I try to keep track of the others in the swirling chaos, but they’re invisible behind the waves and fog. The jarring, freezing water keeps jolting me out of my focus when I try to find them through the bonds.
Rocks keep emerging from the fog like massive teeth, and I can sense the sea beneath me, yawning wide to swallow us up.
The waves start to come at another angle, and the current pulls us sideways, fighting our progress by dragging us in the wrong direction. The only thing keeping me sane is Anassa’s strength. She moves, cutting through the sea like a silver blade.
I trust her. All I have to do is hold on. Cling to her. Let her carry me to safety.
A high-pitched howl fills the air, and I’m instantly on alert, trying to catch a glimpse of its cause through the fog.
Noemi’s direwolf, Ephyse, is swimming backward, moving with the waves instead of against them. And Noemi is in the water, gasping and trying to scream.
They’re separated.
Noemi’s head goes under, then comes up again.
My alarm riots through the bonds. It cuts right through the brain fog and the fear, and my overwhelming, consuming need to protect Noemi rages through all of us. Anassa starts to turn, her muscles shuddering as she responds to my impulse.
Ephyse howls again.
I can’t see Noemi any longer. I’ve lost her. Anassa has, too, judging by the way she’s treading water, head swiveling, trying to use her nose even as the saltwater scent masks everything and the fog blinds us.
Then I feel it. The fear. The dark. The gasp for air that drags stinging salt water into her lungs.
Drowning. Dying.
The woman’s body from my original vision rises in my mind. Was it Noemi? Are we doomed to lose her?
I let out the scream she can’t. My voice carries clear over the waves. My senses blur with hers for a moment, and my hands start to loosen in Anassa’s fur, waves battering at me, threatening to drag me down with Noemi.
And then comes a crippling pain in my arm. Light. Noemi is fading, blood is seeping into the water, but she’s being lifted.
“MERYN!”
Anassa’s voice slams me back into my body. I was slipping away.
I choke and tighten my grip on her again.“Noemi. She—”
“She is safe.”
I gasp and turn, blink rapidly against the sting in my eyes. Cratos’s massive body plows through the waves at a speed that should be impossible. Stark is on his back, holding on with a single strong hand, leaning forward to reach Noemi. She’s entirely limp with an arm clamped in Cratos’s teeth.
She’s bleeding, but she’s still alive.
Ephyse lets out a desperate whimper, swimming close to Cratos to try to nudge Noemi’s limp body up toward Stark.
Anassa begs me to focus. She can’t hold out forever. I throw myself at the mercy of my direwolf, letting trust take over.
The fear never entirely fades, but I can tell the shore is getting closer.
The entire swim should have taken minutes, but with the current fighting us and the cold fire of terror burning me up from inside, it seems like it takes hours. Years off my life, really.
We break through a particularly dense patch of fog, and suddenly the island’s shoreline appears right before us, much closer than I thought we were.
Relief floods me. Even if I were to fall from Anassa now, she’d be able to retrieve me.
I start to slump against her back as she makes one final push for the island. Once we’re in the shallows, she finds her footing on the rocky bottom and stands. The weight of her soaked fur must be punishing, but she pushes herself up all the same and staggers toward the beach.
Clinging weakly to her neck, I try to encourage her, to give her my thanks, to communicate how fucking impressed I am with her.
