Page 60 of A Touch Enchanted

My eyes filled as I squeezed his wrists. “Thank you.”

We filled everyone in on our plan, which was met with resounding protests. No one wanted us to jump into that water, but after they calmed down, they also had to admit we didn’t have a lot of options. The power Donovan and I shared had been made for this.

We walked to the edge of the bank, hand in hand. Our palms glowed a brilliant sky blue. My aqua and his sapphire. The skin along Donovan’s neck parted, as did my own, revealing our gills. I ran my fingers over the golden gate, to soothe both its pain and my fears.

My voice shook as I looked up at the man who held my heart and my life in his hands. “Don’t let go of me.”

“I won’t.” His gaze was loaded, intense, filled with so much more than those two words could carry. But I trusted him. He’d hold me with everything that he had.

And on three, we jumped feet first into the water.

Chapter nineteen

Donovan

Warm,saltywaterslicedover my skin as we whipped through the fast-moving currents. I’d expected it to be cooler, but whatever coated our skin gave us an extra layer of protection against the elements. Good thing, too, since my muscles were still clenched from that first impact.

The river grabbed us immediately, slamming my back into the rough bank as it carried us away from our group. I held Violet tighter, using my body to shield her from the worst impact. We didn’t have much control, though. Once we were zipped away from the golden light of the gate, I couldn’t even tell which way was up or down.

The pitch of the river changed and the dark pressed in on us. I couldn’t be sure, but if I had to guess, I’d say we passed under the rock wall we’d run into when we followed the river across the chasm. Violet clung to me, wrapping her arms tight around my neck. I feared I might’ve been crushing her, but we were each other’s lifeline. If we let go, we’d be dead within minutes.

“I’ve got you, Cricket. Hold on.” Part of our power allowed us to communicate underwater, which went a long way toward calming my racing heart.

She nodded against my chest. Feeling her tremble nearly broke me. She was scared out of her fucking mind, but she held it together. So brave.

We kicked our webbed feet against the current, trying to gain some control, but it was too strong. We had no choice but to hang on and hope for the best.

The darkness continued to deepen as we were carried further along the river. The sky blue light from our palms didn’t allow us to see much beyond our hands, but as far as I could tell from the little I’d been able to glimpse as we tumbled along, nothing swam in these waters with us. No fish. No plant life or algae. No moss coated the banks.

I didn’t know if I was relieved or alarmed.

“If this takes us to a dead-end, we’ll have no way back to everyone else,” Violet said.

My teeth hurt from locking my jaw so tight. “I know.”

The current was too strong. Even with our webbed feet and hands, we couldn’t fight the pull of the water as it carried us further into the unknown. The river continued to slam us into the banks, almost as if it sensed us as intruders and wanted us out, but there was nowhere for us to go. We had no choice. We had to follow this path until the water dumped us out somewhere.

“Do you feel that?” Violet asked. “It’s like we’re on a slide.”

Our speed picked up as we were hurtled down a steep decline. “Maybe there will be an exit point at the bottom.”

If this river held magic, I prayed that speaking into it would manifest a way out for us.

Once we hit the bottom of the slide, the river leveled out again. The speed didn’t slow, though. The rush of water continued to get louder as we plunged forward, seemingly with no end in sight.

We’d been hanging on to each other for several minutes, or possibly several hours. I couldn’t tell. Time didn’t exist in the normal sense while we were in this void. All around us there was darkness, rock walls, and endless, unrelenting water.

“I think I see something up ahead.” Violet hugged my neck as she strained to see over my shoulder. “It looks like it could be light.”

I had my back to whatever she was seeing and couldn’t risk trying to turn, so I just took her word for it. But as she began to squirm in my arms, hugging me harder, the current flipped us around and I saw it. Light. It was faint, but unmistakable.

We’d found it. A way out.

The river spat us out of a small tunnel, then we were free-falling into a clear blue pool flecked with gold that shimmered without the aid of light. We’d landed in a large cavern, as big as the space that housed Ceti’s tomb. And straight ahead, the cave opened up to the lighter blue water of the ocean.

Violet buried her face against my shoulder and openly sobbed. “We got out.”

I pressed my lips to the top of her head. “We’re going to be okay.”

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