The Midnight Storm (A New Dawn #2)

Chapter 38 - Fox

The cold river water attacked his throat, then the rest of his muscles; it immobilised him. Faraway, the piercing cry of a child struggling called to him.

Fox's senses latched onto the noise, onto the flickering shade that was gone just as he had noticed it. His fox pendant burnt against his chest, spreading a soothing warmth. He stretched his arms, flattened his body and rode on the mad, fast-moving bubbles, using bursts of air to steer.

"Wolf, hold on!" he screamed underwater. "I'm coming."

The Left Twin fought back, threw him against craggy stones that slit his hands and knees open, twisted his foot too. The pain drained his magic fast. First, his fingertips sputtered, then he tumbled and tumbled until he was unable to tell what was up and what was below. Hard rocks battered at him.

Haphazardly, he leapt up and found the surface. A swift inhale; that was all mercy the river had for him. Less than a heartbeat later,  the current pulled him back under.

He kept his eyes wide open. No shade. No noise. Nothing but stones, water, and a brownish weed too slick to grab.

Something yanked him back, smacked him head-first against a large boulder. The water around him churned, pressed against him with enormous force. Momentarily lost, he writhed and clawed until he realised what had happened: his belt had caught around the rock and was holding him back.

Ignoring the growing need to breathe, he tugged and tugged and tugged some more. His belt remained stuck. Though panic came easier than keeping a level head, he thought of Queen Cobra, her beautiful porcelain face, that long blonde hair of hers that smelled of happiness and the first days of spring. 

In the end, it was the memory of that honey-sweet kiss of hers made Fox's heart and pendant glow. As a spark erupted from his fingers, he placed his hand on his waist, the flame the sharpest knife in the world.

The leather snapped.

He keeled over backwards, feet before head.

The convulsing rapids smashed him against the rocks, moving at a speed faster than he could follow. He grazed at a stone, trying to take hold of it, if only to turn back around, to see where he was going. A nail broke off as his fingers slid off the slimy mossy surface.

The river was a monster that shook him, cornered him, and played some more before swallowing him whole. Dread overpowered him. The taste of blood in his mouth, red dancing in front of his eyes. Through every vein, his heart throbbed, fighting for life and those brief stints of air.

He thought of Katla, of the man playfighting with him, tossing him around, then wrapping his arms around him, his white hair blackening as he laughed. The comfort of the cottage; a home like he had never known a home to be. Where he felt safe. Where he could be himself. The joint rat hunt; Katla running after him. The man he didn't know he had needed until he had come along. He and Wolf weren't all that different. Wolf needed him like he had needed Katla. Still needed Katla.

Keeping an image of his master locked into the back of his mind, he reached for the bottom. The ground had to obey, had to listen to him. He might never be able to control the river, but Storm's Enhancer had burnt red, white, and brown when he had held it a few weeks ago. If there was a first time for him to control the earth, it had to be today. To live. To breathe. To save Wolf.

His knuckles grazed the bottom, minuscule pebbles biting. He rolled and rolled like weed getting blown across a field. The magical eyes of his fox pendant scalded his skin, altering colours, red, white, red, white, red, white, red, white.

Brown.

He clung to a jagged rock that had appeared out of nowhere. The current battered against him. With trembling muscles, Fox heaved himself up.