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“Remember the barge? Try floating the house up.”
“A house isn’t a barge,” he argued, knitting his brow.
“To water, they are the same thing.”
“Water doesn’t think.”
“No, but you do. Approach this from the other direction. Your magic affects water, not the house. Look at you holding this water back like it’s behind a pane of glass.” With some irritation, she realized he could be doing that in the library with a low-level spell, no boarding of the windows necessary. They could have kept rain out of the entire manse with fixed enchantments in the windows and saved a fortune in Byssan glass. Maybe they still could if no Byssan wizard applied for the contract. No sense squandering magic if they could outsource to someone who’d also become a loyal minion. “Try moving this water out of the arcade and push it underneath the foundation. Float it like a boat.”
“But we’re standing on it.”
She shook her head. “That doesn’t matter. We stood on the barge, too. The water will do what you tell it to do.” Circumspectly, she used her free hand to push closed the door to the attached salon. No sense flooding that too, should things go awry.
Gabriel, brow furrowed unhappily, muttered something about easier said than done, but the wall of green water moved away, flowing out through the open arches.
And more water flowed in to replace it. Cursing under his breath, Gabriel drew on her magic more, increasing the speed of the water flowing out—which resulted in water rushing back in at a greater rate. Waves began to form as the ripples fed back on each other, the water growing turbulent, fish swimming frantically through the peaks and troughs. The water snake flew out to land on what had once been an ornamental rug, now festooned with algae, and slithered away rapidly.
With a whoosh of breath, Gabriel abruptly released his hold on her magic, the sudden snap of the connection slapping back at her. His control of the water simultaneously broke. With a roar, all the displaced water rushed back, taking them under and yanking her hand from Gabriel’s. She rolled, inadvertently gasping at the shockingly cold water, which most unpleasantly filled her mouth and nose with something that tasted a lot like spoiled lettuce. Her velvet gown dragged her down with its sodden weight, and she shoved against the slimy rug—eyew—to struggle up again.
Grasping hands seized her, dragging her up by the shoulders, Gabriel’s face panicked. “Nic! Are you all right? Breathe. Talk to me.” He shook her a little, and she grabbed ahold of his forearms.
“Stop. I’m fine.” She spat water out. Disgusting.
He hauled her against him, embracing her a bit too tightly for comfort. “I was afraid you’d drowned.”
“In waist-deep water in less than a minute? I surely hope not. How ignominious a deaththatwould be.”
“I’m so sorry,” he said raggedly, still clutching her tightly. “I failed you. I lost control.”
“Yes.” Gently, but firmly, she extracted herself. “About that.”
“Right. It didn’t work.” He glumly took in the lake of marsh water filling the room, still sloshing against the walls from the magical tempest. “There’s too much water. We should just abandon the house.”
She thumped him hard on the chest.
“Ow.” Rubbing the spot, he gazed back at her like a wounded puppy.
“Pull yourself together,” she snapped. “All that happened is you learned hownotto do it. Now we try again.”
“Again?” He looked aghast, then shook his head. “No. I’m not risking your well-being. You’re soaked and shivering.”
“And covered with stinking algae crap that I don’t want to know what it is,” she agreed, plucking something brown and vile from her hair and throwing it far away from her. “But we’re both already slimed, so we might as well continue.”
“I can’t believe you want to try again.”
“I can’t believe you want to quit after a single failure,” she retorted. “Also, if you were so concerned about me, once we were separated, you could’ve used your reserves to pull the water away from me so I didn’t drown.”
“I didn’t think of that,” he admitted with chagrin.
“Start thinking, then,” she replied equably. “That’s why we practice, to discover our weaknesses and plan around them so if we’re in an emergency situation—like a battle against another wizard—we have strategies.”
He regarded her with some bemusement. “You weren’t exaggerating when you said you’re a practical person. I don’t think most people would be so sanguine about what just happened.”
She shrugged. “Magic goes awry, and we’re trying new things. Also, I plan to soak in a long, hot bath after this, as a reward. Now let’s talk about what went wrong.”
