“No, you idiot.” I splash water at him. “I was scared you were dead.”
He splashes water back at me, although not as harshly. “Don’t worry, it’s gonna take a lot more than a subterranean waterfall to end me. Not even a morioraith could finish the job.”
“Yes, well, that might have ended differently if I hadn’t draped my very confused self over you while banging magically lengthened pieces of metal together like someone in a crazed trance.”
He stops treading water and wraps an arm around the rock I’m clinging to. “That’s what happened before Lumethon got there?”
“Yes.” I look away, embarrassed now that I’ve shared the finer details of that experience. “I’ll admit it’s not my most heroic rescue ever, but it did the job.”
“Heroic or not, I’m very grateful. I don’t think I ever thanked you after I woke up.”
“No.” I focus on the red water lapping between us. “I think you just told me you were a monster and that I should leave. Oh, and you apologized. And I apologized. There was a lot of apologizing going on.” I add in a smile as I look up at him, so he knows we don’t need to make this a heavy, serious conversation. I notice then that his eyes are brown instead of the light grey-green of his contact lenses. I’m about to comment on it when a whirlpool swirls into existence not far from us. “Quickly,” I say, diving toward it.
This one is quicker than the last, spitting me out the bottom before I’ve had a chance to become too dizzy. A split second before I hit the next river, my body stops, as if suspended in the air by an invisible rope. Then I drop the final distance. Standing up, I realize why. The water—warmer than any of the rivers so far—is shallow here, lapping just above my waist. Falling into this water from a great height wouldn’t end well.
“This is incredible,” Chase says, looking around as he stands.
I have to agree with him. The water looks like liquid gold or gold paint. But when I scoop it up and let it trickle between my fingers, it leaves my hands clean, so perhaps it’s only a reflection of the gold cave walls. “Beautiful,” I murmur, “and very, very warm.” So warm I can see steam rising. “Does it still count as a river if it isn’t moving?”
“I think it is moving just a tiny bit,” Chase says. “But hey, none of these are normal rivers, so who knows.”
“Yeah.” I smile at him and find myself noticing his eyes again. “What happened to your contact lenses?”
“They don’t do so well in water. I lost them after the first whirlpool.”
“Well, I prefer seeing your real eyes,” I tell him, and then wish I hadn’t because it seems to have led us to a conversation dead end. Awkward, since I can’t seem to pull my eyes away from his. The seconds pass, and something in his gaze changes. Something that makes me feel … “Flip, it’s hot in here. I can’t handle this anymore.” I hastily undo the buttons of my jacket as heat threatens to overwhelm me. How fortunate that I chose to wear a tank top underneath instead of something with longer sleeves.
“Yeah,” Chase says, tugging his jacket off. “Definitely too hot.”
“You know, I’ve been thinking about getting a tattoo,” I say as I peel the wet sleeves of my jacket off. I leave it floating in the water beside me.
“Ah, time for the giant dragon across your back.”
“Close,” I say with a chuckle, “but not quite. I saw something on your desk that I really liked. An ink drawing of a phoenix.”
“A phoenix,” Chase says, nodding slowly. “New life, new beginning.”
“I know, it isn’t exactly an original idea, but I want something that symbolizes my new life. And your drawing is unique. No one else will have anything like it. I mean, if you let me use it.”
“Of course I will.”
“I was thinking across the top half of my back, reaching up to the base of my neck.” I pull my wet hair aside and reach back to touch the top of my spine. “And then the wings extending up to my shoulders on either side. What do you think?”
Chase nods. He clears his throat and says, “It would be perfect.”
Again, something feels different between us. I know what it is. I know exactly what it is, and I’m expecting fountains of gold water to start spurting up around us at any point. I should say something, but I don’t know how or where to begin, and I don’t know if I’m brave enough. I breathe in deeply—because, seriously, what happened to the air in here?—and look around. Where is this darn whirlpool? Only one more to go, right? “Um, why do they call these the Wishbone Rivers?” I ask, relieved that I’ve come up with something to talk about. “Do people think wishes come true here?”
Chase scoops gold water into his hands and lets it run out between his fingers. “Perhaps they do, but the system was named after the top river, which is shaped like a wishbone. It’s actually two rivers, joined at the mouth where they go into the sea. Only the right side has whirlpools, though, and parallel rivers beneath it.” He looks up and adds, “I checked with Gaius before we left, just in case there was some kind of strange wishing magic we’d have to deal with here.”
“Wishing magic,” I say, pondering the idea as I trail my fingers slowly through the water. “If wishes could come true, what would you wish for?”
“I would wish …” He looks away down the golden river. “I would wish I were someone else. Just a normal faerie guy instead of the person who messed up so badly. I’d wish that I could meet you under completely ordinary circumstances, and I’d wish that you could still see me the way you saw me in those last minutes under the flower canopy before everything fell apart.” He smiles as he returns his eyes to mine. “Is that too many wishes?”
I hold his gaze while considering my words carefully, and I realize that I am, after all, brave enough. “Perhaps some wishes do come true,” I tell him, my words leaving my tongue slowly. I want to make sure he hears every single one. “Or perhaps you simply haven’t realized yet that some things don’t need to be wished for.” I look down and reach for his hand in the water. I slide my fingers between his before adding, “I mean, why would you wish for something you already have?”
Tiny gold beads of water rise out of the river and string themselves around my arm and around his. Gold lights flash in the cave walls around us. My heart thunders, and I’m wondering what happened to the air again. I have no hope of finding it, though, because when I raise my eyes once more, Chase’s burning gaze is enough to steal my breath away and send fiery warmth rushing through my insides.
He raises our clasped hands and lets go. He traces his fingers up my arms, turning the fire on my skin to a shiver. His hands still as they reach my neck. He leans forward, his face stopping inches from mine. “Do you mean that?” he asks, his voice hoarse.
With sprite wings fluttering wildly in my stomach, I press a kiss to his jaw, and then another one higher up. When I reach his ear, I say, “I wouldn’t wish you to be anyone else. Why would I, when it’s you that I want?”
His lips find mine, and the world of gold and flashing lights disappears as my eyes close and my fingers spread through his wet hair, pulling him closer. His hands slide around my back, knotting in my hair before tracing down my spine and into the water to press against my lower back. Our bodies fit perfectly together. My arms twine around his neck and sparks skid across our tongues and droplets of magic-infused water rain down on us, mingling with our kisses.
And that’s when the world gives way beneath us and a whirlpool sucks us down.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-THREE
The final river feels like ice against my burning skin. I rise to the surface, gasping against the cold as well as for air. As the rippling waves around me subside, I notice the water glowing faintly. Blue gems stud the rough cave walls, glinting with wintry beauty, and between them, patterns and pictures have been carved into the stone.
“Calla!” I look around and see Chase behind me. The current, stronger in this river than in the others, is already pulling me along. He joins it, s
wimming with quick, strong strokes toward me. I reach out for him as the current drags me along. I don’t know why, but I feel a need for physical contact with him in the same way I need air. A clasped hand, linked arms, an embrace, anything. Something feels incomplete without his touch. He catches my hand, then points past me. “Look, we’re at the mouth already. There’s the monument.”
I turn, never letting go of his hand. Up ahead on the right, just before the cave ends, I see the monument. A round base, motionless stone waves, and the trident rising up. It seems bigger in real life. “Where are Ana and Kobe?” I ask. “They should be there waiting for us.”
“Something doesn’t seem right,” Chase says, pulling at the water to move us forward faster. “Do you see figures lying down beside the monument?”
I squint though the dim bluish light. I see two shapes on the ground, and fear sends another shiver through me. “I … I think so.”
I have to let go of Chase’s hand as we kick against the current and move diagonally toward the shore on the right. Once the water becomes shallow enough to stand, Chase pushes us forward with an extra spurt of magic. I almost stumble and fall over, but he runs across the pebbles toward the monument. “Be careful!” he shouts back to me. He raises his hand in a sweeping motion, and I sense a shield surrounding me. Hopefully he’s done the same for himself.
With no warning, nausea rises within me and spreads a sickening ache across my stomach. Dizziness consumes me. I bend over and lean on my knees, breathing heavily. By some miracle, I don’t fall over. “Chase,” I gasp. “Chase!” His head whips over his shoulder just as everything becomes black.
I find myself floating in a void of nothingness as my body is squeezed and squeezed and squeezed, until finally the pressure releases me and I gasp for air as I stagger toward the light. A tangled nighttime forest greets me. Confused, scared and cold, but longer attacked by nausea, I look around. Is this Creepy Hollow? I hear movement behind me and turn as quickly as my remaining dizziness will allow.
Magic. A swirling ball of it hovering above a pair of hands. And beyond that, the face of a person I recognize. Without hesitation, Zed hurls the magic at me.
I throw myself to the side and land behind a tree. Telling myself that I’m not dizzy and that I can stand up, I scramble to my feet. I raise shield magic around me as I hear Zed’s footsteps crunching over fallen leaves. “Now that was a waste of stunner magic,” he says.
“What the flipping heck, Zed?” I shout. “What did you … did you summon me here?” Summoning magic isn’t something we learn. It isn’t natural. It isn’t right. And what happened to me just now definitely didn’t feel right.
“Yes,” Zed says, still walking toward the tree I’m hiding behind. “Difficult spell, but I had help. And you’d be surprised at how straightforward it actually is if you’ve been able to tag the person you want to summon.”
“Tag?” I focus on the illusion of invisibility and drop my mental wall.
“Neck been feeling itchy lately?” Zed asks. He swings around the side of the tree, his arm raised and ready to attack. His brow puckers in confusion when he finds the space behind the tree empty.
I try not to breathe, not to move, as my mind races back to the last time I saw Zed. He tried to kiss me, and his hand was around my neck, pressing tightly as he drew me toward him. He must have done something then. Something I was too shocked to notice because all I cared about was getting him off me.
A shiver raises the hairs on my skin. Being wet and without a jacket on an autumn night isn’t ideal.
“I gave you the amber as well,” Zed says, turning away as his eyes dart across the area around the tree, “but it turned out I couldn’t track that for some reason. Fortunately the tag charm hadn’t worn off yet by the time I did the summoning spell.”
With my dizziness finally gone and adrenaline rushing through my limbs, I jump to the side and run. Invisible, invisible, invisible, I remind myself. Sparks fly past me. I guess he can see the leaves my shoes are kicking up. I stop, skid to the side, and leap. Magic shoots me upward. I land on one branch and grasp at another to keep from falling.
“This will be a lot easier if you just give in now,” Zed shouts as turquoise sparks flare past me.
I abandon the illusion and reinforce my shield. “Dammit, Zed, I don’t know what game you’re playing, but you have exceptionally bad timing.”
“My timing is perfect,” he says, stalking toward me.
“I was in the middle of something important!”
“Exactly. That was the moment at which I was told to summon you. They didn’t want you and your illusions interfering with their plans.”
“They? Are you … are you working for Amon and Angelica?”
“No.” He stops beneath the tree and starts to gather more magic above his palm. “But I found myself in need of assistance, and so did they. You know what people say: The enemy of my enemy and all that.”
“Zed, NO! That is a terrible idea! They are the real enemy. They’re the ones who locked us up in the first place. Why would you take their side now?” Part of me knows I should be running. I should be throwing everything I have into an illusion that will give me enough time to open a doorway and flee. But this is Zed. He’s been helping me ever since we found ourselves hanging beside one another in cages. We have a friendship that goes back years. There must be a way I can talk him out of whatever he’s about to do.
“Firstly,” he says, “they weren’t the ones who locked us up. Prince Zell was, and everyone admits he was a little crazy. Secondly, I’m not on their side. This was a once-off arrangement that benefited both parties.”
A chill courses down my spine. “What did you have to do for them in exchange?”
“Come on, Calla. You know I can’t tell you that.”
“Is that why I’m here? Have you been told to hand me over to Amon’s men?”
He chuckles. “Nothing like that. My work for them was done after I escaped the Guild.”
Cogs turn in my brain. “You allowed yourself to be caught,” I say softly, “so you could get inside the Guild.”
“Yes.”
My mind runs through the possibilities. Vi said someone escaped the detainment area in the morning. I came across Zed the following afternoon. That means he was on the loose inside the Guild for more than twenty-four hours. What terrible things could he have done in that time? “Zed,” I say carefully as I pump more magic into the invisible shield surrounding me. “Whatever it is that you want with me, you don’t have to do it. What happened to us being friends?”
He doesn’t answer. Magic crackles above his palm. Enough to break my shield? Possibly. But then what? He won’t have time to strike me with anything before I get away. We watch each other, his gaze locked on mine, each waiting for the other to make a move.
His hand flashes toward his pocket. I imagine invisibility and jump. I hit the ground and roll to the side. He tosses something, a small dark ball that explodes inches away from my shield. I throw my arm up as my magic shatters and vanishes. Then he raises his arm and slams his magic at me.
* * *
I awake slowly, my thoughts as lethargic as my limbs. I can’t remember where I was when I fell asleep. I try to turn over, but I find my hands pinned behind my back. With a groan and a great deal of effort, I manage to peel one eyelid open. I see Zed—and I remember everything.
“I’m sorry I had to stun you,” he says, “but there’s no way you would have come with me by choice. You haven’t been out for long, though. I didn’t have time to gather a great deal of stunning power after you made me miss with the first shot.” He bends down over my feet. Glittering ropes, the kind that can’t merely be cut free, appear in his hands. “This isn’t personal, Calla,” he tells me as he winds the rope around and between my ankles. “I’ve never had anything against you. I haven’t forgotten our years of friendship, and I actually care about you a lot. That’s why I had to get you out of there.”
I bl
ink and shake my head. “What are you going on about?”
He pulls the final knot tight. “I gave you a chance to see things clearly, but you kept refusing. I didn’t want you to wind up dead from the dragon disease, though, so I found a way to remove you permanently from the Guild.”
My sluggish brain doesn’t want to connect the dots, but they’re too obvious for me to avoid. “You’re the one who got me expelled?” The shocking truth wakes my brain up. I wriggle against my bonds and shout, “How could you do that to me?”
“I was helping you, Calla.”
“Helping me? You almost got me thrown into prison for murder!”
“That wasn’t supposed to happen. I needed someone to take the fall, and you needed to get out of there. I planted enough evidence that they’d suspect you, but not be able to prove it for certain. You were supposed to be expelled, not charged for murder. I even gave you the cure before I left so you wouldn’t get sick. I saved you, Cal.”
“You never gave me the cure.”
“I did. With one of those surveillance devices. They all have their own control enchantments, and I stole one while hiding in the Guild. I made it inject you while you were in a lesson. By the time we danced at the ball and I left that streak of powder on your hand, you were already immune.”
“You … you were …” I shake my head and whisper, “You killed Saskia. And all those other people who wound up sick. How did you turn into this person? This murderer?”
He grabs my arms and pulls me closer. “Because it’s about time the Guild started paying for everything they’ve done to the Gifted. For everything they’ve done to you and me and people just like us. A whole lot more people were supposed to die, in fact. We—the group I told you about, the group I wish I could convince you to join—had planned to send a very clear message, starting with that Starkweather girl and then letting it spread through every Guild. We were then going to stand up and claim what we’d done so that everyone left would know exactly what crimes they were paying for. But somebody interfered by running off and finding a cure.”
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