So, this was what the trialreallyentailed.
It could’ve been hours or minutes that I was beneath the water, and all of it was pure terror. After what felt like years, the cool freedom of air hit my face, followed by the gargled demand of the man who still had a hold of me.
“Breathe, Hector. Fucking breathe!”
Water sloshed over my face, blinding me. I was vaguely aware of Arwyn wading in front of me, droplets caught in his dark lashes. The thing was, if I didn’t have water clogging up my airways, I might’ve told him that I wastryingto breathe.
Every time I opened my mouth, salt water and bile forced out of my throat.
Arwyn dipped beneath the surface for a second, and my panic spiked. When he resurfaced, his hand shot towards my face so fast I thought he was going to punch me. Instead, firm fingers drew a symbol across my forehead. There was so much noise around me that I couldn’t make out what he was mumbling. I blinked away my terror and almost missed the moment Arwyn’s eyes glowed with a bright silver.
Arwyn held a hand out in front of my mouth, fingers pinching at nothing. He was weaving, drawing invisible threads and gathering them up between his fingers.
“Come on,” Arwyn hissed, bobbing beneath the water again. “Come. On! Fucking breathe.”
Slowly, but surely, the water receded from my body. Arwyn guided it out of my lungs by pulling on his threads with careful, practiced ease.
Fresh, glorious air flooded my body, clearing out all the way from my lungs in a single sweep. Magic itched through every vein and vessel, completing the spell Arwyn had just placed on me.
The moment he severed his ties to the old magic, I felt relief uncoil out of me.
“How… did you learn… that?” I asked, kicking my legs to keep me afloat.
Arwyn refused to look anywhere but at me. “It was a shot in the dark, and it worked. More time for explanations after we get through this trial.”
His closeness, my near-death experience, and the tickle of Arwyn’s magic use which lingered on my skin made me forget we were in the heart of a trial. As if the reminder snapped me out of my trance, I took in the change of details around me.
The stadium was filling from water which still poured out of thefakeceiling above us. It was more akin to an Olympic swimming pool, the ground no longer visible beneath the murky water we waded in. Around us, for as far as I could see, Hunters were crashing out of the surface, gasping for air. I caught the familiar face of Romy in the distance. She was alone, head snapping around her in search for something… or someone.
“Kai,” I gasped, noticing the lack of his presence. “Shit.”
My arms cut into the water, legs kicking behind me as I fought through the current to reach Romy. I shouted to gether attention, but more water splashed up and into my mouth. She must’ve heard my struggle because she finally stopped her search, fixed her eyes on me and all I saw in them was terror.
“He can’t swim!” Romy shouted, arms frantically cutting the water. “Kai… I can’t find him.”
Arwyn had given chase behind me, muscular body slicing the body of water until he swiftly overtook me. “I’ll look for him. You both stay above water. There has to be a way out of this, so find it.”
Romy’s distrust in Arwyn didn’t last long, because there was simply no room for it. Before either of us could refuse him, Arwyn took a hulking breath in and dove beneath the water. I turned my face as the spray from his hefty kick crested over me.
“I had him one minute, and then he slipped out of my hands,” Romy sobbed, water and tears mixing as one as I finally reached her. “I just let him go.”
“It’s Bahmet’s fault, not yours.” I positioned myself at her side so I could get a better look at the Hunters who continued popping up out of the water, each one in differing degrees of drowning. “Arwyn will find him.”
The more I waded in the rising waters, the weaker my body was getting.
“We trust him again, do we?” Romy asked, side-eyeing me.
“I don’t know yet,” I lied, when deep down I knew the answer.
Yes. We can trust him. He saved me, time and time again.
“The water levels are going to keep rising until we are out of air,” Romy said, looking up at the ceiling which was getting gradually closer. And the closer we got I noticed that the view of the sky I had first noticed was a poorly painted mural. “Somehow it seems too obvious just to survive drowning, when it looks like this place is going to fill up until we have no choicebutto drown.”
Divine timing, because as Romy said that word a corpse floated in front of us. Skin paled, eyes bulged and bloodshot, the Hunter was already dead. Her hair floated around her head in wings of golden strands. A sickly foam oozed out over blue lips, smudging across her chin and leaving a trail in her wake.
“Gross,” Romy complained, kicking her foot out and sending the corpse sailing in the opposite direction.
I pointed to our side, drawing Romy’s attention to the line of dead corpses that were resting peacefully atop the waters. There wasn’t time to count them, but I put the number close to ten.
