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“You must,” I said to him, squeezing his hand a bit more.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his hand slipping from mine. His legs gave out from underneath him, and he collapsed onto the ground. His section of the river started to come down, but he used whatever morsel was left of his power to just barely keep it up. I was proud of him for doing so—for fighting even when his body had given out. It showed a great deal of strength.
I set my sights on the slowly falling side. Imagining myself holding a potato sack and adding one more, I grunted as I raised his section of the river back up.
Someone ran up beside me, checking on the man. “Leighton, can you hear me?” he asked.
All that came was a groggy response.
“Get him to the other side,” I commanded whoever it was.
“Alright,” the person replied as helped the man—Leighton—onto his feet. He half carried, half dragged him towards the riverbed path, desperate to get him to safety by any means.
I knew that feeling well.
The fire behind me grew hotter, the heat stretching to my sides. In my peripheral vision, I could see a wall of flame curve on either side of me, stopping at the river. Ryker and the other Fire Cursed had made a protective wall of flame around us—cutting the soldiers off from reaching us.
Ryker was brilliant.
Further down the line, someone else collapsed. This time, that section of the river damn nearly came crashing down. The people crossing that part screamed in terror just before the river swallowed them whole, but another water wielder and I stopped it from doing so. We swore a string of profanities as we hoisted it back up, my bones groaning.
It did not take long for twenty-three to be reduced to eighteen. Then eighteen to twelve. And by the time the crowd had passed the halfway point, there were only six of us left standing.
My limbs felt like silly little twigs attempting to hold up a mountain. I was stuck in a battle of wills against the strong, powerful, current, and I was beginning to fear that I might break.
My clothes were drenched in sweat. My legs trembled beneath me.
My body,my power—both on the verge of giving out.
Help me, I pleaded with the goddess within me.
But she didn’t respond.
Please. Lend me strength.
Again, no reply.
Ryker’s voice came from behind me. “The soldiers are sealed off for now,” he panted.
“Take the others,” I rasped to him, my tongue like chalk, my throat dry. How ironic, considering I was holding up gallons upon gallons of water.
Three more Water Cursed went down, but the other two and I didn’t let the river fall. I screamed internally—it felt like my body was being shredded apart.
And then . . .I felther.I felt the goddess within wake and stir.
I am with you, she said.
Her strength was like a shot of adrenaline in my veins, firming up my wobbling legs.
“I can’t—” the woman beside me wheezed before she went down, her hand slipping from mine.
No sooner than she hit the ground, the other woman went down as well, and the entirety of the river was placed on me.
“Sage—"
I cut Ryker off as I roared, “Help the others! Get them to the other side!”
“But what about you?” he asked, his voice urgent, his jaw clenched as he spoke.
