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The woman to my left slipped her hand into mine, and even though we were perfect strangers, we were being forged together as sisters in this moment—united by our cause.
I squeezed her hand gently before I looked to my right and placed my hand in the man’s beside me. Scared, wide eyes glanced at our joined hands before they rose to my face. He looked ghastly white, his skin slick with sweat even though it was the middle of winter. His hand clamped onto mine and we exchanged silent nods. He turned to his right, placing his hand in the woman’s who stood next to him. This small act of unity—of joining hands—was repeated, until we all were linked together.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, filling my lungs with the icy air. I pictured myself standing on the lake floor, in the calm serenity of my whispering oak trees, allowing it to center me.
When my eyelids snapped open, I shouted for all to hear, “We count down together!”
Twenty-three voices melded together like heated metal forged in a fire.
When we reached the end of the countdown, a warrior’s roar tore out of me. Out ofallof us.
The crowd behind us began to cheer, their voices urging us on.
I threw my power into breaking the water beast. It fought back, testing the bounds of my power—testingme.
There had only been one other time I recalled feeling the crushing weight of what I felt now—that time Kaleb had walked out into the blizzard to go find us wood to heat our home. The storm had laughed at me, ridiculed me, and yet, by the end, I shook it to its knees. I told myself I could do that again.
I gritted my teeth and bore down harder.
And harder.
The river would not relent, but neither would I.
Until finally . . . part of it lifted—blasting towards the crisp, blue sky.
The woman beside me grunted as she, too, lifted her section of the river.
And then another raised up. And another. And another.
Until a riverbed of glistening, polished pebbles and dark silt stretched before us. My heart struck a heavy beat when the crowd behind us cried out in triumph, but as much as I wanted to revel in this victory, I knew that I couldn’t. Because now came the real test—we had the strength to lift the river, but did we have the endurance to hold it?
We had to. There was no other choice.
The first group—the runners—went first. As they raced their way to the other side, the river continued to throw itself at our wall, banking itself higher and higher—the natural flow of the current was clogged.
“Hold it,” I ground out to the others.
“What’s that?” shouted a man from the crowd, his voice frantic.
“It’s the king’s men! They are coming for us!” screamed a woman.
“They are going to kill us!” cried out another.
It took mere seconds for cheers of victory to be drowned out by screams of panic.
“Everyone to the other side now! Fire Cursed with me!” I heard Ryker command from somewhere behind. Then he was at my side, his voice in my ear. “We’ll hold them off. You just focus on the river until everyone crosses through. And then you get yourself to safety.”
“Ryker, no,” I said between clenched teeth, fighting against the bone-crushing weight of the water.
“You can do this, Sage,” he said, and then he was gone—lost in the crowd behind me.
Chaos ensued as the people began to race for the river, away from the king’s soldiers.
I thought I heard Ryker yelling commands far behind me, but the roar of the water drowned him out, along with the screams and cries of the people as they ran for their lives. Some helped one another, while others looked after themselves. I couldn’t blame the ones that didn’t help—they had been reduced to frightened animals, desperate not to be thrown back into the king’s horrific cage.
In an instant, heat spread across my back, licking at the beads of sweat pooling on my skin. Winter’s freezing temperatures were chased away as a blistering heat emitted from behind me. I wanted to turn, to check on Ryker, but I didn’t dare take my attention off the river—not when hundreds of people were currently passing through.
“I can’t hold it much longer,” the man said beside me. He was barely able to get the words out.
