Page 50 of Horns & Heart
Then the air around us was filled with a whirring noise I recognized from when we’d set out: arrows.All of a sudden, this was real.I was in a fight and I didn’t know what it was about, but someone was shooting at me.And at the guys.Everything seemed to slow while my heart sped up.
Over my shoulder, I saw Nokim loose a few arrows of his own, and the four of them formed a half circle around me and Vergis, who was running into the lake with me behind him.
“You’re going to make a wish when I tell you to,” Vergis said, his voice too calm and even.“You’re going to wish for all of Nokim’s arrows to find their mark.When I tell you.”
My feet slapped against the pebbles of the shore, and then they hit the water, the splashes going everywhere.I felt more than saw an arrow whistle past my head.
“W-what?”
“When I tell you.”
Vergis slowed long enough to half turn and fire his pistol a few times.That made my ears ring, and I froze, shocked.I couldn’t count the shots, and it didn’t matter.When he lowered the gun, he grabbed me tight again, dragging me deeper into the water.
The others remained on the shore.I barely saw Inkiri pull a second sword and runtowardthe white-clad dudes.He didn’t scream or anything, he just started slicing.He cut into them in practiced movements with no hesitation at all.Some fell right away.Some were already on the ground, writhing, staring at the bullet holes or arrows in them.But still there were more guys in white against just the four standing their ground.
More arrows whistled around us, and my heart was racing.The water was cold, so cold.I didn’t want to die.I didn’t want my monsters to die.We’d only just met.I’d only just started to understand how I felt about them.About Inkiri.
“No, wait!”I dug in my heels.
Vergis was way stronger than me, and he jerked me forward.“We have to.They want me, not the others, somove.”
“I’ll stay!”
The water was up to our chests now.Vergis spun.“Wish for Nokim’s arrows to fly truenow!”
“No!”
I was not going to just go along with whatever this plan of his was.I was not going to leave people.Cat was gone.So many others were gone.And I was never leaving people behind again.Not when I was already falling for one of them.
Vergis’s hand connected with my cheek in a slap that rattled me.“Those arrows need to hit, or they die.Now, human.”
It was that tone of voice that did it, the finality of it.I didn’t want them to die.
“I wish for all of Nokim’s arrows to fly true,” I said.
The heat came instantly.All of it happened instantly.Where Vergis had a death grip on my hand, I felt something like that pins-and-needle feeling you get when your arm falls asleep, and a luminous brightness wrapped around the both of us.
Then Vergis pulled me along, shouting something I didn’t hear over the ringing in my ears, and all of a sudden, I was underwater.
I clamped my eyes shut when I felt the water against them and thrashed in panic.Either that panic or something else finally, finally detached Vergis’s hand from my own.Just like that, I was free.
I didn’t know where I was, where up was, where air was.I moved my arms and legs in the icy water, my lungs burning with the need to breathe.
It took a few pushes of my arms, but suddenly, I broke the water’s surface, and there was air.Air!I sucked in a lungful, coughed, forgot to tread water, went under again.
The second time, coming up was easier, and while I splashed wildly, I managed to blink my eyes open and take in where I was.There was an unfamiliar wrongness to the place.The shoreline didn’t look right, and the light was too dull and milky.The air felt colder.
“Ink!”I screamed, although I didn’t have enough air to make my voice really carry.Staying above water was a struggle.I was wearing clothes and shoes, and they were dragging me down.
The shore was farther away than it had been before, and it looked different.There was a forest there, but it was a lot denser than what had been there before.
I was freaking out, pretty much, but I needed to get out of the water, that much I knew.There was only so much panic I could allow myself while also swimming.I wasn’t a great swimmer.I had to make it to shore while I still could.I started curling my arms and moving my legs.
The relief that washed over and through me when my feet hit solid ground was unreal.I pushed my heavy body onwards to shore, taking breaths that made my throat feel raw.
My lungs burned too.I looked left and right.The shore here was sand, dark gray sand.There had been pebbles before.It all looked different now, and it was cold, so much colder than it had been.Or maybe that was my waterlogged clothes.Had to be.The thick clouds in the sky were definitely new though.It looked like there was rain coming.
“Ink!Fellisse?”I stood, battling dizziness.“Lissir?”
