42. Declan

Chapter 42

Declan

K els? opened her mouth, as if to scream, but the mist, now thick with a dark residue, raced into her lungs.

Her head spun about, finding my eyes wide with fear.

I wasn’t afraid for myself.

I knew the currents. I was of the currents. They were part of me.

But magic was a fickle mistress. What would she make of Kels?? It might not matter that my mother had guarded the Well, protected the currents, given her life to keep them secret and safe for generations.

Magic was a force of nature, and nature would never be denied her due.

Our hands remained clasped.

The currents churned, tossing us feet over head again and again, threatening to break us loose.

I felt my mother squeeze tighter.

Waves of heat and power buffeted my body. I could only image how they battered my mother’s mind. Her Light, normally a peaceful core, looked like a dagger’s tip digging deeper and deeper.

“Don’t let go of my hand, no matter what!” I screamed in her mind. “We just have to hang on until we reach the opening at the guild. Hold on!”

Angry waves tossed us like children’s playthings.

The Light in the flow dimmed as darkness gained strength.

My tunic still beamed, a beacon in the swelling darkness. I willed it brighter, an anchor in Kels?’s mind that seemed to strengthen her grip.

“We’re almost there. I can feel the Silver Mountains.”

The currents twisted and turned, bouncing us off unseen walls of the river’s course.

Kels? was battered. Blood leaked from gashes across her arm and forehead.

I felt her grip loosening.

She squeezed even harder.

A finger came loose, and I began to panic.

Another finger slipped.

“Mother! Hold on! Grab me with your other hand! We’re almost there!”

My tunic was nearly invisible in the inky dark, and I felt her connection to magic failing as her fingers slipped away.

Then I was thrust upward, expelled from the river, and spat onto the shores of the Silver Mountains. The world of light and sounds overloaded my senses as the froth of the river fell away. I gasped at the coolness of the cavern’s air against my skin.

I thrust my free hand back into the currents and reached for my mother’s arm.

It was almost impossible to see, but I felt her shoulder.

I pulled her up by two fingers and tried to grip her blouse, but a wave of power slammed into her body as her face neared the surface. My hand slipped from her shirt as her final finger slipped from my grasp.

Through the film of murky magic, I watched in horror as my mother’s form dissolved into specks of dim light, then faded and dispersed within the blackened flow.

“NO!” I cried as I dug into the current with both hands, desperate to feel my mother’s touch once again.

But Kels? Rea, the Keeper of the Well and Protector of Magic, was gone.