Page 37 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
Everything clicked into place then as Eviana said, “You mean to enter the kingdom underwater where we will not be detected.”
“Exactly,” Lange said.
“How long will your magic hold?”
“We haven’t been using it much,” Corbin supplied. “Our reserves are full. We should easily be able to get into the kingdom before we need to surface. The river current will be a factor though.”
She nodded as she listened. It wasn’t the time to tell them they needed to make it to the Dreamlock Woods. She would wait to reveal that bit of information until they were well inside the territory.
“I think this plan is sound,” she finally said.
Lange snorted a laugh from the backseat. “None of what we are doing is sound,bellana.”
She frowned at the nickname again, but said nothing. She supposed it was fitting he referred to her as the plant that was stunning on the outside and produced poisonous berries. They tasted delicious but rendered one lifeless within an hour of eating them. Instead, she only nodded once at Corbin’s questioning look before he started the vehicle.
They rode in silence for several minutes until they were far enough upriver with no one and nothing around. Parking in a somewhat sheltered area of trees, he shut the vehicle off, and Eviana wasted no time exiting and rounding to the back where their supplies were. They wouldn’t be able to take everything, and she methodically began moving items to a backpack. She felt Lange and Corbin approach, and they silently began doing the same.
Within minutes, they were hoisting the packs onto their shoulders, and Corbin reached up to close the back hatch.Sharing a look with Lange, he turned to Eviana and asked, “Are you ready?”
Eviana only nodded, adjusting a strap.
“When we get to the water, I’ll use my magic to create a dome of sorts. We’ll enter it to keep us dry and protected. Lange will supply the oxygen. Once we’re submerged, I’ll take us down, and we can walk along the bottom of the river,” Corbin explained. “I’ll do my best to mitigate the current.”
She nodded again, clasping her hands before her as she studied the churning water. A crystal blue, it was the opposite of the Night Waters. Even still, she was sure beneath the surface it was just as dark. She’d been forced to keep others submerged beneath water on Valter’s orders numerous times. Twice, he’d done the same to her, and while she feared nothing after everything she had endured, her heart rate still picked up at the idea of willingly going beneath the river.
“Eviana? Are you all right?” Corbin asked, pulling her from the path she had started to spiral down.
A little girl in the Serafina Kingdom. That was what she needed to focus on. She would and could do anything for that tiny soul.
“Yes,” she answered primly, stepping to the water’s edge. She felt more than she saw the two males exchange another look before they stepped to her side.
Corbin stood between them, and he lifted a hand. Water immediately rose in tendrils at the same time as the lapping waves split, as if flowing around a large boulder. He wove the tendrils higher until they indeed formed a dome, just as he’d said would happen. The water’s edge jutted out now, muddy earth sloping down the farther out it went.
“Let’s go,” Lange said, stepping forward and looking at Eviana.
She followed, the boots Tessa had given her sinking into the silty river bottom. Pausing for a moment, she sucked in a shuddering breath, closing her eyes. Then fingers were wrapping around hers, and her eyes flew open, finding Lange holding her hand. Corbin had moved to his other side, his face twisted in concentration.
“We’ve done this before,” Lange said quietly, as if trying to coax a spooked animal.
“You’ve moved beneath a river?” she questioned, taking another step as he gently tugged her forward.
He huffed a laugh, pulling her along another step and another as he said, “Not here,bellana. But we got into our fair share of mischief, especially when we had more freedom at the Acropolis after the Emerging Ceremony.”
“That’s fitting,” she murmured, tension easing as he guided her farther and farther into the center of the river. Walls of water towered over them on both sides as they made their way deeper.
“Why is that?” Lange asked, and she could swear there was a teasing note to his tone.
“No reason,” she replied, glancing at Corbin. His hazel eyes were brighter, as if they had shifted some.
“Ready, Lange?” Corbin asked.
“Yep,” Lange answered, the air around them thickening when the male rotated the fingers of his other hand as though calling the winds to him.
“Eviana?” Corbin questioned.
She glanced at him once more. “What?”
“Are you ready?”
