I kicked and fought for the surface, but its grip was too strong. Panic squeezed my throat as I reached for the sword strapped to my back. The smooth, familiar grip of the hilt calmed me as I yanked it free and doubled over.
I couldn’t kill the thing while touching it. I didn’t want to inherit a water monster’s power. What if I developed an unquenchable desire to drown people? But I could try to wound it until it let me go.
My blue Phantom glow lit up the water below, shining upon the horrifying, gilled face of the water monster that had grabbed me. It was vaguely human shaped, with spindly limbs and a face like some kind of fish. Weeds waved in the water behind the monster, right in front of the gaping black mouth of a cave.
We were almost to its lair.
I swallowed my panic and swept out with my blade, my strike slow because of the water. I aimed for the arm that grabbed me. Just before the blade connected with the monster, I turned corporeal, allowing the blade to connect. The water turned dark without the blue glow of my Phantom form, but I felt the steel slice through flesh.
The grip on my ankle loosened.
I kicked for the surface, but it grabbed me again. With my lungs burning, I returned to Phantom form. Though my glow lit the water, blackness crept in at the edges of my vision.
I was nearly out of air.
Only seconds left.
I called upon my ice magic, praying it would work, and sent an icicle spear at the monster’s stomach. Magic sparked in the water as it shot forth and pierced the monster. The grip around my ankle loosened, and I kicked for the surface.
But I was too weak. The water felt like quicksand. No matter how hard I tried, my lungs and muscles burning, I only sank deeper into the water. When I hit the hard, flat bottom of the lake, my vision was almost entirely blacked out.
Chapter Ten
With the last of my strength, I turned my head to see if I’d gotten the damned monster. It was floating in the water, the ice spear through its middle. Not dead yet, but eventually.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the flat wooden deck of the boat. Hope flared.
I wasn’t on the bottom of the lake! The hard surface beneath me was the boat.
Though I had no physical strength left, I had my magic. I called upon it, more desperate than I’d ever been in my entire life. If I couldn’t make it work, I was dead.
Or something.
How many lives could I have? I’d probably go back to the Underworld, and I didn’t want to do that.
My magic sparked within me as I attempted to bring the boat back to life, allowing it to float again.
My magic resisted, too weak. Or I was too weak, unable to control it. I envisioned Draka, her comforting hand on my shoulder as she told me to believe in myself.
I didn’t realize it was working until the water began to flow by my face and a brighter glow appeared above me. We were rising! The boat was heading toward the surface with me aboard.
By the time the boat broke through, I was so desperate for air that I sucked it in too early, taking a mouthful of lake water. I coughed, rolling over and retching, until I could gasp the cold, clear air into my lungs. My vision cleared and strength returned to my muscles, though I shivered with such ferocity that it felt like my bones might snap. Snow still fluttered down, sticking to my wet clothes and hair.
As soon as I could move, I scrambled to my feet and shoved my blade back into the holster that was still clinging to my back. I spun in a circle, searching for Roarke.
“Roarke!” I choked out, my throat still raw from retching.
About ten yards away, the water splashed as two figures thrashed. I could just make out Roarke’s dark head and the slimy green figure of another lake monster. Roarke broke the thing’s neck, then flung it away from him. Another water monster’s body floated nearby. He’d killed two, so that made at least three. I hoped there were no more.
“Over here!” I waved my arms.
He spun to face me, his head bobbing above the black surface, then kicked his way toward me, swimming with powerful strokes. He climbed aboard, shivering as hard as I was. His dark hair was plastered to his scalp, and his skin was the color of flour. The black of his eyes stood out starkly.
“This is a problem.” He shuddered hard.
I sat hard on the deck, so cold that my muscles were unable to hold me.
“Yeah,” I said. We could freeze to death out here. Why hadn’t I stolen a fire demon’s power?
Roarke sat next to me, wrapping a long arm around my shoulders. The faintest bit of warmth flowed from him to me, but he was just as much of an ice block as I was.
“I really don’t want to have to go back and get warm clothes,” I said, unsure of whether or not we’d even make it back.
I looked around the boat, searching for the paddles. We had to get a move on, either way.
My heart dropped. “The paddles are gone. They must have fallen off when the boat capsized.”
“Shit.” Roarke rubbed his forehead.
We were stuck in the middle of the lake, two hundred meters from shore in either direction, and Roarke couldn’t even fly us out of here.
The water splashed off the bow and I stiffened.
“Another monster?” Roarke stood.
“I’ll beg your pardon!” An offended feminine voice sounded from the water.
I glanced toward it just as a beautiful woman climbed aboard. She wore a sparkling white dress and pearls in her long, dark hair. Without a doubt, she was the most gorgeous person I’d ever seen in my life.
And she was out for a swim?
I stood. “Who are you?”
“Morwena. I am a Morgen.” She roamed the boat, inspecting it.
I searched my mind for any memory of a Morgen. Were they some kind of water sprite?
“Normally I would kill you for daring to trespass on my lake,” she said. “But you’ve assisted me greatly by killing the Afanc.”
“Is that what those sea monsters were?”
“Yes.” She turned to face us, her green eyes blazing. “They’ve been a nuisance for fifty years. The lake is well rid of them.”
I shivered hard, hoping she would get to the point. We needed to get out of here. Somehow.
She stepped forward, holding out a hand. Her magic surged on the air, smelling like a rainstorm. Warmth radiated from her palm, drying my clothes immediately and sinking into my muscles and bones. They turned to jelly right away, the most amazing feeling in the world. I almost plopped down on my butt. It took all my strength to keep standing. One glance at Roarke showed that he was dry, too, his color no longer deadly pale.
“Thank you,” I said.
“You humans are so fragile about the cold,” she said. “Why are you upon my lake? No one has ventured here in decades.”
I pointed to the other side. “We need to go there.”
“Whatever for? There is nothing there anymore.”
“We need to get to the top.”
Her brows rose. “Are you sure you want to do that?”
Her tone made me nervous. “Why? What’s up there?”
She shrugged. “Nothing…lately.”
I waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t. “Can you tell us more about what was up there?”
“No. But I can give you advice.”