Bright Blaze of Magic (Black Blade, #3)(29)

The guard screamed all the way down, and water spewed up like a geyser as he plunged below the surface of the river. The water bubbled up all around that spot, frothing and foaming like rapids, but the man didn’t reappear, not even for an instant, and I knew that the lochness had him.

The smart thing would have been to retreat, but Blake was too angry and too determined to get us.

“Kill them!” he roared, whipping up his sword and starting down the riverbank.

He hadn’t taken three steps before more tentacles started shooting out of the water, one right after another, this time attacking the Draconi guards on both sides of the river, making them scream, shout, and lash out with their swords.

But the lochness was quicker and much, much stronger than any human, and its tentacles whipped back and forth, easily dodging all of the guards’ frantic, clumsy blows. We were still between the monster and the guards, right in the danger zone. One of the tentacles clipped Devon, spinning him around, and I had to lunge forward and grab him before he toppled backward into the river. The lochness wasn’t attacking us, but we still needed to get out here before the creature accidentally knocked us into the river and drowned us.

Since we couldn’t climb up the riverbank where Blake and the guards were, there was only one other place to go.

“We have to get out of the way!” I yelled. “Get under the bridge! Go! Go! Go!”

Deah and Felix both looked at me like I was crazy and was going to get them killed after all. Maybe I was, but I’d rather be eaten by the lochness than let Blake capture me. So I got to my feet and darted toward the bridge, and the others fell into step behind me.

The ledge ran all the way under the bridge, and the stone curved up, like the inside of a pipe, before becoming part of the bridge itself. The span blocked out all the moon and starlight above, making it almost pitch-black down here. I could still see just fine, but the others couldn’t, and Devon stumbled into me, almost knocking me off the ledge and down into the water. I grabbed his hand and pushed his shoulder up against the curving stone wall.

“Grab Felix, and tell him to get Deah!” I yelled. “Press yourselves up against the side!”

Devon nodded and did as I asked. With one hand, he reached out and touched Felix, so that Felix would know where he was. Then, Devon wrapped his arm around me, shielding me with his body and pulling us both up as close to the wall as he could get. On his other side, Felix did the same thing with Deah.

By this point, it seemed as though the entire river was boiling at our feet, the water frothing and foaming like a science experiment volcano that was about to explode. Wave after wave of water dashed against us, soaking us from head to toe. Despite the day’s heat, the river was cold enough to make me shiver and I had to press my teeth together to keep them from chattering.

Despite the constant cascades of water, I peered over my shoulder, looking back toward the river. The others didn’t have my sight magic, so they didn’t see the pair of enormous eyes that glowed a bright, vivid, sapphire blue out in the center of the water, or how the lochness lashed out again and again at the Draconi guards with its thick, strong tentacles.

But I could see it all as clear as day, and it chilled me far more than the water did, even though the lochness was only protecting us as I’d asked it to. Maybe Seleste was right. Maybe I’d paid enough tolls for the lochness to think of me as a sort of pet, the way I did it. Or maybe the monster really was my friend, for whatever reason.

The lochness’s attack seemed to go on forever, although it couldn’t have lasted much longer than a couple of minutes. But the Draconi guards must have finally retreated out of the monster’s reach because the tentacles slid beneath the surface of the water, and the river slowly calmed until the current was as soft and steady as before.

Under the bridge, in the blackness, the four of us remained still and frozen, barely daring to breathe, much less move.

Finally, I heard the steady thud-thud-thud-thud of boots smacking against stone, as though someone were pacing back and forth along the street above us.

“They have to be dead.” Blake’s voice drifted down to me. “No one could have survived that. Not down there so close to the river. The other cars have come. Let’s get out of here before that, that thing decides to attack us again.”

The remaining guards quickly chimed in with their own murmurs of agreement, wanting to get away from the bridge and the lochness as fast as possible. More footsteps slapped against the street, and car doors slammed shut one after another. A few seconds later, the crunch-crunch-crunch of tires sounded, and several vehicles drove away, the rumbles of their engines fading to nothingness.

Slowly, the four of us relaxed, although we still didn’t move from our spots under the bridge.

Behind me, Devon shifted.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Something’s digging into my back,” he muttered.

“Mine too,” Felix chimed in. “Do you think it’s safe for us to move now?”

I stared out over the river, but I didn’t see the lochness’s tentacles or its blue eyes. “I think it’s gone . . . for now. Besides, we can’t stay here all night.”

I stepped away from Devon, and he pushed away from the wall. Beside him, Deah and Felix did the same thing. Devon and I had managed to hang on to our stolen swords, Deah still had her own weapon, and we all raised them back up, ready for another attack, while Felix fished his phone out of his pants pocket. It still worked and he used the screen as a flashlight and held it up to the wall.