Page 129 of Taste of Thorns

“Wanna bet?”

“No,” I say. Dray grins. “But I'll prove it to you.” I fire shadows from my hand out across the lake, creating a marker right in the center. “I’ll race you there and back. Just swimming. No magic.”

“Don’t you need to conserve some energy for the hike back to the academy?” Briony asks.

I snort, striding right back into the water.

“Briony,” I tell her. “You call the start.”

“This is stupid,” she mutters.

“No, it’s not,” Dray says, lifting his arms above his head and stretching.

“Okay, then.” I can practically hear her eyes rolling in their sockets. But I’m too focused on the task now at hand to care. “Ready … steady … go!”

I dive under the water, kicking my legs with all the force I can muster, propelling myself forwards and up to the surface. When I break through, I gasp for air and pound my arms. Dray is right beside me, our speed, at the moment anyway, evenly matched.

I’m surprised how quickly and brutally the lake’s bottom falls away. Soon I can’t see it at all, just dark waters below us and the odd moving shadow.

The water also becomes more turbulent, dragging at our bodies from the east to begin with and then to the north. It’s so choppy, we’re driven up and over waves that seem to grow in force and size.

By the time we reach my marker in the center of the lake, I understand just how difficult this trial is going to be. Not for me and my bond brothers, but for her, our mate, and all her friends. Especially with the added burden of obstacles.

As we hit the marker and twist back in the water, we realize together that one of those obstacles has already materialized, because out of nowhere, the waters in front of us no longer tug this way or that, or fall and crest in waves, they spin in one massive whirlpool, dragging the water around and around in circles.

“Shit,” I mutter, pulling my body away as best I can.

“Where the hell did that come from?” Dray barks, fighting the water in the same way I am being forced to.

“We can’t swim past that!” I say. We may be good, strong swimmers, but we’re not that strong.

“The other shore,” Dray says, spinning in the water. But another whirlpool has appeared that way too, blocking our route to the shoreline. “Do we wait it out?”

But who knows how long that would take. Hours, days, who the fuck knows? We’d both have drowned before then.

“This was a fucking stupid idea!” I tell him.

“Yeah, and it was yours,” he snaps back. “We’re just going to have to swim through it.”

Before I can stop him, he’s off, swimming full pelt towards the spiraling waters.

“Dray!!” I yell. “Dray!!”

But he doesn’t respond, and I have no choice but to follow the maniac.

On the distant shore, both Briony and Thorne are up on their feet by the water’s edge. I can’t make out their faces though, or the words they’re probably yelling at us.

I keep swimming, following in Dray’s wake, both of us trying to skirt the edge of the whirlpool. It’s hopeless, we’re dragged that way anyway, no matter how hard we kick or slam our arms into the water.

“Beau,” Dray calls, “can we use our fucking magic now?”

I grunt and then we’re both shooting our shadows through the water in unison. Together, they wrangle the water, twisting the tides back on themselves, calming the waters until it’s as still as a baby’s bath in front of us.

Like Thorne said, we’re stronger together, our magic complementing and enhancing one another’s.

“See you at the shore, sucker,” Dray shouts and then he’s swimming again, already a couple of seconds ahead of me.

“Motherfucker,” I yell as I start swimming myself.