Love in the Darkness (Tam Song x oc)

Chapter 13

Cinnia's POV
“Then it’s my turn!” Linh shouted, spinning in midair and thrusting her arms toward the mountain. Jet streams blasted out of the waterfalls, flooding the playa and washing the ogres over the edge of the canyon.

Before I could celebrate, Fitz, Biana, and Calla collapsed into the crashing waves.

 “Linh!” I screamed, and Linh whipped her arms again, sweeping the water back toward the mountain in a massive tidal wave.

Fitz, Biana, and Calla dropped into the mud, coughing the water out of their lungs.

Keefe, Dex, and Sophie landed as close as they could get, sinking up to their knees in the paste-thick muck. Me and Tam set Linh down beside them.

“Wow,” Keefe and Dex said—a “wow” Linh definitely deserved. Somehow she was holding the tidal wave steady, keeping it as a wall between the mountain half of the city and where they stood.

Across the canyon, the ogres stared at the wave with a mix of fear and fury, none daring to cross the bridge and risk getting washed into the river like their brethren.

“You guys okay?” Sophie asked, stumbling through the mud to help Fitz and Biana to their feet. “I think so.” Biana tore off her soggy Neverseen cloak and flung it away. Her clothes underneath weren’t as muddy, and Fitz and Calla quickly copied her. Sophie did the same. Dex dropkicked his cloak across the soggy plain. I threw mine behind me.

And then Biana asked the question I hadn’t thought to ask: “Where’s Alvar?”

A moment of silence passed—followed by frantic shouting as we fanned out to search.

Sophie explained to a hysterical Biana that she was going to track Alvar’s thoughts, when a deep laugh behind them sent them spinning around.

“Didn’t mean to freak you guys out,” Alvar said as Biana tackled him with a move that seemed more strangle than hug. “I just wanted to see if I’d figured out how to fool Calla’s eyes. Looks like I have.”

“Dude, now was not the time,” Fitz said, and I nodded in agreement.

“Oh, relax. I also grabbed this!” He kicked at a pile of mud, revealing the silver chest.

He seemed so proud of himself, as he should be.

“Uh—are you guys forgetting that my sister is holding back a tidal wave over here,” Tam yelled, pointing to Linh’s trembling form. “She’s not going to last much longer, so you’d better figure out how to get us out of this place before it crashes.”

Sophie checked the other side of the canyon, where hundreds of ogres paced impatiently. “We’ll never make it back to the tunnel,” she said.

“Gee, you think?” Alvar asked. “But you’re the girl with all the plans. I’m sure you’ll figure out something.”

“What if we let the tidal wave go?” she said. “Would it wash the ogres away?”

“The canyon is too wide,” Linh said, her voice strained. “All it will wash away is the bridge.”

“Then we’d really be trapped,” Alvar said.

  “Would we?” Sophie asked, turning to Dex. “I know it’s not a gadget, but what do your Technopath senses say. Could we survive it?”

“Survive what?” Biana asked. But I knew. My eyes widened. "Bad idea." I warned Sophie. "It's the only one we've got." She said.

Dex also knew. His eyes widened as his brain seemed to work the problem through. He nodded slowly. “Yeah . . . I’m pretty sure we would. Depending on where this river ends up.”