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“I’d like to think that we could,” he said diplomatically.

“That bad, huh?” Chloe sighed, looking despondent, before straightening her shoulders and obviously trying to get herself in a more positive frame of mind.

“Okay,” she said. “I’m going to get back home, so that I can start my business on Monday. If we can’t think of any other options, then I guess we should start swimming downstream. Maybe we’ll find a path back up somewhere along the way.”

“Maybe so,” Ethan replied, trying to dredge up some positivity of his own.

I’ll find a way to protect Chloe. I have to. Even if it means shifting and turning myself into a pegasus-skin robe for her to wrap herself in.

He hadn’t really had the chance to think about the implications of a human-shifter relationship and the inherent mismatch in terms of what they could each cope with physically, but now that he was thinking about it, he found that he didn’t like it one bit.

Well, he thought with newfound determination, I’ll just have to make sure that nothing ever harms her. Starting now.

The pegasus snorted its approval, and Ethan knew that it was one hundred percent on board.

He could handle a quiet life, if it meant that Chloe was safe. And even beyond that, he found that he wanted it anyway. Right now, nothing sounded better than the two of them curling up on the couch and watching some bad TV.

Preparing to shove off from the wall, he was stopped short by a pair of very soft, very cold lips on his own.

The kiss was gentle, but it seemed to say so many things that a more passionate kiss could not.

Ethan closed his eyes, savoring it for a moment, before feeling a pang of regret as Chloe pulled away.

“Just in case,” she said, “you know…”

Ethan nodded, not wanting to say it, but knowing that the situation was far from ideal.

Chloe sighed in frustration as she peeled off her extra layers of clothes, which Ethan recognized as a good idea – if they were going to be swimming, then clothing would just drag them down.

“I never thought I’d say this, but I wish a flash flood would come through here right about now,” she huffed. “Just a small one, that could gently carry us down to the end of the gorge.”

Ethan hummed his agreement unthinkingly – and then stopped short.

His pegasus did the same thing, its head jerking up.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? he asked it, the first hints of actual hope starting to rise up within him.

I should hope so, the pegasus said, though the words didn’t have quite as much bite as usual. Because there is only one acceptable conclusion you could have come to.

“Chloe, you may have just saved us,” he said, even as part of him wondered whether he would be able to pull this off.

“Hm?” she said as she unwrapped her scarf with fumbling fingers, her brow wrinkling in confusion. “Has there been rain forecast? I was just throwing out ideas – I don’t think a flash flood would actually be helpful enough to gently deposit us at our destination.”

“No, but – you see –”

His words tumbled out faster with excitement, and he reined himself in with difficulty, taking a deep breath and starting again.

“Do you remember when I told you about the powers that pegasi have?” The conversation felt like a lifetime ago.

Not wanting to make her wait any longer for an answer when she was obviously already starting to falter in the cold, he went on, “Pegasi can raise water from the earth. It’s the kind of thing that would normally be more useful in a drought, but we could use it to raise the water level here.”

At Chloe’s confused but hopeful stare, he went on, “If we can get the water high enough, it could bring us up to ground level.”

“You can summon that much water?” Chloe breathed, a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

“I don’t know,” he said truthfully, even as his pegasus bellowed that it would summon an entire ocean for her.

Ignoring it, he went on, “It’s not something I’ve ever had much practice with – my family don’t use their powers much.

A pegasus who knew what they were doing could do it with their eyes closed, I’m sure. ”

He’d pretty much just summoned puddles when he was a kid. One time, he’d made a pond. His father had basically just checked it off the to-do list and never brought it up again, other than to tell him to never do it again, and to definitely never let anyone see him doing it.

It will be… how do humans say it? the pegasus scoffed. Easy-peasy.

Ethan didn’t know about that . He’d never seen actual evidence that the pegasus could accomplish this feat, and it really didn’t have a good idea of what its limitations were.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Chloe said, nudging his shoulder and breaking him out of his contemplations. “Get to it!”

He’d never had anyone show this level of unquestioning confidence in him before. It had always felt like he’d been striving to prove himself, no matter how much he had excelled in his work. Any success was met with judgments about how he could’ve done even better.

Her belief in him felt strange, undeserved – especially since she’d practically only just met him. She’d never even seen what he could do with a legal contract, let alone any attempt of his to summon a flood from out of nowhere. Why was she so confident?

Looking into her determined gaze, however, he knew that he had to succeed. His mate thought he could do it, and therefore he would do it, come hell or high water.

Her life – and therefore his – depended on it.

For me, there’s no life without Chloe. Not anymore.

He nodded. “Okay. But first, let me just check how deep this water is.”

After all, if the water was too deep, he risked drowning the pegasus and himself along with it, which he really didn’t want to let happen…

if for no other reason than that the pegasus would never let him hear the end of it.

Now that he knew an afterlife existed, he was certain that the pegasus would subject him to its bitching for all eternity.

He allowed himself to sink down toward the bottom of the river, feeling relieved when he touched solid ground after not too long. He’d thought that it couldn’t be too deep, given how hard he’d hit the ground when he fell, but it’d been hard to tell.

What do you think? he asked the pegasus.

I can do it, it replied grimly. I will do it.

That… didn’t sound quite as confident as he’d hoped. It sounded like the pegasus was trying to talk itself up, rather than actually being confident.

Is it too deep? Be honest.

It will be a challenge, the pegasus said. But it is one that I will rise to.

Still not convinced, Ethan narrowed his eyes at it. Fine. But if it ends up being too deep, we’ll go back up to the surface. We’re no use to Chloe if we’re lying at the bottom of ten feet of water.

The pegasus sniffed, which Ethan took as agreement, and he pushed himself up toward the water’s surface.

“Well?” Chloe said the moment he surfaced, and she was shivering so hard that Ethan knew they had to do this now, and he had to succeed. There was no other option.

“It’s not too bad,” he said. “I’m not sure whether or not I’ll be able to keep my head above water… but either way, I’ll be close to the surface. I’ll come up if I have to.”

“You promise?” Chloe breathed.

“I promise,” Ethan said, and he’d never meant anything more in his life.

Chloe nodded, determined. “Let’s get this show on the road.

I refuse to die here today.” She let out a shaky laugh.

“Especially while wearing a weird rope harness over my clothes. If someone’s going to find my body in some sort of kinky bondage get-up, I want to have at least died having fun with it! ”

Ethan grinned. “I’ll keep that in mind.” Sobering somewhat, he added, “If this works, get onto my back and grab my mane. The water could get pretty turbulent pretty quickly.”

Chloe looked dubious. “I won’t weigh you down? You won’t weigh yourself down?”

“No. I’ll be fine,” Ethan reassured her. “I’ll be the one summoning the water. Pegasus magic wouldn’t work against me.”

He hoped, anyway. He’d never actually had much experience with it.

Oh, well. There’s only one way to find out.

With one last lingering glance at his mate, he shifted, sending water surging in all directions, and allowed himself to sink down into the water’s frigid embrace once more.

As a pegasus, it was a significantly more claustrophobic experience, his wings bending in at a tight angle to avoid getting caught on the sides of the gorge.

The urge to panic was strong – and only got stronger as he realized that he couldn’t quite keep his nostrils above water while his feet were on the riverbed, even with his head tilted back. The pegasus was larger than a regular horse, but even it wasn’t quite tall enough in this scenario.

Giving Chloe what he hoped was a reassuring glance, he took a deep breath and lowered himself fully under the water.

Ethan let the pegasus take the reins, as it were – as much as it drove him crazy, it did have a much deeper understanding of its powers than he did. They needed to trust each other in order to make this work, especially since the pegasus did not like being confined in this way.

Stay calm, he told it. We will find what we’re looking for.

You don’t need to tell me that, the pegasus snarled, but it did seem to relax a little.

Together, they searched the riverbed for what they were looking for, the pegasus rejecting several of Ethan’s suggestions. He knew it needed rock, but apparently the rocks he was seeing were no good, even though they resembled those he had summoned water from as a child.

If you wanted to summon a trickle, then these trifling pebbles would be sufficient, the pegasus sneered, its fear clear beneath the haughty attitude. But if you want to summon a torrent, you need to cleave open the very bedrock itself.

Ethan could see the issue. Much of the ground was covered in mud, plant life, and other such things. There was no obvious rock that he could open.