Page 63 of A Dance of Water (Moon Song #2)
"You realize we do not have all the time in the world?" Vale was beside her, not quite touching. She resisted the urge to lean into him and find solace, something to ground herself.
"I wish to speak with Az." She bit her lip, anxious she would be denied.
But the King did not deny her. "Very well." To Tharen, Vale mumbled, "You say intense emotions help her power?"
Tharen replied with something she did not quite catch.
Heavy footsteps, and the strong thread between her and Az trilled lowly. Warm palms cupped her cheeks and tilted her head up.
"Az?" she asked, leaning into his touch.
He did not respond.
She tried again: "Az?"
No response. Something steely brushed against her shoulder, and her brow furrowed. Was that…
"Chains?" she breathed. "You’ve chained him?" She reached out, fumbling against Az’s hands as she felt thick manacles against his wrist, held together by a chain. She traced the links of unwieldy metal up to his neck, where she felt a collar.
Tears burned the backs of her eyes.
She stood on her tiptoes, hands reaching to cup his cheeks and grant him comfort. But her hands met more metal instead of warm skin.
"What is this?" Luella traced the edges of cold metal on his face, finding that it stopped halfway on his face. She traced over the slope of his nose and up to his brow, feeling his skin. He rumbled from her touch, and tears finally spilled over, soaked up by her blindfold .
She shook from rage, from helplessness.
"What have you done to him?" she sobbed.
Even chained, Az still tried to comfort her. He awkwardly gripped her wrist and pressed it to the side of his neck. She felt his pulse under her fingertips, reminding her that he was alive.
The rain grew harsher as it fell from the clouds. So thick and unending, it permeated the barrier of the treetops. Droplets splattered against her hands and the top of her head. She tilted her head back, letting the rain mist her skin.
She felt no fear in the presence of the water. Only resentment.
Az was ripped away from her, and she was, once more, alone in the middle of the rain-soaked forest.
Over the call of the rain, Tharen declared loudly, "Good. Now we begin."
Luella ran.
Damp strands clung to her neck and shoulders, the weight dragging against her with each frantic step as her feet sought purchase against the wet earth.
Her palms and exposed arms stung from the scratches she had acquired from how many times she had tripped and fallen. She paid no mind to the pain, her focus solely on fleeing with determination.
Her breaths came in uneven bursts, and she tried to do what Tharen had instructed—feel the air, the ripple of the breeze. But the way the rain roared in the sky drowned out everything, left her fumbling and blind—literally.
The cold water consumed her. She wondered if she had her sight, would she even be able to see through such a roaring tempest?
It had picked up in intensity after Az had been ripped away from her. She had gone through her grounding exercises with Tharen, her attention only half-focused, consumed by rage and a thirst for vengeance.
They had shackled her demon. She wanted them to pay.
It was Vale who had given the order after Tharen had walked her through the connections with the senses.
A foreboding, Run , was all the warning she had been given before sparks of hot flames had licked at the back of her heels, gobbling up the grass and trees and forcing her deeper into the forest.
A wicked game of hunter and prey.
Luella stumbled over a gnarled root, the tip of her boot catching.
She gasped, feeling the rain on her tongue.
Her equilibrium was off, only made worse by her lack of sight.
And she fell down, down. Her elbows crashed against the dirt, a rock sharply digging into her ribs.
She hissed at the pain, fingers curling in the mud.
At that moment, she wanted to give in. Stay where she was and let her body turn to dust amid the earth, allow the rain to wash the remnants of her away.
A loud howl echoed throughout the trees, and she gasped, cheek pressed into the ground as she lifted her head. Mud cracked on her face. Her ears strained, struggling to hear through the sound of the rain.
Another howl.
This time, closer.
Every part of her body froze as she understood what the sound was.
Wolves.
Tharen had called for his wolf pack to join in on the hunt.
A rush of adrenaline flooded through Luella, and she scrambled to a stand, bracing a hand on the tree by her side.
Standing blind and vulnerable, she felt only fear and anxiety.
"Come on," Luella said softly. She searched inside herself for the source of power. A deep well opened up, and she loomed over it, staring down into a pit of nothing, poised to topple into its depths of darkness.
The howls grew closer.
She couldn’t take a full breath. Her lungs ached, and the rain only grew more furious. Thunder shook the sky, lightning crashing down. The bolt was close; electricity zinged through the air, and she swore she felt tendrils of static reach out for her.
"Come on, come on," she murmured like a prayer, wiping her clammy palms on her drenched cloak.
The well thrummed, pulsing in time with the threads inside her .
That’s it! she realized.
"The threads…"
She didn’t have to use her power to get the better of them, she only had to use the threads to get a sense of where they were so she could stay far away.
A small, triumphant smile broke free, and she pressed a hand to her lower stomach, feeling .
To the left, close, and only growing closer with each moment she stood unmoving, a warped, twisted thread. She pushed deeper, feeling frost wrapped around it—Tharen.
The Prima was close by.
And so were his wolves.
Howls cut through the thick sheets of rain that pelted against her skin, and she ran once more.
Her steps were slow in fear, hands searching. She stumbled and fell, but always got back up again.
The ground grew even soggier under her boots, squelching with every footfall. It was an effort just to pick up her feet. Tree bark scratched her palms, and she veered to the side, narrowly missing running face-first into a tree.
As the air opened around her, her hands no longer grazed thick trunks, and low-hanging branches didn’t reach out to whip against her arms and face.
Her toes scrunched in her boots as the ground sloped, and she was propelled forward, her upper body falling forward from the force.
The earth gave way under her feet, and she rolled, tucking her hands over her head to protect herself.
Everything spun, and her limbs splayed out as she came to a screeching halt.
She moaned, disoriented and pained. Her arm was stretched above her head, fingertips grazing something cold.
Water .
Luella ripped her hand away, heart nearly thudding out of her chest. She had stumbled upon the lake…
Curling her knees up to her chest, Luella shook, the rain pelted against her skin, and she wiped her cheek, feeling mud caked on her face. She felt the ground around her, a sharp slope behind her. Slippery and wet, she could never crawl back up it .
"Help," she whispered.
No response, of course.
"Help!" She projected her voice louder. Her pleas were consumed by rain and thunder.
Nestled between her greatest fear—the water—and inescapable terrain, she cried.
She did not know how long she lay there, but her soul screamed down the threads, and eventually, she heard voices.
Trembling, she could do nothing but stay curled into herself. A long, lonesome howl pierced through the thick sheets of rain that soaked her to the bone.
"Over here!" The call was from a distance, but she heard it.
Luella lifted her head and cried out into the darkness that enveloped her: "Help me!"
A rush of sound, and then, hands were against her shoulders, pulling her into a warm chest.
Warmth. She sighed.
She hadn’t realized how cold she had been until the warmth of his chest enveloped her. The hands that held her were wrapped in leather, the chest firm under her cheek.
"Graves?" Her voice broke.
He pressed his lips to her numb ear. "I’m here, sweetheart."
She melted into him. Lightning fell to the earth, so close, so loud, and she was so tired .