Page 49 of Ocean of Silver

She eyed me for a moment as if assessing if I was telling the truth. “I assume your training is coming along then? Tezya’s a great teacher.”

I nodded, feeling uncomfortable talking about Tezya for some reason. I bit my lip hard as the memory of him holding me in the pool flashed through my head, and my ears heated. I felt… guilty, which was ridiculous because Tezya made it very clear the first day he took me to the beach that this was just training. He was engaged for crying out loud.

“I love it here,” Kallon murmured as she tucked the orange part of her hair back. “The waterfall feels like an entirely different place from everything else on the island. It makes me think we’re not in Lux.”

“Do you like living in Lux?” I asked.

“That’s a loaded question.”

“I’m sorry—” I started. I realized that it was probably rude and illegal for me to ask her that. I was just so curious about what it would have been like growing up here by the ocean, to have been able to swim every day and be out in nature without feeling like my body was going to freeze off.

“I hate Lux,” she said softly, “but the hut and the waterfall feel more like home than the city does. I love anything that’s far away from the politics of it all.”

“How do you guys all know each other?” I asked her, trying to change the subject. They seemed like they’d been friends for a while, and she knew about the hut that Tezya took me to. I got the feeling that it was a private place that not many Advenians knew about.

“Tez and I have been friends since we were children.” I looked over at her, noticing how her markings manifested into small circles that went up the front of her pale legs and then again on her spine. She had two larger circles over her shoulders. I guessed the circles indicated portal jumping.

“Tez met Brock next. He saved him, actually. He was supposed to be killed for a treason he didn’t commit, but Tez convinced the Lux King to let Brock into the army. So now he’s forced to serve. It’s a long story and not really mine to tell, but they have been friends ever since I could remember.”

“Tezya and Brock met Rainer fifteen years ago when he got placed in the army after his Trials. Rainer’s young, and he isn’t in control of his ability yet. When they first met him, his lightning was untamed. He accidentally electrified an officer in the army.” My eyes widened because we were all now swimming with Rainer in a river. Kallon caught my train of thought and added quickly, “He has better control of it now. He can exert his electricity into objects like weapons or thrust it into water, but he can’t wield it alone yet. He doesn’t have full control over it. For now, he just infuses his lightning into things, but once he has full control, he’ll be unstoppable. Brock and Tez both took him under their wings and have been training him to master it.”

“And Dovelyn?” I asked, noting that she didn’t mention the Princess’ connection.

Kallon looked uncomfortable as she shifted on the rock. “You will have to ask Tezya about her. It’s not my place.”

I was about to respond when Rainer burst up from under the waterfall, his long locks floating out next to him. His smile was truly dazzling as he looked up before he grabbed me by my legs and yanked me back into the water. “I’ll be stealing her now,” Rainer grinned at Kallon as he pushed me against his chest. “You can’t hog her all night.”

It all happened so fast. Before I could protest, Rainer sank under the surface to swim through the pouring fall with me in tow. The act of being dragged under the water, against my will, came spiraling out in waves of darkness. My eyes were slammed shut, and I couldn’t coax my brain into opening my mouth. That familiar heaviness crept up inside me, filling my lungs, as I writhed out of Rainer’s grasp.

Once he noticed I was squirming, he let go of me immediately. I darted toward the surface, using the water to propel me faster as I gasped for air. Rainer popped up a moment after me. I tried to steady my panting, tried to not give myself away that I was hyperventilating, but I couldn’t. I kept wheezing through my mouth like I couldn’t get enough air, my breath ragged. The water surrounding my body felt wrong and tainted.

Tezya’s head snapped up immediately. He seemed to sense what just unfolded. He dove into the water and was by me in an instant, guiding me out of the water.

“Shit, Scottie, I’m sorry. I was just messing around—” Rainer started, but I didn’t hear what else he said. My trembling body was leaning heavily into Tezya’s embrace as he helped me out of the water and walked me past the river bank. His hand was warm and comforting against my back.

Once we were alone, he turned to face me. “Are you okay?”

I nodded sheepishly. “I’m sorry… I didn’t… mean to… freak out.” I kept staring into his pale blue eyes, finding the lack of brown comforting.

This isn’t Kole. I’m not being drowned again. This is a waterfall, not the confined tile of a tub.

“You have nothing to apologize for. Ever,” he said as a muscle in his jaw quivered, then clenched, his hands were resting on my shoulders. “It’s my fault.”

“How is this… your fault?”

“Because I shouldn’t have brought you here, especially since they don’t know about your past with water.”

“They don’t know?” I asked, trying to take a few calming breaths. I was surprised. Once I realized his friends knew who I was at the party, I assumed that meant they knew everything.

Tez shook his head, his moon-white hair tousled from swimming. “Only Dovelyn knows about you since she was there when they compelled you. It’s up to you how much you want to tell the others. They are the only people in Lux I trust, so if you do decide to tell them, any of them, that information would be safe with them. But it’s your call.”

“Even about my ability? That I have enhancement.”

“Yes, that information would be safe with them, but I have to beg you not to tell them about it.”

“Why?”

“The less people that know, the better. I don’t want to drag my friends into this. I don’t want to ask them to lie for me.”Into this.Was I a burden to him?

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