Elva looked down at me with tears in her eyes.
“She’s your family, Elva,” I said, lifting my head.
“I’m thinking, Gray.”
“Think quicker!”
“The pool,” Ignacio said calmly. “She’s a demigod. Get her to the pool. If it claims and gifts her before she dies, she’ll have her immortality.”
“Grayson, we need to go,” Erik said.
I turned back to Quen and my heart stopped. I was breaking all the rules for her. Gently, I lifted her from the ground. Usually so animated, she was limp and heavy in my arms, like a rag doll, and a sob escaped my lips.
“Quickly, Gray,” Erik urged.
“Hold on, Quentin. I promise you it’ll be okay.”
I thought I’d seen her vulnerable in the early mornings when she was still in the grip of sleep, but this was something else. The way she laid in my arms with no power in her. This wasn’t Quentin. This woman talked in her sleep. She was warm and always had something to say, but now, she was on the edge of mortality, and I was terrified that I was too late.
Once we got into Elysia, we arrived at the edges of the pool. Instantly, the water pulsed steadily, like it’d grown a heartbeat.
“You’ll need to take her in, Gray. Just like we’ve done with the kids.” Erik guided me through what I should do.
He stood next to Sloan, and I could see her tear-streaked face staring back at me.
“Bring her home, Gray,” Elva said, grasping Ig’s hand.
I stepped into the pool without a word. It turned black around me until it resembled a vacuum, but I didn’t stop. The water lapped at my waist the further I waded in, but it remained black.
“Why is nothing happening?!” I panicked.
It wanted her the first time she was here, but now it did nothing. Were we too late? Had we missed our chance?
“Submerge her,” Sloan’s voice carried out quietly and I nodded.
Taking in a deep breath, I took a few more steps until we both disappeared under the water.
It took moments, but the water changed again. It bubbled and pulsed around us violently. The black cleared away from around us, and instead, the water became golden. We were swimming in a pool of champagne, bright and bubbling and blinding after the darkness.
And then Quentin’s gift hit me.
The overwhelming urge of achievement and hard work. Years upon years of certificates and trophies. Praise from everyone around her.
Along with her divinity, Quentin had been gifted the responsibility of success.
The pain thrummed through my head so badly that I thought my head might split in two. When I tried to take in a breath, my mouth filled with water.
I was drowning.
My eyes snapped open, and I felt the water surrounding me as I kicked and thrashed, hitting something solid a few times.
Where the fuck was I?
I finally broke through the surface and took in deep breaths. My lungs burned from the lack of oxygen, and I coughed and spluttered, heaving in as much air as I could.
A few seconds later, Gray broke the surface opposite me.
“Quentin?” he asked, water dripping down his face.
