Page 23 of Claim the Light
My teeth start to chatter as my hair drips water onto the stone, each splash magnified in my hearing.
Drip. Drip.Drip.
“Stop.” Lana’s quiet voice breaks through my misery.
She drops to a crouch in front of me and I’m shocked I didn’t hear her approach, but then, none of my senses seem to be functioning properly right now.
She reaches out for me, her warm hand closing around my arm. “The path your mind is following is leading you into darkness.” Her blue eyes are clear and calm as she continues speaking, compelling me to listen to her. “Whatever you’re telling yourself—stop. This guilt doesn’t belong on your shoulders.”
As an Avenging Angel, Lana can sense guilt in others. I’ve never really understood how she does it, but she’s proven to be acutely aware of what others are feeling—sometimes even emotions they’ve buried deep and may not be aware of themselves.
She continues. “I don’t know what happened, but I know that you didn’t do this, Sophia. This isn’t your fault.”
She carefully draws me into a hug, extending her wings and wrapping them around me like a feathery blanket.
I accept her gesture, shivering against her as I struggle to do what she commands. To let go of my fears and the burden of my culpability.
“The ash kept dragging us down.” My voice wavers as I try to pull my thoughts together and fail dismally. “I need to… I have to…”
I jolt at the memory of Tyler’s threats and the fact that we’re exposed in this location. He asked me where Lana and Callan were. Hewantedto fight them, but only when I would witness it.
By being here with them, I’m putting them in danger.
“I can’t be near any of you,” I say, trying to push Lana away from me. “You’re in danger because of me!”
Lana holds on tightly, casting an alarmed glance back at Callan, who has remained beside Micah. He responds to her glance by jumping to his feet and hurrying toward us.
“You’re going into shock,” she says, returning her attention to me while rubbing my back in a calming motion. “We need to take you to safety, where you can get warm and tell us what happened.”
“I’m afraid we can’t leave yet,” Callan says quietly, crouching beside us.
His presence is a source of warmth, the heat of his fire dragon nature radiating out from him, but the tension around his eyes brings all of my worries back to the surface. “Isaac’s soul light isn’t working.”
“What?” Lana’s whisper is shocked. “How can that be?”
Callan shakes his head. “We don’t know. But there’s a more immediate problem. Something’s wrong with their breathing. Sophia, is it possible they inhaled water in the river?”
Water!
This new fear is like a shot of adrenaline and I jump up with such force that Lana’s wings fly wide and she lets me go.
My mind is rapidly working through the chances of Micah and Beatrix inhaling liquid on our way back to the surface. After we emerged back into the river, we hadn’t been under water for long enough to drown, but even a little water sucked into their lungs could slowly kill them.
Rushing toward Micah and Beatrix, I focus on their bodies, trying to ignore the nearby river so I can detect if there’s unwanted water within their bodies.
As I get closer, I can hear them both softly wheezing and it scares the fuck out of me.
Isaac quickly repositions himself so that he’s kneeling at their heads facing me, giving me the space I need to drop to my knees between them.
Quickly, I place one hand on Micah’s diaphragm and my other hand on Beatrix’s stomach, both at the base of their lungs.
My senses are going haywire. Despite my efforts, the river dominates my mind, the churning liquid filling my thoughts. So, too, does the dark space that lurks beneath the river’s surface.
If I hadn’t been so desperate to get to the water in the first place—if I hadn’t been numb because of the ash painted across my body—I might have sensed the void we were about to plunge into.
A void that doesn’t belong in this world. I know I need answers about that place, but now is not the time to ask for them.
I take a deep breath, calming myself as I drag my focus away from the abyss beneath the waves and to the two dragons who now lie on either side of me. Beatrix, who has become a sister to me, and Micah, who offered me his heart.
