Rise (The Order of the Krigers #1)(30)

Keeping my clothes on, I took a huge breath, jumped into the water, and let the current carry me below. It was stronger than I anticipated, and my clothes weighed me down. Panic filled me, but Papa always said that panicking only made things worse. There was nothing I could do except allow the water to take me where it wanted. It carried me into a narrow tunnel. If my lungs didn’t get air soon, I’d drown.

As I was jostled forward, I kept my legs together and my hands on my head, protecting myself from the rocky wall. Suddenly, I fell in a gush of water, gasping for air. My arms flailed about in the darkness. My body hit water again. This pool was much colder than the previous one. The current carried me along. When I felt it pulling me down, I took a big breath and went under. The water pressure was so strong, it shoved me right along.

The tunnel spit me out, and my body fell a short distance to a small pool bathed in sunlight. Gasping for air, squinting, I stared at the open sky with a huge sense of relief. I was out of the cavern and the rain had stopped. The water kept shoving me forward, too deep to gain my footing, as the edge of the pool neared. The sound of roaring water was the only indication of what lay ahead. There was nothing I could do to stop myself from going over the edge of a steep cliff.

My stomach gave out as I fell with an enormous surge of water.





Chapter Eight


After falling a good thirty feet, I slammed into another pool of water. My body twisted every which way as water continued to crash on top of me. I tried swimming to the surface, but the force from the water was too strong. I sank lower and lower.

Desperately needing air, I let instinct take over and swam sideways, away from the waterfall. Kicking furiously, I finally broke the surface, gasping for air. My chest felt like it was being crushed. Heaving deep breaths, my arms and legs spent, I could barely keep my head above water. Angling straight toward the closest bank, I forced myself to swim until my feet touched bottom. I trudged out of the water, crawled onto one of the boulders that surrounded the lake, and collapsed.

“Kaia,” Morlet frantically whispered. “Are you all right?”

I was lying on Morlet’s bed, soaking wet. He sat next to me, his hand pulling wet strands of hair off my face. I must have fallen asleep on the boulder. “I’m fine,” I croaked, my throat sore. I nuzzled the silk blankets, the roaring fire warming me.

“Earlier, you found me.” He drew his eyebrows together.

“I have no idea how that happened,” I mumbled. His hand reached out, cradling my face. The intimate gesture shocked me. We stayed that way for several minutes, neither of us moving.

Morlet’s face was rarely uncovered, so I used the opportunity to study him. His dark hair and thick eyebrows accentuated his bright blue eyes. “How old are you?” I asked. He looked nineteen years old, but he’d been ruling over Nelebek for at least a century.

Instead of answering, he asked, “What do you know about being a Kriger?” His hand dropped from my face.

I pushed myself into a sitting position. “Very little.” Would Morlet be willing to share his knowledge about magic with me? Would he teach me how to use my power? However, this was the man the Krigers were supposed to defeat. He couldn’t be trusted. “I don’t understand my role as a Kriger. Frankly, it makes me feel very lonely.”

“You don’t have to be alone,” he gently replied. “I’m here. You can come to me.” He took my hand, tracing small circles on my palm.

“So you can kill me?” I asked. Or was there more to it than that?

Morlet abruptly stood and went to the fireplace, his back to me. “Yes,” he finally admitted.

“Then you know I can’t come to you.”

“It’s the only way to end the curse,” he said. “I have to eliminate all the Krigers.”

“Why?” Vidar’s warning not to trust Morlet came back to me. However, right now, it seemed like he was being honest with me.

Morlet turned around, and his face hardened, making him look malicious. “I won’t live another hundred years like this,” he sneered, the gentleness and concern from earlier gone. “I hear you’re close to your father. If you don’t come to me, I’ll hunt him down and kill him.”

My heart pounded, and terror filled me. I couldn’t allow Papa to suffer because of me.

Morlet’s head tilted to the side. “Who’s with you?” he demanded. “I can feel something severing our connection.” He grabbed my upper arms, squeezing hard. “I can’t lose you!” he yelled, his face turning an angry shade of red.

A surge of magic coursed through me, hot like fire. I screamed in pain.

“Kaia,” Vidar cried. My eyes flew open. Vidar hovered over me on the rock, the medallion hanging around his neck. “What happened?”

My body ached from everything I’d been through, and I was shaking from the frigid air, my clothing and hair still dripping wet. Vidar patiently waited for me to answer, but I didn’t even know where to begin. Tears filled my eyes. Morlet had threatened my father.

Vidar scooped me up. I didn’t have the energy to argue with him to put me down. As he carried me in his arms, I drifted off to a peaceful sleep, my hand clutching the medallion.

***

Rubbing my eyes, I sat up, still wearing the same clothes from earlier. Although now dry, they were stiff from the water. My boots and socks had been removed and were on the ground next to the bed.