Page 180 of The Revered and the Pariah

She cursed and forced herself up. Talon could survive this, she told herself. He wouldn’t let a few creatures be the death of him. But her mind kept circling back to the what ifs.

A piece of debris might have collided with his head, rendering him unconscious. One of the creatures might have dragged him under before he could draw enough breath. They could have attacked him first and—

Arianna forced herself into a limping run. The rain kept pouring down, beating against her head in an endless sheet. The wind blew and she braced against it, fighting the chatter in her teeth.

She kept studying the darkness ahead with every labored step. Her panic rose and the magic with it, that ancient thing refusing to slumber until she found what she was looking for.

Alive. Talon was alive. He had to be.

An eagle’s cry echoed ahead and Arianna could have wept from the sound. She picked up her pace, forcing her body faster until she saw him.

There. Across the bank, water ripped from the river and hit two of the creatures square in the chest. The liquid sizzled against their flesh and they screamed against the pain, but it wasn’t deterring them. Either they were starved, or they weren’t intelligent enough to know when they’d lost a fight.

Her injured foot hit a branch and it cracked in half. Talon pivoted. His gaze widened with surprise and relief, but the distraction cost him.

One of the Dark Fae crashed into him from his left side and sank its teeth into his thigh. Talon grabbed the sides of its face and Arianna could see his magic working, burning the creature so it would let go. But the other one was already moving and two more were darting toward him from behind. She hadn’t even seen where they’d come from.

Arianna flew.

She sprinted and jumped from the bank, right back into the raging current of the river. Except she didn’t sink beneath its depths this time.

It seemed as though the swells of the river came up to meet her every stride. It solidified beneath her feet as if her magic controlled the river itself. Maybe it was, she didn’t pause to check, didn’t consider anything as she leapt across that river to get to the friend who needed her.

Talon blasted the creature from his body then encased their forms in ice. It did nothing, absolutely nothing. The creatures just bent the frozen water to their will and walked through it as if it didn’t exist.

She made it to Talon’s side before the next creature could lunge. There were six now. Six flashing their teeth, pacing before the pair of Fae as they searched for an opening.

Blood had dyed the side of Talon’s tunic crimson and she noted the other wounds along his arms and legs. She was sure she didn’t look much better, but that wound to his side . . .

The largest of the group hissed and Arianna eyed the river and the water at their feet.

“Stay close to me,” she commanded. Talon obeyed.

Arianna didn’t know if it would work. She had never tried to control this much of her new magic at once.

But the river answered her call. It pulsed and Talon stepped even closer. The creatures, animals that they were, paused and turned to look at the angry swell. One had enough sense to step back and scent the air.

The pulse in her body surged beneath her skin, pacing as if excited that Arianna was finally paying attention to it.

With a single thought, the river moved. Not a section. Not the surface. The entire river, all the way down to its rocky bottom.

It lifted from the bank like a writhing worm, then hit the bank and barreled toward the lot of them. Talon braced himself, but the giant surge of water veered off and spun in a circle around Arianna and the six creatures watching and hissing.

The puddles at their feet joined the swirling dark water, that giant angry current now her weapon. Even the droplets falling from the sky bent to her will.

Then the water heated. It spun faster and faster, the temperature rising so high Arianna wasn’t sure whether it was sweat or water dripping down her neck.

The chill finally left her bones.

Then everything was moving in slow motion again. Arianna swore she could have count every single water droplet had she wanted too.

Her heart thundered and her anger resurfaced as she imagined all the innocent lives these beings had feasted upon.

“Easy,” Talon whispered, his voice a bit breathless as he watched the storm circling them. Arianna wasn’t sure if it was reverence or trepidation in his voice. Likely a bit of both.

The spiraling water tightened.

“I’m in control,” she assured, then the water rose and crashed down on the six creatures with all the force of the raging river. Their screams of fear were lost in the sizzling liquid and Arianna guided that boiling current right back where it belonged.

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