Page 109 of The Lands Defying
Rage and panic build up inside of me, a ball of everything I am made of, and I roar, the sound loud enough to be heard over the crashing waves as I dive back down into the Unforgivable Sea.
I will not accept this. I refuse.
I sink down, the ice cold instantly filling my veins and injecting into my bones. I keep my eyes open, looking around for her, but I see nothing.
Rising to the surface again, I take in gulps of breath just as a strong wave sends me under. It causes me to turn and spin, not knowing which way is up or down.
But I don’t close my eyes, not once.
When I tumble once more and then to a stop, I look up and find the moonlight reflecting off the water’s surface. Needing air again, I swim up once more.
Turning around, looking, searching, I still see no sign of her, I hear my men yell and shout for me, telling me to come back and rest for a while.
I won’t.
“You cannot have her!” I roar into the waves as they splash up against me. “Do you hear me? You. Cannot. Have. Her.”
I feel my eyes turn black and the last of my power swells inside of me before it coats me like a second skin. It moves downwards until it touches the water, and then it flows along the surface.
Looking.
Searching.
Reaching for the other half of me.
My magic is as frantic to find her, to gather her in its embrace and bring her home.
To me.
“Brother,”Leo’s voice says through the link. I keep my eyes on the water. No one will take my focus away from searching for her.“There is no sign of her. Come back and we can search in the daylight.”
“No,”I say, moving my head left and right in my search.
“We have been searching for hours in darkness. We can barely see.”
“I don’t care, we will find her,”I shout back.
“Darius—”
I dive again.
Twenty Nine
Rhea
Down.
Down.
Down.
Darkness surrounds me.
Cold suffocates me.
I feel nothing else.
I see nothing else.
