“When you’re under the water, move into her depths,” Professor Mordock shouted. “Give her a chance to entice you.”
I looked to my left to find him waving us farther into the lake, and when I returned my focus to the shore, Logan was gone.The eerie feeling didn’t vanish with him.
Shaking it off, I sucked in a deep breath, diving deeper into the water. It was clearer than I expected, the winter sunlightstreaming down as I swam in a slow breaststroke. The water itself felt light and silky, and with dozens of students aroundme, I decided to follow the professor’s instructions and push deeper.
Needing to breathe, because to no one’s surprise my power hadn’t connected to water particles, I popped my head up to findI was quite a distance from the shore now. Belle was even farther out, her red hair flashing as she shot herself up in thewater. It was only a foot or so, but she looked to be having the time of her life.
This time when I dove, I focused on connecting to the water, letting that swirl of power in my chest expand. When my lungswere screaming for air once more, I surfaced, sucked in a deep breath, and returned below. I’d felt a slight connection, andI didn’t want to remain above for too long.
Diving down, tingles started down my spine and settled low in my gut, and with each kick that sent me deeper, themore I drew power from my essence. The energy of Weatherstone overall was strong, but here, under the water, it really kicked up a notch.
Forcing my power to swirl as hard as I could without busting my brain, I almost choked when a brief illumination shone frommy hands. My first sign of active magic since I’d exploded the lights during my bloom.
I have magic!
It was there, but it was caged. I hadn’t found the right key yet.
In my excitement, I’d failed to notice how dark the water had grown around me, until I could no longer see my hands. Lungsstraining, I kicked hard and rose through the water until it grew lighter and lighter. I popped my head above and took ina glorious lungful of air. Just one single breath.
Before I was jerked from below, a vise around my ankles.
The unease I’d been feeling ramped up until my body was shivering uncontrollably, even as I fought and kicked against whoevergrabbed me. At first, I assumed a student was being an asshole and pranking me, but a quick glance below showed no studentsin the vicinity.
Still, there were more than enough water elementals around who might be using their power against me. But why would they?
The deeper I was pulled, the less it seemed likely this was a simple prank, and as the water grew cold then icy, true panickicked in. My mind flashed to Logan, who was more than capable of drowning me in the lake, and I fought even harder. But therewas no breaking the hold.
I barely managed not to scream, knowing I’d take in lungfuls of water and it’d all be over. Focusing on grasping my energy, I expanded it as I’d done before, but all I got was aflash of light. A flash showcasing the empty space below me as whoever was trying to murder me used their magic and not their hands.
Another flash spilled from my fingertip, and for the first time my fight died off completely. As the last of my oxygen dwindled,I swore that I saw a visage of a creature holding me, long claws wrapped around my ankles. It had deep brown, leathery skinwith a head similar to the aliens in those old movies.
Forcing light from my hands one more time with a dying need to know what was killing me, I found the space below was onceagain empty. As the synapses in my brain exploded in those final moments, I accepted what was happening—acceptance masqueradingas peace—and I let the faces of my family flash across my mind. The pain I felt at never seeing them again, at what they’dgo through over my death, was worse than the dying itself.
Darkness was almost a relief as I gagged and water filled my lungs. I didn’t notice the rumble around me until the depthsof the lake erupted into arcs of lightning. I was grabbed again, this time from above, and when a bubble of air surroundedmy face, water rushed away from me, drawing from my lungs at the same time, leaving me coughing and vomiting.
Hacking coughs shook me as the two entities played tug-of-war with me and I blacked out, only coming to when the hold on myankles released. Whoever had saved me pulled me to the surface so fast that they had to be a water elemental, and I triedto wrap my head around the fact that I wasn’t going to die here today after all.
Light enveloped us when my head broke the surface. I coughed and sputtered again, choking as my lungs attempted to squeeze up and out of my throat. When I managed to stopcoughing, exhaustion had me all but boneless in the water, my savior’s tight hold the only thing keeping me afloat. My head dropped back against their firm shoulder.
“Paisley!” Belle’s frantic tone had me forcing my eyes open. Her terrified gaze was right before me. “What the Hel happened?”she gasped on a sob. “You were there one second and then gone the next. You moved so fast below that we lost sight of youalmost instantly.”
Lifting my head, I turned to see who had saved me, expecting it was the teacher—awkward, as I was pressed along the hard lengthsof his body to stay afloat in the water—only to meet icy green eyes.
Everything slowed. The noise around me faded to silence, and I was drowning again, only in a completely different way. Logan’sglare was as heated as his eyes were frosty. “Trying to kill yourself before I get the chance, Precious?” Weirdly, I expectedhim to sound smug or satisfied at my almost drowning, but that snap of words indicated he was pissed.
“You tried to kill me?” I choked out.
Had it been him though?I’d thought there was a monster, but I’d also been severely oxygen deprived at that point, my brain freaking out on me. Loganreleased me so suddenly I almost went under again, but managed to kick my heavy legs to stay afloat.
“I saved you.” His voice was inflectionless, and his expression smoothed into neutral lines. “I’m not like your mother. Idon’t leave people to die.” I opened my mouth to protest that, but he was already leaving. “And you owe me one now. Don’tforget it.”
Noise burst back to life, and I was hauled out of the lake by Professor Mordock in the next second. “What happened?” he askedas he settled me on the ground, a few feet from the water. “Why did you sink into the depths so quickly?”
My throat rasped as I answered, and despite the water soaking me, every part of me felt parched. “I got pulled under.” Panic and pain pulsed through me as flashes of dying filled my head. “It felt . . . it felt like bands around my legs as I was dragged down. Are you sure there’re no monsters in the lake?”
That last part slipped out because I’d already made up my mind that there were no monsters and I’d had a mental break in thelast moments of my life.
The professor stared at me, pale and confused. “Monsters? Like a giant fish? Or squid?”
