Orion so easily after everything we’d been through together.

The water twisted and spun me, but I clutched at Orion’s hand like a lifeline. With my other arm I held the waterskin close.

When my head broke the surface, I was still attached to Ry.

I hacked up water and began kicking for all I was worth.

“All right, Starlight?”

I nodded my head, getting my sopping hair in my eyes. I didn’t dare let go of the music or him to fix it.

“Just splendid,” I managed.

“This way.”

We moved toward calmer water. Directly under the falls, it had been churning, but it quickly quieted the farther away from them we got, thank the gods. My joints were still ringing like Fox Haven’s clock tower with its echoing chime on the Unseen Hour, but I forced my legs to kick.

We let the current carry us downstream a bit, but the water remained fairly calm. When we were out of eyesight of Charon’s home and could reach the bank, we swam for it. Orion hauled us both out of the water. We sat for several minutes, panting. I wrung out my hair and checked inside the waterskin. All gods be praised, the music was all right, all the notes still readable.

Orion sat with his knees bent up, his arms slung over them.

“Another fun adventure, wouldn’t you say?”