“There can’t be much more ahead,” I insisted. My tongue was growing so swollen in my mouth it was hard to talk. It was clear by now that the venom I’d been injected with wasn’t the paralyzing kind— more like the deadly kind. I was fading away by the second.
Charlie noticed how thick my voice sounded. “Ava, we’re going back,now,” Charlie said roughly. “I’m not giving you a choice.”
I couldn’t protest. The last trap had really wounded me, and not in a physical way. It had been ten times worse than getting bit by the snake. I was ready to go back to the prison. Even the Institute looked welcoming, compared to these dark caves full of memories I didn’t want to go back to.
Yet before I could agree, my magic tingled at the edges of my skin, and I felt the sensation of moving liquid less than a hundred feet from the way we’d come.
The others noticed it, too, hearing the sounds of rushing water. Panic coursed over their expressions as they listened to the sound of crashing waves.
A trapdoor must’ve opened in the caves. And currently, it was flooding in hundreds of gallons of water.
“Run!” I cried, but it was too late. I lifted a hand to try and stop the water from coming into our tunnel, but the venom in my veins had overpowered my magic, and I wasn’t strong enough to redirect the water in another direction.
Our tunnel immediately filled up with water, and the undertow was so strong that all of us were swept off our feet. Marcus’ witchlight went out as the water crashed over it, and we were immediately washed away, pitched into darkness.
Screams could be heard, until they were drowned out as my friends’ heads went underwater. I reached out for Charlie, who didn’t have a clue which way was up. He tumbled over and over in the rushing water as we were carried down the tunnel’s length at a frightening speed. The water had yanked him away from me, to a place I couldn’t reach. Oberi’s hooves pounded against the spray as she struggled to keep her head above water. Somewhere ahead, Rishi gave a yowl.
Then the bottom of the tunnel dropped out, and we began falling. Kallie and Marcus screamed all the way down as we dropped twenty, thirty feet.
I thought for sure there’d be hard rock at the bottom, and that all of us would smash upon the stone. But my feet hit water, and our bodies were plunged into the depths. I swam upward, taking deep breaths as my head breached the surface. I heard Kallie and Marcus floundering not too far away, as well as Rishi. Marcus cast another witchlight, and it hovered above us, casting illumination around the area. We’d fallen into some sort of underwater cavern— except that it wasn’t that big, and water was still pouring in, raising the water level by the second.
I didn’t hear anything from Charlie. I was terrified he was dead. I reached out through our bond. I felt his life stubbornly clinging on to mine, about ten feet below me. I took a deep breath and swam downward, until I saw him. He spun in circles, unsure of which direction to swim.
I indicated I was coming through our bond, and he paused briefly to wait for me, so he wouldn’t kick me in the face by accident. I knew the movement took all of his trust as he waited for me to rescue him, slowly losing air. I wrapped my hand around his wrist. I swam us both upward, until Charlie’s head burst through the water and he began taking deep breaths.
Now that I knew Charlie was near, I looked around frantically. Despair welled in my chest as I realized my Familiar was missing.
“Where’s Oberi?” I screamed. Charlie flailed, turning this way and that as if he couldn’t sense where she had gone.
I didn’t know where my Familiar was, and Charlie didn’t either. Both of us were lost without her. Where had she gone? Was she struggling to breathe beneath the surface, and I just didn’t know?
“I can’t swim!” Marcus screamed. He flapped in the water helplessly as Kallie’s head bobbed against his chest. She was on the verge of passing out.
Marcus couldn’t cast any more magic while trying to keep himself and Kallie afloat. Rishi sat on his head, mewing frantically due to the rising water. Marcus gasped as water streamed past his mouth, and Kallie’s head dipped under.
I lifted my gaze and watched the waterfall streaming into the cavern. At this rate, the cavern would be filled within minutes, and we couldn’t swim forever. We’d all drown if I didn’t get us out of here.
There had to be a way. My scrambling eyes caught a ledge. It led to a stone doorway, which had to go beyond, into another tunnel.
But it was fifty feet away. We wouldn’t be able to swim that far before the cavern filled up completely.
The venom was weaning away at my strength, but I had just enough magic left in me to make miracles happen.
“Ava, take Kallie and Marcus and get out of here!” Charlie cried. His head went under, and he choked on water.
Determined resolution set in me. I only had enough time, enough energy, to save three people.
Didn’t mean I had to save myself.
I was dead because of the venom, anyway. At least I could rescue my friends. I pushed my powers outward, containing Kallie, Marcus, and Rishi within a jet of my magic.
“Pidge, what are you doing?” Charlie said in a panicked voice as he felt my Water magic wrap around him.
“Go,” I said weakly, and I pushed my powers outward in a burst of energy. My Water magic carried my friends away in seconds, blasting them from our location to the ledge on the other side of the cavern. I heard Charlie scream my name as I sent him away, and my head went under.
I didn’t have the strength to keep myself above the surface. I was a great swimmer, but I couldn’t even paddle at this point. The venom pulsed through my veins, stealing my life moment by moment. Marcus’s witchlight flickered above me, on the verge of going out.
My eyelids drooped. I was content to drift downward, and let the rushing water carry me away.
