Page 130 of Hellbound

“Senka!” Petra’s voice cut through the roar of water.

The girl darted between them, small hands prying at Serafin’s, trying to break his grip on Ksenia.

His cold, sunken eyes darted between Ksenia and the girl.

Serafin’s clawed fingers released her cloak and latched onto Petra’s instead.

“No!” Ksenia lunged forward, the corner of Petra’s dress slipping between her fingers.

His weight dragged the girl over the balustrade into the abyss, his sunken eyes locked on Ksenia’s as his mouth pressed into a wide smile.

No. No. No. Not Petra—Ksenia dove into the falls.

The roar swallowed Ksenia’s scream as the wind tore at her clothes, and her hair whipped behind her. The abyss wasn’t empty after all. Instead, it was a surge of violent, dark water.

It hit her like a wall, choking her breath and shocking her lungs into paralysis, pulling her under the weight of the waterfall overhead.

She couldn’t decipher which way was up in the whitewater chaos.

The current yanked her body in multiple directions at once, tumbling, spinning, slamming her leg against an unseen rock.

Her lungs screamed, icy water forcing itself down her throat and up her nose.

She broke the surface of the roiling, frigid water, gasping for air.

Her throat was too ragged to do anything but cough before she was dragged under again.

She forced her eyes open as Archbishop Serafin was battered on a rock, his robes weighing him down to the bottom.

She honed in on a spot of gray, the limp body face down in the rapidly flowing current.

Petra.

She swam perpendicular to the flow, grasping for the young girl who was drifting just out of reach. The water rushed around them, carrying them down the ravine that surrounded Hearth.

Choking and spitting, Ksenia’s hand finally closed around Petra’s woolen tunic, and she fought to turn the girl over.

Water flooded into Ksenia’s mouth with each breath she tried to take, and she focused on bringing Petra’s head above the surface.

Her legs felt numb and unresponsive as she forced them to kick and kick, until they were released into a swirling eddy that allowed her to drag them both to shore.

Ksenia’s face pressed into the mud as she sucked in deep lungfuls of air and coughed out water in equal measure. Her head was throbbing with white-hot pain, but she scrambled to Petra’s body and shook her thin shoulders.

Nothing. Petra’s face was gray, her eyes closed and her bluish-white mouth gently parted as water streamed out.

No. She couldn’t let her die.

She lay her down and pressed her lips to Petra’s mouth, willing her lungs to take air.

Minutes passed.

Tears sprang to Ksenia’s eyes, hot and cruel as reality sank in.

The sobbing started quietly at first, but then became full-blown wails as Ksenia hugged the small, drowned body to her chest.

“Petra…” she whispered between labored breaths as she rocked them back and forth on the muddy bank.

A twig snapped a few paces away.