Page 52 of Blood and Fate

Satori could do nothing to help except hang on and wait, and beg Shala and Miram and whoever else would listen to let Kais reach her.

Long agonizing minutes later, his hand brushed hers, and she lunged as much as the rapids would allow until his grip closed on hers and he pulled her into himself. There, in the middle of the rapids, Kais wrapped her in his arms, pressing his cheek to her sodden hair. His warmth surrounded her like a blanket and she pressed his face into his wet shirt.

“Alright, come on. Almost there.” He pulled them across the remainder of the bridge to where Teague waited, arms outstretched, to pull them in.

Teague pulled them both onto the damp shore, and immediately she was wrapped in Kais’ arms, both of them soaking wet but safe on the bank.

Teague knelt beside them, an arm on each of their shoulders. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

Kais released her, glanced at Teague with an exhausted expression, and then laughed. He raised an arm, and Teague stood, taking hold of Kais and pulling him to his feet. Satori stayed seated on the ground. The idiots could joke all they wanted; she needed time for her soul to re-enter her body. That was if it hadn’t been permanently lost to the rapids.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

SATORI

For the next few hours, the men came two at a time across the water, mostly without incident. Bram had come across soon after Satori, and she quickly learned that the older man was not only the tent mender but also the doctor in the group. Thankfully, up to that point, his services had only been employed for minor cuts and scrapes suffered from crossing.

A huge fire had been built just off the bank of the river, and as soon as the men emerged from the water, they crowded around the leaping flames, soaking up the warmth and drying their clothes.

Satori sat as close to the flames as she could without singeing her hair. Next to her, two men spoke of the last time they braved the crossing and how the water hadn’t been nearly as high or treacherous.

Laughter sounded from Satori’s other side, and she closed her eyes, soaking in the warmth.

The calm was broken moments later by the eruption of shouts from the bridge. Panic slammed into her chest, and it wasn’t her own. She leaped to her feet, eyes scanning wildly for the source of the commotion. The last two men were just beginning their trek across the water. They seemed secure, except that they were screaming, waving wildly toward the opposite bank.

Satori’s eyes ran the length of the guide rope, past the island, to— not to the other guide rope, because it was gone. There was no guide rope stretching from the island to the shore they had crossed to. Kais ran along the bank downstream, screaming, Teague right on his heels. More men raced after them.

She scanned the banks, looking for the cause of the commotion but finding nothing. She moved her gaze out farther into the water, and her heart slammed to a stop.

Sawyer, not a safety rope in sight, clung precariously to a boulder jutting up out of the foam. The water rushed over him in relentless blasts. How he was even still holding on, she couldn’t tell.

Kais and Teague and the others had arrived on the bank, in line, where Sawyer clung desperately.

“Sawyer! Sawyer, hang on! I’m coming!” Kais was wrapping a rope around and around his waist, knotting it. He took another coil of rope and slung it over his head so it sat across his body. On the other end of the rope, Teague and the other men wrapped themselves up, digging in their heels.

Satori drew as close as she dared, not wanting to be in the way. Kais moved back upstream just a bit before diving into the waiting rapids.

Terror shone on Teague’s features as he tightened his grip on the rope, his eyes darting wildly from Kais to Sawyer and back.

Kais’ head disappeared under the rapids, and Satori had no idea if it was her horror or his that squeezed her chest, making breathing a chore.

Kais fought the current to get to the middle of the river even as it carried him downstream toward where Sawyer waited.

Satori’s chest tightened, and she gasped for air. Who was feeling this? Was she having trouble breathing? Was it Kais’ trouble breathing she was experiencing?

She watched as the current carried him directly into the rock, slamming him against it with enough force that she wondered if all his bones would make it out unscathed.

Carefully he pulled himself around the rock to the side where Sawyer clung. The water was too loud to hear anything that happened; they could only watch.

Satori had heard about people wringing their hands in distress, but she had hers clenched into a single tight fist and pressed against her mouth. She glanced at Teague, still holding the rope with the other men, still digging his heels in. His face had drained of all color as he focused his attention on Kais and Sawyer.

In the water, Kais was attempting to wrap his extra rope around Sawyer’s waist, his arms, anywhere he could. When he had secured the other man, he shouted at the men on the bank, and they began heaving on the rope, reeling them in.

Fear wrapped a fist around Satori’s lungs and squeezed as the men were hauled through the frothing waves. Then suddenly, a massive billowing cloud of raging water hit Kais, tearing the rope out of his hands. The only thing holding him now was the tie at his waist. He was tossed backward, the waves catching his body and flinging it into another rock that jutted from the river.

The second string of fear that had been thrumming inside Satori’s chest snapped. She gasped out a breath as the thread that had been Kais disappeared. She sprang into motion, rushing toward the bank.

“Satori!” Teague shouted behind her, but his voice was drowned out by the river and her own panic.

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