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Leaning forward I wrap my hands around his neck, “You have no idea how fucking glad I am to see you.”

He snorts in concern, but I urge him over to Coen, who just happens to be closest to me.

“Hop up,” I say urgently.

Coen doesn’t even question me if it’s safe, he just immediately climbs up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist. I try not to melt into him like I want to.

“Fucking kelpies,” he mutters near my ear in awe. “You never cease to amaze me, Love.”

A shudder goes through me at his words, and how close he is to me.

“For fuck sake! I can’t keep your head above water for much longer,” Evander snaps angrily.

Looking over to where he and Griff, and of course their kelpies are, I see them near Kylen and Rupert who both look absolutely fucking terrified. I can’t say I blame them. Kelpies have a well-founded reputation, but we are sitting on them, which should tell Kylen and Rupert that these ones at least won’t eat them. They don’t really have a choice. They will die if they don’t get on them.

Fetrick is already on the back of River’s kelpie, Reath, and it looks like Jamie has only just been convinced to get on the back of Raiden’s kelpie, Mavros, although no one looks happy about that situation.

Finally, the other two get up on Reed and Evander’s kelpies.

“What’s the plan?” Ransom asks, and all of us are now fairly relaxed that the kelpies are here. Well, the guys and I are, everyone on the Draconianteam, apart from Fetrick and Coen, are looking terrified and extremely tense. None of them seem to be struggling at all, and it’s almost like we’re standing around in a field talking, rather than in the middle of a raging magical river that we were moments away from drowning in.

“We need to find a place where the kelpies can climb out and get us up to the top,” Evander replies.

“The portal is further down the river anyway, so I think we should just head that way, and hope that there is a space that we can get out,” Doc adds.

“I don’t want to be on these disgusting creatures for any longer than I have to be,” Kylen spits.

“Asshole,” Coen mutters in my ear.

I’m reasonably certain that no one else can hear him or even knows that he’s speaking to me since he’s pressed so tightly against me.

I fucking love it.

Although I would love it more if I could respond, or sink into his embrace, we’re so close to the end of the Choosing though. This is the last task, or at least we think it is, and we have managed to keep the fact that Coen knows me from Kylen so far. It would really fucking suck if we slipped up now. It would cause so many complications from Coen’s point of view, which I’m not entirely sure about the specific reasons, but also because it means that he is less likely to allow Coen to be anywhere near us.

Kylen already knows that he can be near the guys and that his control over him keeps Coen from interacting with the guys like he used to, at least it was that way, but throwing me into the mix would most likely be a risk too many, and Kylen is likely to make sure that Coen and the rest of the Draconian team stay away from us, which will make our plan for switching out the necklace and freeing Coen from Kylen’s control a lot more difficult.

Van turns to look Kylen, fire in his eyes, “Carry on talking like that and I’ll fucking feed you to him. I don’t think anyone would be sad to see you go.”

Kylen splutters and hisses, shifting about on the back of Van’s kelpie Kaelar, and from here I can see him dig his boots viciously into Kaelar’s side. Of course, Kaelar bucks, sending Kylen flying, while Evander stays on with ease.

“He was deliberately hurting Kaelar,” Raiden says, having seen the same thing that I did.

Evander scowls as he strokes Kaelar’s neck, comforting him.

We all watch as Kylen gets pulled further down the river, sputtering as his head keeps getting pulled under.

“Aren’t you going to help him?” Rupert asks.

Van shrugs, “I did, he hurt Kaelar on purpose and got bucked off, there is absolutely no way that Kaelar will let him back on now. Not that I want him on.”

“Van,” River starts. “We all have to get through the portal alive.”

“For fuck sake,” Van mutters.

He urges Kaelar forward, and we all follow, as we quickly catch up to a still struggling Kylen. Van’s magic fills the air, and Kylen’s head appears above water and then stays there.

He glares at Van, “Let me up.”