Let’s take a breather,he told the pegasus, coming up for air before it could protest. The last thing he wanted was to pass out and drown due to its stubbornness.
Also, he wanted to reassure himself that Chloe was okay. And she was – more or less. She still had the capacity to raise her hand and give him a shaky thumbs-up, at least, but it was clear that she was fading fast.
He ducked back down beneath the surface before he could think on it further, ignoring the pain of his pinned-back wings and the burning in his lungs. He had to find the bedrock. Hehadto.
Maybe there was no choice but to go farther down.
Scraping at the mud with his hooves, he dug as quickly as possible, tearing up clods of dirt and clouding the water. It was starting to feel like he could dig forever and never find anything but still more mud –
A sudden wavering in the mate bond caught his attention – it was the merest flicker, but he knew what it meant, and his heart leapt into his throat.
Chloe didn’t have much longer. She was freezing to death.
No. No. I won’t let it happen.
With renewed fervor, Ethan dug with a frenzy that he had never known possible, his golden hooves flashing.
And –
There!
He tapped on it a couple of times to make sure, but he was positive he had found what he was looking for.
Solid rock,his pegasus said briskly, its usual triumphant tones replaced with pure urgency.This is what we need.
Ethan thought back to his childhood learnings, so long ago, and channeled all of his energy – and all of his love for Chloe and the power of the mate bond – into his hoof as he brought it down to strike the hard, hard stone.
He paused, waiting, expectation giving way to impatience, and then despair.
Did it not work? It has to work. Ithasto. Chloe has no time left.
His pegasus seethed, its anger and fear threatening to boil over.
Anguished, Ethan stared down at the stone, willing it to open –
And then he was suddenly surging upward, a deluge of water bursting from the ground and lifting him up.
It was so sudden that for a moment he could only feel confused, tucking his wings in closer to his body to keep them safe, but then his mind caught up.
We did it! We summoned the torrent!
His pegasus let out a triumphant cry in his head as they surfaced, and he turned to look at Chloe, who was wide-eyed in shock, her fingers barely maintaining their grip on the outcropping as it started to disappear beneath the rising water.
Jump on!he yelled mentally, and maybe it passed through the mate bond somehow, because she snapped out of her stupor and struggled toward him, the currents beating her back.
We can control it,the pegasus whispered.You know how.
No I don’t!he snapped back automatically… before he stopped for a moment, and thought.
No, not thought –felt.
He closed his eyes, feeling the water surging around him, and reached out with his mind, the pegasus guiding him.
He couldn’t have put it into words if he’d tried, but he justknewwhat to do. The waters between him and Chloe calmed, even as they raged elsewhere in response, and then they gently carried her toward him.
Chloe’s eyes widened as she was pulled along by the current as surely as if he’d been pulling her with his own arms, which then settled her onto his back. Her fingers tightened in his mane, and Ethan could feel that her grip was weak.
Hang on,he desperately tried to send to her through the bond.We’re almost there.
