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He races up the steps behind me, and my arms tremble with the effort of holding Marcus off. My feet slide back, back, back, until the left one goes past the edge, then I’m easily toppled over. The endless current pushing me down keeps me from flying, so I wrap myself in a shell of air like an egg to protect myself from slamming onto the ground. Except the impact doesn’t come. Instead, I sink through a newly-formed body of water. The waterfall pushes me down into the depths of a narrow sinkhole.
All right, Marcus, but you can’t keep this up for long if you intend to keep going.
At the bottom, I pull my bubble up to enclose only my head. I press up against the current and find I can rise through the murky water now. There isn’t enough air to propel me, so I swim up to the surface, pulling bubbles of air from the water around me for a comfortable supply.
When I breach the surface, Nina is nearing the fifth banner. A boulder lands in front of her to block her way before Rylan slides down the steps on a drift of water.
I’ve had about enough of my little brother. Marcus stands at the top of the plummeting river, focused more on stopping Ry than getting his own banners. I knew he was only going to help Nina. I sweep him off the side of the tower with a strong gust and wrap him in a bubble. My lip-reading skills aren’t terribly sharp, but I believe he says some things unbecoming of a prince as I float him toward me.
“There now, you stay here.” I turn to go back to the tower, but a wave sends me sprawling to the ground. All the dead gods.
I roll over and focus my energy on the bubble around Marcus. It takes more concentration than I’ve ever required to contain not only his body but his power. His angry countenance becomes confused then outright furious. Layers of impenetrable air wrap over each other around him. The entire thing pulses with my heartbeat. The memory of the imposters being crushed in a weaker shield sends a shiver down my spine, but Marcus has plenty of room. I feel jabs against it when he tries again and again to control water outside of the space I’ve given him.
Heat blasts me from behind and thunderous crashes bellow out. But I remain focused on Marcus. He looks around himself, fists clenched. Then his face melts into a calm, coy expression as he meets my gaze with a confident sneer.
And water begins to fill the bubble around him.
Chapter twenty-eight
“What are you doing?”
Marcus can’t hear me, but he gestures around himself and shrugs. Water rises quickly—to his waist, his chest…
“Can you even drown?”
Fire doesn’t burn Nina, except that strange green one, and Marcus wouldn’t really risk his own life like this. No, I’m certain he can’t drown.
His hair floats around him like a dark halo, fully submerged. Large bubbles spill from his mouth when he pushes out the air from his lungs.
He can’t drown. He wouldn’t… But he needs air.
His lips quiver. The instinct to breathe can’t be suppressed forever.
I shatter the bubble as he makes to gasp, and he drops to the ground with a splash, coughing out some water as I drop to my knees in front of him. “Marcus, are you all right?”
He nods, panting. “That took you longer than I expected.”
I shove his shoulder. “You could have killed yourself, you imbecile!”
“I knew you wouldn’t let me die, Ara!”
The ground underneath us rumbles, and both of us snap our attention to the tower.
“Nina!” Marcus shouts.
She’s nearly at the top of the tower. Arms out, she steadies herself from the jolt then glares down to the ground where Rylan stands, covered in soot with a sleeve half burnt off. The ground shakes again, and the tower sways before crumbling to the ground.
I gasp and reach out a hand as wind pushes up under Nina. The tower drops from beneath her feet, but she remains suspended in the air. She shouts as I float her toward us, and when she gets close enough, I realize it isn’t curses at Rylan. Her fury is directed at me.
“Ara! Let me go! He’s going to get the—”
Cheers burst forth from the arena. My gaze snaps to where Rylan stands atop the pile of rubble with our family standard.
“Damnit, Ara! Mind your own bloody business!” Nina stalks out with Marcus on her heels.
I rise from the ground careworn, drenched, and irritated as Ry descends from the monument to his destruction and comes to me.
“Congratulations then.”
