Supernatural Academy: Year One (Supernatural Academy #1)(96)

Asher was doing the same thing, and I stopped to think if I’d noticed him do that before. Was it something all strong Atlantean bloodlines could do once they tapped into their powers?

The blade in my gut distracted me when it started to glow. The Atlantean symbols etched across it turned a shimmering aqua color, mixing with my blood.

Asher tugged on my hand, and I rose to the surface with him, both of us popping our heads up to see rocks sliding from the caves into the water. I coughed up water, my lungs expelling the liquid so I could breathe oxygen again.

Asher did the same.

“How?” I said when I could finally speak. “We can breathe water?”

Asher nodded. “Yes. It’s something I’ve kept secret for many years, because it’s not a power any Atlantean descendant has these days.”

Holy fuck.

“And that explosion when we kissed? The ground is still shaking?”

He tugged me so that we were moving through the choppy water toward the lowest cliff.

“I don’t know what that was,” he said, voice deep. “But we need to get out of here.”

He launched himself out of the water with ease, leaning over to pull me up, careful not to dislodge the blade.

“You’re going to have to pull it free,” I said when my feet hit the shaking ground.

Asher shook his head. “No, it’s Atlantean steel. The wound will bleed you out. I need to get you back to the Academy right now. The herbalism department has a special tincture that will remove the blade and clot the blood.”

“We’re hours away from the Academy,” I whispered. “I can’t have a blade sticking out my stomach until then.”

It was still hurting me, but it wasn’t as painful as it had been initially. My newly released power was acting like a balm, soothing some of the hurt away. Our attention was forced to the water then as Shera rose from it, and I wondered if she’d been down there searching for us. Or was she doing some other asshole thing under the water? Torturing sea creatures or something.

“It worked,” she shrieked, her body hovering just above the water.

Asher pulled me closer, and I finally noticed that he was bleeding too. His wrists looked like they’d been rubbed raw from those manacles. I gently brushed my fingertips over them, and he tightened his hold on me.

Shera glided closer, her eyes darting between Asher and me. “It was both of you,” she whispered, looking freaky with her hair flying about her face. Her voice had that very deep tone to it again. “The blood of the god children.” She clucked her tongue. “Connor was right.”

Asher pushed me behind him, stepping toward her. “You’re not going to get a chance to find out.” His eyes flashed. “All this time you’ve been trying to break me, I learned of your weakness, Shera. It’s time for my mother’s body to rest with her ancestors.”

I stumbled as the ground rocked again and water started to pour into this area. Asher murmured two words. They sounded short and simple, but they were not familiar to me. Shera screamed the moment he spoke and tried to lower herself into the water again, but Asher held her immobile with his power. A red spot appeared in her chest, spreading across her skin, and she screamed as it consumed her.

I felt Jesse and Rone’s energy a moment before they reached us. They pressed close to my back. Rone’s eyes were black as he took in the blade still hilt-deep in my heaving stomach.

“Mads…” he said softly.

I wanted to reassure him I was okay, but I couldn’t look away from Asher and whatever he was doing to Shera. “Stop!” she screamed. “You need me. I’m the only one who can control hi—”

She was cut off, Asher’s power burning right through her. It was only when Asher stumbled forward that I realized he’d weakened himself greatly to take her out.

Shera exploded then in a puff of smoke and ash that drifted into the water below. “Is she gone?” I asked, watching the black mist.

Asher nodded. “Yes. The gods who take a vessel have one weakness. Atlantean fire. Funnily enough, it’s a spell that was lost to history long ago, no doubt a deliberate move on the part of Sonaris and the others, but it was here, etched on the wall. It’s taken me months to find the entrance and weeks to translate the words, but I finally figured it out last week.”

I could have cried with relief. We’d all made it just in time.

Asher watched me closely. “I was so weak by the time I did though, I didn’t think I’d get the chance to use it,” he murmured. “I’m glad you ignored my orders and came for me.”

“Yo,” Axl shouted from where he stood on the end of the barely visible bridge. “We got to get out of here. This entire place is about to be crushed under the water.”

Asher scooped me into his arms, somehow not jostling the dagger. The three of them sprinted, and over his shoulder, I watched as large chunks of rock fell, crashing into the rising water. I didn’t want to think about the consequences of what we’d done here—we’d initiated something to do with Atlantis. Maybe it was its rise, I didn’t know for sure, but it was definitely something.

Axl and Calen were waiting for us at the entrance, and Asher took the lead, leading us back along the pillared path. I tried not to think about the heat of his body pressing along mine. I focused on the fact I had a knife in my stomach. Nothing like a mortal wound to cool the hormones. I was also pretty sure it was the only thing keeping my power at bay, because the heat blazing in my center was starting to scare me, but it hadn’t done anything yet.