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Another deep groan, the riverbed trembling beneath my feet. Water poured over the top, an enormous hole forming in the center before I could patch it, spraying out a plume of river water.
I gritted my teeth. Magic webbed across the opening. The spray stopped.
We were not dying here.
I would make sure of that. I couldn’t save my friends alone, but I could make sure Zor and Raz…and the forest…had enough time to get them out.
47
RAZIEL
The tree carved a hole so deep into the ground I could not see the bottom.
Only those enormous roots digging and digging, slinging enough soil up to form a small hill in the center of the forest, right over top of the puny little hole I’d dug earlier.
We could name itTavion’s Hill, I thought before shaking my head at my own foolishness.
Yet hope thrummed in my chest, my heart aching from it as the forest fought like mad to save our friends. Fought every bit as hard as we did. That fucking bitch…
Later.Later we’d figure out what to do about the Oracle and these ridiculoustasksof hers, like this was some sort of competition. I pinched the top of my nose, leaping back as a crack spread slowly across the forest floor, swallowing up fragile ferns and wildflowers.
The forest was sacrificing itself to help Anaria, I realized.
Then everything stopped, the roots going still, the trees overhead still and quiet, the deep cracking of the earth replaced by pulsing silence. Something echoed up out of the depths.
A low, mournful howl.
A wolf’s howl. A howl of pure desperation that sent shivers down my spine, both of staggering relief and utter horror.
They were running out of time, and I couldn’t reach them.
“Tavion. Tristan.Hold on,” I screamed down into the endless darkness, boots slipping on the torn-up ground as I raced back to the river. They were buried too deep, it would take me too long to climb down and get them, too long for them to climb out.
True, I’d flown Anaria and me back from Tempeste, but…I couldn’t pin down how I’d done that. My magic was different than I remembered, and I barely recalled anything about my failed rescue mission except the decapitated body of the king, the fear in Anaria’s eyes…destroying Torin’s room with an explosion of strange, blue-black magic.
No, whateverthatmagic had been, I wouldn’t be touching that again.
Zor stood firm behind Anaria, bracing her up, and my heart guttered in my chest.
They were in the middle of the empty riverbed, legs braced wide before the churning wall of water straining against her fragile dam, the top higher than either bank of the river.
I cupped my hands around my mouth. “Zor. They’re too far down; you have to bring them to the surface.” I couldn’t take my eyes off that fucking water about to overflow. The stubborn, fearless woman I loved all that stood between us and our doom.
“I can’t leave her.” Zor’s head whipped between me and the girl holding the power of an entire river at bay. “If I’m not ready when her magic runs out…”
“Stop arguing and go get them, Zor,” Anaria snapped. “I can hold this a few more minutes.” Sweat poured down her face, her arms shook, but that determined look on her face never faltered.
“I’m trading places with you.” I navigated the empty riverbed until I was beside them. “You get them out of the hole, and I’ll help Anaria hold back the water.”
“That’s not what your magic does,” Zor reminded me gruffly, then he shook his head. “Don’t let anything fucking happen to her, Raz.”
“I won’t. Now get them out before this goes sideways.” My stomach clenched with dread, but I jerked my head toward the now-silent forest. Water poured over the top of Anaria’s dam, soaking all three of us.
“Make it fast. We don’t have long,” I called after him as he wound between the trees. Zor paused on the edge of deepest crack, then disappeared. He reappeared a few seconds later with Adele in his arms, her thin arms clasped around his neck.
“Your mother’s safe.” I kept my eyes on the forest, my hands braced on her trembling shoulders. “Tristan’s out. And Tavion.”
Zor dumped the huge wolf unceremoniously onto the ground. Tavion’s side was matted with dried blood, and though I couldn’t hear over the roar of the water, after a heated discussion, Zor picked up Adele and vanished again, to where, I didn’t know.
