Page 107 of The Lands Defying
Bleeding.
Fading.
And Darius can see it in my eyes.
“Don’t you fucking dare, little wolf. You don’t get to leave me when I just got you. Climb up, now.” When I don’t move, he continues. “Just move up a little for me, okay?” he pleads. Darius never pleads. “I’ll be across soon.” He looks back as Leo and Damian continue to cut down a tree to get to me. “Just hold on, just fuck, please!”
His hand is still reaching out toward me, and I lift mine, wiggling my bloody fingers, wanting to feel his skin against mine. Tears drop from my eyes as I stretch my hand out as far as they will go, as I reach for him.
It’s strange that at this moment we are mirroring the statues below us who once reached out to each other from across the river. To try and get the other person to hold them tight and never let go.
But they failed.
And so have we.
My fingers slip, and I’m falling, the water below ready to take another victim into its depths.
At one point in the early days of Eridian, I stood atop the cliff, so close to letting the Unforgivable Sea have me, and now it’s going to take me when I want to stay.
A roar sounds above me, the sound thundering and my body turns on its own accord so my back faces the water below. My hair whips around my face as I look up to the top of the cliffs where Darius is, when the other half of me gets smaller the further I fall.
Take care of him, Cazier. He will need you.
My vision wavers, and a wheezing breath leaves me as I continue looking up toward Darius, but then, he jumps.
He’s coming for me, hand outstretched, body coated in darkness and all I can do is watch as I get further away from him.
Just as I hear the water about to engulf me, just as the cold, icy depths take me, a blur has me blinking, and then I’m looking into the eyes of a wolf before I’m swallowed whole.
Twenty Eight
Darius
I hit the water, my hand reaching out to grab Rhea as I land exactly where she went under.
I dive down when I feel nothing, my eyes open, scanning the darkness frantically. My hands spread out, clawing, reaching, trying to grab any part of her body, but I only touch water.
Still, I swim deeper and deeper, the ice of the water threatening to freeze the blood in my veins. But what the Unforgettable Sea doesn’t realize is that if not for her, the heart in my body wouldn’t pump blood around it to keep me alive.
There!
My hand grabs hold of something solid, and I grip it as tightly as I can, trying to see in the dark to no avail. I feel fingers, my lungs burning for air as bubbles release from my mouth as I try and pull on a growl.
Then it’s gone, slipped through my hand and I’m left scrambling, searching, spinning this way and that to try and grab that hand again.
Something reaches my shoulders, grabbing my arms and pulling me.
No. No!
I have to get to her.
I fight with the other body, trying to kick out but I suck in water, my lungs stalling as they fill.
I’m pulled up, light cresting the surface that I see with bleary eyes and then we are at the surface.
I cough up water, gasping for air as Damian shouts in my ear, slamming his hand down on the top of my back.
“Are you fucking stupid! How can you get her if you’re dead!” He’s holding me up, making sure I don’t sink back down, keeping us afloat.
