The Blood Spell (Ravenspire, #4)(76)

The current was colder than the rest of the water. It dragged against him, its grip relentless, but Kellan was relentless too. He kicked, shoved at the water with his free arm, and begged Blue with his eyes to hold on. Keep her breath locked inside where it would hold the water at bay. She kicked right alongside him, her expression fierce. Her glare could shatter glass, and he prayed that determination kept her fighting as the current pulled them farther from the safety of land.

His lungs burned, his chest ached, and panic was lightning in his veins.

He wasn’t going to lose Blue to the insatiable appetite of the sea. If that meant he pushed her to safety while the current snatched him away, he was prepared to do it.

With a final kick, he broke the surface, pulling Blue up with him. The second her face cleared the water, she sucked in a deep breath, wrapped her free arm around his chest so that she was snug against his back, and started swimming toward the shore.

He was far too big for her to pull, but he kicked as hard as he could, propelling both of them out of the shadow and over the shelf of land where the waves were still choppy, but the water no longer felt as if it was tearing their bodies apart.

When they reached the shore, he stood, tried to help Blue out of the water, and then simply fell to his knees in the sand, as his legs refused to hold him.

Blue struggled to her feet, her shirt and trousers clinging to her body, her eyes blazing. She stumbled to his side and poked a finger in his chest. Hard.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she snapped.

“Me?” He pushed her finger aside and wondered if he had the strength to stand yet. “What do you think you’re doing? You could’ve been killed!”

Hang it all, he was shaking. Her hand was so small. What if he’d lost his grip?

He closed his eyes against the image of Blue spinning away into the depths of the shadow, swallowed up by the arms of the uncaring sea. They flew open again when she tapped him smartly on the shoulder.

“Are you even listening to me at all? This is serious, Kellan.”

He glared. “This is absolutely serious. What were you thinking going out that far in the water with a storm coming in? Do you want to drown?”

The thought hit him like a punch to the gut, and he sank back onto the sand. “You want to drown, don’t you? Pierre’s death, Dinah in your home, all of it felt overwhelming, and you thought you’d just swim out and never come back. Stars, Blue, you could’ve just come to me. To Nessa. You’re family. We don’t want to lose you.”

“I’m not the one who was trying to drown.” She sat down on the sand beside him, her expression serious, and he frowned.

“Then what were you doing swimming so far out on a day like this?”

“Rescuing you.”

He stared at her. “Blue.”

“You’re lucky I closed the shop early today because of the bounty hunters. And lucky that Dinah’s been gone all day, so I had the freedom to come home after visiting the docks. And especially lucky that I had already changed into my gathering clothes, or there would’ve been no one here to see you jump into the sea like a fool with a death wish.”

“And you jumped in after me?” His eyes found the cliff top, and his stomach dropped as he measured the distance between it and the water. What had felt like freedom, like daring death to take him so he could feel the rush of life when he survived, suddenly felt terrifying when he imagined Blue doing the same.

“Don’t be an idiot. I ran down the steps. It’s amazing that you didn’t break your neck with that dive. I wouldn’t have been any help if I’d broken mine.”

“But you swam out beyond the shelf. The current today . . .” The current was a death trap. He’d known it going in. He’d never planned for someone else to come in after him.

“I know what the current is like today.” Her voice was sharp. “I swim here often. Storm’s coming in, so it’s a dangerous time to swim. But I guess that’s why you went in, isn’t it?”

He couldn’t answer her. Couldn’t even look at her.

It was one thing to risk his own death. It was something else entirely to see the lengths someone who cared about him would go to save him from himself.

“You could’ve died,” he said quietly, clenching his fists to hide how badly they shook. “If I hadn’t been able to kick us free—”

“You would never have been able to free us both, Kellan. I fought for it too.” Her voice gentled. “We beat it together, because that’s what people do when they face trouble as a team. I’ve always known you were reckless, but I never realized you were dangerous to yourself. Why did you do it?” she asked, the softness of her voice whispering against a wound he’d never figured out how to close.

He closed his eyes, and for one long moment there was nothing but the crash of the waves hurling themselves against the shore and the faint call of a flock of seabirds overhead. He wanted to keep his eyes closed, keep the sound of the present firmly in his focus, but her words had already sent him spinning into the darkness of the memory that refused to let him go.

“You don’t have to tell me,” she said quietly.

His heart clenched. He opened his eyes, but he couldn’t look at her. Instead, he stared at the sea as it tossed restlessly in its berth. At the seductive surge and retreat of the waves he’d been swimming in since he could walk.