Water and Wind

Chapter 22

Nimue

Her breath comes in short gasps. Not happy, excited ones like before that made her want to float and giggle and laugh for all eternity, but labored, unsteady, gulps of air that didn't seem to satisfy her lungs. Her eyes snap to the children, Jinx and Sirena, crying and wailing, and her heart breaks. She turns her gaze for a fraction of a second back to Arian, and her heart nearly splits right down the middle. The only thing that keeps it from fracturing and bursting into a million pieces is her snapping her head back forward. She feels a shuddering breath overtake her as she watches the guards yank Jinx and Sirena. Sirena stumbles, falling to her knees, and the guard kicks her, as she flails and cries.

She inhales harder, but no air is reaching her lungs as she watches the scene behind eyes flooded with tears.

The Nimue I knew wouldn't let innocent children be sacrificed, especially if they were her siblings. The Nimue I knew would find a way, would see the light through the dark.

She almost whips her head around, but stops herself just in time. No. She can't look. Looking makes everything more painful, especially second glances. She can't allow herself, won't let her break her resolve. Steeling her nerves, she balls her fists. She'll cut off their connection, but she thinks it anyway.

You know what Arian? She asks, pausing, even though she knows he can't hear her. You're right. And I love you. And that's why.

And that's why. She gasps, bringing all the oxygen into her lungs that she can carry, so much that she feels lightheaded and almost stumbles back. In that brief second, when she holds all that air in her, she begs for Circe. Help me sister. Help me.

But Circe won't help her. She can see her sister shaking her head, her black hair flying in a cloud around her. No Nimue. It's in you. Find it in herself.

And when she opens her eyes and sees Jinx bleeding from a blow to the head, and hears Sirena's piercing wails, she feels it. It starts as a tingling in her very being, then warms her up from the inside. By the time it starts spreading, it is white hot and burning. But she lets it simmer, lets it fire up for as long as she can hold it.

And then it bursts. It bursts out of her, carrying all her anger, her fury, her hate. Yet in some twisted way, all her love. Lightning shoots out of her hands, white hot and burning, crackling and electrifying the air around her, and herself as well. She is glowing, her hair swirling, her face, everything about her. She hovers a few inches in the air, hands glowing with the lightning curled around her wrists like bracelets, and glares at the guards.

"Let them go." And slowly, they back away, eyes wide. She rushes over to the children, the heat fading as she unwraps the strands of light from her wrist and hurls them one by one at the guards. She is her normal self by the time she reaches down to help Jinx and Sirena up. Shaking, she bends closer to them, so that their ears are by her lips.

"Listen to me." She can feel their nods, hair swishing against her cheeks softly as they go through the motion. She draws in a deep breath. "You're not going. Do you hear me?" She whispers. "Whatever I do, whatever everyone else does, whatever they say, don't go. You're not going. Understand? No one here is going. You're not going anywhere."

"We're." Jinx corrects automatically, but she shakes her head, stroking his silky hair away from his face as she did so. She hopes he can't feel the tremor in her hand as a thought runs through her head. This is the last time she'd be doing such a thing.

She shakes her head as tears started welling in her eyes, clouding her vision and making it look like she was floating underwater, the way they did during the summer floods when the river swelled up and the heat was unbearable.

It takes all her effort to summon the words out of her mouth, dragging her unwilling tongue into knots to form them. "No. You're not going."

"But Nimue-"

She tips his chin up, gazing into his little dark eyes, so innocent and so sweet. "I'm going."