I bit the inside of my cheek to calm the tightening in my chest and throat—that familiar pressure that always hit when panic crept in. No matter how many life-threatening situations I threw myself into, that reaction never dulled.
Squatting low, I moved behind the building to my right and peered around the corner.
“Fitzroy!” Shayde whisper-yelled behind me.
I flipped him the middle finger, hoping the darkness didn’t obscure the sentiment.
He groaned in quiet frustration, and a moment later I heard his footsteps pad after me. I felt the heat of his breath on my neck as he leaned over to peer past my shoulder.
Then I spotted it—my perfect chaos. And I grinned.
“Get ready to run,” I muttered.
Closing my eyes, I reached inward to summon my water element. The familiar tickle almost made me giggle, but I held ittogether as I dropped to my knees and dug my fingers into the cold ash.
“At the sight of anyone else on their knees before me, I’d oblige. But for you, I’ll pass,” Shayde muttered.
Ignoring him, I forced water into the tower behind the eastern watchhouse, filling it to the breaking point. The steel brackets groaned under the pressure, ready to burst.
Three…
“Hey, Wylder. Wanna play a game?”
Two…
“I think we’re already playing a game called life and death, but thanks,” he deadpanned.
One.
“Go!”
Chapter 39
Steel fragments screamed through the air as the water tower burst. A wave surged across the barracks, sweeping the eastern corner of the Barrens like a tidal tide.
We didn’t wait for the chaos to take hold—Shayde and I bolted across the open ground.
The torrent was seconds from swallowing us, but I forced the current to split around our legs, parting just enough to clear a path to the grate. Shouts and panicked screams echoed behind us as elementals struggled against the flood.
Shayde shot ahead and didn’t waste a second prying the sewer grate open. He jumped in first—an action I’d normally call rude, but considering he’d just dove into a sewer, I let it slide.
He shouted for me to follow, and for some reason, I didn’t hesitate.
My stomach lurched as I dropped through the opening, but Shayde caught me by the waist before my feet hit the ground. I immediately channeled the current, redirecting the water to surgepast the grate overhead—using its force to slam the cover shut behind us.
In the dim shadows, I caught a glimpse of his face. His gaze was fixed on the swirling magic above and, for a moment… he almost looked awestruck. Hard to tell in the dark.
I started to move past him—then stopped. I was standing on the only dry-ish patch of sewer floor. The rest was a murky, slow-moving stream of… well, water.
Shayde, fortunately, was ankle-deep in it. “Can’t you—y’know—channel it out of your way?” he asked.
I rubbed my jaw. “Not if it’s… waste. It doesn’t work like that.”
He glanced both ways down the sewer, sighed, then reached behind him to unsheathe the sword from his back, gripping the pommel in one hand.
“Hop on.”
I blinked. “How do I know you’re not just going to throw me into the—water?”
