Page 208 of Mud

The lake that was going to heal my vulcera.

Goddess, it had actually worked. The talons had broken the surface, and there was water underneath it just like I knew there would be.

It was finally time to get off the fucking statue.

I was laughing when I began to climb down. I was laughing and praying to Iris that I didn’t fall and break my back now when I was so close. I was laughing and praying and climbing as fast as my limbs allowed, until I heard that one word—jump!

Taland was somewhere below me.

If I looked, I’d be too afraid, and I didn’t want to be. I justwanted it to be over. Even if the fall killed me, it would be over. This hell would come to an end.

So, I closed my eyes, took in a deep breath, and I let go.

Such an incredible feeling.

For a second there, I wasflying,not falling. I wasfree,not about to die. I was completely healed from everything, from this rotten world and its rotten people, from all my guilt—I was healed.

Then I reached the bottom and fell right in Taland’s arms.

He must have overestimated his strength because the moment I made impact, we both fell against the ice. He couldn’t stop me, but he wrapped those arms around me and didn’t let go while we rolled and rolled on the cold ice, protecting me with his body so that I barely felt any pain.

“You’re….you’re…you’re…” he said with each new sharp intake of breath when we stopped—and the most wonderful thing was, my fingers touched water.

There really was water on the surface of the ice.

There I went, laughing and crying again, still on the ground.

“You’re fucking…crazy,” Taland finally finished.

Like I said—a hundred times better thantraitor.

I turned to him—we were both on our backs, and he was smiling and looking up at the roc statue. I grabbed his face, turned it to me, and kissed his lips with all that was left in me.

I kissed the hell out of his ice-cold, dry lips.

Then I got my shit together and I stood up.

Players around us, but none came close yet. They were only watching from afar. The crack that the talons had made on the surface of the lake wasn’t big—barely the size of my fist. Fuck, this ice was really,reallythick.

Water slipped out of the cracks constantly, and I knew there was a lot of it underneath even though we couldn’t really see it. But it was water, and that biggest crack was half filled with it, and I took off my holster because I had nothing else to carry it with. The holster would do just fine—it was leather and sturdy, and it didn’t have any holes in it. I filled it up while praying that it worked the way I hoped.

And what if it doesn’t?an ugly voice in my head said.

But then….

“Rose, look.”

I turned to Taland who was kneeling on the ground right next to the ice of the lake. He was kneeling in front of his eagle that had been wrapped up in his leather jacket. His eagle who’d been barely breathing and barely keeping his eyes open the last time I was down here.

His eagle that was now standing, testing his large wings, the feathers on them a rich brown.

“It works,” said Taland, an awe-struck smile on his face.

“Did you…did you…” I couldn’t even finish speaking. My vision was blurry from the tears, too.

“It did. I gave him the water. Itworks,” Taland said.

I was running with a gun holster full of ice-cold water in my hands before he finished speaking.

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