“I found him!” a man cried out.

The sound of the voice doused our passion, and Rage tensed against me.

Crap!

“If you’re going to bang her, Rage, you might want to get a room,” the jerk called from beside us. I peered over Rage’s shoulder to see a guard not ten feet away down the narrow path. I didn’t recognize him, but he was probably a Midnight Pack wolf and clearly knew Rage.

Frick. Think.

Rage growled, a low threatening sound so different than seconds before, but we didn’t have time for him to shift and fight. In one fluid movement, I grabbed the dagger tucked in my belt, pushed Rage behind me, and turned toward the intruder.

“Get hi—!” The man’s sentence cut off with a wet thwack as my dagger sank into the dude’s neck.

Rage spun toward me, his eyes wide but focused. “We need to go.”

I leaned to look past him, but Rage stepped between me and the body. “Don’t look.”

I killed the guy, but now I was too delicate to look at the body? I was about to press him on it except … killing out of self-defense and staring at the consequences of the action were two different things, especially since these were members of Rage’s pack.

He spun, leaned over, and pulled my knife from the body, cleaning it on his pants. Then, he handed it to me to tuck back in my waistbelt. Before I knew it, he grabbed my hand, and we stepped forward a few steps to look down at the water.

The world blurred as anxiety washed over me. Gray stone, blue sky, and dark water were all I saw. I swallowed hard, but before I had time to think through what was happening, Rage jumped, pulling me down with him.

Oh. My. Flippin. Ma—

We cleared the edge of the rock, and my stomach rose into my throat, making it impossible to scream as the dark water rushed up to meet us.

Rage yelled—an incoherent bellow—and I sucked in a ragged final breath. Pointing my toes, I slammed my arms tightly against my body as I became a human torpedo into the water.

Please, don’t let me die.

I closed my eyes a split second prior to the icy water rushing in around me. White light exploded behind my eyelids. The pain registered afterward, a deep bone-jarring, crushing sensation, there and then gone. The agony disappeared as fast as it had come.

What the mage?

Understanding slammed into me, worse even than the force of impact. Wherever Noble was, he’d just suffered from my first pathetic attempt at cliff diving because of our shield bond.

Rage’s voice came into my mind: ‘You need to move, Nai, or you’ll end up fifty feet under water.’

Raising my arms up, I then screamed as they were wrenched overhead by the force of the water.

‘Come on, love,’ Rage coaxed. ‘Keep fighting.’

Where was he? It was so murky, and I couldn’t sense how deep I’d gone under.

My lungs burned, and I swam and swam, my fear climbing every second I remained below the surface. ‘How do I know I’m swimming in the right direction?’

‘You’re getting closer,’ he replied. ‘I can feel you. Just keep swimming.’

I snorted at the Finding Nemo reference, and relief coursed through me when the bubbles coming out of my nose rose and the light grew brighter. Seconds later, I burst through the surface, grinning and relieved to see Rage right in front of me. I sucked in a lungful of air—

And Rage pulled me under the surface. Again.

‘Why’d you do that?’ I snapped, trying to wrench my hand from his.

‘There are guards crawling all over the shoreline, Nai. Your silvery hair is practically a beacon in the afternoon sun.’

Crap.

‘Well, we need to breathe!’ This close to him, I could make out his features in the water but not his expression.

‘Just be careful,’ he replied. ‘Just your lips.’

He allowed his mouth to break the surface, barely, but the crown of his head and neck remained under water. After a super short breath, he reappeared in the murky water. ‘Got it?’

‘I’m not five, Rage.’ I rolled my eyes and mentally muttered. ‘Alpha male…’

‘I heard that.’ Rage’s voice was playful, and he chuckled. ‘I was possibly a little overprotective.’

‘Yeah, yeah.’ I smirked and kicked up to the surface to take a baby breath.

The waves slapped over my face, making it nearly impossible to catch more than a mouthful of water. And how were we going to find Sadie and Audrey from below the surface? There was no hiding under a cloak of darkness for several hours yet. I needed…

Shaking my head, I rolled my eyes at my own stupidity. I was a high mage with all five elements at my disposal. Granted, I needed some major training, but I had an idea.

We took turns breaking the surface, and each time, I tried to pull the water in a dome over me. Every time it fell, but the time between forming the bowl over my head and it crashing down stretched a little longer with each attempt. By the twenty-fifth breath, it held.

‘Let’s go up,’ I told Rage, and then explained what I’d been doing. We broke the surface, together this time, and I pulled the water toward us. A slow, small wave lifted up and overhead without touching our faces and then continued its journey to shore.

‘Either bring in the wind or make all of the water choppy. Your dome won’t look natural to the guards,’ Rage told me.

My jaw dropped, and I scrunched up my nose with irritation. ‘Oh, sure, add wind. As if this wasn’t challenge enough.’

He grinned and pulled me close for a sloppy wet kiss. As if that would be enough for me to forgive him. All right. It was enough.

‘Let me try again.’

After a deep breath, I felt for the power inside of me, trying to untangle it into separate threads. My fire power felt hot, water felt cool, spirit felt light, earth felt dark and damp; but air, it felt like it was barely there. Was it my weakest power? Or was that just how it felt? It was time to find out. The more I tried to grab on to that floating, barely-there feeling, the more it flitted away. Sighing with defeat, I noticed a gust of wind rolled across the water.

‘Just like that,’ Rage said, grinning.

‘But…’ I had no idea what I’d done. I blinked and then giggled. It couldn’t be that easy, could it? I sucked in a deep breath, filling my lungs with air until I thought they might explode … and then I slowly released it through pursed lips.

The wind rolled across the sea, making the waters choppy. As the gust reached shore, the branches swayed.

“Well done.” Rage looked at me with pride and then pointed toward the guards, who were looking up at the sky now.

I snickered and then spotted the twins in the canoe. They stopped rowing as the waves rocked the canoe.

Yikes.

Treading water, I spun and blew a hard breath in the direction of the guards and then released the strands of power I’d teased apart, making the waters less choppy for the girls.

Rage and I shared a look of relief, and a moment later, the twins arrived.

“Thank—” The words never finished leaving my throat. Something grabbed my ankle and pulled. Hard.

I screamed in the water, which was the stupidest thing ever because all the air left me in a rush, and then I had to hold my breath.

Whatever tentacled thing that had me was dark … and slimy. I scratched and clawed, but it held firm as it dragged me down. I thrashed, but we were deep and the water murky enough that I couldn’t see what had me.