Page 241 of Sigils & Spells

“Nah, I just figured you could dry us.” She lifted one shoulder and wrinkled her nose at me.

“Ugh. I don't want to push my luck. One of these days, I'm going to get caught and I'll find myself kicked out with nowhere to go.”

“The High Priestess would never! No matter what you did.”

We sank to the blanket side by side, and I sighed. “I just can't get the hang of anything, it seems. Every time I think I have it down, something changes. And they don't want me to practice at it or get better or even learn control of it. Sometimes I'm not even trying and things go totally haywire.”

Evie reached out and grabbed my hand. “You'll get it. Why do you think they don't want you to master the magic? I'd suggest jealousy, but even the High Priestess is against it, and she ain't got a single thing to be jealous about.”

“I don't know. Let's worry about it on a day other than today. I want to be happy on my birthday and the subject doesn't exactly make me happy.”

“Of course! Are you excited about being able to leave the complex soon?”

“Soon? Ha ha ha. I still have another year. Another year exactly, if we're being precise. But yes. I'm dying to see the world. Or at least the city.”

We ate lunch, enjoying Diana's fried chicken and pasta salad, with fruit salad and crackers and cheese. Moments like the one we were having made the rest of the time, where I felt lonely and not very loved bearable. My best friend planned a picnic lunch for me at my favorite place, bringing my favorite foods that were made by one of my favorite people.

The sun made its way across the sky as we enjoyed our afternoon. Just as we prepared to clean up and head back, a feeling of dread came over me. My palms became clammy and my blood roared in my ears.

“Do you feel that?” Evie didn't seem affected, but I needed to know for sure.

“Feel what?” She stopped her packing up and looked around.

I shook my head. Every minute that passed, the feeling got more intense. Before I could try to describe it, the horses whinnied and began pawing the ground nervously. Somewhere in the nearby forest, a hawk called out. Even the roar of the water seemed louder.

“Oh, that...” Evie inspected our surroundings. “Yeah, something's gotten weird. Let's hurry up and get out of here. We need to tell the High Priestess. Or someone.”

Before we could get the last of our picnic into the bags, the river began to swell, spilling over the banks and racing up the sand toward us.

“Leave it!” I called as I spun toward the horses.

Too late. Their fear overrode their desire to carry us and they galloped off, their hooves pounding against the trail. I whistled, attempting to call them back, but they were gone.

In the next instant, I felt the water wrapping around my ankles, sucking at the sand beneath my feet and knocking me off balance. Evie cried out, yelling my name as the water drug her back toward the deeper water where the river belonged.

“Help me, Annie!”

Even as I fought being drug into the river myself, I tried my hardest to use my power to push the water away and force it to release her. Nothing I did worked, and I found myself fighting the current to keep my head above water and Evie was nowhere in sight.

CHAPTER4

The current foughtto drag me under as I fought just as hard to make it back to the surface for air. Tumbling against the rocks at the bottom, I hit my head and my hips, every bony part of me slammed into the boulders. My lungs screamed for air as I struggled upward. Just as my head broke the surface, and I gasped for a lungful of oxygen, I heard Evie scream.

Before I could answer her, my mouth dipped below the water again, causing me to lose some of the air I'd breathed in as I opened my mouth to yell back. After what seemed like forever, I felt the sand and rocks beneath my feet, which allowed me to push my head above water and keep it there. With the last of my strength, I drug myself up onto the bank and collapsed, praying the water wouldn't rise again. If it did, I probably wasn't going to make it.

The next time I came to consciousness, the sun barely shone from behind the trees and I heard someone calling my name. I wanted to answer, but with my throat hoarse from swallowing so much water and then vomiting it back up, my voice wouldn't carry to whoever called me just inside the tree line. And where was Evie?

“Evie! Evie? Where are you? Evie!” Terror gave me more volume than I might have had otherwise, as I called her name.

Though not very loud, it must have been enough to grab someone's attention because Toby came crashing through the bushes to drop down at my side.

“Annarah! Thank the goddess! Are you okay? What happened to you?” He helped me sit up and called back to the others, still searching. “Here! I've found her. She's here!”

“Evie,” I croaked. “Where is Evie?”

“Don't you worry none, we're gonna get you all taken care of.”

Despite my brain fog, it was abundantly clear to me that he avoided my question regarding Evie's whereabouts. Fear sliced through me, worse than anything the previous experience had just shown me. She had to be alright, she just had to. Without her, I didn't want to even consider what life would be like.

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